Trying to decide if you would rather raise ducks or chickens? I jumped into raising ducks and chickens with both webbed feet, and I haven’t looked back. I can help you consider the options of both, what you’ll need, and what you should know before you dive in.
Personalities
I like to compare ducks and chickens to dogs and cats. Ducks, are high maintenance, super messy, and could care less about your presence. That is, unless you have treats. And by treats I mean fresh peas or a big handful of greens. Ducks are very independent. They don’t follow you around, and they are for the most part uninterested in anything you are doing. Except for when you have the hose and it’s a hot summer day.
Chickens, I feel are the complete opposite. My chickens are anyway. They run to the edge of their run when we open the back door, they come when called, they get excited at the sound of sunflower seeds or scratch grains rattling in a scoop, and they follow you around like little puppy dogs. They are much more social (at least with humans) than ducks, and they are very curious.
No chickens or ducks allowed
You’ll want to first check with your local government office, town hall or zoning office to find out what their rules, or ordinances are in regards to keeping livestock where you live. Chances are, if you are in an agricultural township like we are, that you won’t have any issues with getting chickens or ducks. However, if you’re in a city, village or in the suburbs, you will probably have some set guidelines to follow when you do get your birds, if they allow them. Things like how many you can have, what kind of enclosure they need to be in, how close they can be to property lines, poo management, etc. Keep in mind, chickens and ducks are classified as livestock, so always check with your local officials.
Upkeep
I got my ducks first. I found a pair of Cayuga ducks, one male and one female that a friend and I drove halfway across the state to get. Lovegood, my female. She was three weeks old when I got her and still covered in downy fluff. Quibbler, the male (or drake as they’re called) who was a little older and had all of his adult feathers. Both named after Harry Potter. Quibbler was the name of the wizardry tabloid that Luna Lovegood’s father wrote, and well, you see where Lovegood came from now.
If I had started with chickens, I feel like I would have ended up with a lot more of them. They are sooooo much easier to raise than ducks. They’re for the most part quieter (except for roosters), they lay their eggs in a box, usually, they put themselves away in the coop at bedtime, and they are way cleaner, considering they poop wherever they are. They do take occasional “dust baths” to keep the bugs away, and to cool off.
If you are lucky enough to be able to free range your birds, both chickens and ducks will do their part to eat all of the bugs they can find in your yard. Grubs, mosquitoes, ticks, moths, flies, etc. I’ve even seen one of my ducks eat a frog. Ew. I didn’t expect that.
Check with your neighbors to see if they mind your free ranging plans for your chickens or ducks, and make sure they don’t own any animals that might kill your birds. I was able to free range my birds until our neighbor came home with a hunting dog. It is possible to train your dog to not harrass or harm your birds, but it’s impossible to train your neighbors dog to not do that. I have since build a large pasture for my girls to roam in during the day, to keep them safe from the neighbors dog.
Ducks are just master mess makers. They LOVE water, and mud, and everything in between. They will try to take a bath in everything from a dog’s water bowl, to their waterer in the coop, which ends up with water EVERYWHERE. ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE. No matter what time of year. They’ll try to bathe or swim in ice water/mud.
They also like love to slurp mud and puddles looking for bugs and worms. They’re always looking for bugs and things to eat, so they’ll take their beaks and drill holes in the dirt and mud too. Then they’ll go straight for that nice, clean sparkly water you just filled their pool with, and in 37 seconds flat, you’ll wonder if you really did just change out their water. Yeah, it’ll be that muddy in no time flat.
They both require a minimum amount of space per animal. Although with chickens you can cheat this a little by providing vertical spaces, perches, and nesting boxes for variety. Ducks pretty much have the floor of the coop, and that’s it.
Although we have found one of our ducks up on the chicken’s roost in the coop. Not sure how that happened.
Not for the faint of heart
I think I it had only been a week after I got my first two ducks, and my dog decided to kill the male, and bring him to me. I was crushed and so mad at the same time. I had big plans for my pet ducks, and in an instant I had a baby who was left all alone. Needless to say, I didn’t interact with my dog for days.
I ended up getting my remaining female duck a stuffed animal (a horse) at our local farm store, so she had some company and didn’t feel so alone. We caught her snuggling with him a few times outside in the sunshine.
I ended up getting more ducks, and eventually more chickens, and I’ve lost quite a few, to varying circumstances. Some older, some very young, some unexplainable, some too quickly, and some very gruesome and not at all expected. This is a part of raising ducks and chickens, or any type of animal. It always ends in death, and it’s not always pretty. Please keep this in mind, especially if you have younger children.
I learned the hard way to always take my phone with me when I go out to put the girls away, after coming home one night and finding one of my chickens being actively mauled by an opossum. I had to get the opossum off of my chicken, and keep it away from her, and I yelled and yelled for someone in the house to help me, and they couldn’t hear me.
Food and Shelter
The cost of commercial food for chickens and ducks is the same. Many of these feeds can be fed to both. They will also eat fruit and vegetable scraps, even weeds you’ve pulled from the garden. Just be sure to check with a reputable source to make sure you’re not about to give them something that’s poisonous to them. If you decide to keep both, remember that ducks will try to swallow some foods whole, so chop up anything you think they may choke on. Peas and watermelon are a big hit with my flock.
Premade coops can be very expensive, but they come in all sizes, shapes and colors, and some you can even have delivered and set up.
I couldn’t afford to buy a coop, so I collected free pallets from a nearby factory, and built the first chicken coop I had.
For the ducks, I found a huge dog house for free, and I added vents at the peaks, a large ramp style door, and a side door for collecting eggs and cleaning it out.
If you are a DIYer, or know someone who is willing to help you, you can use almost anything to house your birds, just make sure it’s predator proof and provides them a draft-free shelter.
The pet that poops breakfast
Duck and chicken ownership can be very entertaining, comical, and extremely rewarding. Not only are you in control of what goes into the eggs that you collect, you’ll know they’re free from chemicals, antibiotics and they came from healthy happy birds.
I hope this has been helpful in your quest to become a chicken or duck owner, and answers some questions you may have had.
You can send me a message if you have any questions about duck and chicken ownership and I’d be happy to answer them!
