Getting Started
A Duck Keeper’s Year: What to Do Each Season
Duck keeping runs on the calendar more than most people expect. The birds lay by daylight, moult after the breeding…
Quackoria Care
Quackoria Care
Practical, carefully checked guidance for people who keep and raise real ducks.
Breeding & Hatching
Broody Ducks: Recognising It, Letting Her Hatch, and Breaking It
A broody duck is a duck that has decided to hatch something, and she will do it with or without…
Getting Started
How Many Ducks Should You Keep? Flock Size, Drakes and Introductions
One is lonely, two is fragile, and the drake question has two published answers. Here is what the sources say,…
Breeding & Hatching
Keeping Muscovy Ducks: The Duck That Is Not a Mallard
Almost everything written about ducks is written about Mallard descendants, and the Muscovy is not one. It is a different…
Cleaning
Collecting, Cleaning and Storing Duck Eggs
Most duck eggs are laid early in the morning. When to collect them, whether to wash them, how to store…
Breeding & Hatching
Incubating Duck Eggs: Temperature, Humidity and the 28 Days
Duck eggs are larger than hen's eggs, need more humidity and take about 28 days. The figures, and where the…
Housing
Protecting Ducks from Predators: What Did It, and What Stops It
Most people search for this after losing a bird, so it starts with what the remains can tell you. Then…
Housing
Duck Water Needs: Drinking, Head-Washing, Bathing and the Mud
"Do ducks need a pond?" has a short answer — no — and it is the wrong question. The right…
Common Problems
Keeping Ducks Cool in Summer: Heat Stress, Shade and the Emergency
Ducks shrug off winter and, Metzer Farms says, handle heat pretty well too. The signs of heat stress in order,…
Common Problems
How to Pick Up and Hold a Duck Without Hurting It
A duck's legs are easily dislocated or broken, and the UK welfare codes say never to carry a bird by…
Getting Started
Ducks or Chickens? An Honest Comparison for Backyard Keepers
A duck site's honest comparison. Ducks win on egg size, richness and cold; chickens on mess and feed cost; the…
Ducklings
Buying Your First Ducks: How Many, What Age, and What to Check
Almost everything written about ducks assumes you already have some. This is the article for the week before: how many…