Is this a feasible task? Was thinking of getting some wood ducks or mallards for the pond in our yard (maybe half acre). We have a shed with electricity if needed if we ended up buying babies.

What steps would we need to take? Is this something that's pretty simple or is this just a terrible idea? Would it be better to raise babies or buy adults and clip their wings or something? I've only ever known ducks in the wild so I'm pretty obviously completely ignorant here.

Thanks for any advice.

I guess it depends on your surroundings, but I would think this is a terrible idea.

Coyote, cat, Labrador....will get a good meal.

Generally speaking....ducks will find a pond. Just build it and wait and you'll have ducks, turtles, snakes, frogs, maybe a small gator and a bunch of other things as well.

Plant some millet grass on the edge is about all you need to do.

My wife had backyard mallards for our little pond. When it got ass cold in the winter, they pecked a hole in my house and stole the insulation for their nest.

The next spring I had $30k worth of new siding installed and had smoked mallard on the big green egg.

My brother tried this with geese. He had three one acre ponds and put millet and a floating "goose" house in the middle of one of the ponds. The geese ignored the pond and hung out with the chickens in his yard.

Come to my neighborhood and catch all the Muscovy ducks you want.

Pick up a couple at Easter, feed them for a week or two then release then to the pond. They will eat the tadpoles and other stuff. Used to do that back when we were kids, eventually my father would get annoyed of them eating his lillies and they would be gone the next day

AggieChemist said:

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My wife had backyard mallards for our little pond. When it got ass cold in the winter, they pecked a hole in my house and stole the insulation for their nest.

The next spring I had $30k worth of new siding installed and had smoked mallard on the big green egg.

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LMFAO

Also if you happen to live in Houston, you could put up a sign or two after Easter in sandalwood by their lakes advertising that you'd take any unwanted ducks. People drop them off there every year and there are hundreds of unwanted ducks that grow to be a nuisance

Finn Maccumhail said:

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Come to my neighborhood and catch all the Muscovy ducks you want.

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You live in Glenloch?

willie wonka said:

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Finn Maccumhail said:

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Come to my neighborhood and catch all the Muscovy ducks you want.

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You live in Glenloch?

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Nah, that's Upper West Side. I'm on the Upper East Side.

My folks wanted to have ducks for their pond so they bought 5 or 6. Coyotes ate them. So they bought 5 or 6 more. Coyotes ate those too. So they heard that the natural enemy of the coyote is the donkey. Donkeys are supposedly very social so you have to buy a pair. Didn't seem to do much good for the ducks.

Coyotes left a note on the back door of my folks house saying, "Just a reminder: we're out of ducks."

They don't have ducks anymore, but the donkeys start braying about 6am to get my step mother out of bed every morning to feed them. So there's that.

AggieChemist said:

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My wife had backyard mallards for our little pond. When it got ass cold in the winter, they pecked a hole in my house and stole the insulation for their nest.

The next spring I had $30k worth of new siding installed and had smoked mallard on the big green egg.

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AC - holy moly that is hilarious. Not the house damage but the fact that you had the last laugh!

I hatched out 12 mallards in class last year.We raised them in the back yard in town for about 8 weeks. They were the nastiest animals i have ever raise and ate every bit of grass in the back yard. We took them to Coleman at 8 weeks and they keep them in a pen for another week. They started to learn to fly off the pool in the pen but could not figure out how to fly back in. So we lost a couple to the dogs. So they put 9 on the pond with a floating house but after a week on were on the tank. About 2 months later we were driving around the pastures and on another pond i noticed 4 mallards. I walked up to the tank and they flew and just circled the tank. All other duck fly to another tank when spooked, so we decided that these were some of the original ducks. We are eager to see if they hatch out ducklings of their own.

If I was to do it over i would do the mallards again, but a bigger cage at the ranch.As well I would hatch out twice as many to increase the chance for success ( more eyes watching for predators).

Beware if you have turtles and ducklings. One of those rough life lessons for the kiddos, watching mama duck and her babies swim around the pond, and then the babies get pulled under and eaten by the turtles.

Bobcats will thank you.

Not as much of an issue in rural areas, but inside the city bobcats love ducks. If you have a city park with lots of ducks, and they suddenly start disappearing, yeah, that would be bobcats.

Had a pond by the house in Virginia.

A pair of geese and a pair of woodies had ducklings/goslings there every year.

It was a grim process the watch the countdown as they were gradually picked off by the snapping turtles and foxes.

The ducks did a better job than the geese.

ursusguy said:

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Bobcats will thank you.

Not as much of an issue in rural areas, but inside the city bobcats love ducks. If you have a city park with lots of ducks, and they suddenly start disappearing, yeah, that would be bobcats.

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That's a brilliant idea. I need to figure out how to trap a bobcat and release it near the ponds in my neighborhood. There's plenty of wood nearby for them to hide out.

If you get mallards they will fly around but will not leave. We ate ours. We like rouen ducks because they are big meat birds, look like mallards, and cannot fly. Half acre is plenty big. They are fun an cool to have. When the duckings get fat, chop their head off and eat them.

We raised about a dozen per year for five years. Bobcats cleaned us out every time. Rural area. Bobcats got brave enough to show during daytime. They loved our ducks and geese as well.

We had a large stock tank and my sister wanted geese on it. Trip to Canton and 4 geese. Yeah....they disappeared. My Dad, having proper equipment, enlarged tank and built an island. Canton....more geese. Gone in a week. Finally gave up and figured out coyotes are resourceful and domestic geese are stupid.

Producers Coop in Bryan is taking orders for spring delivery of chicks. They have 3 variety of ducks available, one of which are mallards.

Personally, I prefer Rouen ducks (like a mallard, but about 50% bigger).

If you want other species (including wood ducks), be prepared - they are EXPENSIVE (nearly $100 per chick). But the https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/ does have them.

Stock it with cinnamon teal

Call me the last week of the season