Want to hatch goose eggs? Or do you have a broody goose sitting on a pile of eggs? Read on to learn what to expect, problems that may arise, and the benefits of letting momma goose do the incubating for you!
A gosling cuddling up next to momma goose for warmth and protection.
The conventional wisdom about what to feed pet or backyard ducks may be causing preventable health problems or even deaths in your flock. In this article, we’ll detail an avian vet-approved feeding regimen you can use to promote the long-term health of your ducks.
Waterfowl feed typically comes in two different formulations: maintainer and layer. What’s the difference between them?
When we first got ducks way back in 2013, we didn’t know much about duck nutrition or have any personal experience to draw on. Thus, we sought out feeding formulas and regimens from experienced duck parents that we could then use to provide our ducks with the nutrition they needed.
Hello. I found your site and really loved the info and pics. I love your ideas and duck set up. I found a duck that someone disowned. I’m trying to set up an area for her and read about proper care. I keep reading about niacin and brewer’s yeast. Is this something that a duck needs and at what stage of life do they need it? I think my duck is a female Pekin around 8 weeks old. Any extra advice is welcomed. I’m trying to find her a friend because I know they are very sociable. Thank You!
Niacin is essential for proper development in waterfowl during the first 8 weeks. After that, needs lessen. If you have a good duckling-specific feed, it will contain enough niacin. However, niacin is a water soluble vitamin, so you almost can’t overdo it. A copy/paste from our article about raising ducklings:
“Add Niacin (Vitamin B3) to the feed and/or water. Because ducklings grow faster than chicks, chick starter does not have the niacin levels that are optimal for ducklings. National Research Council (NRC) requirements for ducklings are 55 mg/kg niacin per 2.2 pounds of feed compared to only 27-35 mg/kg for chicks. Niacin deficiencies in ducklings lead to leg deformities since they don’t have the nutrition to support proper bone and muscle development. To supplement, we typically add 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast per cup of crumble or 100mg B-Complex. (You can also add the same amount per gallon of drinking water instead of to their food.) You can order either form of niacin via Amazon. Make sure you do NOT get timed-release or flush-free B vitamins — neither of those are niacin!”
You definitely want to get a friend or two for your duck to make sure she stays happy! For your sake, try to get females, not males, or you’ll have to deal with all sorts of problems. Also, given their large size, you should know that Pekins are more prone to health problems such as arthritis and leg/ankle injuries. We try to get our Pekin to eat a Wholemega Fish Oil pill daily, which can help prevent some of these illnesses and injuries. We stick the pill inside a small cherry tomato (which she loves) and she wolfs down the whole thing.
Best of luck to you!
Howdy! I follow your protocol I think for my laying ducks.
I have three 11-mo old Indian runner ducks. I free-feed them primarily Mazuri waterfowl layer feed mixed with the waterfowl maintenance feed, changing the ratio based on season and eggs. I have three new ducklings that will be integrated into the flock in the next month. What are your thoughts on feeding the maintenance feed to the whole flock and just ensuring calcium/oyster shell is available (it already is) to the laying birds?
Hi Meg! If you can’t keep the two flocks segregated by day and/or night so as to offer slightly different feed regimens, then I’d definitely go with 100% maintenance feed for the whole flock, offering oyster shell on the side. If you haven’t already done so, please be sure to watch our two interviews with Dr. Scott Echols. He’s one of the world’s top avian vets. Both videos are chock full of useful, practical duck care advice that go deep into this topic and other important topics related to nutrition, supplements, general care, etc.
-Interview 1: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/part-1-dr-scott-echols-duck-healthcare/
-Interview 2: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/second-interview-with-dr-scott-echols-duck-nutrition-healthcare/.
Hi there, I love your site and your information on raising pet ducks! I have 2 pet drakes (1 welsh harlequin, 1 pekin) who are 9 months old and I live in Australia. I have not been able to find maintainer feed or waterfowl specific feed (except for meat duck finisher feed) so I have been advised by my local feed store to feed the ducks wheat that has been sprouted in water for 2 days. In addition to this they get mealworms/crickets and greens daily. Do you think the wheat is sufficient in meeting their nutritional needs for a long life? If not, do you have any recommendations to improve their diet, or know of a maintainer feed available in Australia?
Hi Beth! Let me start by saying I’m NOT an avian scientist or waterfowl nutritionist, so take what I say here with a grain of salt. You may also want to run this question by an avian vet and/or have your avian vet weigh in on my response below.
With those caveats out of the way, here are my thoughts: It looks like sprouted wheat has a comparable macro nutrient profile (protein / fat / complex carbs) to Mazuri Waterfowl feed, which is what is commonly used here in the US. Mazuri Maintenance feed is 14% protein and their breeder/layer feed is 17%. Sprouted wheat has 16% protein, which is probably a little high for drakes/males (ideal would be in the 14% range). A lot of the protein in Mazuri likely comes from the addition of fish meal, so the bioavailability and micronutrient profile is going to be a bit different relative to sprouted wheat. Since you’re adding mealworms, crickets, and greens to their diets, your ducks are likely getting lots of other good macro and micro nutrients to make up for any potential deficiencies in a purely sprouted wheat-based diet, but those insects are also high in protein. Too much dietary protein can cause a range of health problems in ducks, so maybe bump back the insects a bit while also bumping up the greens (kale, lettuce, edible weeds, etc). Also, consider including other low-protein, plant-based treats they enjoy. For instance, most of our ducks LOVE tomatoes and watermelons.
Hope this helps and best wishes to you and your drakes!
Hi Aaron, thank you so much for your prompt and informative reply your thoughts are very useful! Recently we have stopped sprouting the wheat as the drakes seem to prefer the wheat unsprouted. Do you think this will still provide the same nutrients for the ducks? Also perhaps we could add old fashioned oyas to the wheat to reduce the protein? Thank you again!
You’re welcome! Thanks for taking the time and interest needed to ensure your ducks get the healthy diets they need for optimal health. Oats are a starch, but they also have a significant amount of protein in them. Protein % in old fashioned oats is somewhere between 11-15%, so probably a bit less than wheat, although there is variability. One thing some people do here in the US is grind and ferment the grains before giving it to their poultry. Not a long ferment, just a few days. The fermentation process not only boosts the nutrient levels, but also serves as a probiotic. That’s not something we’ve done and we’re not sure if ducks who haven’t grown up eating this type of food would find it palatable.
To directly answer your question: sprouted wheat is more nutritious than un-sprouted wheat, but there isn’t a massive difference. As with fermenting and cooking, sprouting does also remove many of the anti-nutrient compounds in mature grains; anti-nutrients inhibit the absorption of nutrients and are essentially a chemical defense intended to keep things from eating too many of them. I’m not sure whether these anti-nutrients inhibit nutrient absorption in avian species, but they do in humans.
If you have access to an avian vet, one thing you might also consider is getting blood work done in 6-12 months. (Maybe do it once every 12-18 months thereafter.) That way, your vet can determine if there’s anything outside normal boundaries and also compare later test results to initial baseline test results in each duck.
Last thing: another super healthy supplemental treat that ducks love is minnows/small fish. Obviously, these are very high in protein so it’s not something you’d want to provide in abundance regularly. But they’re part of a duck’s natural diet and loaded with good nutrition. We occasionally buy live minnows from pet stores here and put them in a bowl of water – our ducks go absolutely crazy for them.
Thank you that is very helpful, I appreciate your thought and research!!
Hi Aaron, as I was reading your feeding article, I noticed that you were buying eggs. When I first started my chicken and duck adventures, I was overrun with eggs. No one wanted to keep getting eggs daily. So I remembered that an old friend of my family had given me a big ceramic crock that she used to glass eggs in when she had a farm. My arm was just healing from a break so I couldn’t lift it. I got a food grade plastic bucket, 3 gallon, with a lid. Looked up the ratios of hydrated lime to water and started glassing eggs. Every day I added more, even duck eggs which people say not to do. Kept making more solution. Finally had a 3 gallon bucket full of eggs. Everyone says they have to be pointed a certain way and I couldn’t ever get them to do that. I used them all winter, spring when I needed a lot for a year and a half. Each time before I used them I’d test in a water bath. Out of all those eggs, I think I might have had 1-2 that were bad or cracked. Used them mostly for frittatas omelets etc. So it is possible to do. I had my container under the stairs. No temp control. Never moved. Giving you a little info for a change. Lol
Thanks, Debbie! We’ve heard of water glassing eggs but have never tried it. Our family actually eats so many eggs that we’ve never been overwhelmed on the production side. Plus, we have neighbors, friends, and other family that are always happy to have any of our extra eggs. Once all of our new female ducks start producing, we may have to give water glassing a try.
I’m sorry, but if the Tyrant is an ‘organic gardener’, then why is she not using an organic feed for her ducks? Mazuri is NOT ORGANIC!! I just called them and asked about the ingredients of Mazuri Waterfowl Breeder – the first three ingredients, in order of amount, are: corn, de-hulled soybean meal, and wheat – we know every one of them highly adulterated. Mazuri says they are within the FDA guidelines for glyphosate residues, but let’s be real – the FDA and Monsanto have a revolving door, they’re basically one and the same company, which is why corruption within the FDA is so rampant. And glyphosate is now known to cause leaky gut syndrome in humans (and probably ducks, as well), and crosses the blood-brain barrier, and who knows what else it does that hasn’t been discovered yet. Who wants that? I’m sorry, but I just can’t believe an “organic gardener” would feed toxic trash to the ducks she loves … and eat their toxic eggs. Yes, it’s a matter of time for all the glyphosate consumed shows up as a physical ailment, eventually it will, and I’m not willing to eat it or feed it to my ducks!
We’d love to be able to feed our ducks certified organic food. Problem: It’s currently impossible to find a certified organic duck food that’s specifically formulated for waterfowl/ducks, much less one that’s in kibble form. Chickens and ducks have different nutritional needs, so using organic chicken-specific feed (which is easy to find) or feed that claims to be formulated for chickens and ducks isn’t viable. Certified organic duckling feed is available, but that’s a different formulation than what’s ideal for mature ducks. (And any time we raise ducklings, they get certified organic crumble.)
When we first started raising ducks over a decade ago, we were using organic Scratch & Peck feed for our mature ducks and some of our girls were just picking out the bits they liked and not eating the rest, unbeknownst to us. One of them ultimately ended up dying as a result. Hence our desire to use kibble.
If there was a certified organic duck kibble/pellet feed that was on the market today, we’d be using it. Since there isn’t, we’re using the best available alternative we have, and the one that our avian vet recommends. We have some ducks that are 10 years old and have been consuming Mazuri waterfowl feed from the time they reached maturity.
Thank you so much for your blog!! As a new duck parent to 3 welsh harlequin ladies, I found myself here A LOT. This article has been extremely helpful as they are approaching 6 weeks old. I’ve been watching YouTube videos on fermented whole grain food for ducks and was considering trying Scratch and Pecks corn free whole grain mix fermented for at least morning feedings and then possibly doing some pellets as well later in the day. They free range the backyard to supplement their diet. Have you experimented with fermented foods or have any thoughts on that topic?
Thanks for your kind words, and glad to hear the information we provide has been helpful for you in raising your ducklings and ducks! Fermented foods can be great for your ducks! Frankly, the reason we don’t go that route regularly is lack of time – or maybe more honestly, laziness. Ha. You’ll still need to make sure you’re paying careful attention to the macro- and micronutrient profile of your feed, even though the microbial action boosts some of the nutrients and makes them more bioavailable. Best wishes!
i have 3 young ducks don’t know if their boys or girls. .I will be running them with chickens soon. What can I feed them. Their just as pets. thanks
You should be able to sex your ducklings within a few weeks based on their vocalizations. See our article about how to sex ducklings and ducks here: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/how-to-tell-boy-and-girl-ducks-or-ducklings-apart/.
As far as what to feed your ducklings, it’s very important you get their nutrition right or they could end up with permanent physical deformities, which are often caused by niacin deficiencies and/or incorrect protein levels. For what to feed ducklings, see: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/how-to-raise-ducklings-a-step-by-step-guide/.
Best of luck!
The lowest protein I can find around my area is Tucker Milling Non GMO 16.5% protein, but it is still over 3% calcium, and I offer free choice calcium. My ducks and chickens get it because I have a mixed flock that wander and forage. I like it because it is corn & soy free. I know some people with chicken egg allergies can eat duck eggs easier, and there is also information out there that it helps if the feed is soy and corn free. My niece cannot eat eggs from chickens that have been fed oats because of her oat allergy. Most people I talk to at the feed stores think I am crazy looking for a 13%-15% maintainer feed. They haven’t been on this feed terribly long and I just cut out all the scratch feed. Hopefully this will go better than what I was feeding, which was a 22% layer because that’s what the feed store suggested.
Hi Christi! Thanks for putting so much care and attention on your ducks’ health (and your chickens, too). 22% protein is way higher than what our avian vet recommends for ducks, so dropping to 16.5% protein is certainly an improvement. As we note in this article, Mazuri waterfowl feed breeder/layer formula is 17% protein, 2.5-3.5% calcium. If your ducks are able to free-range in a large and rich environment, they’re also going to be able to get worms, slugs, snails, and other high-protein supplemental food (plus nutrient-rich greens and seeds which are higher in carbohydrates). Bottom line: it sounds like your ducks are positioned for good health and longevity. Just keep a close eye on two things:
1) their egg shells to make sure the shells are not showing abnormalities (deposits, thin shells, etc), and
2) laying too long (we want our ducks to stop egg production in the fall and not pick back up until late winter-early spring so their bodies have time to recover and remineralize).
Side note: We’ve only briefly experimented with this but you might want to try it as well… acorns. Wild ducks eat acorns in the fall. One year, we cracked large white oak acorns for our ducks and cut the nut meat into small bits. Lot of work, but our ducks enjoyed it and their yolks were even more beautiful than normal. So that could be a good alternate feed source for you that avoids oats, corn, and soy. Acorns can also be made into great human food as we detail here: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/diy-how-to-make-acorn-flour-acorn-recipes/
Hope this helps and good luck to you and your flock!
I have a 15 month old Pekiin duck girl who has a decided limp and I don’t know what to do. There are no vets in San Francisco that treat ducks. She most days lays an egg as does her sister and given a choice willl spend most of the day in her swimming pool as it soothes her leg I suspect. Can you offer any suggestions on what I could do to help her leg heal? I’ve checked the underside of her foot pad but I don’t see any cuts or obvious injuries.
Hi Diana, and sorry to hear about your duck’s leg injury. It’s very hard to recommend a treatment regimen without a diagnosis. It sounds like you’ve ruled out bumblefoot (reference: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/how-to-treat-bumblefoot-in-ducks-safely-effectively-and-humanely-with-video/), which would be the most likely culprit. After ruling out bumblefoot, a vet would likely start by checking for hot, swollen joints which could pinpoint an injury. If that didn’t yield anything obvious, they’d likely next do a radiograph to see what’s going on inside. It could be a break, a strain, arthritis, or an infection. Again, depending on the diagnosis, the treatment regimen would vary. Pain meds, activity restriction, and possibly some sort of wrap or brace could be used to treat a physical injury, whereas antibiotics would likely be prescribed for an infection. To help try to figure out what’s happening, some questions: 1. Did the limp come on slowly or did it just happen all of a sudden one day? 2. Do you see swelling or feel any hot joints? 3. Does your duck ever lay soft, misshapen, or bumpy eggs? 4. Is it easy for the duck to get in and out of the pool, i.e. is the pool level with the ground?
Also, a bit of bad news: due to their larger size, Pekins are known to be more prone to leg injuries than smaller breeds.
Hi! I came across your site a few weeks ago and have been referencing back to it frequently so thank you!! We are new to ducks and I had some questions… we have 6 ducklings (pekins, anconas, and cayugas-2 of each all female). They are about 7-8 weeks old. Should we be feeding them the maintainer feed now? And give them access to the oyster shells now? Or is it a bit too early? Also we only add in layer feed if the eggs are soft, otherwise it is strictly the maintainer and the oyster shell correct? Thank you!
Hi! A little more detail on our duck feeding recommendations:
>1-2 weeks old: 18-20% protein (ideally crumble feed, not pellets)
>Between 3-8 weeks old (where you are now): 15-16% protein (crumble, not pellets – we mix organic old fashioned oats into their crumble to lower protein levels)
>9-18 weeks or until they start laying: 13-14% protein, plus make oyster shell available in separate bowl in case they need it as their bodies begin to initiate egg production
>Laying hen: *15-17% protein and 2.5-3% calcium, plus make oyster shell available in separate bowl in case they need it (*protein % varies by point in season, health of birds, and egg shell quality – this assumes a focus on health not maximum egg production)
>Mature non-laying ducks and drakes: 13-15% protein, plus make oyster shell available in separate bowl in case they need it (oyster shell available for females, males shouldn’t need it)
For reference, here are the numbers on the Mazuri waterfowl feed which is the brand our avian vet recommends:
>starter: 20% crude protein (these are pellets; we actually start our ducklings on a certified organic starter crumble)
>maintenance feed: 14% crude protein. 0.8-1.3% calcium
>breeder/layer feed: 17% protein, 2.5-3.5% calcium
What we’ve found over the past three years with a lower protein regimen for our laying hens is that the approach requires careful attention to your flock. While sunlight exposure + daylight hours dictate hormonal shifts which trigger physiological responses like egg production, other environmental cues like protein levels in their diet also help to influence egg production. What we’re basically trying to do is get our ducks to lay fewer eggs each year by starting egg production later in the season and ending egg production sooner in late summer/early fall. That’s still A LOT of eggs for a duck to produce. As a visual reference, imagine a bell curve overlaying a time period between late winter through late summer. At the beginning and ends of the bell curve are when we mix in the least amount of breeder/layer feed and at the peak of the curve (in mid summer) is when we mix in the most breeder/maintainer feed.
We fully acknowledge that this is an unorthodox duck feeding approach and there isn’t research data to draw on in order to determine efficacy and overall health effects of this approach on domestic duck populations. However, anecdotally, we can say that we’ve had no serious illnesses or deaths in our flock since implementing this feed approach whereas we had fairly regular health issues when we stuck to the conventional high protein approach.
*In the summer, we also provide supplements like Rooster Booster in their water, plus give them lots of greens, fresh tomatoes, and other treats (See our 10 summer care tips for ducks which are applicable now: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/summer-care-tips-backyard-ducks/). Our ducks also get to forage out in our gardens for 1-2 hours each night when we’re out, which means they’re also eating worms, slugs, snails, etc. Heat and heat-stress reduces calcium absorption, so it’s especially important to provide shade, supplements, cool swimming water, fans, or anything else you can do during summer when they’re laying eggs to keep your ducks happy, healthy, and in top shape.
Hope this helps and please let us know if you have any questions!
I’m trying to dwtermine how much feed per duck. I have 2 pet Welsh Harlequin 10 weeks old. They are out in pond and garden to forage all day and get 2 cups crumble when they go in thw coop at night. Lately they have syarted begging to go in the coop a couple times a day and looks like its just they prefer grain to foraging, like they are lazy since raised alone with no mother to teach them to forage. How much grain does each duck need?
Ducks eat a lot more when they’re laying eggs to account for all the extra calories and nutrients it takes to produce an egg. At 10 weeks old, your girls aren’t laying eggs yet (that usually starts at around 16 weeks old unless low sunlight hours delay the process to the following spring). However, they’re still going to need a lot of food and nutrition which they might not be able to get from foraging the same spots each day. Remember, wild Mallards can fly to new foraging spots; domestic flightless ducks like Welsh harlequins can’t. And they need plenty of good nutrition and calories to develop and remain healthy.
