|
|
Post by lavandulagirl on Jun 22, 2011 17:48:01 GMT -5
Do you have a contained swimming hole for your ducks? Just thought I'd mention that the water in there is a lovely, premixed manure tea. I have a 5' kiddie pool for the ducks, which they obligingly poop in as they swim and bathe. I use that water for the raised beds. That's a lot of gallons of manure tea.
|
|
|
|
Post by steev on Jun 22, 2011 20:14:49 GMT -5
Sounds like a good reason not to keep white ducks.
|
|
|
|
Post by lavandulagirl on Jun 22, 2011 20:33:38 GMT -5
I have yet to see a tub ring on a duck. 
|
|
|
|
Post by johno on Jun 22, 2011 21:25:14 GMT -5
I have white ducks, a recent acquisition. Oddly enough I just dumped out a tubful of that liquid fertilizer today. Drr! Not that they won't make more...
Also, I herded them to the garden pond for the first time today. I marveled at how they'd dip under the greenish water and come up white, or at least the nearly-white they started out as.
|
|
|
|
Post by steev on Jun 23, 2011 0:30:21 GMT -5
Ring around a ducky, pool is full of pucky; splashes, splashes, all light brown!
|
|
|
|
Post by seedywen on Jun 23, 2011 9:03:17 GMT -5
Am very fond of Turtle Ponds.
The ones that fill with sand.
With some luck. Get a duck.
The fertilizer is quite grand!
|
|
|
|
Post by 12540dumont on Jun 24, 2011 19:28:18 GMT -5
Well, just before you run out and get a duck....lovely as they are...We bought 6 ducks in spring. By Fall we had 22 ducks. Over the winter we had some 40 ducks.
It was a quacking quackeroo. Great weeders of grass and slugs. My thought in the future is that we are going to cull all the male ducks to retain a respectable flock. They were very cute towing around their ducklings. But what a racket.
How about weeder geese? Anyone try them?
And yes, my son at 6 was teaching ducks to swim in his kiddie pool. Well, then he found out that he couldn't swim with them for the very same reason. Anyone need some wild rice for their duck kiddie pool?
PM me and it's yours.
|
|
|
|
Post by steev on Jun 24, 2011 21:22:25 GMT -5
Mmmm, duck with wild rice.
Bear in mind that a hostile duck is pretty irrelevant, but a hostile goose is dangerous. However, nothing makes a baked potato more deliciously crispy-skinned than goose grease.
Keep your friends close; keep your enemies decapitated and roasted.
|
|
|
|
Post by lavandulagirl on Jun 24, 2011 22:10:44 GMT -5
Your ducks were some serious overachievers! I've got 5 ducks - 4 females and a drake. They're almost a year old now, and no one's even gone broody, let alone hatched anything. 
|
|
|
|
Post by seedywen on Jun 25, 2011 8:45:01 GMT -5
steev. Are you fond of 'long pig' then  |
|
|
|
Post by steev on Jun 25, 2011 10:01:33 GMT -5
Don't know for a fact that I've ever had it. Here in California, though, we have a variant on the Turkish dish "doner kebab" called "Donner kebab", finger-lickin' good, for sure.
|
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Jun 25, 2011 12:17:27 GMT -5
My cayuga ducklings put on weight at an astounding rate, triple that of my duel purpose chickens. Since we live in a rather wet coastal climate , I will definitely be raising more ducks particualrily the muscovies as they are so quiet, they are definitely my favourites though I got adults so I am not sure how quickly they mature.
|
|
|
|
Post by bunkie on Jun 26, 2011 10:40:49 GMT -5
Your ducks were some serious overachievers! I've got 5 ducks - 4 females and a drake. They're almost a year old now, and no one's even gone broody, let alone hatched anything. ours haven't gone broody yet either! they're a year and a couple weeks old now. hubby's working on a system of moving the man made pond water to the gardens. will post pics when he figures it out! ;D holly, i'll pm you if you have any wild rice seed left. |
|
|
|
Post by seedywen on Jun 28, 2011 13:38:34 GMT -5
In my experience, breeding ducks, mostly Muscovies successfully and Silver Appleyards, less successfully, not all female ducks go broody and even if they do, not all females successfully hatch out eggs to term, or make good mothers.
So...selecting for broodiness and the other traits mentioned, goes a long way towards maintaining a flock.
P.S. Also re•Sexual Maturity: It is not desirable to bring ducks into egg production before 7 months of age because of problems with small egg size and low hatchability. Ducks hatched in April through July will reach sexual maturity at about 7 months of age because they are maturing during a decreasing day length. On the other hand, ducks hatched in September through January will mature 1 to 2 months early because they will be subjected to increasing lengths of natural day light. Scheduling your hatch season to coincide with the April through July time period will eliminate this problem.
|
|
|
|
Post by seedywen on Jul 1, 2011 10:13:20 GMT -5
|
|
