Detlor Poultry
Attractive To Bees
Here's an idea! So for those of you who don't know, I write for the Backyard Poultry magazine. Now of course, just because I send in an article doesn't mean they'll use it. Sometimes they turn down articles for one reason or another (like not enough room, or just not a good article, or save it for a later issue, etc.)
So here's an article that 'could've been in the current (June/July) issue, but isn't. Unabridge, unedited, just the way I wrote it...
Answers to Commonly Asked Questions about Mallard-derived Ducks
Many people who are pondering whether or not they should raise ducks find themselves questioning just what all goes into raising ducks. There are many similarities, but also many differences between waterfowl and chickens, so Im going to point out a few questions I hear about such matters, and answer them. I do not know much about Muscovies, so these questions and answers are concerning Mallard-derived breeds.
Question Can ducklings be brooded with chicks?
Answer The answer to this question is variable. We do not brooder-raise ducklings and chicks together, because ducklings tend to be messier in that environment, and they are hardier to soggier conditions than chicks, so often in an environment where a duckling would thrive, a chick would very quickly die. On the other hand, ducklings can, and in my opinion should, be raised by Setting hens (like bantams, Phoenix, etc.). The hens raise them up with the chicks, and the hens do try to keep them away from the water! Setting hens do just as good of a job mothering ducklings as they do mothering chicks. The third answer to this question, is No, fertile Duck eggs should not be brooded under a hen alongside Chicken eggs. The Chicken eggs will hatch much sooner (about a week earlier), and the Setting hen will only wait at most (usually) a day for late-hatchers. This means that the hen will walk away with a troupe of chicks, and leave behind the almost-hatched duck eggs. For this reason, I prefer to use an alternate Setting hen just for duck eggs.
Question Can Ducks be Free-Ranged like chickens can?
Answer Yes. Ducks are just as, if not more so, reliable free-rangers than chickens. Ducks even learn how to free-range quicker than chickens! To train ducks to free-range, put a fence around the pen or coop you want them to go back into every night, then for a week, go out and shoo them inside. By the end of the week, they will be used to having to go inside every night, and do it on their own. You can then take down the fence. Free-ranging has a gigantic list of advantages over other methods of poultry-keeping, but with ducks, one more advantage is added: No mess. If you need to fence off your ducks, the area should be about 3-times the space than what you would give chickens; about 8 Square feet per duck. If not, you will certainly find they can make quite a mess very quickly. In about a week, 5 ducks, in the space required for 5 chickens, can turn nice, lush grass into a matt of droppings. Free-ranging has the advantage that when ducks are free ranging, they dont poo in the same spots, and they have a large area to roam, so their droppings will be well distributed and hardly noticeable.
Question What is a good Breeding Ratio for my Ducks?
Answer 1-2 or 1-3. And thats with good stock. In the wild, Mallards pair off like pigeons do, and some think they may mate for life. Basically, their reproductive systems of the drakes are set up to accommodate only one mate, but most domestic breeds can handle up to 3 mates without fertility loss. 1-1 matings of course produce the highest fertility levels, and are the safest if you do not entirely know your stock, i.e. they are your first ducks. There is a genetic problem in some poor strains causing a lethal condition called Phallus Prostration. This is where the ratio has too many ducks for the drake to handle, and if the drake mates too often, his genitalia will become lodged in his vent, preventing him from urinating or defecating, and killing him quickly. I have never had this happen, fortunately, but that also means I couldnt tell you how to cure it.
Question Ive heard that ducks lay more eggs per year than chickens do. Is that true?
Answer A conditional yes. Campbells, Harlequins, Magpies and Runners are touted as being capable of laying 320+ eggs per year. That has to be the fine print on the contract. They are capable. Do they? Only certain strains selected specifically for production do. I have a friend who bought a young Khaki Campbell hen, and she never layed an egg in her 7-year life. Hatchery Quality and Exhibition quality stock probably wont lay well. Also, Hybrid Vigour can help. Crosses between Strains or even varieties and Breeds can produce great egg-machine daughters. Dave Holderread stated in one of his books that during experimental crosses, he found that good strains of Campbell and Harlequin drakes produced awesome-laying daughters no matter what breed the mother was.
Question Will ducks be able to eat the same feed as my chickens?