Our girls are also out foraging their fenced backyard all day then the rest of the gardens with us in the evening, but we still give them unfettered access to a bowl of Mazuri waterfowl feed as well (this time of year, it’s usually 50% layer / 50% maintenance or even slightly higher on the maintenance percentages). They eat when they need to and that doesn’t seem to diminish their desire to forage, which is more for fun and supplementation than the majority of their diet.
It sounds like with your situation though, that you need to use your ducks’ feed as an incentive for them to come in to their coops at night, otherwise it might be hard to get them inside. If so, maybe start the day with a cup of food per duck in outdoor bowls. Hopefully, they finish it by late afternoon but it keeps them well enough fed during the day. Then they’ll still be hungry enough by the time it’s cooping hour for them to want to come inside.
Hope this helps!
Hi, thanks for posting these articles! I would like your opinion on two things. For background, we have 5 ducklings that are around 4 weeks old (we’ve had them for about 3 weeks). Some of them are beginning to quack and they’ve been growing tiny feathers. So far they seem like happy healthy ducks. That is, they walk around, eat, drink, play in the water, and let me know every time an airplane goes by.
My first question is about protein and feed in general. We’ve been feeding them what the farm supply store said they feed the ducklings. The bag says it’s “meat bird crumbles” and (suspiciously) advertises itself for every kind of bird of all ages with no needed supplements whatsoever. Based on my internet research, I’ve been sprinkling nutritional yeast over their feed for niacin. As for protein, when I looked at the bag it said 20%. This seems very high for ducklings that we want for pets/eggs. What would you recommend I do about this?
My other question is on foraging. I’ve been letting the ducklings outside for a couple hours each day the past few days. They do a lot of foraging, but I’ve also seen them try to eat a lot of things that just can’t be eaten. Are my ducklings really foraging? Or are they just practicing?
Hi Evie! Answers to your two questions below:
1. I’ll copy & paste from our how to raise ducklings guide/article (https://www.tyrantfarms.com/how-to-raise-ducklings-a-step-by-step-guide/) since it directly answers your question:
“Ducklings (like chicks) require higher levels of protein the first two weeks of life, 18-20% protein to be exact. When your ducklings are 3 weeks old, bump the protein levels of your chick feed down to 15-16% by mixing in 20% organic old fashioned oats to their crumble.
This encourages your ducklings to grow at a healthy, normal rate vs. the more accelerated rate commonly recommended for broilers & commercial egg layers (as per duck expert, Dave Holderread, in Storay’s Guide To Raising Ducks).
This step is extremely important because sustained higher levels of protein can cause leg and wing deformities in addition to causing kidney and liver damage.”
Since your ducks are now at 4 weeks, you’ll definitely want to taper down their protein percentages immediately as detailed above. And keep utilizing the nutritional yeast.
2. Yes, a duckling’s “foraging” often entails picking at inedible things like brown leaves, sticks, etc. This is how they learn their world and what parts of it they can eat. Obviously, you’ll want to be very careful that there aren’t small pieces of plastic, metal screws, and similarly dangerous objects that could kill them if swallowed. If they’re just out foraging in your lawn (which hopefully doesn’t contain any pesticides) then they’ll be perfectly fine to forage away.
Thanks for all the excellent information about diet and oyster shell calcium etc. I live in San Francisco and my two girls have a duck house and a swimming pool with the water changed daily. I buy Bar Ale duck grower pellets and feed my girls tomatoes, lettuce, meal worms, oyster shells sprinkled on top, and I grind up their hard boiled eggs and sprinkle that over their food. Now I know to separate out the grit and leave it for them separately.
Glad to hear that, Diana, thanks! Yes, it’s definitely a good idea to let your ducks determine how much grit they need rather than putting it in their food. Sounds like you’ve got a nice setup for your flock.
We adopted two male Welsh Harlequins this summer and it was a struggle for me to find information on how best to feed them for their optimal health and longevity, rather than for meat production. After a lot of reading around I decided to keep them on growers pellet (15% protein) and they free range for live treats all day. Their favourite treat is peas and they demand these daily, which we happily provide. They also enjoy leafy greens whenever we have some. So great to find a source of info from others who are keeping ducks for their wonderful personalities and company and not compromising their health for our own agendas. Glad to read that what I’ve done with their diet sounds similar – it’s reassuring! Great to find this page.
Thanks for your kind words, Laura! Yes, you definitely don’t want to feed high protein layer feed to drakes. Good on you for figuring that out and focusing on the long-term health of your ducks.
We’re a few years into our new feeding regimen for our girls, and are happy to report zero reproductive health problems in our flock since. We do mix in some higher protein feed to their maintainer feed during laying season (especially in summer) but maintain a much lower protein diet than is generally recommended for maximum egg production. They stopped laying about a month ago, and we’re ok with that. We’d rather have healthier, longer-lived ducks than more eggs. 🙂
Hi Aaron! Fantastic article, such a knowledgable read.
Regarding the crushed oyster shells, would you offer that all year round or just during laying period?
Thanks, John! We offer oyster shell to our ducks year round. It will pretty well go untouched when the ducks aren’t laying – they might take a nibble here and there as-needed. However, a few weeks before they start laying again, they’ll start eating it. This is a good indicator that eggs are on the way, which is helpful to know so you can start checking their coop in the morning. Note that you’re not actually wasting or having to refill the oyster shell when they’re not eating it since oyster shell doesn’t go bad.
Hello, Many thanks for the article. I’m so glad to find your blog as I am a proud parent of 9 Muscovy ducks. I rise them as pets and have very close relationship with all of them. During last 6 years my main worry has been my girls health related to egg lying. 3 years ago I lost one of my duck to hernia caused by excessive egg lying. My heart was broken for many years. I live in Mexico thus have no access to regular brands of food for waterfowl. There are only pallets for chickens (mainly medicated). I opted for what people around give their ducks – corn. I complement it with kale, lettuce, zucchini from my garden. Sometimes, I feed them earthworms and dry grounded fish. They free range. Still my 8 girls lay eggs obsessively. I provide them with calcium and when I observe they’re about to lay eggs hoping they just lay a few. My only solution so far has been letting them sit on artificial eggs (I bought) for a couple of weeks. I’m wondering if you ever tried to use fully homemade pallets that could support the healthy diet that decreases egg production? If so, I would truly appreciate the recipe as well as any additional tips. Thank you so much.
Monika
Hi Monika! If your girls are still healthy and doing well after 6 years under your current care/feeding regimen, chances are you’re doing things right. Otherwise, health problems would have become evident by now. Granted, just as in people, duck care can and should change with age. Ducks will naturally lay fewer eggs as they get older, but you may want them to lay even fewer eggs each year to make sure they don’t put too much stress on their bodies. As you said, you can make them go broody with fake eggs, which triggers a hormonal response that shuts down egg production. We’ve made our ducks go broody for similar reasons using similar methods as we detail here: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/why-and-how-to-make-a-duck-go-broody/.
As far as making our own customized feed for our ducks: we’ve never done that or had the need to do it since we have access to high quality waterfowl-specific feeds here in the US. Frankly, without a science lab and a way to precisely measure macro and micronutrient content of a do-it-yourself duck feed, I’d be very wary about going that approach since ducks’ nutritional needs are pretty precise. In your situation, it sounds like your garden + foraging may be helping them get the nutrients they need to stay healthy since corn by itself would not have an optimal macro and micronutrient profile for a duck’s long-term health.
Bottom line: it sounds like what you’re doing is working, so drastic changes aren’t warranted. Perhaps the best way for you to reduce egg production in your ducks is to force your girls to go broody with fake eggs at a certain point during the year, rather than changing their feed regimen.
Best of luck to your and your flock, and cheers from the United States!
Wow. This is great stuff and you are being so generous with your advice. Will try to support you through your linked items. This is our first year with 13 khaki campbells… we are in a colder higher elevation climate in SW Colorado for reference. We have a few things we are trying to work out but top of the list is food (we will try your recommendations) AND birds flocking to eat it no matter where we hide it…under shelter, etc. Ducks pretty much open range (large electric fenced area to protect from predators) during the day and in the coop at night. Appreciate any ideas! Also: love your pond blog and we are adding it to our notes for next year.
Thanks, Katie! We actually have a good friend who keeps geese and ducks in the high desert of Colorado (Dolores). She uses Mazuri waterfowl feed, which is also what we switched to a while back as per our avian vet’s recommendation. Mazuri waterfowl feed is designed to float on water, so she feeds her ducks and geese in their pond each day by simply tossing their food in the water. No way for other birds to get it. So, you might consider putting their food in bowls of water or whatever swimming pond you have for them?
*One possible downside to this approach: it’s entirely possible that the nutrients in the feed will degrade fairly quickly in water if it’s not consumed within some short time window (15-30 minutes)? This is entirely speculative on our part, but something to consider. We’d hate to give advice that could cause some sort of nutritional deficiency in your ducks over time.
Another option is to put a cover/shelter over the food with something reflective on top, like an aluminum pie pan. If it’s set up where your ducks can’t see it but birds looking down from above can, it could help to keep them away.
Hello Aaron
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond in such a detail. Yes, it seems forcing them to get broody is the only option for me. Probably improving a bit their diet since the produce from the garden isn’t always available. They get sick from now and then, respiratory and some parasites, typical to the environment we live in. I have great avian vet who is able to help me even though she is 2 hours away. However, many times I rely on natural medicine – plants and alcohol free tinctures.
I find your site extremely useful as you are doing building your world around ducks well being. I found great tips and solutions to the aspects of duck rising that I was facing all alone down here. Many thanks for sharing your love and experiences.
Cheers from Mexico!
I live in England, and have been searching on the internet, and in the U.S, maintainer duck feed is sold. But I am unable to locate a UK website which supplies maintainer feed. However, there is such thing as grower/finisher pellets. Are they the same thing please?
Also, I really love this website. It has helped me loads.
Hi Adam! Glad to hear our site has been helpful for your duck raising questions. Since different countries may use different food labels on their duck feed, the only way to be certain is as follows:
-What we call “maintainer” feed here in the US is 13-15% protein and about 1% calcium;
-Our “layer” feed is 16-17% protein and about 3% calcium.
The macronutrient breakdown/percentages should be provided on the feed bag you’re considering so match them up to be sure. Hope this helps and let us know if you have other questions.
I love your website. I was wondering if the diet would be the same for drakes? Thank you!
Thank you! Yes, drakes should be kept on a diet of maintainer feed. When they’re ducklings (up to week 8), they require starter feed, as we detail here: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/where-to-buy-organic-duck-feed/.
I can’t tell you how happy I am about your website/blog. Your approach to duck rearing matches my thoughts on animals, but as I’m new to ducks, the advice is well received.
Question if you have time: After reading a lot here I switched my ducks (they are about 3 months old) to Mazuri kibble. The thing is, they hardly eat it. They seem to prefer foraging. There is always kibble available to them, so should I trust that they will eat as much as they need? They just eat a little bit of kibble each day, seemingly surviving mostly on greens and slugs and grubs foraged around the yard.
Love this. I feed our girls Mazuri waterfowl kibble and they have a dish of oyster shell for whenever they want some. My vet said the same about keeping them off the layer feed.
Glad to hear that this duck diet is being prescribed by more vets! Hopefully it will translate to healthier, longer-lived pet & backyard ducks.
This is our first time raising ducks. We like the idea of separating the oyster shells and using maintenance feed but aren’t sure if we should leave the oyster shells accessible all year. I have been using this method since our ducks reached laying age a few months ago, but now that it is getting colder, do I put the oyster shells away?. Do the hens completely stop laying in the winter months? I have been consistently getting an egg a day from the layers…but we live in the south and rarely get a true freeze. Thanks for all the great information!
Hi Michelle! We provide access to oyster shell all year, but… they know when their bodies need the extra calcium and lose any interest in the oyster shell once they don’t. We leave oyster shell out year round regardless because: 1) sometimes, some of the hens will continue laying much longer than the others so they need the extra calcium, 2) they might start needing a little extra calcium boost from time to time and/or as their bodies begin preparing to lay again. Basically, it can’t hurt to make calcium available, but you’ll notice it pretty well goes untouched during non-laying months.
As for when you can expect your ducks to stop laying eggs, the answer is unfortunately “it depends.” Lots of factors: your climate, amount of sunlight they get, their nutritional intake, their age, and probably a few other factors as well. We see laying variability (that’s hard to make sense of) within our flock even though they all experience the same environmental factors. Generally, they stop laying around this time of year and pick back up in spring as light levels + insect and edible plant abundance increases.
Same here…Mazuri maintainer…Mazuri Breeder also…mainly maintainer with oyster shells as a side dish…:)
Nice! Out of curiosity, have you had any reproductive health issues with your ducks since adopting this dietary regimen?
I have not !
Just because ducks are fowl doesn’t mean they have to be foul. How you set up and maintain your ducks’ living areas makes a huge difference as to whether or not your ducks are dirty.
Most people are accustomed to the notion of owning a cat or dog and have a general idea of what’s involved with the upkeep of those animals. Now imagine a scenario in which a friend of yours kept their cat or dog permanently confined to a small space in their yard that was never cleaned or maintained.
That spot would get pretty disgusting pretty fast, right? Upon seeing this scenario unfold, would you then say that “dogs are dirty” or “cats are dirty”? Or would you avoid disparaging the animals and instead tell your friend “maybe you should figure out a different setup and maintenance approach for your animal’s living area.”
Well, the same thing is true of ducks… Ducks can be absolutely disgusting (or not), depending on the setup and maintenance practices their human caregivers employ.
Mary/Marty the duck does not like being called dirty.
Is there any particular type of wood you recommend for the mulch or can we use anything so long as it is triple-mulched? Also, do you shovel it up and change it the way one changes the bedding in their house? Our team spends most of their time freebirding around our backyard but they do go into an enclosed area at night which they turned into a mud pit in about 6 months.
For our duck coop, we use large flake pine bedding from Tractor Supply. Another really good option is hemp bedding, but it’s more expensive than large flake pine. We use a modified deep litter method. We remove all the bedding from the coop every 4-6 months, put it in a compost pile, then start adding new bedding to the coop each day when the coop is prepped for put-up time.
For our backyard where our ducks spend their day, we use triple ground mulch, which is predominantly a hardwood mix. We don’t shovel and change the mulch. Instead, we leave it to slowly biodegrade and turn into rich soil right there on the spot. The carbon-rich mulch does a good job of locking up the nitrogen-rich duck waste as it biodegrades. We usually put out a few inch thick layer of mulch at least once per year. Since the mulch biodegrades more rapidly in our hot, humid summers (meaning there’s not much left by late summer) and we have very rainy winters, we usually try to always get a round of mulch put out in the fall so things don’t get too messy during the winter months.
Hope this answers your questions!
Thank you. That was very helpful. I just wanted to be sure we didn’t get anything that wouldn’t be harmful when they noodle around in it. Y’all’s website has been SO helpful and it’s really nice to read about folks who are as crazy about their duckies as I am!
Haha! Glad to hear our duck articles are helpful for other duck fanatics!
Another wonderful article!! Our four happy girls (WHY is the happy duck stomp dance not common knowledge? Better keep it a secret to avoid increasing impulse duckling purchases!) have about half an acre back yard all told outside of their predator safe pen when they are allowed to free range (which they demand to be most of the day–and I’m lucky enough to be able to be home most of the day to supervise) and even that seemingly small number of ladies has made quite a few stinky duck mud pit locations (:
I look forward to implementing a lot of these suggestions so that next summer the ladies can have just as much fun without me having to play cleaning catch up seemingly 24/7!!
Thank you, Tyrants!
Haha, thanks Miki! Don’t let the secret of the happy duck stomp dance out. 🙂 Glad this article will help you keep your ducks’ area cleaner moving forward.
Since this DIY backyard pond article is fairly long and detailed, we’ve included a table of contents. You can quickly click the table links below to jump to specific parts of the article you’re interested in. Or you can read the whole article to get the best possible understanding of how and why to build a backyard pond, whether or not you have backyard ducks like we do!
Hi!
We are planning on building a smaller version of this pond (around 300 gallons) for our ducks, but I am having a hard time seeing and visualizing the plumbing from the Laguna pump to the filter pond. I see the photos for setting up the PVC going into the filter pond and that makes complete sense, but looking at pictures of the Laguna pump online on Amazon, it looks like the outflow was made for attaching to a hose. How did you handle attaching the pump to PVC and did you just connect pieces of PVC as needed to get from the pump to the filter pool?
Thanks! We are excited to get started on this project for our feathered friends!
Hi Amanda! Apologies for any confusion. There’s no single right way to plumb a duck pond and/or connect the plumbing between your pump and the filter pond(s). It sounds like with your setup, flex piping/hose may be the way to go. You’ll probably need some sort of heavy duty clip or tie to attach it to the pump. Whatever you use to attach your pipe to the pump, make sure it’s easy to remove when the pump is underwater but needs to be turned off and removed for cleaning. The way we attached our pump (which was tied in with PVC) was to use a 1 1/2 inch to 1 1/4 inch threaded nipple reducer that then tied into the existing hardware supplied with the Laguna pump. We also ended up adding cutoff valves to our PVC at the top of our filter pond, which I don’t think you can do with flex hose/pipe. Reason: when you cut your pumps off, the water sucks out and back in to the pond. When your filter ponds are mucky, that means a lot of the muck will get sucked back into the main pond when the pump is turned off, which isn’t ideal. Again, there are different ways you could plumb things so don’t feel the need to do exactly what we did. Also, you can always redo things and iterate later, so don’t be too stressed that you have to get things exactly “right” the first time. Good luck!
A very detailed and informative bio filter pond building blog. I’d like to recommend a pond sealer that can withstand seasonal freezes and thaws from -62 F to 130 F scale. Pond Pro 2000, it’s a butyl liquid rubber one-coat solution that never needs a primer, so it’s time and cost saving product. It’s UV-resistant, puncture-resistant, and non-toxic, so it’s 100% safe for fish, plants, and other aquatic life within the pond. It’s the only pond sealer in the market that has more than 30 years of history of success and offers a 5-year warranty. Its coverage on a smooth surface is 50 sq. ft. per gallon. Avoid rain the first three hours of application. Any leftover material can be stored for up to 2 years. It’s available in black and white colors and in quarts and gallons.
We just bought 4 runner ducks & don’t have the space for building a full pond like this. I was hoping to create some small bath for them using a bio filter so I don’t have to dump the water every morning but don’t know if it’s possible. We just are looking at buying a 50-100gal pool and putting it underground. Then using a filter & pump and water aerator to get the water moving. Will this even work to clean out the duck solids or will this be way too small of a pond to filter? We also live in zone 6A and I’m worried about freezing. If I add a de-icer in the winter, will it help keep it drinkable for the ducks or does the water need to be moving with a waterfall to keep the water drinkable? And if not, any suggestions on what I can do to have drinkable water that doesn’t freeze in the winter for these ducks?
Hi Kara! There’s a lot to unwrap here… pond size, aeration, water quality, and freeze-prevention. Yes, you could do a miniature version of the pond we detail in this article and things should work the same. In Zone 6A, an in-ground pond with moving water/waterfall and a pond de-icer should stay pretty well unfrozen for most of the winter. Having aerators and/or a waterfall to help bring oxygen into the water is essential for water quality, as is: a) establishing a healthy pond microbiome of beneficial bacteria and other cleaning microorganisms, and b) filter pond/pads to help remove solids. Or you could opt for a different, simpler setup. For instance, in the winter, you could just have heated water bowls and only provide access to a small pool on days when temps are above freezing. Hope this helps and good luck to you and your flock!
