Similar numbers to chickens, different land
On paper a duck's space allowance looks like a hen's: a dry, draught-free house with a few square feet of floor per bird, and a run of 10 to 15 square feet each as a working minimum. Ducks do not roost, so the house needs floor room and deep bedding rather than perches, and they are hardy birds that use the house mainly at night and in the worst weather. The difference from chickens is not the footprint but what happens inside it. Ducks dabble, splash and drill their bills into soft ground all day, so a run that would stay grassy under hens turns to a churned, muddy patch under ducks in a fraction of the time. Anyone planning duck ground should think less about total area and more about how the area survives water.
Water decides the layout
Every duck needs water deep enough to submerge its whole head — ducks wash their eyes and nostrils constantly, and it is a health requirement, not a luxury. A pond is optional; a sturdy tub or trough, refreshed often, does the job. But wherever the water sits, the ground around it becomes a splash zone of mud within days, and that zone is the true centre of duck land planning. Sit the water on gravel, slabs or a drained hard apron and the mud stays local; let the flock range further, and rest the worn patches in rotation, and a modest plot carries ducks indefinitely. A natural pond changes the sums again: it delights the ducks and spreads the mess, but it silts and fouls, and the banks erode, so pond-keeping flocks need more surrounding grass, not less, to stay clean.
Rotation, grass and the slug dividend
Ducks earn their land back as pest control: a ranging flock hoovers up slugs and snails with an enthusiasm hens never match, which is why gardeners tolerate the mud. To keep that arrangement working, rotate the flock around the plot in sections if you can — a moveable run or electric poultry netting makes it easy — so grazed sections recover while the ducks work fresh ground. Reserve one patch of decent grass out of the rotation as the flock's clean ground for the wettest weeks, when every other surface is at its worst. Four to six ducks, the classic garden flock, manage well on a plot of ordinary garden scale run this way; doubling the flock on the same ground doubles the mud faster than it doubles the eggs, so land, not appetite, is what caps duck numbers at home.
Shared birds, shared routine
Garden ducks are usually a household project, with feeding, egg collecting, water changing and the weekly clean-out divided among whoever is home — and ducks notice inconsistency, especially around water, which must never be left fouled because the rota slipped. KinsLe Family Sharing gives selected grandparents and parents direct entry to a profile covering these garden ducks.