I keep some ducks & a few geese free range.I have decided to keep them out of the veggie garden,as they will eat any of the greens,as You have stated.They are not as destructive as chickens,in that they do not scratch about in the dirt.I also found the runner ducks to be excellent little bug hunters.I give them some cracked corn & other than that they just eat grass,weeds & pond weed & whatever bugs they catch.Hopefully You don't have any sago palms,but if You do,then fence them off.The ducks seem to love the new tender fronds in the Spring & the sago palm is lethal to them-I found out the hard way & ended up having to tear out about 30 palms.Also keep an eye out for predators.You'll be amazed what will find a way of getting onto Your property,once they know You have ducks.I am currently dealing with what looks to be a young panther.I have only seen it for a second & in very poor light,but it has killed several of my ducks in the past year.My property is entirely fenced in & I have several dogs,but it has learnt there is a food source here.Good luck with keeping the ducks,they are great to have around & the eggs are excellent for cooking with.

West,

I assume you do not pen them up at night? My plan was to free range them days and lock them up in a secure pen nights. Was leaning more toward the muscovy ducks from the reading I have done.

Yes correct,mine are truly free range & not secured at night.I have an island in the middle of the pond,that would(at least in my opinion)be a perfect place to roost at night,but for some reason,they have never liked to roost there.They all wanted to sleep closer to the house & that is when I was having ducks attacked by the big cat.They have since decided to roost on a couple of old tree stumps,that sit above the water level out in the pond.Glad to say,I have not lost one since then.I think Muscovy ducks are pretty tough & are actually capable of roosting up in the trees at night(if I remember corrrectly)& so I don't think they will have as many predator issues.Best of luck

Our muscovies are tough ducks. We don't lock them up at night and they seem to do okay once they are large and mature but I am sure if the predator is large enough, they could take a muscovy. When they are little you have to lock them up or even cats will get them not to mention owls, foxes, racoons etc.
They can all fly pretty well once feathered out until the males get too heavy...then the males cannot fly up on the roof or into the trees but the females remain good flyers. My muscovies will eat edible plants especially the bananas so you should probably not get them if you intend to run them in your garden.
How about some cotton patch geese? They were bred to eat weeds out of the garden and not disturb the plants. They are supposed to be docile.
http://www.cottonpatchgeese.com/

There are also some smaller varieties of ducks like call ducks (kinda like a dwarf duck) but you will have to lock them up at night for sure.

I have guineas in my garden and they will scrape their beaks carefully on the stems and leaves of plants to get all the little bugs and do not disturb the plants at all. If they have a wide space and a separate place with just dirt to dirt bathe they do not disturb the plants roots either especially if you mulch your plants. My guineas are my first choice for pest control in the garden. They do a great job and have allowed me to be organic with our edibles. They would need to be fenced in though because they are great flyers as well. I raised mine in a coop with a small adjoining pen until they were 6 mos old to get them used to being and staying in a coop at night. So now I have no problem letting them into the garden during the day and locking them in the coop at night. Owls do like to eat guineas. The pearl gray guineas seem to be less susceptible to predators than the lighter colors like lavender or white, if you are going to leave them out at night. There is a good book called Gardening With Guineas that gives great advice.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardening with guineas

Jasmine,

When you say they eat the bananas.....how exactly do they do that? Do they just nibble away at the bottom of the stalks? I was going to clip the wings on the ducks as I live on the water and don't want them out on the lake really.

Where can I buy a couple of ducklings?

Look on Craigs list

Are you going to use them for eggs? Meat? Pest control? What kind are you getting? We looked into it before hubby decided he didn't like my pond-on-the-cheap idea. It seems khaki campbells are good egg layers, and of course pekins are a good meat choice.

Audra,

Yes yes and yes. I am getting Muscovy......if you want you can get pekin ducks and the male muscovy will breed them also. The resulting offspring are sterile but good to eat. I am also considering a pair of geese for weeders....I so hate to weed. You don't need a pond at all. Deep watering dishes are enough or a kids wading pool.