Hello!! I’m so impressed, my husband and I are planning our duck pond details. Just made our Amazon purchase, the links were so easy, thank you! Quick question: how did you know what rocks to order? The materials list states “2-4,000 lbs rock”. How would I go about ordering this at a landscape supplier to get the type of rocks you have?
Hi April! We’d recommend going to a local landscape supply house and picking out some sort of fieldstone product with pieces that are: a) about 3-4x larger than standard bricks, b) don’t have sharp edges, and c) are in-line with your aesthetic desires.
Hi Aaron,
Just discovered and really enjoying your content. Wondering what type of fish are best in a duck pond? I’ve read some fish can harm birds, and some birds will eat the fish. Appreciate your recs!
Hi Anita! We went to a nearby PetCo and got about 20 feeder fish as a treat for our ducks one day years back. The fish were maybe a couple inches long each. We’re not certain of the species (there could have been multiple species, but some were black, some were orange, and some were mottled colored). We dumped them in our pond and our ducks went crazy eating them for about 20 minutes. We thought they ate them, and we didn’t think anything of it until a year later when I noticed a few fairly large fish swimming in the bottom of the pond one day. Sure enough, a few of them had survived and grown large enough not to be eaten by our ducks.
The fish survived for about 5 years, including through our Zone 7b winters. Unfortunately, during a rushed annual pond cleaning, I accidentally killed them by exposing them to concentrated tap water for too long.
Long story short: I’m not sure where you live, but if it’s a mild climate, you might try the same approach and get feeder fish from PetCo. Otherwise, you might consider some sort of native freshwater fish species that isn’t likely to have teeth or fins that could potentially harm a duck once they got large. We’ve decided not to have fish in our pond in the future since it adds more waste to the water and also complicates things whenever we have to clean out the pond. But that doesn’t mean that’s the right decision for you.
What a great article I have loved following your work since I discovered you when I got my ducks this past spring. I really would like to build this pond, but it is a ways from my house and accessible electricity – wondering if you have any information or experience with solar powered pumps? Thanks so much, Alison
Hi and thanks, Alison! Unfortunately, we do not have experience with solar powered pumps for our pond. As long as the solar system you’re using has some sort of battery to store electricity, it should work fine. Otherwise, your pumps will stop working at night or on cloudy days, which wouldn’t be ideal.
Before deciding what to do, you might want to price out both options: 1) running a dedicated hard-wired line with outlets to the duck pond area vs 2) installing a solar system with outlets. Our guess is it would probably be less money to run a line, especially if you can dig the trench yourself. If you have a handy friend or electrician who might do you a favor on the installation, Option 1 would be even less expensive since material costs would be comparatively low.
Good luck and reach out any time you have questions as you get going!
Hey Aaron, Thanks for all this great info. We are looking to build a small pond for our 5 ducks. It is already in place I now just need to build the filter system. I wanted to confirm that you permanently plumbed your pump in place? Because I have seen some people use the flexible rubber tubing from the pump to filter pond. I would obviously worry about digging this into the ground and collapsing the tubing but I am also worried about permanently plumbing my pump in place as I am in a much colder climate than you (5a). I don’t think I will be able to keep the pond running all year. Was thinking I would have to empty it during the really cold months up here (jan/feb). Any suggestions for how I should plumb the pump? Is it still removable if you use pvc tubing and glue it?
Thanks!
Hi Brendan! Yes, our pond plumbing is permanent. Maybe I should put “permanent” in air quotes because we could pretty easily remove and re-plumb it if we needed to. We’re in Zone 7b, so our winters are obviously way more moderate than yours. The coldest temps our pond has ever been through were multiple nights around 5°F with daytime temps rising into the low 20s. Our pond water surface mostly froze over but the pipes and pumps had no problems since the water was in constant motion.
In your situation, it might well make sense to focus on the easiest possible setup for disconnecting and removing the pipes and pumps, e.g. go with accessible (not buried) flex tubing. Or at least do so for any plumbing that would be filled with water or submerged in water that might cause them to crack or shatter during the cold months.
Hope this helps and good luck with your buildout! Feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions as you go.
Love all your duck articles! I have 4 ducks and I’m planning on building a pond like yours. Do you have a video of your pond setup anywhere?
Hi and thanks, Daisy! No, unfortunately we don’t have a video. Next time we do our annual pond cleaning, we’ll try to make time to do a video as well.
Hello! I help run a therapy farm for kids and we have roughly 17 ducks/ducklings. We want to build a pond similar to yours, I’m just wondering how many bog filters you would recommend putting in?
You’ll need 23 bog filters with that number of ducks. Just kidding! It actually depends… You could run the exact same pond setup we have with that number of ducks, but you’d just need to clean your filters and pond more frequently. Or you could simply make a much larger single filter pond, which would be a lot easier and affordable from a materials and plumbing standpoint versus having multiple smaller filter ponds. The other consideration is whether you plan to allow your ducks full access to the pond throughout the day or limit access, since the less time they’re in the pond pooping, molting feathers, etc, the less pond maintenance will be required. Sorry not to give you a crystal clear answer, but those are the questions you’ll need to think through before deciding on the best duck pond design for your situation.
Awesome project and follow through, glad it has worked out for you! I’m curious about the electrical bill, between the two pumps running 24/7, the occasional freeze protection and what not, any idea the electrical consumption rate?
Thanks Randall! I wish we could tell you the exact energy costs of the pond pump, but we just don’t know. I can say that Laguna pumps are known as the most energy efficient pumps on the market (they utilize Watts energy saving technology), and we didn’t notice any appreciable difference in our overall energy costs after installing our pond.
As for the pond de-icer, that’s only something we use occasionally during REALLY cold snaps where the pond freezes over. Since we live in a mild climate (Zone 7b), that might mean we use a de-icer for a few weeks each year. Some winters, we don’t have to use our pond de-icer at all, so $0 energy costs!
Hi Aaron & Susan!
Thanks so much for posting so much helpful duck info. I am a new duck mama with eight 1-month-old ducklings and just finished building a pond for them that follows your design. 🙂 They love it!
I have a question – well, several, really, I’d love to have more info/any advice on how you handle your pond plants.
Which varieties do you have?
How do you plant them – baskets, bags?
Which kinds will your ducks not eat/do you have to protect?
How many plants do you have?
Do you have to plant new plants every year?
Where do you buy your pond plants?
Are there any varieties you’ve had that you will not get again/particular favorites?
Sorry for so many questions! XD
Thank you!
Thanks Lydia! Glad our DIY backyard duck pond article was helpful for you — and your ducks! Answers to your questions about duck pond plants:
With repeat exposure, ducks will destroy/kill pretty much any SMALL/YOUNG plant you put in their pond, even if the plants are technically inedible. Case in point: yellow water iris (Iris pseudacorus). Years ago, we saw this plant growing on the shoreline at my parent’s lakehouse and brought some home to put in our duck pond. This plant is considered an invasive species in our region, but we can keep it contained to our pond area so decided to give it a try. (Yellow water irises are also great at slurping nitrogen and phosphorus out of water, which ducks produce in abundance – ha!)
We figured the iris’s large rhizomes, tough leaves, and inedibility factor (they’re considered poisonous) would be enough to keep the plant safe from our ducks. Nope, they constantly pulled at the plants and eventually destroyed the colony when we tried to plant the rhizomes directly into the pebbles/rocks on the shallow parts of the pool.
Eventually, we put mature yellow water iris rhizomes into ceramic pots covered in rocks with the whole pot slightly submerged in the shallows of the pool. That approach has proven effective at minimizing the damage they do to the plants since our ducks can’t dislodge the rhizomes. The plants have now been in our pond for at least 3 years (they’re perennials), so we’re confident saying they can withstand duck pressure when grown this way.
Every edible plant we’ve ever tried to grow (from duckweed to water lilies) lasts about 1 hour in our duck pond before being completely destroyed.
However, what we have done in the past few years is grow edible pond plants in our top filter pond with fencing placed around the filter pond to keep our ducks out. Our #1 recommendation for edible pond plants to put in a duck-protected filter pond is pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata). It’s a low maintenance perennial that’s also great at eating duck poo nutrients, AND you can feed it to your ducks. (In fact, you can eat it too.) Our ducks love it and one will occasionally figure out how to break through the fencing and ravage the plants. However, mature pickerelweed is pretty hardy and deep rooted, so it can tolerate a few sessions of duck pillaging. Pickerelweed is also considered an invasive in many places, but we’re able to keep it tightly contained in our setup. One other benefit of pickerelweed is it tolerates part shade well. Ours might get 3-4 hours of direct sunlight and the rest of the day it’s in the shade of an oak and peach tree.
Again, both the plants mentioned above are perennials, so you can plant them once, not yearly. You can probably source both plants through online retailers, but invasive species laws in your state may not allow retailers to ship them to you – you’ll have to check. Another good option to consider for your filter pond is cattails, which are also: a) low-maintenance perennials, b) good feeders, and c) produce edible parts for humans.
Hope this info helps and please let us know if you have any additional questions!
Yes, this is SUPER helpful!! Thanks so much! That’s especially good to know about young pond plants, I will keep experimenting. 😅
I do have a few more qs… 🙂
1. My Laguna pump has consistently gotten clogged every few days with feathers over the summer, and I have to pull it out a few times a week and remove them. Have you ever had this issue? I’m wondering if I need to build a screen cage around the pump to help catch feathers/debris…
2. I’m curious to know how you fence in your filter pond. Do you use flexible netting over it, or a cage?
3. Do you plant the pickerelweed in pots in the filter pond or right on the Matala filters?
Thanks! You rock!
Answers to your questions:
1. The only times our Laguna pond pumps (we have a large one for our main filter pond and smaller one for our secondary filter pond) have trouble getting clogged is when: a) our ducks are molting, and/or b) fall leaves are cascading into the pond by the bucketful in October/November. For most of the year, the pumps are clog-free, and we might remove and clean them once every 4-8 weeks just to keep the waterfall at maximum pressure to optimally aerate the pond. Unfortunately, when your ducks are molting, there’s no avoiding pump clogs. However, you can reduce the frequency of clogs by making sure your pump is elevated slightly above the pond floor and putting some sort of caging/screening system around your pump. Just make sure your cage/screen is relatively easy to remove and clean because it too will get clogged with duck feathers during molting. You might even make some sort of square cage that you could pull out via an attached cord and then put back without having to get into your pond. The other thing you’ll need to be careful of is not having any spiky wires or sharp edges on the surface that could injure duck flippers.
2. I went the cheap and ugly approach, e.g. function over aesthetics. Basically, I just put 2′ tall flexible wire garden fencing in a circle around the filter pond (crossing over the waterfall) supported by garden stakes to prevent the fencing from being trampled over by a herd of ducks. Doing something more attractive has been on my to-do list for two years, but since the current system works, that to-do item will likely continue to be relegated to the bottom of my list. Something more attractive would probably be fitted 1/2″ mesh caging just over the top of the filter pond, rather than fencing IF you’re just using Matala filters. If you also have plants in your filter pond, you’ll need to keep the ducks from being able to reach in.
3. There are multiple methods you could employ to get pond plants (including pickerelweed) in your filter pond. If you’re putting something like pickerelweed into a deeper filter pond that also has Matala filters in it, you’d want to construct some sort of floating/rasied island system so the plants are: a) easy to remove during annual pond clean-outs, and b) aren’t too far below the water surface, which would kill them. Our second biofilter pond is something of an ongoing experiment that has seen both successes and failures. Rather than Matala filters (like our main filter pond) our second filter pond is filled with a mix of lava rocks and large cobbles below with pickerelweed rooted on the surface (the roots extend all the way to the bottom of the filter pond by the end of the growing season). Initially, this second filter pond was plumbed the same as our primary filter pond, with piping going up and over the lip to an on/off valve, then into the bottom of the filter pond where it then percolated back up and out of a waterfall. However, the sediment would build up to the point that the smaller Laguna pump couldn’t pump water in, which would cause the pump to kick off. So we re-plumbed it such that water now comes out of a split pipe system near the surface at the back of the pond. Then it has to go past/through the pickerelweed patch before going out of the waterfall and splashing into the top of our primary filter pond. (Hopefully, this description makes sense.) This latest iteration has worked great and the pump has had no problems.
Thanks for putting this guide together – we’ve recently built a pond following your guide!
We are wondering about how to test the water for the duck’s safe drinking. Is pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Phosphate the only ones that matter? How do we know what ranges are safe?
Thank you and happy holidays!
Hi Gordon! Glad this diy duck pond guide was helpful for you.
Ducks/waterfowl can tolerate drinking water that would put a human in the hospital, so they don’t really require pristine drinking water. However, long-term consumption of water with high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus could pose a health risk to ducks.
When we first built our duck pond, we’d check our water quality monthly. Since we’ve now had the pond for many years, we’ve gotten much more laissez faire with water quality and pretty well trust our pond bacteria and other biology to keep things in balance.
At this point, we only test our pond water quality with the water testing kit mentioned in the article (product link: https://amzn.to/3z9k1um) if: a) we suspect something is off, or b) we’re just curious and want to conduct a quick check. Those test strips are a good guide for keeping things within a “normal” range on nitrate, nitrite, total hardness, total alkalinity and pH. For instance, if we haven’t cleaned our filter pond/pads in a long time, we might get an algae bloom in the spring which turns the water more greenish in color. We know that means high nitrogen levels and will just clean things out and add a round or two of new pond bacteria rather than worrying about testing the water quality.
Long story short: we were happily surprised by how well the water quality in our pond stayed within normal ranges. However, when you’re getting started or you suspect high nutrient levels in your pond, it’s a good idea to conduct a check and take corrective action immediately.
Hi Aaron,
Thank you for the reply – much appreciated.
Do you have any suggestions on products / strategies for manipulating the levels for the pond? For example, the PH level for my pond is a bit on the high end (close to 8.0) and phosphorus was a bit higher than expected at 2 ppm.
I’m looking into some of the API Pond products, which look like they are meant for fish ponds but should work for ducks ponds as well:
https://www.chewy.com/api-pond-ph-down-pond-water-ph/dp/192560
https://www.chewy.com/api-pond-ecofix-sludge-destroyer-pond/dp/151031
https://www.chewy.com/api-pond-zyme-sludge-destroyer-pond/dp/151019
Any thoughts?
Thanks and hope you are off to a great 2022.
Hi again, Gordon! A pH of 8 is fine in your pond. In fact, pond water with a pH range between 6.5 to 8.5 is considered good. No need to stress there.
2 ppm would be high on phosphorus but one caveat (that also applies to pH) – take your water measurements in the morning BEFORE your ducks go into the pond and before the plants and algae in your pond cause a temporary bump up in pH in the afternoon. Ducks pooping and stirring up the sediment could throw off your nutrient readings, and plant/algae could throw off your pH readings later in the day.
With those caveats out of the way, if you take a morning reading and you’re not happy with the nutrient results, either of the two Sludge Destroyer products you linked would work well in helping to biologically degrade the sludge. You will still need to periodically clean out your pond and filter pond though, especially if you have a lot of ducks utilizing it. For instance, our primary filter pond is currently nearly full of muck beyond what pond bacteria can manage (lots of broken down fall leaves + duck poop). That means it’s time for me to turn the pump off, switch off the turnoff valve to prevent sludge backflow, and remove the muck + clean the filter pads. Thankfully, that’s something we only have to do 1-2 times per year at most. It makes our compost and fruit trees happy though!
Hi Aaron!
The ducks are loving the pond! It’s been about 3 weeks after we’ve put them in, but our ammonia levels seem to be consistently rising (4.0 ppm now). However, we haven’t detected any nitrates or nitrites. Does that mean the bacteria isn’t working? We’ve added the filter pad bacteria, as well as the other denitrifying bacteria you’ve suggested. Do we just need to wait it out or add more bacteria?
Thanks,
Gordon
Sorry to hear you’re having pond problems, Gordon. 4.0 ppm ammonia is quite high. It’s hard to diagnose problems/solutions online without knowing more, but a few considerations and thoughts:
1. Yes, those high pond ammonia levels indicate that Nitrosomonas and/or other ammonia-eating bacteria are either not present or haven’t proliferated to the point of keeping up with the ammonia levels. If they are present, they should have been able to start making a dent in ammonia levels after 3 weeks.
2. Most of the pond bacteria products (like Sludge Destroyer) recommend using them twice per week for two weeks when you’re first inoculating your pond, then once every two weeks for regular maintenance. So, it’s not a one-and-done application.
3. Something I should have considered previously is the time of year given that it’s now winter. I’m not sure where you’re located but pond water temperature has a big impact on what type of bacteria (and natural pond-cleaning products) are going to be effective for you. It’s possible your pond ammonia problem is entirely due to the bacteria you’re adding NOT being able to survive or function at cold temperatures. Hate to suggest something else to buy, but there are specific COLD water pond formulations like Aquascape Cold Water Beneficial Bacteria that could be the ticket to lowering your ammonia levels. Before you buy anything else, look at the bacteria-based products you’ve already used and see what the product specs/instructions say about temperatures at which they’re effective.
4. In the meantime, you might want to go ahead and do a partial water change out, maybe 1/3 of total volume, to immediately drop the ammonia levels down.
Out of curiosity, what’s the total gallon volume of your pond and how many ducks are utilizing it?
Hi Aaron, thanks so much for your reply! Having trouble replying directly to your message, so will start a new reply thread.
To answer your questions:
– We have a 3000 gallon pond, with 3 ducks. It is fully enclosed and connected to their coop, so they end up spending 95% of their time in the pond.
– Good point about the cold weather – The pond water has regularly been below 40 F the past few weeks. I will your recommended product. We’ve been using the Microbe Lift filter pad gel and the Microbe Lift PL, which does say it works, but slower during cold weather. We’ve also used the Microbe Lift Autumn / Winter, but it looks like that one has to be used in water above 40F.
– I think the bacteria might have been working, but slowly. After the first week, the ammonia was at ~1.5ppm. We then kicked the ducks out for a week, and it seemed to have dropped to around 0.5ppm. We then put the ducks back in for a week, but its gotten up to 4.0 ppm.
– I’m not sure whether this is relevant information, but we found that the water got foamy / bubbly during the times when the ducks did not have access to the pond. But when we put the ducks back the bubbles seemed to disappear.
– When we kicked out the ducks, we also emptied the bog to adjust it to fix a leak. We did add more filter gel at that point, but I wonder if that messed up the bacteria that was growing in there.
A few follow-ups:
1. What do you think is a safe level of ammonia to have the ducks in? What levels do you generally have it at?
2. When the water gets really cold or even starts freezing over, does that mean all the helpful bacteria will end up dying? Do you have to “restart” things in the spring when that happens?
3. We’ve gotten 2 power outages – does the bacteria die without aeration when that happens? Especially the bacteria on the filter pads that isn’t submerged in water anymore?
Again, thanks so much for your help!
Best regards,
Gordon
Hi Gordon. Sorry for my slow response. Haven’t had much spare time past couple days.
Two thing we’ve probably under-appreciated over the years is:
a) having an established microbial ecosystem in our pond which probably really helps our water quality through the seasons, and
b) having an open pond that regularly gets new rain water added and overflows during heavy rains, helping to do small but regular water changes. For reference, we have 6 ducks in a 1200 gallon pond and our pond is very low maintenance.
Foam occurring in your pond when your ducks are NOT using it is odd. That’s usually caused by protein in the water, frothed up by the waterfall. The source of that excess protein is duck excreta (or fish excreta in fish ponds).
