Indian Runner ducks beginner questions

I would like to raise 2-3 female Indian Runner ducks, but first I want to make sure that I can provide them with a suitable environment, so they can live a happy life.

I am planning on letting them run around the whole yard freely and lock them in a wooden house at night (to protect them from predators). The yard is around 1500m2 (around 0.4 acre) and is fenced from the sides. Is it okay to let them run in the whole area?

Is the wooden house on the pics okay for 2-3 ducks? Or should I make it bigger (there is a similar "room" to the left of it, I would just have to cut a hole between them)? I think it was used for geese (or chickens) many years ago. Of course I will clean it first and put hay on the floor. How long should I keep them locked in the house at night?

They would have a bathtub with water if they want to swim/play in it (although it's a bit shallow, around 40cm) and other water containers for drinking.

Do they try to get through fences, or not really? For example, if I wanted to fence some parts of the vegetable garden, is it okay if there is a 20cm (~8 inch) gap in it? Or will they try to crawl through it, like for example a cat?


I have no experience in raising farm animals at all (I only have cats).

Thanks in advance for any answers/tips!

This should work fine, but with one modification. Use a small mobile fence to keep them in one part of the yard at a time, and rotate them to different parts as needed. If they have free run of the place they'll develop favorite spots and turn those in to mud pits. Rotational pasturing at even a tiny scale works. They'll be quite happy with this arrangement with a small wading pool (40 cm is plenty for 3 small ducks). They will definitely squeeze through small spaces if there is something interesting to eat, drink, etc on the other side. But if they have everything they need, they'll learn that your yard is home and they will stay put in my experience.

We used a couple of cement mixing tubs (bought new) for our ducks water source.  They must have water to eat so it will always get messy.  The tubs needed emptied and rinsed a couple of times a day.  One thing we did that you may want to think about.  My friends garden was next to the chicken/duck yard and we set up a series of irrigation ditches that we dumped those tubs into each time.  All the water and duck stuff went into the trenches and boy did my friend have a nice garden.  She also had a gate between the garden and the chicken yard.  In winter after the garden was put to bed she opened the gate and let the chickens into the garden are and locked them out of the chicken yard so it could have a rest. I really liked her arrangement and would use something similar if I ever get out of twon.

Thanks for the answers!

Jake Esselstyn wrote:If they have free run of the place they'll develop favorite spots and turn those in to mud pits.

Is this necessarily a problem, though? I am thinking, that if they do develop these mud pits, I could adjust accordingly and grow plants that do well in those kinds of environments.

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:...we set up a series of irrigation ditches that we dumped those tubs into each time.  All the water and duck stuff went into the trenches and boy did my friend have a nice garden.

Nice idea! I know from researching that ducks make the water messy quite fast. My plan was to use the water for plant irrigation with a watering can/buckets and leave some around the bathtub. Then grow some plants in it that they can eat. But these trenches sound like a more practical and effective solution.

One problem with it is that I would like to have the tub in an area under trees (I guess it would be good, that it is shaded, right?). How deep should these trenches ideally be? I am not sure how deep (or if at all) can I dig to not damage the tree's roots.
Will the regular application of water/duck manure seal these trenches (like a pond)? I kind of like that, but won't it be bad over time, that the water/manure mixture will be sitting there anaerobically?

Is this necessarily a problem, though? I am thinking, that if they do develop these mud pits, I could adjust accordingly and grow plants that do well in those kinds of environments.

You would have to keep the ducks away from the area while the plants get established. And I think you'd have to let the individual mud pits rest for at least a few weeks now and again. On a small spatial scale, their favorite spots would concentrate a lot of manure and I doubt anything would grow because of that and the constant trampling. I used to keep 3-4 ducks in a very small space and rotate them around the yard. I moved their pool every day or two because that is where they spent most of their time and they would quickly destroy the sod. This worked well for me, but it is much harder to manage in the winter when the grass won't grow. In the summer, the grass would recover quickly from duck mess when I moved them away, but it was a much slower process in the winter.