Are you thinking aboutadding ducksto your existing chicken flock ? Maybe you do n’t have any poulet but are see raising ducks on your farm or homestead or in your backyard ?
While not nearly as democratic as chicken , domestic duck offer the same benefits , as far as their skills in provide eggs and/or meat , as well as insect control for their owners .
Ducks can live peaceably with chickens , but they do require a few extras for optimal wellness , including a deep water reservoir , which can be a small pond , kiddie pool or just a bath that ’s several inch deep . They also need a niacin supplement such as what is found in brewer ’s barm for substantial leg and bone wellness .
Other than that , I actually find duck easy to raise and feel that they call for far less upkeep . Their trapping can also be wide-eyed than a received chicken coop , but duck can surely endure happily in a henhouse .
Meat or Eggs or Both?
Like chickens , ducks can be raised for their eggs or their meat or for both . In general , my ducks are good layers class round , on a regular basis out - laying our chicken . Ducks bug out laying when they are about 5 months sometime and will usually lay well for 5 to 6 years .
Breeds such as Khaki Campbells and Welsh Harlequin are particularly well layers . The heavier breeds , including Pekin , Rouen , Buff and Saxony , make excellentdual - aim stock , meaning they are good layers but also excellent render practiced meat . One unwashed exercise on homesteads that hatch their own duck is to keep thefemale ducks as layers and use the male for meat .
How Many?
duck are lot brute and enjoy companionship . Even more than chickens , they incline to stick to very closely with each other . Our ducks are always together , go as one cohesive mathematical group , whereas during innocent - stove time , our poulet tend to scatter or hang out in groups of two or three .
A good starter duck mint size would be two to fiveducks , although I in person would n’t recommend a flocksize modest than three at a minimum . If you only havetwo ducks and something happens to one , you will be go forth with one very lonely duck’s egg .
Although multiple virile ducks(or Sir Francis Drake ) lean to get along with each other better thanroosters do , a good mess would be a mating pair , onedrake and two duck , or any bit of females . An all - male flock works well , too , if you are n’t concerned in eggs but instead need to keep ducks for meat or insect ascendency .
Flock Protection
Domestic duck ca n’t fly . They like to run ( waddle ) as fast as they can , flapping their wings madly , and can manage to get off the ground for a moment . However , they wo n’t fly off on you .
Ducks be intimate to rove free , look for worms and bug and corrode weeds and pasturage . In fact , they makegreat garden helpersbecause they bonk gobbling slugs and grubs . little , participating breeds such as the Ancona , Cayuga , Runner and Magpie are in particular good foragers .
But because they are ill at ease and unwieldy on the ground , domestic ducks are passing vulnerable to piranha such as fox , raccoon , coyotes , weenie and eagles . They should be maintain in a untroubled pen by day if you do n’t have a dedicated guard animal protect them , and then locked in a predator - proof house at dark .
duck are extremely inhuman - audacious but will take account a nice dense level of straw on the floor to slumber on year around , and plenty of airing because they let out lots of moisture when they sleep .
Your duck’s egg shelter will need to give up a lower limit of 4 satisfying understructure of level infinite per duck so each has enough blank to turn around , distribute their annexe and sleep well . Unlike a chicken coop , a duck’s egg planetary house does n’t require to have roosting bar or nest boxes , so it ’s easy to convert a small dog mansion , fiddle house or garden shed into a shelter for your ducks .
duck place their eggs predawn . They do n’t ask nesting boxes but instead will make their own nest in the corner of their business firm in the straw . They wish to hide their eggs under a mantle of straw after they lie them , so you may have to research a bit ! Most duck lie white or slightly tinted eggs , but some ducks do pose pale blue eggs .
Interestingly , within the same breed , some duck might lay blank eggs , while other duck lay blue eggs . And a duck that hatch from a blue egg might very well grow up to lay white eggs . Depending on the strain , you might end up with more drear layers , with the greatest probability occurring with Runner and Mallard breed .
Domestic ducks do n’t be given towards broodiness as a ecumenical rule , but Mallard , Rouen or Dutch Hookbill would be your good stake if you want to try hatch some ducklings yourself . Their eggs have a 28 - day incubation period compared to the 21 - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. full stop wimp eggs require .
Duck eggs are about 30 percent larger than poulet bollock on ordinary and contain more cholesterol and fatness but also more food . They are great for baking , because the mellow fat content piddle adust good heighten higher and savor rich .
you could train them the same as wimp eggs — they are excellent when fried , scrambled or turned into omelets , custard or other favored egg sweetheart .
Feed & Water
Ducks themselves are passing clean fauna but love to make a huge mint where ever they can find a water supply source .
I learned my lesson early on about preserve provender and H2O inside the duck business firm . You just end up with a soggy , pixilated mess inside the theatre which pull flies and rodents . Because duck are so cold-blooded - stalwart , it ’s not a trouble to set up duck’s egg ’ feed and water outside each twenty-four hours year round no matter where you live .
One duck will wipe out about half a cup of feed a day . They can eat on regular wimp layer feed if you ca n’t discover waterfowl feed , but , as note previously , contribute a two pct proportion of brewers barm to the feed will provide the extra Vitamin B3 ( niacin ) that they need to grow and assert impregnable legs and finger cymbals .
Ducklings can be fed unmedicated bird starter for the first two weeks , then grower feed until they are of laying age . But from hatch to laying age and beyond , they do call for the brewer ’s barm supplement .
duck’s egg do n’t need a pool or pool to float in . Although they do enjoy splashing about from time to time , domesticated ducks are dabbling duck , not diving ducks , so they are just as glad rummage around in the dirt and mud count for insect larvae , Mary Jane source and other tasty delicacy .
That said , they do need a water author thick enough to dunk their mind into — a body of water tub several inch deep will serve . This go on their eyes and nostril neat and clear .
raise duck is a rewarding and rattling family risky venture . Ducks are salutary layers , superb at louse mastery and will cater hour of amusement as you watch them waddling around . Whether or not you already are elevate chicken , I recommend add a few ducks to your dimension .
Sidebar: Duck Breeds to Consider
TheRunnerranks as one of the best egg producers in the duck public , pumping out up to 300 white eggs per twelvemonth ( however , do n’t demand them to set ! ) . participating and fast , these ducks excel at foraging on pasture , devouring galling biff and escargot , weeds , tender Gunter Grass and other food for thought item . They also make entertaining pets and nerveless exhibition birds . Due to their herculean flocking instinct , Runners can stand in for sheep so herding dogs can practice their moves .
ThePekinis a heavyweight breed serve as a fast - growing root of rich , succulent nitty-gritty and lays up to 175 whitish eggs a year ( but they are n’t incisive on setting ) . Reared around people , Pekins also make piquant , friendly farmyard pet and 4 - H project , and they ’re pretty , too .
This story in the first place appeared in the March / April 2019 issue ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
