How vulnerable are ducks compared to say, chickens Wilhelm? Always liked the idea of ducks, but know nothing about their behavior. I have guinea hens, and they are a bunch of jerks at times, and they will harass the chickens enough that the chickens avoid them. Would duck have a problem with that? Would be nice if the kicked the guineas butts. Lol
The ducks I have are Indian Runner Ducks.
They are very humble in their needs and tolerate other animals.
They are clean freaks though, so You have to enable them the means to bathe, a little 50 liter tub recessed into the ground does it for my 7 ducks.
I collect rain water and change their tub water 1 or 2 time a week, they don't like stinky muddy water for their grooming.
The males can behave cocky when showing off but they don't have the beak strength to harm a chicken.
These ducks will eat nearly any bug they encounter, they are notorious for eating slugs and go by the nickname "Cleaner Ducks".
In some areas You can "rent" Runner Duck flocks to clean Your garden from insects, bugs, slugs - they do little to no damage to plants and they don't dig nor scratch.
Health wise, they seem sturdy/resilient.
We did have 3 females die on us spread over an extended period of time - we do not know why.
Thankfully our flock renewed with 4 young females from last year.
I now have 5 females, one of which is a senior, and 2 senior males - and they seem to get along perfectly fine.
Their eggs are quite big and they are yummy, You can expect up to 1 egg daily per female.
They pack no meat though, they are just bred to be hyperactive - and their high egg production certainly keeps them slender too.
We consider them pets.
They are fun to watch and they are curious birds so they'll be under Your feet when You are doing something in their habitat.