Answers to your questions (as best as I can):
1. What do you think is a safe level of ammonia to have the ducks in? What levels do you generally have it at?
We haven’t tested our pond water in so long I don’t know what our ammonia levels are. Unfortunately, I don’t know where our water quality test kit is so I’ll need to order a new one. As far as ammonia levels for poultry drinking water, below 25 ppm is the rule for most birds so the same would likely apply to ducks.
2. When the water gets really cold or even starts freezing over, does that mean all the helpful bacteria will end up dying? Do you have to “restart” things in the spring when that happens?
I can speculate here, but not being a microbiologist, you should take my answer with a grain of salt. It’s likely going to depend on the species of bacteria. Some species will stay active. Some may remain active but slow way down. Some may go dormant until optimal temperatures return. Others may die.
If you’re adding beneficial pond bacteria specifically produced for sub-40F water, I don’t think they’ll perish when your pond freezes over.
Depending on where we are in our pond cleaning cycle and what the pond water looks like, we often add warmer weather beneficial pond bacteria in the spring. That also often coincides with a big annual pond and filter pond cleaning. We’re not very regimented in our pond treatments – we more do things based on observation, intuition, and time availability at this point.
3. We’ve gotten 2 power outages – does the bacteria die without aeration when that happens? Especially the bacteria on the filter pads that isn’t submerged in water anymore?
There’s actually two questions here: a) can the beneficial pond bacteria survive without oxygen — and if so for how long? and b) can beneficial pond bacteria survive out of water — and if so, for how long? Again, this is beyond my expertise but I’m happy to speculate…
a) My understanding is that there are all different types/species of beneficial pond bacteria with varying degrees of oxygen requirements. Even bacteria that need oxygen can survive for hours or days without oxygen, depending on the species. My guess: most of you beneficial pond bacteria would probably survive at least 24 hours on residual oxygen with your pump off, perhaps longer.
b) If your filter pads completely dried out or froze solid, the bacteria in the pads would likely perish. If the filter pads stayed damp and unfrozen, they’re likely fine.
Sorry again that you’re having water quality challenges. Please do check back in once your new cold water pond bacteria has a chance to go to work!
I’m a bit late to the party, but so grateful to find such a great plan and details for the build. We’re moving back to my home state of Oregon and I definitely want to graduate from dumping and cleaning the stock tank every couple of days! In our current home the chickens and ducks are too far from the house — I want a beautiful area close in so I can enjoy the sound of the waterfall and interact with our pets. My husband will appreciate all the design details. Can’t wait to begin!
Glad the information is helpful and best of luck on building your duck pond! Let us know if you have questions as you get underway.
Hi, Aaron. I just wanted to say thank you for providing such a detailed explanation of your process here. We followed your instructions, used the same materials, and have a beautiful pond for our five ducks. We have one problem, though. It has been close to three weeks since we turned the pump on and began filtering our water. We added bacteria to the filter pads and the water, have had the pump running almost constantly, and our water is still very murky. It has developed a strong odor now, too. I’m not sure what we did wrong, but I’m concerned about the ducks using the pond with the water looking and smelling like it does. Should we give it more time to filter? I’m tempted to drain it and start over with fresh water, but I’d hate to go through the whole waiting process again if it’s going to correct itself soon. Any advice would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!
Hi Emily! Sorry you’re having issues with water quality. Best guess, there are two possible causes here (and they may be happening concurrently):
1) When we first filled up our pond and turned on the water, the water was quite turbid due to all the residue on the rocks and pebbles. It took quite a while for the sediment to settle, but there was no associated smell.
2) Municipal water has quite a few chemical additives put in to kill microbes to ensure people don’t get sick when drinking it. These additives may also kill the beneficial pond bacteria you add when you’re first filling the pond. The chemicals do dissipate and/or become diluted by rainwater over time. This would mean that the good bacteria was killed, leaving the “microbiome” of your pond sterile and wide open for inoculation by bad bacteria, which would create an odor as they proliferated.
The first thing we’d recommend is re-introducing beneficial pond bacteria one evening asap once you put your flock up. We’d recommend Microbe Lift PL Bacteria which will consume lots of nitrogen and algae as well: https://amzn.to/3iS50Fm. If that doesn’t improve the water quality within 3-5 days, then you may unfortunately want to consider removing and replacing the water. Please check back and let us know how things go!
Thank you for the advice! We ended up draining the water out yesterday. I ordered the bacteria you suggested and added it, but the water continued to get worse, so we figured it was time to start over. Now that we’ve cleaned everything out and refilled the pond with fresh water (still city water, unfortunately) I have a few follow-up questions.
1. When should we add the first dose of bacteria to the new water and inoculate the filter pads? If the chemicals in city water will kill everything, would it be better to wait a bit until said chemicals have dissipated?
2. Should we have the pump running and filtering right away, or wait until we add the bacteria?
3. Is there a particular type of feeder fish you’d recommend to help with the pond gunk? I’ve read they can be very beneficial to the health of the pond, but I don’t know what the options are as far as cold-hardy (needs to survive Ohio winters) and big enough to not get eaten by the ducks. We purchased 40 large minnows and goldfish already, to the ducks’ delight, and have had no survivors.
Again, thank you so much for your help. I’m sure you have much better things to do than answer my endless questions, so I really appreciate you taking the time to respond.
Sorry for your troubles, Emily. Answers to your questions below:
1. Unfortunately, there’s no simple, universal answer here. That’s because different municipalities use different types and ratios of chemicals to treat their water and make it safe for human consumption, which is not the same thing as being safe for fish, beneficial microbes, and other aquatic life to live in. Case in point: some municipalities use straight chlorine which would probably completely dissipate from pond water on a hot summer day within 24 hours. Others use chloramine, which is a combination of ammonia and chlorine that makes the chlorine much more non-volatile, e.g. it won’t dissipate. Aquarium owners usually have to use special water treatment products to neutralize chloramine or it kills their fish. There’s no risk to your ducks, but depending on the concentration, chloramine may very well kill the beneficial microbes. Maybe your town/city water department publicly posts what additives are used in the water on their website, otherwise you could call to find out.
Either way, any chemicals in your water that would volatilize out would likely do so in 24-48 hours. So you could add Microbe Lift PL Bacteria after 2 days. Frankly, you may want to keep adding it every week or so if your pond water becomes malodorous (fancy way of saying stinky) or has high amounts of algae growing in it. We’d be really surprised if it doesn’t work because it’s a great product that we’ve found very helpful over the years.
2. Yes, you definitely want to keep your pond pump on. That will at least filter out solids through your Matala pads and aerate the water via whatever waterfall system you have set up. Both of those factors are very important for promoting and maintaining pond water quality.
3. We had pretty much the exact same thing happen with fish in our pond! Our ducks ate about 50 small feeder fish we got from a local pet store within an afternoon. Miraculously, a few of them somehow survived and became large fish (we didn’t realize until a year later). The problem with using fish for cleaning your pond is they also poop and pee. As you said, we’re also not sure which fish in the “cleaner” category could survive the winter. Plants are a much better option for improving water quality IF you can keep your ducks from eating/destroying them with fencing or other methods. We have some yellow flag irises in pots in our pond that our ducks pretty well leave alone. We also have pickerelweed in our second pond filter which our ducks ravage at every opportunity (somehow they always end up figuring out how to get over/under/through whatever fencing we erect). Both of those are perennial plants that go dormant in the winter but slurp up a lot of pond nutrients from spring – fall, which also overlaps with periods when pond water quality can be more of a challenge.
Hope this helps and please keep us posted.
We have grown to love our ducks after our daughter brought home a set from a farm supply store 7 years ago. I just built a duck pond (filled it up about 10 days ago) based on your site and so far the ducks are liking it. But, i’m getting green buildup on the rocks and waterfall and pump hose (its clear so i can see the inside of it). I’m no biology or chemist so i don’t know how to diagnose what it is. The pond gets sun until mid afternoon and we have had some scorcher days. Could the sun be killing the bacteria in the filter pads or is it algae? I do have an oxygenator in the pond. I don’t have test strips purchased as i’m not sure what to do with results anyway. The ducks still get in and our dogs drink (but don’t get in). Any recommendations? Oh, we have 5 ducks for our pond and have used a 50 gallon tub for our filtering bog. We were able to use one layer of the green filter and two layers of the finer gray filter.
Hi Mark! Sounds like algae, which is normal and expected (to a point) when you have a steady nitrogen/nutrient source like duck poo + heat. We have some algae in our pond and on our rocks too. When there is excess nitrogen, it can cause a large algae bloom which turns your water green – that’s when it’s a problem. Since your pond is new and sounds like it’s set up well, you probably don’t too severe of a problem. One thing we wonder about is when pond bacteria is added to a pool full of fresh municipal water that contains additives intended to kill microbes (for good reason), if it also kills the good bacteria you’re adding. The answer is probably “yes.” At this point with your pond, the chlorine & other antimicrobial compounds in the municipal water have probably dissipated or diluted with rainfall and open air exposure. Long answer short: you may want to go ahead and add another round of pond bacteria tonight once you put your ducks up. Not sure which bacteria you’re using, but the one we’d recommend for you is Microbe Lift PL Bacteria which will consume lots of nitrogen and algae as well: https://amzn.to/3iS50Fm. Hope this helps and please check back to let us know how things go!
Hey my name is Riley and we want to build a pond we have three ducks that are indian runner ducks we don’t need a very large one just like four hundred gallons with out a water fall and we’re wondering what y’all could suggest our price range is preferably under 1500 if y’all could get back that would be great rhanks
Hi Riley. You can easily modify the pond plans/specifications we detail in this article to make a smaller pond with a smaller budget. Please note that the waterfall is not merely cosmetic: you have to have a pump + filter pond + filter material in order to filter out duck solids and clean the water in your pond. The waterfall simply connects the filter pond to the main pond while aerating the water (another important feature for improved water quality). Once you understand the basic requirements for creating a pond like the one in this article, you can modify your plans to match your budget/scope. Hope this helps!
Hello, and Happy New Year!
First, know that I’ve stalked your site for about a year now, and am finally ready to build a pond because of it! You did a great job presenting a lot of general, good to know, information with just enough detail to work. The wife has 11 ducks (calls and teals), so I’m scraping out a pond that will have a 110 gal filter w/ waterfall, and a second waterfall into a stream that will also feed into the pond. I’ll have a Laguna 4280 feeding both, hoping to create some circulation from the two waterfalls angling in to keep it from freezing in a Virginia winter. I (think I) recall that you used to have a circulation pump, in a case of some sort, in your pond – do I recall that correctly, or is that from some other site I stalked and don’t remember? I’m looking for a way to help out circulation a little so I can avoid powering a de-icer for ~1800 gallons of water.
Thank you!
Hi Herb! We were wondering who was stalking our site, so thanks for outing yourself! 😛
As for our DIY backyard pond: other than the small and large Laguna pumps + two filter ponds/waterfalls, we haven’t used any additional pumps or circulating systems in our pond. The flow from the waterfalls and the direction at which they enter the pond keep the pond water in motion and circulating. We do have cold snaps here in Upstate South Carolina where the pond will freeze over IF we don’t plop a de-icer in, but that’s maybe only 2-3 weeks over the course of a winter. It has to be consistently below freezing for multiple days and nights for the pond to freeze over. A de-icer really doesn’t draw that much energy, so it may well be worth considering for your setup up in VA. Hope this helps and feel free to reach out anytime we can be of help as you’re putting your pond together.
Just wanted to say thanks for your excellent step by step instructions. I have installed 2 ponds for my sweet ducks following you instructions with a few modifications. One large 2000 gallon pond out side and one 150 gal pond insider greenhouse where the ducks live. The indoor pond is in service all year. They both have 50 gallon filters, I have matala pads at the bottom and clay balls or k1 biomedical on top. Though I found that plants growing in the bio media made a huge improvement to water clarity. I will add more plants next year. I also found the barley straw extract to be very helpful, but you can’t get behind. I did find an easy fix if the pond gets really green. I replaced my pump profiler with an old poly filled pillow for 2 days and it filtered out all the algae. Anyway, thanks for your help.
That sounds like a great pond setup, thanks Kristin! Yes, plants definitely make a huge difference in pond water quality – the trick is keeping the ducks from accessing and eating/destroying them. The best plant we’ve found thus far is pickerel, which we keep in our top filter pond with caging to keep the ducks out. Every now and then, they’ll figure out how to get over the fencing and eat it to a nub. Thanks also for the other pond care tips!
Yes, we run our pond pump at all times. Over time (especially when leaves are falling or our ducks are molting) the pump cover and our pump impeller will get clogged, causing the flow rate to decrease. When that happens, we’ll turn off and clean the pump, which only takes a few minutes. Otherwise it’s always running. Water flow + aeration is really important for maintaining good water quality. Here’s a quick tutorial showing you how to clean a Laguna pond pump (the one we use and recommend), with video: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/video-how-to-clean-a-laguna-max-flo-pump-in-your-backyard-pond/.
Hi Aaron & Susan,
Thank you so much for documenting and publishing your experience building your pond. We followed pretty much every step of your guide, and we now have a beautiful (and a bit smaller) pond for our future ducks! (If someone could tell me how to add pictures, I’d be happy to share!)
One question for you: How are you running the electrical cords from the pumps to the power stake? Did you run them through some conduit and bury them? & I assume you leave the pumps running 24/7. Have you had any issues with moisture getting into the connections between the pump cords and stake?
Thanks again!
Hung
Hi Hung! Glad to hear you’ve got a beautiful duck pond up and running. We run a cord from an outside GFCI outlet to the power stake. Yes, we run our pumps 24/7. No, we haven’t had any issues with moisture in the outlets since the power stake we use is made for outdoors. As far as photos, if you have them somewhere online in a public album, you can share the link here – we’d love to see them! Unfortunately, this commenting system doesn’t allow file/photo uploads.
Hi Aaron. Where did you find the research on pond size? I’d like to do something similar but about half the length. Thanks.
Aaron D.
Oh, man… We did our digging on how to make a DIY pond about 10 years ago, and I have no idea what resources we utilized at this point. You can use the same basic layout we have here — just smaller — and downsize your pump a notch. But the basic mechanics are the same regardless of size.
Hey Aaron. I’m going to be building a pond a lot like yours for our three ducks in the next few weeks. I couldn’t find the 50 gal version of the filter pond tub you recommended, just 40 gal, so I bought the 110 gal version instead of planning a second filter pond in the future. Would the one Laguna 2900 be enough to feed one big 110 gal filter? Thanks!
Hi, and so sorry for the slow response. Crazy week. Yes, a Laguna 2900 will be more than adequate to cover you on a 110 gallon filter pond. Best of luck on your duck pond build and reach out if you have questions along the way! 🙂
So our Skippy filter has kept our water crystal clear, we even added plants in the filter (out of ducks reach). Our only issue has been algae growing on our rocks. The pond is unfortunatly in direct sunlight and won’t have shade until our trees grow up. Do you guys deal with rock algae at all or just accepted it as a part of pond life? I feel like I need to educate myself more on algae and a ponds ecosystem. Our only solution for now is adding shade via a cow panel trellis overstretching the pond with plants but it’s a WIP.
Hi! Sorry for our slow response. Been a hectic couple days. Yes, we have algae on our rocks, too. It’s part of a pond ecosystem and creates habitat (and food) for other pond critters. For instance, we now have a population of small water mollusks – we didn’t put them there, they just appeared. It seems that they eat the algae on the rocks and our ducks then eat them. So, don’t be too concerned unless you have an over-proliferation of something, which would indicate an ecosystem or nutrient load that’s out of balance. For instance, if your water turns green due to an algae bloom (different species than what lives on your rocks), that can mean high nitrogen levels.
Hope this helps put you at ease!
Hello Aaron and Susan!
I had a couple questions for you as we start our duck pond adventure. Did you use just one layer of each of the filter materials in your skippy biofilter? Also, if I’m reading it correctly, you cut a section of the lip of the filter tub to direct the water onto the waterfall. If that is correct, how far below the rest of the lip did you cut and how wide did you go? Lastly, the best place for our filter is on the pond wall just behind where our pump will be sitting. Will that be an issue with circulating the pond water? I’m just worried that one area of the pond would have good turnover but the far side (about ten feet away) might not be moved as much. We noticed that your first filter was near the pond pump but the second pump was placed into the far end of the pond. Was that to get the water around the entire pond to circulate better?
Thank you and hope all is great with you and the family!
Karen and Doug
Hi Karen! Answers to your questions:
1. We ordered one sheet each of the grey and green Matala pond filters. Then we cut a form out of each one to match the size/specs of our primary filter pond. The green filter form went in first to filter out the larger material/solids. The grey filter form went on top to filter out finer material/solids. Then we put the scrap cut pieces on top of the larger fitted forms.
2. Yes, for the top of our waterfalls, we cut a chunk out of the lip of both of our filter ponds (about 2″ deep x 5″ wide) then glued pond liner into the filter pond and over the lip using a pond adhesive. Note that the 2″ x 5″ opening isn’t a hard and fast rule, that was just an opening that fit our particular waterfall.
3. Yes, we put in our second pump + filter + waterfall to get more circulation and aeration in our pond AND to get additional filtration of solids. If that’s not ideal for you, another possibility for you to consider is doing a split waterfall to get some extra water down to the far end of your pond. But as a general rule, the more the water moves, aerates, and filters the better it will be for water quality. That’s why we also added additional aerators to our pond.
Hi Again Aaron and Susan!
Thank you so much for the quick, very detailed and extremely helpful response! My husband and I are almost done with the digging and ordered most of the supplies from your website suggestion list and now are ready to roll ehehe 🙂 Again, thank you so much for all you do on your blog and website which are so truly inspirational and fun 🙂 Not only now we are going to have a pond, but baby ducklings too boot !! Next project will be the cob oven lol …well first is first…finish the pond…eheh….we will send pictures to show you what you have started eheh :))))) again ….redundantly I know, THANK YOU TO YOU BOTH…
HUGS
Karen and Doug and our son Jetrick
Really appreciate the kind words, thanks Karen! Love to see your photos when you’re done. 🙂
Hi Aaron, are you guys just using 1 grey and 1 green full sheet filter media pad or are you using more? I’m assuming you have all green first then the grey stacked on top. Thanks!
Yes, we ordered one sheet each of the grey and green Matala pond filters. Then we cut a form out of each one to match the size/specs of our filter pond. The green filter form went in first to filter out the larger material. The grey filter form went on top to filter out finer material. Then we put the scrap cut pieces on top of those.
Hello Aaron!
I love what you and you wife have done with your duck pond and now in the process of building one too along side our school house chicken coop. Waiting on soil to level our 12 by 10 pond and hopefully the rest will be done by June 15th. I love the pictures you shared which really helped in defining the size and level of our pond. I am still in the process of figuring out how to work the skippy bio filter but will use the ideas you guys used for yours. Thank you for posting this pond and in a few weeks we will be adding 4 baby Welsh Harlequin duckling to our brood.
Thanks, Karen! Glad our DIY pond article & instructions have been helpful. Since we originally built and did step-by-step photos of the pond construction, there were two changes (both noted in the article): 1) We added a second filter pond & small pump. That filter pond has a waterfall that goes into the first filter pond. 2) We switched to Matala pond filters (linked in article) which are SO much better than what we started with. The biofilter system isn’t terribly complicated, so don’t stress. It’s basically just filter material inoculated with beneficial pond bacteria. Water from the primary pond pumps into the bottom of the filter ponds, is strained of solids by the filters (which are then largely digested by bacteria), then the cleaned water goes back down the waterfall and is aerated in the process.
