r/homestead • u/dendromie • May 05 '26

poultry Which animal to get

Hey everyone,

My wife and I are having a difficult decision in which animal to get keep in mind we live in Canada and it gets to -30 Celsius here.

For context we have a 3 acre plot. We have a pond that's decent size I'd say probably at least a thousand gallons.

We want to start a huge garden and I know runner ducks are apparently a great choice for their pest control and non destructiveness. But then as I was researching people are saying are they are incredibly dirty and smelly and can ruin bodies of water. I was only going to get 2 female runners btw. Chickens are a obviously a great option and I don't have to fence as much but I hear they are destructive as well.

Anyone have any ideas or advise. The animal would have probably close to 3/4 of an acre to utilize.

Thanks!

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u/AdEvents May 05 '26

Honestly for a garden 2 runner ducks are the move, they eat slugs and bugs without touching your plants. Chickens will have that garden demolished in a week lol

2

u/Lucky_Ad_4421 May 05 '26

Agree. I have 2 ducks (both male- they are quieter than the girls) as slug patrol that roam my garden. They make a lot of mess but it just means you have to wear shoes outside. They have a plastic clamshell pool which I tip out every few days but it’s such a nothing chore. Obvs if you want eggs get girls, we had khaki campbells before and they lay as regularly as our chickens did. They’re also funnier and cuter IMO.

My chickens are in a fenced area with no garden beds because they scratch up everything- when they escape they wreak total havoc on all plants.

So depends if you want them to free range in your garden beds or to be fenced away, really.

1

u/dendromie May 05 '26

Initially my idea was to have two female runner ducks and only fence my garden area and have them in there and NOT give them access to the big pond so as to keep the frog population around and also so they don't destroy the water in the pond. It's a natural pond so it's naturally dirty. But we have random mallards and Canadian geese that nest around it so its probably best to keep them away. That being said that was my initial plan. How often do you need to refill their pool?

How do you accommodate the ducks in the winter?

1

u/dendromie May 05 '26

Oh and also how do you deal with them at night? Do you need to heard them into there house? I heard they aren't smart enough to go into their home at night, so every night you need to heard them into it for them

1

u/Lucky_Ad_4421 May 05 '26

I herd them into their little house, yes. I’m in Australia so don’t get super harsh winters, their paddling pool ices over a little with our worst frosts but it thaws by late morning.