Answer That depends on what you feed your chickens. If the feed is medicated, I would be very careful. Often the medication put in chicken feed is hostile to ducks. If you use un-medicated feed, then its safe. I would go with all-purpose poultry feed in this situation, because it is produced specifically for all poultry to be able to eat. I feed all my poultry Cracked Corn over the winter, and they do well on that. In a free-range situation, there are no plants that a chicken eats that a duck wont be able to eat as well. Ducks are a little more gullible when it comes to Hardware Disease (eating hard, sharp objects mistaken for bugs), though. My ducks even try eating the buttons off my shirt when I pick them up! You also have to be wary of poisonous plants, like Hogweed and Virgins Bower.
Question What is the best Meat Breed?
Answer This depends on your personal preferences. True Appleyards, Rouens, Saxonies, and Swedes make excellent Meat breeds. Pekins are excellent for a commercial setup (they grow surprisingly fast), but most people find they lack good quality, as they are tough and fatty. Huttegems were the famed champions of the worlds meat ducks, supposedly having the best taste a duck could ever have, and excellently tender meat, but about 20 years ago, the breed met with a sad end. Since the Huttegems extinction, the Rouen has taken its place as the most revered meat breed in the world, but still is far out-numbered by the commercial producers favoured Jumbo Pekin, the second largest breed of mallard in the world (note; the West Virginia Mountain duck is the largest, reportedly reaching up to 16lbs.).
Question Do ducks need Swimming Water?
Answer Fundamentally, No. Large size breeds need Breeding water, though. This both stimulates breeding, and highly increases fertility. (Anyone whos ever witnessed a pair of Rouens mating on dry land probably also laughed their head off when the drake lost his balance). Bantams and Egg breeds dont depend on mating water, but it still increases their fertility. Ducks wholesomely enjoy paddling around in a pool or better yet on a pond. This lets them achieve their favourite form of foraging: Dabbling. There seems to be nothing in the world a duck likes better than to stick their fronts under water and their rears up in the air, and dine on aquatic plants.
Question Do ducks make good pets like chickens?
Answer Although I dont keep ducks or chickens as pets, the ones I know I am going to keep as breeder stock, I imprint them to me. Short answer: Ducks actually make better pets than chickens (with all due respect to those who have a pet chicken in their laps while theyre reading this). You see, ducks and geese are very easily imprinted creatures, with much stronger imprinting instincts than chickens. When you spend the first 3 days with a duckling or gosling, you are their Mama and nothing will separate you now. With chickens, the instinct to stay with mama is lower, and the imprinting takes a bit more work.
Question What kind of winter protection do ducks need?
Answer Ducks are naturally about twice as hardy as chickens and about half as hardy as turkeys. My ducks have done well in a small unheated un-insulated barn during the winter, even during days when temperatures bottomed out at -25C. Ducks should be kept inside during days as cold as these, but average winter days around -10C, they can be let outside. I keep mine in the barn, not because the ducks need the shelter, but because the bantams that are positioned in shelves above them need the extra heat coming from the ducks. Incidentally, dont worry about ducks feet freezing; I have read that their feet cant freeze because of a special system of blood vessels running through their feet; and likewise, my ducks have never shown ill effects from walking and standing on snow and ice.
Question Are ducks noisy?
Answer This is another Variable question. Generally, only the Hens (drakes dont quack) are noisy. In certain breeds, Pekins, Calls, and Swedes, for example, the Hens are especially loud, and in others, like Rouens and Cayugas, the Hens are almost mute. Authenticity plays a large role in this, too. True Appleyards are not as loud as American Appleyards (false Appleyards), like Harlequin/Appleyard crosses. A Harlequin/Appleyard cross hen we had in 2010 was the loudest, noisiest duck Ive ever heard. A false Strain of Buff Orpingtons we have around here is quieter than true Orpingtons, because they are descended from Rouen/Orpington crosses. However, bigger birds are generally louder than smaller birds. I have a true Orpington hen that seems to quack more often than she breathes, but my False Orpington hen can boast a rare, but very powerful, deep, harsh quack that carries much farther, although she is usually silent.
Question What can I expect to have to pay for a duck?
Answer I would love to give you all a specific price, but there is really no such thing. Ducklings from hatcheries seem to be in the $3-6 range, and from breeders there seems to be even more variation from $1-5. It depends on alot of factors; the Breed (the scarcest breeds will cost alot more, like say, Kromsnavleend ducklings can be sold for up to $10 apiece, and Ive heard of a W.V Mountain duckling being sold for $200), the trouble (breeders with more intensive means or raising ducks will charge more per duckling than those who raise ducks in an extensive environment), and the breeders personal preferences (some breeders consider their stock to be superior and charge accordingly more for their ducklings). Adult ducks usually cost about 3-5 times as much as they would as ducklings, and all the factors I listed count for adults as well.
