Ducks

[Gardentoad]

Does anyone here know if ducks will eat lily of the valley?

I have a lot of it in one corner of my yard and we now have 4 pekin ducks.
I don't want them to get poisoned.
I have heard it it almost impossible to get rid of lily of the valley once it is established.

[newtohosta-no more]

I've read somewhere that chickens won't , but not sure about ducks.

[Spider]

They like slugs, but I've not had ducks with lilly if the valley. They go nuts ove the bags of spring salad from the grocery store!

[LucyGoose]

Google it Toad....

[Chris_W]

I didn't know Lily of the Valley was poisonous so I looked it up and it isn't listed as fatal. The ducks probably would avoid it. I know our chickens avoid a lot of things, and even spit out the choke cherries after they tried them and won't ever go back to them. But I had heard Bleeding Hearts could also be toxic and our chickens ate those to the ground

To be honest, after letting our chickens free range for a while this spring, I won't do it again. They tore things up so bad and ate so many things to the ground (even dug up some hostas and started eating at the eyes) that I won't let them loose again like that. I've heard that ducks are worse, but not sure firsthand.

[Gardentoad]

Thanks. They did get into the area and didn't seem interested, but I chased them out pretty quick. I only have 4 ducks and they are not doing much damage so far. There is one hosta, a lancifolia I have planted around a post that they are nibbling on. They really arn't eating too much of it. but they all have to sit on it to eat so it is getting smashed more than eaten.

My sister in law has chickens. She told me they eat and scratch everything down to the dirt. I knew if I got chickens then I'd have to keep them confined. With ducks you take a chance on getting males. I am wanting eggs. I had 2 ducks when I was very young. They were both female and layed lots of large eggs. I was too young to remember much about how my parents took care of them.

My SIL gave me 2 of the ducks and after reading this article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/ga ... arden.html
I bought 2 more.
It doesn't mention possible poisonous plants.
I have been handfeeding them dandelions to get them interested in eating them.
I hope they get a taste for ground clover.

The first thing I did was google it. I read a lot of farming articles but they penned them because of preditors.
Then I asked on pet forums, a duck owner yahoo group, and finally 2 garden forums.
There really isn't a lot out there on domestic ducks as pets.
I had trouble trying to find the dimentions for the door on my duckhouse.

So far the only problems are that they tore up the waterlilies in my pond and are eating the iris along the edges down. The mini cattails seem to grow fast enough to take the nibbling. The plant pieces are stopping up the skimmer so I have to clean it out a couple times a day. I moved parts of all my waterlilies to my stream pond. When the water gets warmer I will get the rest of the roots and plants off the bottom and I am relocating the marginals so that I won't have this problem in the water.

This picture was taken a couple weeks ago. They are almost all white now and have most of their feathers in.

[petal*pusher]

Looks like you've got your ducks in a row! Such cuties they are!

My family had a few ducks when I was a youngin'...and I remember my Dad being VERY angry when we had to replant several rows of beans in our large organic garden after they toddled along munchin' on all the little seedlings!

Seems like the way we identified the gender of them was that the male had a curly top-feather on his tail...the females tails were just straight out behind them. I can't remember eating the eggs...but Mom may have mixed them in with the chicken eggs without us knowing!

Love the picture!......Pam

[Ginger]

I think one of our Hallson friends has ducks, Muskovys I believe. I think it is Cottage Rose? She has a website on her member page, maybe you could go there and see or ask her your question?

Good luck, they sure are cute

G

[party_music50]

What a terrific photo!

I trust that animals have some inate sense of what they can safely eat.

[newtohosta-no more]

How adorable they are! All cute and fuzzy looking!

[Gardentoad]

I guess they just know not to eat it. They have been over there and they don't touch it. They did eat down a lancifolia hosta so I need to move it if I want to keep it. They don't bother the thicker leaved hostas. Mostly they pick through the lawn for clover, dandelion and other weeds. They eat the groundcover sedums a little, but they like to all sit on plants in the garden. So far not much damage at all. I keep their food dish full.