Welcome to Ducksworld. This is the place where you can see how I breed with exotic ducks in my backyard as a hobby. I have been doing this for about seven years and I really enjoy sharing what I have learnt with others. I am not a professional breeder but do this purely because of the love of ducks and the enjoyment I get from watching them.
My name is Peter and I stay in Florida which is a suburb in the beautiful city of Johannesburg, South Africa. I have a great passion for ducks and I have been putting some effort into it as a hobby. I started in December 2001 with 2 pairs of exotic duck (One pair of Mandarin and one pair of Woodduck) in a pen in my backyard.
I wish I had more open spaces so I can keep more duck but I guess it has it’s advantages to be in a suburb – I do not have to contend with foxes and other such predators. The worst I get to deal with are mice, rats and thousands of doves who feed on the duck’s food. But for the mice and rats I have 3 cats and two dogs patrolling the yard. Luckily the cats have not tried to jump the fence so far and seem generally uninterested in the ducks. I think the ducks are too big for the cats to consider them as food. The doves do sometimes become food for the cats – that is when they are not too full and lazy from eating their pellets.
As I said, I started out with one pair each of Woodduck/Carolina and Mandarin. Not too long after this I decided that they looked too lonely and got a pair of Bahama Pintails. Not long after that I just fell in love with the Ring Teals and had to get a pair of those. By August of 2002 I had already doubled the size of the pen and got a pair of Chiloe Widgeons. By February 2003 I got my permit from Nature Conservation to keep indigenous ducks. I immediately got pairs of Yellow Bills, Cape Teal and Fulvous Whistling ducks. Now I only have the Cape Teals. The reason being that the Fulvous female died and I gave the male away. The Yellow Bill ducks bred twice and were very happy in the pen..only problem was that they were the biggest in the pen and during breeding season they became very aggressive. So I took them to an aviary at the Krugersdorp Game Reserve.
At the moment in March 2010 I still have the Mandarins and Carolina ducks as well as the Chiloe Widgeons, Bahama Pintails, and Ring Teals but have acquired Ferruginous White eye and Rosy Bills. I am planning to get a pair of Chestnut Teals, Wandering Whistling ducks as well as North American Ruddy ducks.
I hope you enjoy the website and find it helpful. If you need more info or want to be included on these pages or you want to contribute to this website please contact me – peter@ducksworld.com