Reach out if you have any questions as you get going! Best of luck to you and your Welsh Harlequin flock. You’re in for quite an experience. 🙂
Hi Aaron. After reading this article a couple months ago, I was really inspired to build a pond for our ducks! My boyfriend and I got three ducklings from Tractor Supply. A few weeks later, we got two more ducklings from another feed store. There already was two ducks living in the duck yard, so now we have seven duckies. Before the pond, we had 3 baby pools that weren’t doing the trick. The duck yard is on a hill, so we couldn’t follow your design exactly, but we tried to keep it close(for the most part). The pond is about 6ftx11ft and 1.5ft at the deepest. I think we calculated somewhere between 900-1200 gallons. We originally started with two 20gallon garbage cans as the filters. Before the ducks felt comfortable enough to get in, the garbage cans had our water crystal clear and flowing good. Once they realized the pond was for them and started enjoying it, the water turned reddish. It started out light red and as the days went on, it turned deeper red and eventually had bubbles floating in the top. The ducks wouldn’t even get in it then! We decided we needed more filter, so we used two 55 gallon drums and filled them with lava rocks and a hodgepodge of filter matting material. We also added another 100 gallon pond above the original that connects with a little stream. We fenced off the top pond and put some plants in it. After a couple of days, the water is turning red again. We went out and bought some algae treatment that is safe for pond plants and animals. The day after that treatment, the water was a lighter red, but still red. We also treated it with some barley extract and have two barley balls floating around. Today, the water wasn’t bubbly and wasn’t a deep red, but it definitely had a red tint to it. I was wondering if your pond experiences any of the red water that we seem to be?
Hi, I just have a couple of questions
did you have to tip the filter in a certain direction so the water spilled that way
also, could you plant any plants on the bottom of the pond
other than those things I believe I understood, thanks for the post
Hi, Thank you for all the great info. We have 5 ducks and are about to build them a pond! Would you recommend using two 50 gallon tubs? 100 gallons? or maybe an 85 gallon instead? Also would you recommend one or two pumps for added aeration? Thanks
Hi Liane! Unfortunately, there’s not an exact formula to determine how big of a pond or how many pumps you need in your pond based on the number of ducks you have. A lot of it has to do with your budget, the size of the space, and just your personal preferences. However, with 5 ducks I’d recommend you have at least a 100 gallon primary swimming pond. If you’re going with a self-cleaning skippy biofilter setup like we have in this article, you’ll want to have a secondary filter pond that cleans out the solids while providing aeration via a waterfall that connects back to the main pond. That means you’d need at least 1 pump and another 50 gallon tub for your filter pond.
Hope this helps.
Love the pond. Our ducks will hatch in the next two weeks and we’ve decided to build them a pond. How many layers of filter pads did you use? Is it just one of the green and one of the gray, or are there multiples or some other media?
Hi Nathan! With the Matala filters, we only went two layers deep with single pieces. (Green filter went in first to filter out the larger material; the grey filter went on top to filter out finer material.) The Matala filters come in a giant rectangle shape, so we cut a single piece out of each color filter and put that in the filter pond. With the filter material that was left over, we cut smaller chunks that we then put on top of the larger fitted filters. They’re extremely efficient at filtering out muck – wish we’d known about them years ago. Please let me know if that answers your questions or if you all need any help as you get going on your duck pond. Fun project! It’s tough work, but so worth it when you’re done and get to enjoy it for years to come. Your ducks will love it too. 🙂
I just bought the pump and pond liner a few mouse clicks ago. I’ll get the Matala filters also. I’ve used them before in Aquaponics gardening and they’re really amazing. Do you put anything in the filter besides the Matala and the bacteria, like, some kind of cover or lid with holes for air, or does it just do it’s thing?
Hi Nathan! Nope, we don’t cover our filter ponds. Just put filter material in and let it do its thing. That doesn’t mean you can’t do something differently, that’s just what we do. But there’s no functional or beneficial reason we know of that would make having a cover a necessity. One interesting thing we’ve noticed is that all kinds of interesting aquatic critters just show up in our filter ponds (and main pond) – frogs, salamanders, various water mollusks, dragonfly larvae, etc. So we just try our best to mimic a stream/pond ecosystem and leave things open.
Hi,
We are planning to build a pond and following your great directions. We are going to do an oval design probably measuring 10 by 20 ft for six ducks and hopefully a few fish. We have a really big yard and we are building this pond next to our chicken/duck Garden Coop/enclosed run. I was going to do an 85 gallon bio-filter, the Laguna 4200 pump and increasing the size of the liner/under layment. I was hoping to do one filter and pump but I guess we had pumps and filters if needed.
Hi Jessica! Best of luck with your pond. Please share pics when you’re done! Also, let us know if you have any questions along the way.
I did it! built my pond works great. it’s been almost a year and I’ve added 2 things. I added a ball valve shutoff to the bottom of waterfall, hooked a hose up to water a nearby garden. Also I can just open it up to clean bottom of waterfall sludge. I stir it the sponges on top with an old broom to clean everything. Then I added a uv light for algae since my pond is in sun all day I had a real problem.
I wanted to thank you for posting this design without it I don’t know if I would have taken the plunge.
Hate to be that guy but 2 questions:
Did you ever consider a bog filter? I’m curious about the idea but don’t know how it would do side by side with ducks.
When cleaning your current bio-filter, does it require completely dismantling it, washing then putting back together?
what are the 8k lbs of rocks for? I see the large ones lining the pond. Is that really 8k rocks?
Thanks for taking the time to document how you put in your duck pond. I have bunches of questions….
1. How is your system working so far. If you were starting from scratch over again, is there anything that you would change?
2. Can you provide a brief description of how you clean your biofilter bogs
3. Do you get sediment forming at the bottom of your pond and if so, do you need to clean out your pond? I’m wondering whether a swirl pool between the pond and the skippy filters would remove large particles and reduce the bioload on your skippy filters.
4. In addition to your skippy (microbe) filter, have you thought about filtering your water through an hydroponic system? The plants you use could provide additional filtering and landscaping to your pond. Also, some of the plants you grow could be given back to your ducks as an additional source of nutrients
5. I see that you keep your pool open year round. What happens to your microbe population during the winter time? Do you need to re-populate it in the spring again?
6. Can you explain where your pumps are placed. Are they both in the skippy filtering pools? How long do you think your pumps will last since they are dealing with pumping water with heavy bioloads in them?
7. Would you consider shooting a video of your pond system and narrating each section of your pool. A video would help out a lot with visualizing how your pool and biofilters work together.
Thanks again!
Great questions! It seemed impossible to properly answer them all here in the comments section, so we created a new article that answers every one of your questions point-by-point: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/questions-diy-backyard-pond/ Hope that helps!
Hello! How often are you having to clean out the biofilter?
Hi! It depends on whether you have waterfowl or not. If you don’t have ducks pooping and molting feathers into your backyard pond, you might not ever have to clean the biofilters (although you might have to replace them if/when they biodegrade). However, we have seven ducks that spend a good portion of their lives in our small pond, so we have to clean the “solids” out of our filters about twice a year just to make sure the water stays in ideal shape. It’s not the most pleasant job in the world but our plants and compost benefit greatly from the byproduct. 😛
We have seven khaki campbells and I was cleaning out our old pond which was just a kiddie pool several times a week. Thanks for the response! I have been following your plans and we are almost done, just have to finish the rocks. Any other suggestions?
Sounds like you’re about to have some very happy ducks! You’re going to get a good laugh out of how happy your flock is when you first fill up the pond. They’ll be in there constantly, cleaning, diving, dabbling, etc. Ours still love their pond as much as the day they got it but they’re asking for an expansion or a second pond. Spoiled birds. It’s never enough.
As for other suggestions, sounds like you’re right on track. If all you have left is rocks, you’re close to the finish line. Did you have any specific questions about construction, design, or plumbing? Happy to help you as you finish up.
So my pond is pretty much complete, just have to put the hogs hair material in the biofilter. Did you do layers of scrubber pads in between layers of hogs hair?
Ideally, you can layer it based on porosity: filter material that catches largest materials goes on the bottom and filters that catch the smallest material goes on top. Depending on what you’ve got there, that’s probably going to mean your hogs hair filters are going to go on the bottom and your scrubber pads are going to go on top. Does that make sense?
Great article but the pics that you have here are really small is there anyway we can see normal size. 150 x 150 really doesnt help understand whats going on.
Dave, sorry for the delayed response! For some reason, I’m not getting comment notification emails despite my settings showing that I should be. The native slideshow function on our site is also a little wonky, but you should be able to click the pictures now to enlarge them, then click back on your browser to return to the images. Apologies and hope that helps!
Lovely post I like it particularly you are advising with respect to all basic issue to be thought in conspiring and setting up of a scene. For pond Pondpro2000 would one sure solution of leaks.
Let’s cut right to the chase: No, you won’t save money by producing your own eggs from backyard poultry. It’s important that intending poultry owners understand this BEFORE they decide to move forward with getting poultry or they’re likely to have unrealistic expectations and/or end up abandoning or neglecting their animals once this realization becomes apparent.
You can stop reading right here if you just want a high level takeaway. However, we’d encourage you to continue reading if you’re the type of person who also wants to know the WHY behind an answer…
Feeling overwhelmed by the thousands of raised garden bed options? Need help figuring out which type of garden beds are best for you? The tips in this article will help!
We’ve grown food plants in our Zone 7b garden every way imaginable for well over a decade: in-ground beds, pots, SIPs, raised beds, etc. Each method or approach has useful applications and use cases.
For instance, we grow organic citrus in large plastic pots rather than in-ground. Why?
Yum! Some of our potted citrus trees.
Our step-by-step How to Raise Ducklings Guide is intended to provide you with all the information you need to know to raise happy, healthy ducklings from hatch day to adulthood. This article is directed towards backyard duck owners and homesteaders with small flocks, not farmers who raise ducklings by the hundreds or thousands.
Also, please note that if you plan to get Easter ducklings as a gift for children who will soon lose interest in the ducks or not take adequate care of them, please do NOT get ducklings, for reasons we’ve written about here.
Raising ducklings is a lot of responsibility. Failure to properly plan for and care for ducklings will end up in sick, dead, or abandoned ducks. However, if you plan to be responsible and dedicated duck parents, thank you and please read on!
Warning: There will be many duckling photos throughout this article. If you’re allergic to cuteness, you might be in trouble!
Hi, I am a bit confused about the difference between brewers yeast and nutritional yeast. As I understand it, they are different products with different nutritional profiles, but are they being used interchangeably on this webpage? It’s the last thing we have get source before our ducklings arrive, so just want to double-check that we get it right 🙂
Hi Taylor! What you want to get is nutritional yeast, which is a bit different than brewer’s yeast. Quoting from the article: “To supplement, we typically add 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast per cup of crumble or 100mg B-Complex. (You can also add the same amount per gallon of drinking water instead of to their food.)
You can order either form of Niacin via Amazon: nutritional yeast or as B-Complex vitamin capsules. (Make sure you don’t get timed-release or flush-free B-vitamins — neither of those are Niacin!)”
The above links will take you to the exact products we use and recommend from Amazon. Hope this helps and good luck with your ducklings!
Thanks so much Aaron! You’r website has been invaluable as we’ve found our way to becoming duck owners, so thank you for taking the time to put all this information out there!
Hi Aaron, Another question. Buttercup is starting to brood. Today she made a nest and was squawking when I opened the duck house door. She is just starting and I don’t want the chickens getting her eggs when she’s off the nest. They’ve always all lived in one pen, but the chickens have their own coop. Would it be better to close the gates between the pens or just put a dog enclosure around the duck house. Buttercup and Cocoa[male] free range together during the afternoons. I don’t want the eggs eaten. They were free ranging all day today, but she’s back on the nest tonight. I want to do the best for her. Last year was horrible trying to break her brooding. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Debbie
Hi Debbie! So the question boils down to: “Would it be better to close the gates between the pens or just put a dog enclosure around the duck house.” Unfortunately, this is not something I’m comfortable answering because I’m not intimately familiar with your exact setup or your poultry. If your drake is going to stay close to Buttercup, you might want to provide the most room possible. If your chickens are going to freak out because they’re shut off from a normal foraging area, then less space for Buttercup may be optimal. You know your flock dynamics and setup far better than anyone else, so this is a judgment call for you to make – and you can also modify things if they don’t initially go as planned. Best of luck to you all – and to your future ducklings. 🙂
We have found 11 baby ducklings that I keep in my bathroom at night and for naps, because I live in a condo community, and this is where momma laid her eggs. (Long story)
These are wild Mallards I think, we are in Arizona, so mom duck found the community pool and some grass so here they are.
We have a baby pool for them each day, feed them 4 times/day mostly duck food/grain and greens.
A lake is nearby, but without mom I cannot take them there yet.
What should I expect for their growth and development for the next 2 weeks (they are almost 2 weeks old now.
And one is very small and kind of weak, not eating as much as she should. Help!!
We have called and talked to all kinds of supposed recue and rehab groups and no one will take them.
I read a lot of your commentary above, but I am still struggling with what to do with them and when.
Thanks for your concern regarding the wild Mallard ducklings you found. They’ll grow incredibly fast, as we detail in the article. They’ll be close to full size by 6 weeks old. They should be able to fly pretty well by 8 weeks. As for the small, weak duckling: sometimes there’s just going to be an animal that fails to thrive. In the wild, those animals typically don’t make it very long. (About 60% of wild Mallard ducklings die within 30 days of hatching, mostly due to predation.) Since you’re providing a safe place and good food, it might make it through and grow to normal size.
Hopefully, you’re able to provide waterfowl-specific duckling feed. Supplemental niacin is especially important for normal duckling development, as we detail in the article – niacin is going to be especially critical if you don’t have a feed formulated for ducklings since chick feed doesn’t contain niacin at levels that ducklings need.
Another tricky situation you’ve got to deal with is that you want the ducklings to eventually be wild ducks not domestics, but you have to care for them in the meantime. Momma duck would take them to the pond and show them what to do and eat, helping to develop their survival instincts in preparation for independence. If your ducklings are strongly imprinted on you and will stay close, you could potentially introduce them to the pond as well, but gathering them back up and transporting them to and from the pond might be quite a challenge – especially as they get to the 4-6 week range. Currently, if they’re not outside much, they’ll also need some supplemental grit/tiny rocks so they can digest their food properly.
The bad news is that your ducklings are going to require a lot of care and you’ll have to make a lot of judgment calls about when and how to introduce them to the wild. The good news is that wild Mallard ducklings typically separate from their mothers and go fully independent around weeks 7-8, so there is light at the end of a relatively short tunnel for you.
Hopefully, this response addresses your primary questions and concerns. If we can be of help moving forward, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Best of luck!
If I am asking a question that has already been answered above or any other blog post, I do apologize. I am wondering at what point did you begin feeding your ducklings the variety of mixed veggies? Did you start right off the bat, or at a particular week post hathching?
You can start feeding your ducklings veggies from Day 1, which is what we did. Obviously, the veggies will need to be cut into small pieces. Also, ducklings and ducks can be surprisingly picky. Favorite veggies for our ducklings is always mild-flavored leafy greens like lettuce, kale, chickweed, etc (they don’t like spicy greens like arugula or mustard). They also LOVE diced tomatoes.
Hi, for those people who can’t find brewers yeast, a good place to buy it is Josh’s frogs.com . They have large bags which are more economical. I have bought from them for a couple years. Since my ducks and chickens eat together I just add it to everyone’s food. I just sprinkle a little on top.
I sure wish I’d found your site before my ducklings were grown. Quite an experience. Now I just go to your site for any duck questions. This year we’ve had a lot of snow. When I’ve been able to let them out, they don’t quite know what to do. They finally figured out that they could walk on top of it. They have built in snowshoes. Poor chickens fall in. I hope my Buttercup can raise babies this year. Will definitely protect her nest from the chickens. Don’t think I want to raise ducklings myself. Lots of work. When you say messy, that’s an understatement. I used to change their bedding and clean their box 2-3 times a day. Everything would be soaked with water, food and poo. Was so glad when they could go outside to the pen. Now they’re way easier than the chickens.
Ha, thanks Debbie! Yes, flippers do double as effective snow shoes. Our ducks aren’t huge fans of the snow either – although they do love it when it turns to the mucky, slushy stage. Fingers crossed for you, Buttercup the duck, and her potential ducklings.
I have 3 ancona ducklings that are about 4-5 weeks old. They are doing great and I have really enjoyed the information that you post. My question is more about their housing. I live in town so I don’t have a lot of property but do have a large, fenced in back yard. In addition to that, I have a 13’x10′ enclosed area inside with a small house for them to be confined in when the are not free in my main backyard area. I am trying to decide what to use inside their enclosed house are and run. I doubt the grass their will last long and didn’t know if I should but something like pine shaving or straw over the whole area and use the deep litter method throughout the entire run or if perhaps a gravel base would be better. The other tricky issue is that if we have several days of heavy rain my whole back yard gets a little swampy. It doesn’t last long but I feel like that could be an issue to consider. Any suggestions you have would be great.
Hi Susan! Nope, that grass won’t last long in a duck run so there’s no point in trying to keep it alive. There are a few different options you could use to cover the area, two of which you’ve already mentioned: pine shavings or straw. Either would work fine, as would aspen shavings or hemp (although those are more expensive). We prefer pine shavings to straw since pine shavings aren’t likely to have pesticide residues in them. Pine shavings don’t break down as quickly as straw, which is either a benefit or a detriment depending on how you look at it.
A gravel base under your duck run could be problematic from the standpoint of foot pad damage/bumblefoot. Also, since rocks aren’t absorbent, that setup wouldn’t lessen your moisture problem and would also allow the duck excreta (fancy word for poop) to wash right through and cause more pollution vs being locked up and composted in carbon-heavy media like straw or wood shavings. If you do use a deep litter method, the area will also soon be above ground level since you’ll continuously add more material on top every day. That will help prevent your ducks from living in a mud pit, although they can certainly handle moist conditions better than chickens since they’re waterfowl.
Hope this info answers your questions and helps you design a good setup for your ducks in your space. Feel free to ask more questions as you get going!
My daughter and I have been raising 6 Ancona ducklings who are now almost 3 weeks old. We are new to this and your articles have been invaluable to us! Currently, the ducklings seem to be thriving, but I am still a bit unsure regarding the protein in their feed as they reach 3 weeks. Our plan was to mix in 20% oats with their organic starter crumble until about 8 weeks when they are ready for Mazuri Maintenance Feed. The issue is considering oats seem to have about 11% protein, it would have to be mixed with any starter crumble at an almost 1:1 ratio to achieve the target of 15-16% protein. Is your suggestion to just add the 20% oats even if this will only very slightly bring down the protein? It seems so hard to find a consensus out there on this and we are struggling with what to do.
Thank You!
Hi Reid! Sorry for any confusion. The reason there isn’t 100% consensus on this question is there isn’t a single 100% right protein % target for young ducklings in the 2-8 week stage. It’s going to depend on what you’re trying to do… For instance, if you’re raising ducks for meat production, higher protein levels are fine because you’re trying to maximize growth rates. However, for pet ducks or backyard ducks where the goal is often the healthiest birds possible, it is definitely a good idea to lower the protein ratios by supplementing in organic oats, thereby moderating duckling growth rates and decreasing the risk of physical deformities and other health complications as they develop.
Not to muddy the waters too much, but not all protein is created equally as far as bioavailability is concerned. Animal protein (such as fish meal which is often used in waterfowl feed) is much more bioavailable than plant-based proteins (such as protein found in oats).
