does anyone keep ducks?

[lummox]

we're thinking of getting some, but wondering whether they mix with very small children?

any thoughts?

my mil has about 15 ducks... she has a small holding... pigs, cows, chickens, dogs, sheep and ducks...

my dd (5) and ds (2) get in the run with them all teh time and it's no probs... in fact dd loves them so much she took it upon herself to be the sole carer and nurse to a couple which had eaten too many hops and had become 'drunk' (it's a long story!)... she looked after them, picked them up so they could get to the drinking water and fed them (as they were too intoxicated to walk properly!)... needless to say they died (sssshhh! she doesn't know! )... but stilll loves looking sfter her 'drunken ducks'...

like with all animals... you just need to keep an eye on them if they are going to be in contact with very small ch.... just look out for mr fox and make sure that the run is fully secure and that you don't get that late-in-the-evening-feel-and-you-can't-be-botehred-to-go-shut-them-up-for-the-night!!!

hey great - was thinking this was a bit of a long shot, so thanks for the reply!

glad to hear that they are good with your dd (and now very curious to know the full hops story).

interested about the not putting them away at night - i guess that would mean that it would be hard if we went away for a couple of weeks? what does your MIL do if she is away?

Yep kids love them! As long as you do all the usual washing hands type stuff after handling them it's fine!

Also, yes they do need shutting up at night unless you have a very secure run (unless you want a fox to get them!) but surely if you went away someone would have to come and feed them! and they get used to going in for the night so it's not such a big deal.

thanks for that cazboldy - we could get someone in to feed them easily enough, but it seems a bit more of an ask for someone to have to come every night and put them away. am not sure what night means - would it be quite late in the summer?

we've got lots of garden and could have a pretty big, secure run if that would work.

we live in rural France, but spend quite a lot of time in the UK and we were hoping that ducks might be something we could have without the going away begin too much of a problem.

hi lummox...

basically where pil live.... it's a bit of a idyllic family set up really... family live on the 'land' spread out ... almost commune tyoe but with separate houses and gardesn etc... so this means that there is always someone about who will look after the animals... shutting them up is usually when it starts to get dark... dusk.. so in the summer like you guessed this could be pretty late at night...

the hops story... basically... have just been corrected by dh was not hops but malt barley... mil manages to get supplies of malt barley from the local brewery (which by all accounts they eat) but a family memeber (who was actually looking after them whilst pil and ourselves were all away on holiday!)... gave them a tad too much... thus resulting in 'drunken ducks'...

look here for pic of dd and drunken duck!

Hi Lummox,

I kept ducks a few years back,so obviously it was before ds came along.They were lovely "pets" but made an awful amount of mess in the garden.They were like dogs and used to run to the door everytime we had visitors.

Can I just sneak a quick question in here please... Anyone know if chickens and ducks are okay together? I know you can't mix chickens and turkeys. We've just aquired(in the last hour - long story)2 Indian Runners and I was wondering if to start with I could put them in a run (20' x 30' ish) with some of my chickens as it's the only secure place I have at moment.
tia

Cheers Nellie245, I'll go and have a look

yep chickens and ducks should be ok together

thanks all. am amazed that there is already a thread about this.

i can tell we're going to have to think a bit more about this one. and maybe bribe some local teenager into putting the ducks to bed when we're away.

hi bubb btw - hope you're keeping well.