Sabi Horvat

To add to what Phil wrote:

1. The most destructive thing that our ducks do to soil happens if there is a small puddle.  Since they are filter feeders, they'll take advantage of the puddle and burrow into the mud and make some few-inch holes while they suck the bugs out.  This can be preventable if you don't create temporary puddles where the soil is loose and can get muddy.  You can distract the ducks with something else until the water drains; that's what we do when emptying a kiddie pool in an area where we don't necessarily want them digging with their beaks.

2. Our ducks enjoy having access to grass and will nibble along with a meal.  But they don't eat enough grass to make any impact on the health of the grass.  They prefer to eat bugs, produce, and the grains from chicken feed (except for the corn).

3.  Also I should mention, although you might have considered this already, that ducks like to have shade.  

We made a video about our top five reasons that we chose ducks.


Overall your pros and cons seem accurate.

I would add, from what I've learned from others, that if you plan to have any male ducks- drakes- then be careful to ensure that they don't harm your chickens.

We've had ducks since 2020.  Although we had been researching breeds since 2016, when 2020 rolled around, we didn't have choices since everyone was getting ducks that year.  We brought home the first two breeds we could find.

It is now 2022, two years and four months later.  From our four original ducks, we lost one duck of each breed so far; both were sudden deaths unrelated to predators. One duck died from an infection related to yolk coelimitis and we don't  know what the other one died from since vets are not doing necropsies due to the high avian flu risk this year.  We have two lovely ducks remaining.

We have found that about four ducks is a good number for us, but that two ducks is plenty for the amount of eggs that we eat.  We gave away a lot of eggs to friends and neighbors when we had more ducks.

That is to say, we aren't looking for the duck that lays the most eggs, or the duck that puts on the most weight.  We seek the healthiest breed that will be our garden companion (pet).  The ducks provide our land with nutrients and eat any slugs that we see.  And so we seek the healthiest duck (rather than a breed bred for egg or meat production).  A quiet breed is a bonus; we are not considering call ducks.

Does anyone have any recommendations as we restock our small flock in the spring?