In our experience, ramping up to a 20% whole organic oat ratio (which you can pulverize in a blender before adding to crumble) in your chick starter crumble will lower the bioavailable protein content of their overall food enough to slow growth rates and prevent health problems. You could also go higher if you want. As per Dave Holderread in Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducks [Page 251] if you have a starter feed with over 16% protein:
“Begin by adding 5 percent oats by volume (either meal, rolled, whole, or pelleted) the first week and an additional 5 percent each week until the birds are receiving three parts starter/grower and one part oats.”
Last two points we want to make sure are crystal clear:
1) If using chick feed, be sure to add supplemental niacin in to either the ducklings’ food or water, as recommended in the article. Either 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast or 100mg B-Complex per cup of crumble or per gallon of water.
2) Ducklings and ducks don’t do well with powder dry crumble, so add some water when mixing the food prior to serving it. You want it to have moisture levels high enough that you can just form the crumble into a ball that sticks together in your hands when squeezed.
Hope this info helps and thanks for taking such great care of your ducklings! Reach out any time we can be of help.
Hi, I’ve recently got my first ducklings to raise- I already have adult runner ducks and have raised lots of chicks. I’m just wondering what age is appropriate for them to start eating treats as they are only a few days old and I have tried them with some mashed up peas and they loved them and I know they’re healthy for them due to the niacin content but then read somewhere that they have to be 4 weeks for treats? Can they eat all different fruit and veg from this young age as long as it’s mashed to cut into appropriate pieces? Thank you, you’re page has been very informative for me 🙂
As long as:
1) the treats are just treats and not a significant percentage of their overall diet, and
2) the treats are bite-sized pieces of fruits, veggies, insects, worms, etc and not processed duck “junk food”,
then you can start giving them treats from Day 1.
If your ducks are like ours, they’ll be quite particular even from a young age about what treats they do and don’t like. Here’s a list of our flock’s favorites (that seems to line up with most other duck parents’ experiences as well): https://www.tyrantfarms.com/top-10-garden-plants-for-chickens-ducks/
Hope this helps!
I really want to get some Saxony chicks, but I have some questions.
1. Can I use old towels and shirts as bedding for the coop? That would be a lot easier for me to just wash then put back.
2. Can I leave my ducks at home while I am at work? If so how old do they have to be to be left alone? I plan on getting a large cage type thing as well as a coop so they would have plenty of space to run around whilst I am gone.
Hi Chloe!
1. Yes, you *could* use old towels and shirts as bedding. However, you’ll probably regret that decision pretty quickly because your ducklings will make them quite disgusting in a hurry. You’ll be washing the cloth materials constantly and it might not be a great idea to wash your own clothes, towels, etc in the same washing machine where you’re also washing used duck bedding. Fine wood shavings (or something similar) help mask the smell and allow you to top up/cover duckling poo spots more easily. You also don’t have to change out the shavings daily – you can get by for a few days with top-ups.
2. Yes, you can leave your ducklings at home so long as there’s no way for them to kill themselves or be killed by something else in your absence. That means no large open bowls of water where they could potentially drown, a spot for them to stay warm or cool off as-needed, no way for any pet cats or dogs to get to them, etc.
Hope this helps and please let us know if you have any additional questions about how to raise ducklings that we haven’t covered in this article!
Hi so I’ve got a 5 week old duckling whom we let out too early with the other free roaming chickens and ducks and he was attacked by a cockral .
He’s pecked his head and his eyes the poor thing, so I’ve used saline on his eyes and coconut oil on his wounds after antiseptic. Now because he can’t see well I’ve been hand feeding him , he was on chick crumb and I didn’t know about the nutritional yeast so I will add that and also some oats and make it into a porridge and hold it to his beak . Do you have any other advice ?
I’ve just started working on this small farm and the guy who owns the ducks is well not a great duck dad so I’ve taken this one under my wing bless him .
very educational and inspiring for me as I have an interest to get into duck farming.
Thanks Miglshi! Glad our article on raising ducklings was helpful for you.
Hi, I was wondering if you knew why it says on the back of the chick grit packages to only give it to ducklings if they are at least 2 weeks old. I read on your page and in the book you recommended, Storey’s Guide to raising ducks that it is okay to give it to ducklings when they are just a couple days old….
Right now I am feeding my ducklings chick grit (Dumour chick grit w/probiotics) and I just want to make double sure that it’s okay. I am feeding my ducklings little bits of parsley, lettuce, and some rolled oats in addition to their starter/crumble.
Just to clarify, the reason I am starting rolled oats this early, is because Dave Holderread from Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducklings said he sprinkles a little bit on the top of their food starting on day 3. (I think the reason is to gradually get the ducklings used to rolled oats in their food so that by the time they are 3 weeks old, they won’t reject their food when it has 20% rolled oats mixed in.)
Hi Melissa! A lot of times, people just feed their ducklings the crumble feed with no extra treats. Nothing wrong with that. However, crumble feed is made to be very easily digestible by ducklings’ digestive systems so they don’t technically need grit (which helps them grind chunkier/harder food in their gizzards/ventriculus) to digest crumble. We like to give our ducklings treats and let them start foraging outside immediately so we allow them access to grit (we do NOT mix it with their food) so they can get grit as-needed to aid in digestion. When we let them out to forage, it’s usually in grassy areas or mulched garden beds where they can’t easily access grit from the soil. Since you’re providing treats and oats, it also makes sense to provide a small separate bowl of grit for your ducklings. Again, do not mix it in to their food since they’d eat more grit than they need.
Here’s an article that goes deeper in-depth about how a duck’s digestive system works if you’re interested:
https://www.tyrantfarms.com/duck-teeth-digestive-system/.
My guess would be because ducklings need more niacin in the begining and about 4 percent more protienn then chicks.
Thank you for a very informative article. Before I ask my question let me describe my situation. We got our annual chicks last Friday Apr 9. Saturday my dad had ducklings that he didn’t want to mess with so we brought them home Monday and keep them with the chicks. Right now they have heat water and chick starter. I now know to add niacin so my question is can I use flush free niacin? Each capsule is 400 mg so what do you suggest I do about the dosage? I realize in 3 weeks we’re going to have to set the ducks up in a different brooder. Also, you’re right they are MESSY little buggers! Thanks for reading.
Hi Jennifer! First, good luck with your ducklings and chicks! Yours is a fairly common question which we directly address in the article, so I’ll just copy and paste below for clarity. No, you don’t want to use flush-free B vitamins.
“To supplement, we typically add 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast per cup of crumble or 100mg B-Complex. (You can also add the same amount per gallon of drinking water instead of to their food.)
You can order either form of Niacin via Amazon: nutritional yeast or as B-Complex vitamin capsules. (Make sure you don’t get timed-release or flush-free B-vitamins — neither of those are Niacin!)”
You may also be able to find nutritional yeast at your local grocery store since it’s a commonly used cheese-alternative for humans.
Have you tried Mazuri Waterfowl Starter feed? Is Mazuri a good brand for ducklings? I’m going to be getting ducklings in May and want to make sure that I have the right type of feed. The protein is 20%. I plan on supplementing the feed with oats at week 3. Will the ducks eat the oats if it’s not mixed in with a crumble type of feed? The Mazuri waterfowl starter feed is a pellet type of feed. I’m worried the ducklings will pick out the pellets and leave the oats. Any advice? I tried to order the McGeary Organics Feed you recommended but they were going to charge over $100 for shipping and that is just too much money in my opinion.
Hi Melissa! Yikes, that is expensive shipping. If you have a Feed & Seed type store near you, they may be able to order McGeary Organics Duckling Feed and help you avoid those shipping costs. Answers to your questions:
1) Yes, Mazuri makes an excellent waterfowl feed, whether that’s starter, layer, or maintainer. However, they’re more for large-scale operations/farms, not necessarily the small backyard/pet duck parent. The difference between those two paradigms is significant. Commercial operations aim for fast growth rates and high egg production (if a duck gets sick/injured/old, it gets culled). Our primary focus is optimal health and longevity for our ducks, which means we’re aiming for more natural growth rates during ducklinghood and lower egg production at maturity (if one of our ducks gets sick/injured we incur vet bills).
2) With the above information in mind, if you get Mazuri Waterfowl Starter feed for your ducklings, you will want to lower that protein down at Week 3 using oats. Nope, your ducklings probably won’t eat it in the proper ratio if it’s in a separate container or mixed in with the kibble. What you can do instead is blend the pellets and the oats together. When you serve it, you’ll then probably want to add water so it’s more of an oatmeal type consistency otherwise the powdery consistency can cause some choking and coughing.
3) Ok, now with point #1 and #2 in mind, here’s something else that *could* go wrong: If you switch food types (from kibble to crumble or vice versa), your ducklings — or some of your ducklings — might reject their food. So, if you plan to go this route, you’ll probably want to blend and serve it at oatmeal consistency from Day 1 (without the oats for first two weeks).
Hope this helps and best of luck with your flock!
Hello,
I love all of your articles! We currently have two 12-week old runner female ducks that we are raising as pets with our 1 year old runner drake. We have fed them per your recommended guidelines, adding the nutritional yeast and cutting the protein % with organic oatmeal mixed in their crumble. I know at this point you recommend protein to be at or around 13 – 14 %. As we are raising our hens for pets and do not really care if they are big egg producers, and also as they are living with our drake, would you recommend maintenance food vs. laying food? I do not want to do harm to our hens by potentially not giving them what they may need.
Also, at what age would you recommend that we switch the girls to adult food and stop adding the oatmeal and nutritional yeast? When this happens, what food would you recommend? I have heard great things about Mazuri Waterfowl Maintenance.
Thank you so much for all of your wisdom! Moe, Binnie, and Woo thank you as well!
Best,
Jen
Hi Jen! Thanks for the kind words and glad to hear you’re finding our duck articles helpful.
1. Just in case you haven’t read it, we have a detailed article about what dietary regimen our avian vet recommends for optimizing the long-term health of adult female ducks here: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/what-to-feed-pet-or-backyard-ducks-to-maximize-their-health-and-longevity/. The short of it: she recommends Mazuri waterfowl maintenance (14% protein feed) + always making calcium supplement/oyster shell available. There is a caveat: if you notice egg shells that aren’t as hard as they should be, bumpy shells, or other indications that they’re not getting as much calcium/protein as they may need while they’re laying, you should bump up the nutrition by adding Mazuri waterfowl layer up to 50/50% combined with maintenance feed. We ended up at 50/50 maintenance:layer in the middle of the summer this year because we couldn’t find the oyster shell supplement our girls love and they were refusing to eat alternatives. All but one of our girls has now stopped laying for the season and are molting into their eclipse plumage (or already have). This is exactly what we want to happen: fewer eggs but healthier ducks. We haven’t had a sick duck in our flock (other than a leg injury/infection) since we started this feeding regimen. This is not to pass judgment on people who prefer to raise ducks purely for egg production or meat; this is just our approach since our ducks are more pets than production animals.
2. Since you’re planning to raise your drake and hens together, he may end up getting higher calcium and protein than he needs if you start adding in layer feed. That’s a tricky one. As long as he’s not getting higher protein/calcium feed for the majority of the year, he should be fine though. Frankly, if he’s like drakes we’ve had over the years, we’ll be surprised if you don’t end up putting him in a separate pen and coop at some point until he calms down after mating season. Drakes can be real pains in the butt!
3. You can switch your flock to Mazuri waterfowl maintenance (pellets) at weeks ~8-9. Since ducks can be finicky and partial to a certain type of food, you don’t want to make this a cold-turkey transition. Instead, you could start putting out both types of food (pellets and mixed crumble/oats) around week 8 and/or do a mix of pellets/crumble in the same bowl(s). Then over 10-14 days you’d gradually switch to 100% pellets once your ducks get used to them.
Hope this helps and let us know if you have any additional questions! Best of luck to you, Moe, Binnie, and Woo!
You’re welcome! Hope it’s helpful for you and your ducklings/ducks.
Hello, I am so glad we stumbled across your website! We are transitioning to ducks from chickens after a horrible experience with Mareks disease and have six ducklings (Pekins and Swedish) who are about 10 days old. Like you we are organic gardeners and aspiring homesteaders who want happy, healthy birds (one of our surviving chickens is 9 this year!) I really appreciate this and your other post about duck feed as the man at the feed store who raises ducks for meat and show had my husband convinced they should stay on 19% protein feed forever.
Two questions – I was confused about whether to cut protein at the start or end of their third week – is it when they are about 21 days? And do you grind up your oats at all, since our ducklings are otherwise on crumbles, or are they able to handle a whole oat if they have grit?
Thanks again!
Hi Mina! Wow, nine years is a long life for a chicken! Our two oldest ducks turn eight this year. Maybe we could start a poultry retirement home together. 😛
As for your two questions:
1. Cutting protein for ducklings: we recommend doing this between the end of the second week and start of the third week, so some time around days 20-22.
2. Our ducklings gobbled down whole oats perfectly fine, but it can’t hurt to grind the oats first. Recommendation here: try whole oats first and if you notice your ducklings NOT eating them, then start grinding them. Ideally, you can save a little time and not have to grind them first though.
Best of luck on raising a happy, healthy duck flock! Reach out any time we can be of help.
Mina – Ugh, sorry. Realized I put wrong info in that previous reply. End of second week = around 14 days. Sorry about that. Tired brain does not math.
No worries, I remember the exhaustion of having an infant! In the meantime, we were devastated to come home and find our Pekin Susan (we didn’t intentionally name her after Mrs Tyrant Farms, she just looked like a Susan!) unable to stand. The Tufts ED vet thinks she has Perosis from too much weight gain, so she also recommended cutting the protein. Susan Duck is standing a little better today with her hobbles on, thankfully, but do you add any vitamins besides nutritional yeast/ niacin when you cut the protein with oats?
So sorry, Mina! No, we didn’t add any vitamins or minerals other than nutritional yeast. We did provide access to fresh, greens and small pieces of tomatoes a few times per day, which they love. Both of those are obviously more carbohydrate-heavy than protein-heavy, but don’t really move the scale when it comes to macro-nutrient density. Best of luck on Susan’s speedy recovery.
Hey there Tyrant farms!!
Love this website…so helpful! I am looking into breeding my ducks and am wondering what to feed them. I am going to let the mother incubate and raise them and do not know if she can eat the waterfowl starter feed with them when they are living together. Any help is appreciated!
Great question, Beanie! We’ve had this exact scenario play out. Our thoughts/experience: when ducks go broody and start sitting on their eggs, they take in very few calories and will lose a good bit of weight. Once those eggs hatch, they can use the extra calories/nutrition provided by starter feed. When we let one of our girls raise her own, she had access to the same starter feed crumble her ducklings got, and it helped her bounce back from being broody. Short answer: yes, a formerly broody momma duck is fine eating starter feed during the time window her ducklings need it. Do be sure to follow our duckling feed instructions since protein ratios do change over time. Best of luck!
Hi Susan and Aaron! Thank you so much for the wonderful website. The information provided has been extremely helpful when raising our new Khaki Campbell ducklings. Based on your recommendation, we have been feeding our girls McGeary’s Organic Starter Feed and are very happy with it. They are approximately 6 weeks old and we have been mixing their feed with rolled oats since week 3. My question is, do you keep them on this feed until they are egg laying? Also, do you add more oatmeal at 9 weeks to further reduce the protein? Or, is there a grower feed that you recommend? Thanks again for your advice. We are new ducks parents and want to give our girls the best start possible.
Hi Lauren. Thank you so much for the wonderful website. The information provided has been extremely helpful when raising our new Khaki Campbell ducklings. Based on your recommendation, we have been feeding our girls McGeary’s Organic Starter Feed and are very happy with it. They are approximately 6 weeks old and we have been mixing their feed with rolled oats since week 3. My question is, do you keep them on this feed until they are egg laying? Also, do you add more oatmeal at 9 weeks to further reduce the protein? Or, is there a grower feed that you recommend? Thanks again for your advice. We are new ducks parents and want to give our girls the best start possible.
Hello Tyrant Farms! We decided to add ducks to our farm, and while they are a whole new level of messy, they are so adorable and hilarious! With that, we eventually want to integrate them with our chickens for free ranging. Are ducks as reliable to free range and return as chickens are? Our chickens stay up around the front 5 acres, but my fear is the ducks will get curious and venture off into the back 80 acres where there is a spring fed creek. Complete with many coyotes and bobcats. Thank you for any insight you can give!
Hi there Tyrant Farms. I am so glad I found you. My Giant Pekin ducklings should arrive in 3 more days. I chose them because they look like cartoons, have a perpetual smile and are listed as excellent pets. I have been prepared for over a year but have learned I am missing a few important things thanks to your wonderful articles. I have 5 Blue Cochin hens 2 years old and would like all to be friends. It will take the whole summer to integrate them and I will follow your protocol. Again, I am so grateful to have found the both of you!!!
Hi Barbara! Thanks so much for your kind note. It means a lot to us. Sounds like you’ll have a beautiful, fun flock to share life with. We’re strongly considering getting Pekins in our next round of ducklings as well – they are one of the most sociable duck breeds and do make excellent pets. You may not have to go the WHOLE summer to integrate your flocks, but you’ll know when everyone is ready as you’re taking the steps we outline. Best wishes!
Hello. I am feeding my 3 week old Cayuga ducklings a feed with 22% protein diluted with oats and brewers yeast. As I recalibrated their feed proportions, I realized that old fashioned oats are 20% protein themselves and the brewers yeast also has a high protein content. I have not been able to find another feed with a protein content lower than 18% and am worried that my ducklings will suffer deformities if I don’t correct this quickly. Any advice on a different brand of feed or another way to dilute the protein content in their feed? I bring them greens daily but I don’t know if it’s enough to dilute it. Thanks!
Hi Lauren! Thanks for your concern. Even though oats do contain some protein, they’re primarily carbohydrate and will still dilute down your overall protein ratios enough to bring it within the ideal range for 3-8 week old ducklings. A simple way to keep your duckling feed within ideal macronutrient ranges is to scoop 1 part whole old fashioned oats: 4 parts duckling feed, mix together then serve to ducklings. You’d have to add a LOT of nutritional yeast to throw off their protein ratios, especially given that you’re providing greens, which are mostly carbohydrate as well. Bottom line: sounds like you’re doing a great job. Just make sure to keep the oat-to-feed ratio in line and your ducklings will thrive.
Hope this helps, but please let us know if you have other questions.
*Make sure you’re using nutritional yeast, not brewer’s yeast. They’re similar but not the same. Or you can always use the specific B vitamin capsules we recommend in the article in their water.
Hello- I have been following your articles for a couple years – very informative – thank you! On your recommendation I have purchased WH ducklings and am following your recommendations as close as possible. My question- do I need to supplement their diet with niacin if they are getting duckling starter (McGeary Organics)?
P.S. I live in Greenville also – close to Furman.
Hi Connie! Great question. Because niacin is such a critical nutrient and there’s no harm from them getting a bit more than they need, we always supplement when we raise ducklings even if we have a feed formulated specifically for ducklings. We also used McGeary Organics, by the way. Funny you live so close to us AND have Welsh Harlequin ducks! Please reach out any time we can be of help.
I thought I read somewhere in one of the comments that you are now buying your feed at Tractor Supply in TR. if so, what brand is it? I didn’t see Mazuri waterfowl feed in the store.
Thank you for all your informative articles!
Connie: just ask Buddy or whoever is at the register. They have Mazuri waterfowl feed (both maintenance and layer) out with the other feed in the outdoor warehouse.
So sorry, Connie! Just realized I told you the wrong thing. I meant TR Feed & Seed, across from Tandem Crepery, NOT Tractor Supply. Tractor Supply does not carry Mazuri waterfowl feed.
Hoshigaki persimmons are a traditional East Asian delicacy made by slowly drying and massaging persimmons over many weeks. In this hoshigaki guide, you’ll find out how to make your own!
