Chickens are quite vulnerable animals, these birds can’t do much if a predator attacks them this is why securing the birds in their chicken houses or introducing a chicken guard animal is recommended.
If you’ve been wondering whether ducks can protect chickens then this article is for you
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Do ducks protect chickens?
If you’re looking for a bird to protect your chickens many will recommend geese, this is because geese are much larger than ducks, are more aggressive, will charge to keep the chicken safe, and possess the ability to honk loudly.
Geese are taken as chicken protectors all around the world but ducks can also be used to keep your chicken safe. This is what you need to know about it:
Ducks as guard animals:
While ducks may not possess many of the guard qualities that geese do these birds can still be helpful when it comes to protecting your chickens.
Friendliness towards humans:
For one, ducks are more friendly to humans than geese are, this trait makes them easier to keep around and makes them more pleasant to keep around too.
These birds won’t decide to one day become aggressive to you and attack you.
Loyalty:
Geese may be loyal when it comes to protecting your chickens but ducks will be loyal as well. When ducks imprint they stay loyal to the flock and they will do their best to fight off a predator if it tries to attack its chicken family.
Ability to protect:
These birds are still able to keep chickens safe by keeping weasels, slugs, and rodents away from your chicken flock keeping the birds safe, and keeping the bird’s eggs safe too.
The birds will flap their wings and honk loudly enough that humans can hear enabling you to get to the scene quickly and fend off the predator, this will help to keep the chickens safe
That being said, because ducks can’t keep larger predators like coyotes and foxes away it is still recommended that you fence off your property as an added measure.
Which ducks to use:
Not all duck types will be able to keep your chickens safe, the type of duck that you pick is important.
If you’re looking for protection for your flock then the Indian runner duck, the khaki Campbell call ducks, and other large duck breeds can be utilized to keep chickens safe.
These larger breeds of ducks are recommended as their large size intimidates anyone trying to attack the flock.
Only use two ducks:
It may sound like a good idea to use a flock of ducks to protect your flock of chickens but this can lead to your flock of chickens winding up with no protection at all
Ducks are social animals, they will attach themselves to their duck flockmates and forget all about protecting the chickens while being engrossed in each other.
You can keep two ducks on your property and this will be enough to keep your chickens safe.
The reason you’d need two ducks and not one is that the ducks will need to have at least one friend of their own species to keep themselves from feeling lonely while interacting with the chickens.
Geese to protect ducks:
Ducks and geese are similar and geese can also be used to protect chickens.
Geese are more frequently used to protect chickens because they are larger than ducks, they have a very loud honk which will keep predators, even larger predators, at bay.
Because they are more aggressive and because they will charge toward any predators that try to attack the chickens.
The benefit of using geese as guards for your chickens is that they are able to distinguish everyday noise from other noises allowing them to hear predators quickly.
The geese may attack any new people on your property thinking that they are a threat, keep this in mind.
These birds need to be raised with the chickens and will become protectors of the flock and will even break up squabbles in the flock of chickens,
Just as with ducks, the geese need to be kept as lone geese or two geese or they will focus on each other and leave the birds unprotected when a predator comes along.
If you’re looking for geese to protect your flock we recommend using pomeranian geese, African geese, Chinese geese or roman geese
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other duck related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Is My Duck Acting Drunk?, Why Do Ducks Waddle?, Duckling Swollen Chest, Why Are My Ducklings Chirping So Much?