AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

what types of waterfowl do you keep???

We thought this might be an interesing question?


We have 37 Ducks, including

MANDARIN
MALLARD NORMAL
NORMAL PIED
FAWN
FAWN PIED
BLACK DUCKS
MOUNTAIN


Lookforward to reading the replies

Peacocks Australia

Hi PA,

Can you please advise the requirements ie.pens,housing,waterponds, feeding,nestboxes etc etc., that you have found work with regards to keeping those beautiful Mandarin Ducks you have. What are the pitfalls?.

I would welcome feedback from other members as well.

Best regards,
Snowball.

Mandarins are like most ducks they are quite easy to keep and happily breed in the right conditions with little fuss. We have 5 pairs and they are housed in various sized pens from 8L x 4W x 3H (Meters) to 25L X 20W X 5H (Meters) all pens have a pond, with the smaller pens we used ready made Fiberglass fish ponds (3 Meter long) in the large pens we built our own from Cement (approx 7 Meters) In the larger pens the ponds have waterfalls with drum filters but like most ducks its almost impossible to keep the water clear. Mandarins are Territorial and will attack other types of birds, we have a variety of birds with ours mostly Finches and Parrots and in one pen we have Dark-Necked Golden Pheasants with them. In the breeding season ours will chase off any bird that goes near the pond or their breeding boxes but rarely do they make contact as the bird usually flees long before they get close enough. In all the pens we have an elevated water bowl; this allows the other birds to drink but keeps the ducks from fouling the water. Ours breed in small pine Dog Kennels (ready made from Bunning’s) about 30cm off the ground with a ramp up to the opening, and lined with dried hay. We feed all our ducks the same Diet, a grain mix of: Duck starter, Course Grain Layer, Small Parrot Mix. Crushed Shell Grit, Greens & fruit (Particularly Watermelon) In our experience we have found that first year “Ducks” (female) are not good layers and most only lay 1 – 3 eggs, the second year most will lay as normal. We use Incubators to hatch appox 80% of our birds including our Waterfowl and to date have experienced good success.

A tip, if your going to incubate Pheasants or Peacocks it’s a good idea to put 2 or 3 Pekin or Silky Bantam or Normal (chicks) with them, we have found this greatly improves the success of the chicks feeding from day one.

Mandarins are Magnificent and when in colour (they eclipse molt) and we highly recommend them.

Peacocks Australia

Hi PA,

What is an Eclipse moult?. Have today purchased 2 Drakes and a Duck so off on another learning course.

Regards,
Snowball.

Hi Snowball, An Eclipse moult is when a bird completely colours and Dis-colours each year Mandarin Drakes will Eclipse moult at the end of the breeding season and when complete will look like the Female (Duck) the full term used to described this is " Total Eclipse Moult" there are many birds that do this and some that "Semi Eclipse Moult"


Thanks
Peacocks Australia

Hi PA,
Is there a minimum depth re ponds for Mandarins As regards to your elevated drinking bowl -- do you use an elevated feeding station as well.

When you say you incubate most of your eggs, do you rob all the mandarin eggs or leave some for them to do their own thing,will they keep laying to a certain point if your removing eggs.

Many thanks,
Snowball. :D :D

Hi Snowball, All our ponds are 2 ft deep this allows them to swim without touching the bottom, but limits the volume of water. Yes we have elevated feed stations for non ground dwelling birds. When our Mandarins start laying we replace all eggs with dummy eggs as they are layed this ensures they lay a full round of eggs.

Thanks
Peacocks Australia

Hi PA,

What are you useing for dummy eggs ,are they available on the market.

Many thanks for all your help.

Snowball :D :D :D

Hi Snowball, We use commercial plastic "Dummy Eggs" we purchased them several years ago from a Produce Shop in West Ipswich, they are hard plastic with a small amount of sand in side to emulate the real thing. This shop sells all types of "Dummy Eggs" for just about every type of bird.

Will try to find the Name & Phone number for you?

Thanks
Peacocks Australia

Hi PA,

Many thanks for that -- a phone number and name would be great. :D :D

Regards,
Snowball :D :D :D