We grow loads of Asian persimmons each year — far more than we can possibly eat before they go bad. That abundance means we need preservation methods that allow us to enjoy our persimmons throughout the year.
The Tyrant harvesting Ichi Ki Kei Jiro persimmons, a non-astringent Asian variety, on a cool late fall day. Many of these fruits were made into hoshigaki.
When we have firm but ripe Asian persimmons, our favorite preservation method is to make hoshigaki, a traditional Asian delicacy made by slow-drying and massaging the fruit over many weeks. Whether you have home-grown or store bought Asian persimmons, you’ll find out everything you need to know to make your own hoshigaki in this helpful guide!
In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to successfully hatch duck eggs, from A to Z!
1. Our duck egg hatching story
2. Duck egg incubation methods and overview
3. Method 1: Momma duck hatches + 6 tips for success
4. Method 2: Hatching duck eggs in incubator + 6 tips for success
5. Printable duck egg incubation checklist
Hi Aaron, well ducklings are about 7 weeks old. I’ve put them in the big pen closed of from Buttercup and Cocoa in the day. They start screaming if they don’t see me for awhile. They’re getting better. I was working in the back, so I put them in their dog enclosure. I left the door open and finally they were brave enough to go it. In a foursome. They went back to the pen after about 10 minutes. Then Cocoa came over and started biting the mallard hen on the neck. I stopped that fast. I think he thinks she’s one of the wild ducks that visited the pond this spring. Until that day, he and Buttercup had never been in the pond. When he saw them, he got right in the pond swam back and forth,chased them off. This happened for about a week and the wild ducks finally left. So now I think he thinks one of them has returned. Today I had them in their dog pen and he went round and round the pen.
It’s really time for the babies to be out. I don’t want Buttercup and Cocoa to feel like their territory is being infringed on. I can fence off part of the pen. One way they didn’t have their trough to swim in at night or the other way, they don’t have their duck house . I don’t trust Cocoa to behave. Will he eventually come around? Not quite sure what to do. It’s just been the 2 ducks for a couple years with all the chickens. Any suggestions? Thanks, Debbie
What we’ve found over the years from our own experiences and from the experiences of other duck families we know is that each duck flock integration process can be a bit different depending on these six factors:
1) individual temperament variance (every duck is different);
2) sex of ducks (drakes are often particularly problematic compared to hens in mixed-sexed flock integrations);
3) age of ducks (young ducks tend to be a bit feistier than older ducks);
4) time of year (sunlight regulates hormone levels and high-sunlight months make for more difficult integrations since hormones are raging);
5) size of ducks (larger ducks can more easily bully or scare smaller ducks);
6) space allowance / amount of room in the setup (the more space, the better).
So we can offer generalized guidance and recommendations, but each situation (like yours) is going to be somewhat unique. It sounds like you’re doing exactly what we’d have done in your shoes. Some fighting and squabbling is normal and should be allowed until the social dynamics are established – unless the fighting is persistent or harsh enough to potentially cause injury.
Continuing on with ever more extended periods of supervised integration sounds like the way to go. Just bump up the time each day over the next week until full integration is achieved so you have some relief in sight. Caveat: If I’m understanding your statement, “or the other way, they don’t have their duck house” it sounds like one set of ducks wouldn’t have a predator-proof coop at night if you keep them separated, so that’s a definite “no.” It would be terrible to lose your ducks to a predator, especially after all you’ve been through.
Something else you might want to try as you move forward is separating your drake out temporarily while you’re out with the aim of allowing your new ducks and your existing female duck to form a relationship. It sounds like that’s unlikely to happen with your drake being present – at least until sunlight and hormone levels decrease.
Best of luck to you all! Duck flock integrations can be a real pain. We’re going through similar aggravations right now between our existing flock and the 6 new rescues we recently got.
Hi Aaron, me again. The ducklings are now a little over 3 months old. Cocoa got in their pen the other day because the door didn’t close behind me. He was chasing all of the ducklings and kind of biting on their heads. I finally got him out. No one was injured. Is this normal? It looked like he was was trying to maybe mate them, but I didn’t know. I don’t think it’s good that he does that. They are separated from the adults all the time. I don’t think Buttercup cares about them. She just ignores them. Do you have any suggestions? Cocoa and Buttercup have always been together so it seems mean to separate them. Hope your integration is going well. Thanks
Yep, that’s normal. Cocoa the duck was trying to grab the back of the females’ heads in order to jump on their backs and mate. Ideally, duck mating happens in water instead of on land so as to prevent potential leg injuries.
The good news for you is that we’re heading into fall, which means lower sunlight levels, which then translates into a decline in hormone levels that make ducks (especially drakes) go a little crazy. You mentioned not wanting to separate Cocoa and Buttercup, but you *could* put Cocoa in his own pen/run and let Buttercup integrate with the new ducklings. They’d probably be fine together in no time. Then, once Cocoa molts and/or his hormones dip, you could integrate him back in with the flock. You’ll still likely need to separate him from the flock again in late winter/early spring as his hormones start surging again. One of our drakes (our older Welsh Harlequin) just molted and has had a very welcome attitude adjustment, so he’s out with our girls all day right now. Our young Runner drake is still behaving terribly (by our standards) so he’s still separated from the flock during the day and night.
Thank you. I’ll try to separate the pair. If not, fall is rapidly approaching. So I’ll try then. I thought that’s what he was trying to do. I guess I have all females because he was doing that to all. My neighbor commented the other day about the loud quacking. They are very vocal compared to the adults. They love seeing their human mom.
Hi Aaron thanks for your suggestions. I guess I’m ready for them to be out, but I guess it’s not quite time. My nighttime pen is all enclosed and roofed. My adult ducks rarely stay in their house. It’s very large. The original part with the coop of the ground is about 12×30. An old Costco redwood swing set converted. Then I decided I needed more room, so added another 12x25ft plus a 6×10 covered dog run. Everything has a metal or wire roof. I can close the door between the duck and chicken area. There is a small duck house in there but lots of mice. I’ve been putting the ducklings in the main duck pen and closing the door during the day. So they’re safe from everyone. That’s the one I was taking about fencing off. I’ll try your suggestions. Thanks, Debbie
I have a question. I have a duck that has been sitting on her nest and ìt getting close to time for the the eggs to hatch. what I am worried about it that she shares a coop with 2 other ducks and couple of chickens. dobi need to remove the chickens for a couple of days and find a way to separate the ducks?
Adrianne – It’s entirely possible all your adult poultry will accept the new hatchlings and things will go perfectly well. However, if it was us, we wouldn’t risk it. The peck of an irritated chicken could easily severely injure or perhaps kill a small duckling. And even though ducks have bills, an adult could also severely injure your ducklings. Sorry if this creates a lot of extra work for you, but if it keeps your ducklings from getting killed or injured, then that work will be worth it.
I separated my chickens and my drake but my other female couldn’t not taken from other female and then this morning when I checked on the ducks both ducks were sitting on the nest. I let them run around for a bit while I checked the eggs and then the 2nd duck came and sat on the nest and not the 1 that has been sitting all this time. Do I have a problem or is the other duck just being friendĺy?
Ha! This means you have two ducks going broody, not just one. They’ll both probably try to share the nest or create adjoining nests – and if they create adjoining nests they might try to steal eggs from the other’s nest from time to time. We’ve had this happen before. Maybe just let them both figure out things together and co-parent the ducklings. As we mention in the article though: do be mindful that mother ducks can sometimes freak out as their eggs start to hatch and attack them. So keep a close eye out and be prepared to remove and hatch the eggs yourself.
So another question for you. My Rouen has been sitting on the eggs for 28 days and still nothing has hatched how long do I let them sit. My kaki Campbell only joined her in sitting on the nest like a week ago. I have candled the 9 eggs and 7 show development and 2 show all most no signs.
If you candled the eggs and see clear signs of development, let momma ducks continue sitting. 28 days until hatching is typical, but there can be variability. If you don’t start seeing signs of hatching (tweet sounds coming from inside the eggs, pipping and zipping) within another week, then something most likely has gone wrong. But hang tight for now.
Hi Aaron, So there is still no change with my eggs. They still look good and have no bad smells. Do I wait a little longer or take the eggs from her? What is the best way to break her from being broody?
35 days is the longest we’ve heard it taking for Mallard-derived domestic duck eggs to hatch. Muscovy duck eggs can take 35-38 days, but they’re a different species. Are you certain you’ve crossed the 35 day threshold from the first day momma duck actually started brooding/sitting on the nest? Since candling revealed embryonic development, it would be very strange for there to be a 100% hatch failure rate; maybe 10-20%, but not 100%.
Perhaps try candling the eggs one more time and also listen to them to see if you hear any faint chirps coming from inside. If candling reveals that the eggs appear to have development, I’m very hesitant to tell you to get rid of them. We want to avoid the possibility that you’re throwing out ducklings that are close to hatching. In fact, if/when you do reach the point where you’re ready to throw in the towel, you might want to start by cracking open only one egg that you think has had development take place to see what’s going on inside. That way, in case they’re developing (albeit oddly slowly) you’d only be killing one duckling instead of the whole brood.
Sorry you’re going through so much aggravation and please check back in!
Hi Aaron, one more question. I brought baby inside and she/ he was doing ok, but not good. I got 3 day old ducklings ar tractor supply. I know bad, but I couldn’t get any mail order until this week and was afraid baby wouldn’t make it. I put them all in a plastic box with wire lid. Heat lamp, food, e.t.c. The new ducklings started eating right away. So then Baby got the idea that she should do the same. So now I have a huge plastic box with bigger waterer and more room. I have brought them outside twice in a wire enclosure just to let mama see them. No way. I have removed all but 1 egg from the nest. That is going tonite. I’m going to clean the duck house tomorrow and put new bedding. I can borrow a large dog crate from a neighbor to put the ducklings in. My question is how do i know if she accepts them? Is there a behavior? i know she doesn’t want them now. If no go, i will bring in the house again. Really want mama to raise them. Are there certain signs? If it’s a no go, and I bring them when they’re fully feathered, how do I introduce Buttercup and Cocoa to them? Thanks, Debbie
When our mother duck wasn’t accepting the ducklings, she would immediately become agitated in their presence and start trying to peck at them. However, once her brain flipped over to motherhood mode, she showed no aggression. If you’re right there with her and the ducklings, you can supervise to make sure she doesn’t harm them. Being in the presence of ducklings while she’s broody should eventually get whatever switches in her brain are currently turned off, turned to the on position. Then you can let her take over.
Integrating new ducks to an existing flock can be a little tricky. It seems like everyone we’ve talked to who’s done it has slightly different experiences depending on the breeds, ages, and individual temperaments of the ducks involved. We’re actually integrating 6 new rescue ducks into our flock right now that we’ve had for about a week. General rules for duck flock integration:
1) Start off by keeping them physically separated by fencing or caging that allows them to see and interact with each other without actually being able to touch each other. Observe how they interact to see if there are signs of aggressive behavior.
2) Once it seems like they’v acclimated to each other (time may vary), let them fully interact under human supervision. If things remain calm, you’re pretty much good to go. If not, you may need to keep them separated a bit longer.
For instance, our new duck coop (https://www.tyrantfarms.com/duck-coop-tour-design-ideas/) has separate internal partitions so we can keep different groups of ducks separated inside the same coop. Our new rescue ducks (5 females/1 male and 5 different breeds) are in one section, the original girls (4 Welsh Harlequins) in another, and our original drake (Welshie) is in another section. After the first day and night we could tell they weren’t going to fight with each other. So since then, during the day, everyone except for our original drake is sharing the same back yard. The two flocks don’t fight, but they don’t intermingle much either. They basically keep to their own sections of the yard. Our guess is that the social dynamics between the groups is likely to shift over the seasons and years ahead. Once sunlight levels drop in the fall and everyone is more hormonally calm, we think they’ll do a lot more intermingling and allegiance-shifting. For now, they’re still in their own sections in the coop, but we’re probably going to open that up at night sometime in the next couple weeks.
Keep us posted and best of luck to you! You’ve got a lot on your hands, and we appreciate all the care and thought you’re putting into taking care of your ducks.
Hi Aaron, the saga continues. When I took the last egg out of Buttercup’s nest, she was very mad. She was scolding me in duck language when she discovered no egg. The next day, she was off her nest and out in the enclosure. Then she and Cocoa started free ranging in the yard. When I brought the ducklings outside in a little pen, she was not having it. No mother there. So I’m the mama. All the enclosed rooms are upstairs. So they are in a big plastic box right now. I’m getting a kiddie pool. I take them outside once a day for a swim in the duck trough. They love it. Then I put them in a portable dog fence , where I can watch them. Cocoa seems to be adjusting to them a little. Buttercup just sits and eyes them, with an occasional quack. I still clean their coop twice a day. So messy. I’ll follow your instructions for integrating , once they are old enough. For now just letting everyone get adjusted to each other. Thanks again.
There’s never a dull day with ducks around! Thanks for sharing your adventures and misadventures. Thanks also for taking good care of your ducklings. Luckily, they grow up quickly, so you won’t have to be a duck momma for too long.
Hi Aaron, thank you for your advice. I will try your suggestions. I really appreciate all your help.
Thanks again,
Debbie
Hi Aaron, don’t know if my last comment went thru. I was able to bring the eggs inside and candle in my little bathroom. Three looked undeveloped. Basically yolk with air underneath. Two of them looked possible and I thought I saw beaks. Might be my imagination. Should I bring those 2 inside and try to hatch? As I said, it’s been since May 23, The new one is doug good. I could put them in a washcloth under a heat lamp with the new baby. Appreciate your advice
Hi Aaron, well the eggs are still under Buttercup. I had one egg that got out of the nest when Cocoa decided it was time to mate and pulled her off her nest. It rolled down the ramp and was cracked and falling apart. I picked it up with a bag to. throw it away. Then I decided to see what was inside, there was a duckling. I thought it was dead, but opened its eyes. Unfortunately, it was too young and died the next day in the homemade box I had set. up. I was sad. So today I went out to feed and water and there was a cracked open egg. In the corner was a duckling. I thought it was dead. I went over to pick it up and it was alive. I tried to put it in the nest, but Buttercup was not having it. So inside to the box and heat light. He or she is still alive and doing good, Basically sleeps a lot. I’m going to order more ducklings online. I don’t think the other eggs will hatch. I’m not good at candling. I did it and thought there was nothing inside. So I was wrong obviously. What do you suggest? Buttercup is a good brooder, but doesn’t seem to want to be a mom. So do I try to take the baby out to her again? I really didn’t want to raise ducklings again. Although I do know more now. I just thought she’d be a good mom. I put the eggs under her around May 23. It’s been cold here in Northern Nevada, so she may not have had enough warmth. I think I should just remove an egg once a day when she’s off her nest. Any input would be appreciated.
When we had a momma duck who was a good EGG momma but freaked out and actually started killing the ducklings once they hatched, we kept the ducklings in an adjoining enclosure where the mom could see and interact with the ducklings without actually getting to them to harm them. The enclosure also had a heat lamp plus food and water. After about 12 hours, we could tell she was coming around to the ducklings so we started doing supervised visits. Both ducklings and momma duck soon fell in love and she stopped attacking them and started guarding and caring for them. You might want to do the same thing as yours continue to hatch.
Also, it’s very difficult to give advice on what to do with Buttercup’s remaining eggs. They require pretty precise humidity levels, warmth, and regular turning – something that momma duck/Buttercup instinctively does and that can also be done fairly easily by a human with a good incubator. Out in the open under a heat lamp (even with a cloth towel) it’s going to be much harder to create ideal conditions for successful hatching, which is a multi-day process. Ideally, you could leave the eggs under momma duck until they hatch (or not) and then remove the ducklings only if necessary if she’s not caring for them. Perhaps you could start allowing brief, supervised visits with the first duckling to help Buttercup acclimate to being a mother of ducklings, not just eggs.
Hi Aaron, Quick update. I was able to find die eggs from a local farm that has ducks. They raise them to train herding dogs. I got the eggs and when Buttercup was off her nest I put them in and covered with shavings. When she got back on, she immediately began covering them with more shavings. Perched herself on top just so happy, it was great. She’s been sitting on them ever since. She keeps moving her nest from one side of the duck house to the other. I’m waiting to see what hatches and what happens. I was very surprised that she just accepted the eggs as her own. I send further updates when they hatch.
Neat! Yes, please keep us posted with egg and duckling updates, Debbie!
We have an adopted female duck who looks like our three Blue Swedish (one male, two females), except she is brown. (No idea her breed.) She’s brooding! She’s made herself a huge, fantastic nest of sawdust and hay in a corner of our chicken coop, as our ducks (ten female mixed of Blue Swedish, Pekins, and Khaki Campbells) and chickens share a yard, run, and coop. Do we need to remove her to her own pen and coop (adjacent to the main one) for brooding and hatching? If so, when? She successfully mouth-threatens everyone away from her nest right now. THANK YOU for writing and sharing this article!! I saved it as a magnificent, concise, yet thorough resource! Thank you!!
Hi and thank you for your kind words. Glad this article was helpful for you! As for whether you should move your broody momma duck, it depends… Is there plenty of room in the coop for her plus your other poultry? Is she (and her nest) out of the way of chicken poop that will come down from the roost which might contaminate the eggs or harm the ducklings after hatching? If everyone is reasonably comfortable, happy, and hygienic, let her stay there. You may also want to provide a small bowl of water and food near her nest so she can more easily keep herself up. Good luck to all!
Wonderful! I am soooo relieved. There is a small ramp up into the coop, but yes, it is very spacious with more than plenty of room for everyone, especially now that about half the chickens and almost all the ducks roost or sleep “outside”in the enclosed secure run for the night. Do we just leave it up to her to guard and guide the ducklings once they’re hatched? We’ll be vigilant, of course, but one can’t watch nor predict animals 100% of the time. God has designed nature to do this successfully all the time, without my lil’ ole help! :- ) We just want to provide her with the best opportunity. Again, many, many thanks for your kindness in sharing your wife’s and your experience!!
The odds of a duckling/duck surviving to one year old in the wild is somewhere between 30-50%. The highest cause of mortality is predators, but diseases and illnesses certainly take their toll as well. Ideally, domestic ducks cared for by humans can have a MUCH higher survival rate. However, even domestic ducklings are especially vulnerable during their first 3-4 weeks given their small size. A mature duck or chicken could easily kill or injure them, so it would be helpful if you could provide some additional protection during that time window by keeping them separated. As they get larger and the other birds acclimate to their presence, there’s minimal risk. Best of luck to all!
Hi Aaron, I don’t see evidence of anything getting her eggs. Once she started nesting and brooding I kept the chickens away. They had been eating them before she went broody. I’m looking for some eggs locally, but don’t think I’ll find any. If I can’t find any, should I let her brood for a few weeks and then slowly get her off her nest? Or do a full month? As always, thanks for your help.
You can buy hatching eggs online if you’re aiming to let her hatch and raise ducklings. Just keep in mind that there’s no way to sex eggs so you’re very likely to end up with some males which will create challenges.
If you’re NOT trying to hatch eggs, you don’t really need to do anything at this point. Without eggs to sit on, she shouldn’t stay broody for too long. If she does continue to stay broody for more than a few weeks, you may have to forcibly snap her out of it by separating her from the nesting area and keeping her in a well-lit area throughout the day. Unfortunately, when they’re broody, they barely leave the nest to eat or drink, which causes weight loss. So maybe supply a bowl of food and water next to her in the meantime.
