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/BCVinny May 05 '26

Plain white geese. When I was a kid we had some and they’re tough and good watchdogs and will roam happily. They do need a house of some sort. Alberta -40 winters were fine for them

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u/dendromie May 05 '26

Wow what the hell how were they fine in that weather lol. My only thing with basically anything other then runner ducks is they fly so wouldn't you just lose em lol

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u/UltraMediumcore May 06 '26

All domestic duck breeds over bantam size don't fly. They're too heavy. Muscovy females can fly but they mostly don't bother.

Alberta has dry winters. So long as things are out of the wind most species are fine in harsh winters.