The muscovies ate several of my banana plants (basically all they could get to) all the way down to the corms and eventually killed them. These were in pots but large plants. They also will eat roses, rose leaves, herbs or anything else they please lol. They seem to leave the citrus fruit alone but enjoy the starfruit,blackberries, figs, etc. that they could reach. I am putting them in a pen next spring.
They leave most of the other non edibles alone but the males get large and when they are in "the mood" they will chase the females and even each other trying to mate and will completely trample everything in their path.
Don't get me wrong, I love our scovies but they can be a PIA in the garden. I think they just need their own separate area. They do not need a large pond, they do not swim as much as other ducks. Ours just have a kiddie pool and they take a few dips per day but don't really spend a lot of time in the water. They like to wander around the yard and eat weeds and grass mostly and of course some choice plants grrrr. They lay pretty seasonally. They mostly lay eggs just so they can hatch babies then stop and sit on them. They lay nice large white eggs that are great for baking. Indian runner ducks and khaki campbell are much better layers. We had way too many males so sent some to freezer camp last summer. They are really delicious and smell like turkey when roasting in the oven :)
Other things about the muscovies is that they do eat alot of bugs, toads, frogs, etc. They are quiet and do not quack. They make a hissing and loud breathing noises mostly. You know you have muscovies when you walk out into the dark backyard and hear heavy breathing coming from the bushes and you are not alarmed lol. I read that they come from South America and they are used for mosquito control there and will eat lots of mosquitos and are called Musco ducks there.

Here's some that hatched out last Easter Day here at our place. There were 11 in all. Only 2 were females lol.
{{gwi:478323}}

I realized I didn't fully answer you question on 'HOW they eat the bananas' lol. They bite at the stem and it topples over and they then procede to eat the whole thing! Then nibble down toward the corm as well. They usually do this at night or early dawn before I am awake and I go out to find the damage already done but I finally caught them in the act one morning so they were busted! For awhile I was wondering if it was a squirrel or something. They must really like the taste of them. They will do the same thing to gingers and cannas. I suppose if you put up some hardware cloth or chicken wire around the stems maybe 2 1/2 -3 ft high, they might not be able to get to them. I just have way too many plants for that so am going to give them thier own area minus my edibles lol.
Lenette

Muscovies are very quiet, but I find them very aggressive. I had a couple when I lived on 5 acres, and they would literally tear the other ducks apart fighting over food. Here on the pond in the apt. complex where I live, I have one who has "adopted" me, a young male, and he will come and tap on my sliding glass door to get me to come feed him. He is sort of a lone duck, but not friendly. The older males will jump up and try to take the food out of your hand. I had one fly in my face one day. These aren't very domesticated, but even the two I had were just inbred aggressive. Plus, they are an invasive species, so I wouldn't have them. I love our Indian runner. he is so sweet and gentle, as is the pekin...although she is a noisy lout!

Hey, maybe we can trade pretty colored chicken eggs for some duck eggs once in a while! I love duck eggs for baking, they are much richer than chicken eggs.

Are you going to train your geese as guard animals? :)

Our muscovies don't seem too aggressive except for when mating. We don't have any other kinds of ducks though.
We do have lots of chickens, guineas and a few turkeys running around with them. The roosters can even boss the muscovy drakes around and they will make sure the chickens and hens eat before allowing the ducks to eat.
When it comes to getting treats, the ducks get pushed to the rear of the pack lol. The chickens are faster and the roosters grab the food and cluck for the hens to eat it and stand guard against the ducks. They allow the turkey hens to eat before the ducks as well. The guineas just pal around in their own little gang and ignore the ducks.

I don't think I will get any more ducks but will get some peacocks, Sabastapool geese and large Dewlap Toulouse geese. We have plenty of room here and are zoned for farm animals =)

Audra,

Lou keeps me neck deep in eggs.his hens are good producers.

Lenette,

Thank you the information is great. I guess I will just fence off the few plants they could harm and my blueberry beds and see how it goes.