Hi Aaron, quick question. My duck is brooding. she’s built a nest, exhibiting all the behavior. I’ve kept the ducks and chickens isolated. When she was off the nest to swim in the trough,I checked her nest. No eggs at all. this is after about a week of brooding behavior. Does it take awhile for them to lay or is she just doing the brooding thing. I have a male duck. Should I isolate her nest from her like I did last year when the chickens got her eggs or just wait?
Hi Debbie. I can’t quite tell from your prior comments – what happened to Buttercup’s eggs? Did you collect them or do you think your chickens got to them again? We’ve never had a duck go broody on an empty nest, but have read of that happening on occasion. Once they go broody, their hormones shift and they’ll stop producing eggs while they sit on their nest for several weeks. Without eggs to hatch and break her out of her broody trance, you might have to be the one who snaps her out of it when the time comes if she doesn’t do it herself.
Hi Aaron, Thanks for this article. We had two ducks- 1 black swede, 1 black swede runner cross sitting on eggs last year. they were sharing a nest and as you can imagine things went a bit sideways- we had seperated them but we ended up finding several dead, freshley hatched ducklings. the runner cross was the best with the eggs so we seperated her and she successfully hatched one little one. We found one egg in distress and were successful in assisting it’s hatch. We were planning on incubating this year as she lost a lot of weight last year for a very unsuccessful hatch – however she had other plans, she managed to get herself a clutch before we realized it- We have 4 laying ducks and she stole some eggs and hid them. I moved her nest with the eggs in them when I found them and put it in a sectioned off part of our barn. My incubator had not arrived so I thought if she followed the nest then she was serious. Well she did and she has been dedicated to the nest. Now my incubator has arrived and I am considering taking half the eggs and putting them in the incubator. What do you think? She has been sitting on them about 10 days.
Hi Alison! Yep, ducks can sometimes be lousy “egg parents” and even good egg parents can be lousy parents once the eggs start to hatch. Certain breeds are better/worse than others and younger inexperienced ducks are generally not as good at parenting as older/experienced ducks. Since your duck has already had parental experience from start to finish, she *might* be a better momma this time around. It’s really impossible to say until the moment of truth arrives, at which point you’ll need to be ready to intervene should she become filicidal. It does seems like a good idea to remove and incubate some percentage of the eggs yourself to guarantee success while also giving her another shot at parenting. If you don’t mind, please check back in and let us know how things go? We’re very curious to hear if she does a better job hatching/parenting the second time around.
Hi Aaron, I’m hoping that with all of your duck-hatching experience, you’ll have an answer. When our teenage mother Runner duck abandoned her nest after 4-5 weeks of irregular brooding, we took the remaining two living eggs to our incubator. The movement and peeping let us know there was life inside, but it seemed to be dwindling. Finally we pried open the shells from the tiny pip and over many hours peeled away the hard parts, stopping when any bleeding occurred. . Both ducklings survived, but inside the egg with them was a gooey mass that we wiped away. It was not yellow as an unabsorbed yolk might have been, but gelatinous and mostly clear. What was that sticky blob, and does it occur in normal hatchings?
Hi Gale! What you’re describing isn’t something we’ve had happen when hatching duck eggs, but it sounds like something we’ve read about. The clear, gelatinous goop inside the egg was likely excess albumen. The reason for the excess albumen (or at least our hypothesis) was overly high humidity in the incubator during the final days of incubation, which didn’t allow the egg to loose as much moisture as it might have under normal conditions. This can cause them to drown or to be “glued” in place if it dries on them as air enters the egg during pipping and zipping. You did the right thing to wipe the excess goop off of them after hatching before it dried. Hopefully, your ducklings are healthy and eating/drinking normally now that they’re hatched. Best of luck!
the chick in the duck egg seems to me ready to come out.
I’m hearing him pulse in the shell since sunday but nothing’s happening. Also the shell of a duck egg is really thick and it is not clear to me how he will succeed on his own.
Just wait? How long is this story supposed to take? It is important to know that our hen incubates on the egg and the duck shows no interest
Hi Leeyah! Ducklings/hatchlings are well-suited to pip and zip right through a duck egg, despite the thickness of the shell. They have a specialized “egg tooth” (pointy part on the tip of their bills) that helps make this process possible. Assuming all conditions are right (namely temperature and humidity) it’s best NOT to intervene in the hatching process. If you crack the egg shell or help the duckling emerge prematurely, you can actually rupture veins and blood vessels and kill it. So if we’re understanding your current situation properly: just sit back and wait. Do keep an eye on your duck momma if she is a first-time mom as they can sometimes freak out when the zipping and pipping starts, as mentioned in this article. Best of luck!
My 16 month old Pekin female, just this morning, showed signs of nesting her egg. It is probably fertile, my drake is very active! Should I let her keep it? How often, and how long periods of time should she be laying on it? She gives me daily eggs. What should I do?
Hi Lorry! We can’t tell you what you should do, but we can share some things for you to consider that might help you make a more informed/better decision:
1) Your duck will probably lay a clutch of ~10+ eggs before she dedicates herself fully to sitting on the nest and tending them. This process triggers a hormonal shift, which in laymen’s terms is called going “broody.” Once that switch flips in her brain, she’ll want to spend the majority of her days and nights on the nest, coming off occasionally to eat, drink, swim, and *poop. (*Pretty much the only time a duck will hold their poop is when they’re sitting on eggs/broody.) She’ll also stop laying new eggs at that point.
2. As a breed, Pekins are known to be pretty good mothers. However, new duck moms and/or ducks that haven’t been around other hatching ducks and duck moms often have mishaps. For instance, we’ve had a new duck mom who was a wonderful mom to her EGGS, suddenly freak out as those eggs started the multi-day hatching process. The chirps coming from inside the eggs made her think something was wrong and she actually attacked two of her eggs, which didn’t end well. This means you’ll need to on guard to prevent this sort of thing from happening and have a duck egg-compatible incubator on-hand to finish hatching the eggs yourself if it does.
3. If you let your duck hatch 10+ eggs, you won’t have any idea what sex ducklings you’ll get. You’ll also have to have time and accommodations to raise all those ducklings and mature ducks (or re-home them at some point). The likelihood is you’ll get a 50-50 male/female ratio, which means you’ll eventually need to re-home some male ducks since you really don’t want more than 1 drake: 3 hens. Even then, in our experience, having multiple drakes around is not a lot of fun as they have to be kept separate from each other to prevent them from attacking and injuring each other.
This is not an attempt to talk you out of letting your duck hatch eggs; just trying to give you an accurate assessment of what you can expect (and should be prepared for) if you do. Best wishes to you and your flock either way.
Thank you for this article! Just ordered 6 eggs so hopefully will have ducklings by the end of next month! Complete novice at this and appreciate all the details and insights. Thank you!
You’re very welcome, Stacy, and thanks for the kind words! Best of luck hatching your first ducklings. Feel free to reach out any time we might be of help.
Hi I don’t know if you can help, we have just rescued 13 duck eggs after the mother duck flew away from her nest this morning, she has been constantly troubled by four male ducks for the past couple of weeks so we have been watching her closely, it has been about four hours since she flew away chased by the males, we have put the egg in an incubator that we used for chickens, can you help us with what the temperature should be and any other information that you think would be useful,
Hi Shirley! Best of luck hatching your abandoned duck eggs. We’d suggest you carefully read this article or at least print the downloadable PDF duck egg hatching checklist at the bottom. Duck eggs incubate at 99.5°F. As the eggs begin to hatch, temperatures should be slightly decreased, as the article details. Let us know if you have any questions as you move forward – fingers and flippers crossed for you!
Great article! We are beginning our journey with Welsh Harlequin ducklings this spring! Taking the next few months to get prepared as we want for warmer weather. I’ve read many of your articles and thrilled to have found a local homestead to emulate here in GVL! Thanks!
Thanks Robyn! As we said in our facebook message, feel free to reach out any time you have questions about ducks or growing food.
You’ll love this simple and healthy dried persimmon ball recipe, which will be a hit during the holidays or for winter snacks and desserts!
Most people have eaten or at least heard of date balls, which are used as desserts, snacks, energy bites, or anything in between. Dates are the dehydrated fruit of date palm trees, which are not something we can grow in our Zone 7b climate zone.
What we can grow are persimmons — both Asian and American persimmons, to be exact. Eaten fresh, persimmons don’t taste like dates.
However, dried *Asian persimmons have a flavor and texture that’s very similar to dates. They’re sweet, fruity, and rich with a chewy texture. (*Since Asian persimmons are large and often seedless, they’re better as a dried fruit than their smaller, seed-filled American persimmon cousins.)
With a bunch of home-grown and homemade dried persimmons to use, we decided to see if we could make persimmon balls that could rival date balls. Answer: yes!
In addition to persimmons, we also used other local ingredients:
From now on, maple-sweetened persimmon balls with blood orange and toasted pecans will be a treat we look forward to every year, and we hope you will too!
Persimmon balls, a delicious alternative to date balls.
This article is not intended to tell you how to celebrate Christmas — or whether to celebrate it at all. That’s no business of mine.
Instead, the purpose of this article is self-focused, or more aptly family-focused. How and why will I participate in the Christmas holiday, and what family rituals and traditions do we want to adopt or develop in order to make Christmas meaningful and valuable to us?
Ultimately, answering that question will be a collaborative, ongoing conversation that will continue to take place within my family. This article is simply a starting point.
Beautifully written! Just remember Gamma Santa does all she does at Christmas and year round out of her love for family! And, I just love Christmas decorations! Christmas is love, joy and peace to be shared everywhere we go everyday!
Gamma von Frank
Beautifully written, asking my adult children what they remember about Christmas , it wasn’t the gifts, it was the food and fun activities as a family they remember. A few memories of gifts I made when we couldn’t afford any was also on their list as their favourite toys. Living far from our families, my husband and I made our own traditions, and we also told our children that Santa’s spirit was inside us and that why we are the gift givers.
Thank you for sharing your family’s Christmas experiences and memories, Helen! Also interesting that your children remember the experiences, not the gifts.
Out now grown children have nearly grown children of their own now, but when they were toddlers themselves, we considered the same issues you have, though neither as thoroughly nor articulately. Best wishes as you establish your own unique family holiday traditions. (One of our longstanding ones is a strawberry shortcake breakfast, an invention of my Mother’s to make her Christmas morning stress-free. We children loved this strange once-a-year treat.)
Ha! Red and white strawberry shortcake makes a lot of sense, visually, as a Christmas morning breakfast treat. Good call on your mother’s part, and quite memorable!
Find out how to make Asian persimmon butter flavored with blood oranges and sweetened with a small amount of maple syrup!
Very ripe non-astringent Asian persimmons ready to be made into persimmon butter.
This hibiscus coconut rice dessert features sublime flavors and history-rich ingredients from around the world, many of which can be grown in your garden.
We love various ethnic cuisines, which is reflected in some of the foods we grow. As a result, we sometimes get to fuse unusual flavors from around the world into a single novel recipe, as is the case with this hibiscus coconut rice dessert recipe.
The ginger, makrut lime leaves, and lemongrass we grow originated in Southeast Asia. The edible fruit-like calyxes/roselles of Hibiscus sabdariffa we grow are native to West Africa. (If you’ve never had them, hibiscus roselles feature a gorgeous vibrant red color and citrus-like tangy flavor.)
From top left to bottom right: dried Hibiscus roselles, diced lemongrass, baby ginger, and makrut lime leaves. A few of the essential flavors in this recipe.
The combination of flavors in this hibiscus coconut rice dessert recipe is quite spectacular, and we can’t wait for you to make your own!
Hibiscus coconut rice, a dessert recipe made with Hibiscus sabdariffa calyxes, lemongrass, makrut lime leaves, ginger, and Carolina Gold rice, among other ingredients.
This chestnut flour cake with persimmons and buttermilk is gluten-free and can be made with no added sugar. Naturally sweet and nutty, it makes a great healthy breakfast or dessert!
Hybrid Chinese chestnuts from our yard.
Various species of chestnuts have been a staple food crop for thousands of years throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. However, due to the functional extinction of native North American chestnuts in the 1900s due to imported chestnut blight, chestnuts are a relative culinary rarity here in the US today.
Since we grow blight-resistant hybrid Chinese chestnuts (Castanea mollissima), we get lots of opportunities to use chestnuts in the kitchen. Our trees are fairly young, but they still produce loads of nuts each fall.
Definitely want to try this cake, looks so tasty and I’m sure the kids will love this. Thanks for the recipe.
It looks delicious. I hope I can eat Chestnut, but unfortunately, I’m allergic to eat. Thank you for sharing this, Susan.
Hibiscus roselle relish or chutney is a gorgeous bright red, tangy treat that can be eaten as a standalone side or topping. Come find out how to make it — and maybe have a homegrown alternative to cranberry relish!
At the end of summer, we usually have a giant bag of homegrown, dried roselles. Roselles are the edible fruit-like calyxes of Hibiscus sabdariffa plants.
Flowers, leaves, and vibrant red calyxes of edible Hibiscus sabdariffa. The calyxes are what’s used in this recipe and are often referred to as “roselles.”
Never heard of them? If you’d like to learn more about how to grow and use edible hibiscus, check out our Hibiscus sabdariffa guide.
We primarily use our dried roselles to make tea throughout the year. Roselle tea is a gorgeous bright red color.
The flavor is tangy, approximating citrus and cranberries… Hence one of their many common names: “Florida cranberry” (aka something red that tastes similar to a cranberry, but can be grown in warm climates).
However, roselles shouldn’t be relegated solely to tea-making in your kitchen. They can also be used in a wide variety of sweet and savory food dishes.
And one of the best ways to put the flavor and color of roselles on full display is with this hibiscus relish or chutney recipe. You might even decide to use this recipe as a replacement to cranberry relish during holiday meals!
Hibiscus relish or chutney? This recipe is quite versatile and can even be used as topping on cheese and crackers!
I must be doing something wrong…tried making with dried hibiscus but they were very chewy so 2nd round I left them to soak overnight hoping they would soften up but no change…is this just the texture for hibiscus?
Hmmm, the finished hibiscus shouldn’t be too chewy. Perhaps there’s variability between the hibiscus used wherein our calyxes are thinner or less fibrous than the ones you’re using. Next time, pulverize your dried hibiscus in a blender/food processor before you start cooking it. Smaller bits will absorb liquid and soften much faster than larger bits. You may also need to add a bit more liquid and cook a few minutes longer than our recipe calls for to help soften it. If you try again, please let us know how it turns out!
I tried this recipe today using fresh fruit instead of dried, only I multiplied it x4 as I’ve got a glut of Rosellas at the moment and wanted to use more up. So instead of using 2 cups of Rosellas, I used 8. It tastes amazing! I used our own homegrown honey as well. I’ll definitely be using this recipe again. Thanks!🥰
Great! Glad you like hibiscus relish as much as we do. Roselle is such a wonderful and versatile ingredient.
12 Comments
Nicole Martin
April 11, 2024 at 10:31 pmI just rescued geese eggs from a flood. There were only 2 left and were about 5-6. What do I need to do to incubate them and save them? The momma let me take them. I think she knew what was happening. I don’t want to lose them. Tonight I put them in a homemade nest with a heating pad. Tomorrow I’m going to buy an incubator.
Aaron von Frank
April 12, 2024 at 10:02 amHi Nicole! First, thank you for rescuing the goose eggs from the flood. MJ (the author of this article) lets her geese hatch their own eggs, thus she doesn’t have experience hatching them via an incubator. She recommends this Bramblewood Hill article which details how to hatch goose eggs via an incubator: https://bramblewoodhill.com/incubating-hatching-goose-eggs/. Good luck and I hope you’re able to re-wild your geese after they’ve hatched and matured!
Willmet
March 20, 2024 at 8:43 pmBased on the article, what are the benefits of letting a mother goose incubate eggs over using an incubator?
Aaron von Frank
March 22, 2024 at 10:05 amAn incubator requires the human to do all the work and monitoring from incubation through rearing. If you let a goose incubate, she does all the work.
Telkom University
November 2, 2023 at 3:24 amCan you share any insights into the best time of year for hatching goose eggs and the impact of seasonal variations?
Aaron von Frank
November 3, 2023 at 9:52 amGeese will naturally lay and hatch eggs at the optimal time for reproductive success each year. The exact time window will vary by location/climate. Here in the US, that’s usually somewhere between late winter and mid-spring, with some variance by climate region. This hatch timing allows for goslings to start out life in a time window of high natural food abundance so they get the nutrition they need to rapidly develop, then be fully grown by the time cold weather returns in fall.
zidane
June 25, 2023 at 11:30 pmthank you for the article
Melody Coffman
May 23, 2023 at 9:14 pmI have a male and female pair of American Buff Geese. Last year she laid eggs but all over the place. Pretty early spring and we had freezing temps. No luck with these. This year she laid several eggs and began setting on them. Taking extra care of the nest and being very attentive. So we waited and waited. It had been over 30 days and she just left the nest. Sometimes going and rearranging some of the straw but not setting. I candled the eggs tonight and they all didn’t even look fertile. So no babies again. What might be the problem?
Aaron von Frank
May 25, 2023 at 11:34 amHi Melody! It’s very unusual to have a paired goose and gander that don’t produce fertilized eggs. Hopefully, he’s not infertile. I’ve passed your question on to MJ (our goose expert) and she’ll weigh in as soon as she’s able to.
Madia (MJ)
May 30, 2023 at 2:14 pmThe short answer is: I can’t say for certain. Have you seen your geese mating? Assuming the answer is yes…
Geese will abandon a nest if eggs have gone bad. Of course, this means they were never fertile to begin with. It is interesting that your goose started sitting with just a couple eggs; usually geese accumulate more eggs than that before they start sitting.
It’s also important to note that the fertility of different goose breeds ranges from 53.8% to 84.72%, but heavier breeds of geese will have lower fertility rates. So it’s possible that your breed is on the less fertile side of the spectrum.
Other possible factors: long and cold winters can delay the reproductive cycle in both sexes, so a shorter reproductive cycle can also decrease the likelihood of fertility.
You might also want to examine your feed. Good quality feed is essential for higher fertility. And Vitamin E deficiency in ganders can affect semen volume.
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into the scientific literature behind fertility in geese, here’s a good source (there’s a link below the summary on the page for the full PDF report): https://scialert.net/abstract/amp.php?doi=ijps.2020.51.65
Yvonne Schutt
September 14, 2024 at 5:03 pmI have African geese, though their knobs aren’t real prominent. They laid 2 clutches this spring & summer. Neither hatched hatched. She is a broody. However, during her breaks the gander would go in and sit on them but at times wouldn’t let her back on the nest. He also sat next to her in the nest. Eventually he stole some of the eggs and sat on them himself. The eggs didn’t hatch. A black rat snake got into the nest & tried swallowing one of the eggs. I went in to pull him out & she came to see what I was doing and oblivious to the snake and trod on him & looked at me questioning why I was there. The snake was very, very docile. She continued to sit but after 32 days left the nest. I have watched them mate but nothing. I don’t know what to think.
Madia (MJ)
October 7, 2024 at 11:22 amHello Yvonne! I am curious if the gander is actually a gander…? I’ve never seen ganders behaving that way. Usually a gander will stand guard next to the nest, but not lay on it – it can happen, but it is rare. To go beyond that and steal the eggs to make “his” own nest… that sounds like another female to me. Knobs can vary in size with both males and females, and take a few years to fully develop. There isn’t much to determine the difference in sexes other than vent sexing or sometimes size (which tends to be subtle: males between 16-22 lbs and females around 18 lbs). And two females will definitely “mate” in the absence of or in spite of the presence of a gander. Also, females will often lay eggs in the same nest and then fight over who gets to lay on it. Hope you get this mystery figured out!