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Step-by-step guides for every animal, the garden, orchard, pasture and compost: getting started, housing, feeding, daily care, breeding, health and harvest.
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Read Their Articles →Raising Ducks
Ducks are hardy, quiet, lay well through cold weather and eat slugs and bugs. They need water — lots of it — and a dry place to sleep.
- Eggs hatch in
- 28 days (Muscovy 35)
- Start laying
- 5–7 months
- Top layers
- Khaki Campbell, Runner: 250–300 eggs a year
- Pekin ready to process
- 7–9 weeks
1Getting started
- Egg breeds: Khaki Campbell, Indian Runner, Welsh Harlequin. Meat: Pekin, Rouen, Muscovy (Muscovy are quiet and great foragers).
- Ducks are flock birds — keep at least three.
- Plan for one drake to 4–6 ducks, or none at all; too many drakes injure the ducks.
2Brooding ducklings
- Brooder 90°F the first week, then 5°F cooler each week; ducklings feather out faster than chicks.
- Give a duck or waterfowl starter, or add brewer’s yeast (about 1 tbsp per cup of feed) for niacin — without it their legs grow weak.
- Water must be deep enough to dunk their whole bill to clear their nostrils, but not deep enough to drown in.
- No unsupervised swimming until they are feathered (about 4–5 weeks): ducklings have no waterproof oil yet.
3Housing and water
- About 5 sq ft each inside and 15 sq ft in the run; ducks sleep on the floor, so no roosts — just deep, dry bedding.
- Lock them in at night; ducks can’t see well in the dark and are easy prey.
- A kiddie pool or tub they can bathe in keeps them clean and healthy; dump and refill it often.
- Put water away from the bedding on a gravel or wire base — ducks make a mess with it.
4Feeding
- Waterfowl starter (18–20% protein) for 2–3 weeks, then grower (15–16%), then layer feed with oyster shell for laying ducks.
- Always give water with feed — ducks need it to swallow.
- Free-ranging ducks find much of their food; they clear slugs from a garden without scratching it up like chickens.
5Care and eggs
- Ducks lay early in the morning; keep them in until mid-morning so eggs aren’t lost in the yard.
- Duck eggs have thicker shells and bigger yolks — great for baking.
- Many ducks lay right through winter without extra light.
6Health
- Limping or reluctance to walk: check feet for bumblefoot and niacin shortage.
- Watch for wet feather (feathers that soak through) — usually dirty water or poor diet.
- Ducks hide illness; a duck that stops eating or sits apart needs attention the same day.
- Wild waterfowl spread avian influenza — keep feed and pools covered or away from wild birds.
7Processing
- Process Pekins at 7–9 weeks, before the pin feathers of the next molt come in.
- Duck feathers are harder to pluck: scald at about 150–160°F with a drop of dish soap, or use paraffin wax.
- Render the fat — duck fat is a prized cooking fat.
Space guide
For each animalFencing: Predator-proof run; 2–3 ft keeps most heavy breeds in
- Water deep enough to dunk their heads
- Lock them in at night
Rules of thumb — more room is always better, and breed, climate and local rules can change what you need. Sketch it out in the Barn & Garden Planner.
Put it to work
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These are rules of thumb from university extension guidance. Breed, climate and your state’s rules change the details — your county extension office is the best place to ask, and you can find it on the selling rules page by ZIP code.