Well, I hope this article has helped you with your decision as to whether or not you should get ducks. Thank you for reading this article.
So here's an article that 'could've been in the current (June/July) issue, but isn't. Unabridge, unedited, just the way I wrote it...
Answers to Commonly Asked Questions about Mallard-derived Ducks
Many people who are pondering whether or not they should raise ducks find themselves questioning just what all goes into raising ducks. There are many similarities, but also many differences between waterfowl and chickens, so Im going to point out a few questions I hear about such matters, and answer them. I do not know much about Muscovies, so these questions and answers are concerning Mallard-derived breeds.
Question Can ducklings be brooded with chicks?
Answer The answer to this question is variable. We do not brooder-raise ducklings and chicks together, because ducklings tend to be messier in that environment, and they are hardier to soggier conditions than chicks, so often in an environment where a duckling would thrive, a chick would very quickly die. On the other hand, ducklings can, and in my opinion should, be raised by Setting hens (like bantams, Phoenix, etc.). The hens raise them up with the chicks, and the hens do try to keep them away from the water! Setting hens do just as good of a job mothering ducklings as they do mothering chicks. The third answer to this question, is No, fertile Duck eggs should not be brooded under a hen alongside Chicken eggs. The Chicken eggs will hatch much sooner (about a week earlier), and the Setting hen will only wait at most (usually) a day for late-hatchers. This means that the hen will walk away with a troupe of chicks, and leave behind the almost-hatched duck eggs. For this reason, I prefer to use an alternate Setting hen just for duck eggs.
Question Can Ducks be Free-Ranged like chickens can?
Answer Yes. Ducks are just as, if not more so, reliable free-rangers than chickens. Ducks even learn how to free-range quicker than chickens! To train ducks to free-range, put a fence around the pen or coop you want them to go back into every night, then for a week, go out and shoo them inside. By the end of the week, they will be used to having to go inside every night, and do it on their own. You can then take down the fence. Free-ranging has a gigantic list of advantages over other methods of poultry-keeping, but with ducks, one more advantage is added: No mess. If you need to fence off your ducks, the area should be about 3-times the space than what you would give chickens; about 8 Square feet per duck. If not, you will certainly find they can make quite a mess very quickly. In about a week, 5 ducks, in the space required for 5 chickens, can turn nice, lush grass into a matt of droppings. Free-ranging has the advantage that when ducks are free ranging, they dont poo in the same spots, and they have a large area to roam, so their droppings will be well distributed and hardly noticeable.
Question What is a good Breeding Ratio for my Ducks?
Answer 1-2 or 1-3. And thats with good stock. In the wild, Mallards pair off like pigeons do, and some think they may mate for life. Basically, their reproductive systems of the drakes are set up to accommodate only one mate, but most domestic breeds can handle up to 3 mates without fertility loss. 1-1 matings of course produce the highest fertility levels, and are the safest if you do not entirely know your stock, i.e. they are your first ducks. There is a genetic problem in some poor strains causing a lethal condition called Phallus Prostration. This is where the ratio has too many ducks for the drake to handle, and if the drake mates too often, his genitalia will become lodged in his vent, preventing him from urinating or defecating, and killing him quickly. I have never had this happen, fortunately, but that also means I couldnt tell you how to cure it.
Question Ive heard that ducks lay more eggs per year than chickens do. Is that true?
Answer A conditional yes. Campbells, Harlequins, Magpies and Runners are touted as being capable of laying 320+ eggs per year. That has to be the fine print on the contract. They are capable. Do they? Only certain strains selected specifically for production do. I have a friend who bought a young Khaki Campbell hen, and she never layed an egg in her 7-year life. Hatchery Quality and Exhibition quality stock probably wont lay well. Also, Hybrid Vigour can help. Crosses between Strains or even varieties and Breeds can produce great egg-machine daughters. Dave Holderread stated in one of his books that during experimental crosses, he found that good strains of Campbell and Harlequin drakes produced awesome-laying daughters no matter what breed the mother was.
Question Will ducks be able to eat the same feed as my chickens?
Answer That depends on what you feed your chickens. If the feed is medicated, I would be very careful. Often the medication put in chicken feed is hostile to ducks. If you use un-medicated feed, then its safe. I would go with all-purpose poultry feed in this situation, because it is produced specifically for all poultry to be able to eat. I feed all my poultry Cracked Corn over the winter, and they do well on that. In a free-range situation, there are no plants that a chicken eats that a duck wont be able to eat as well. Ducks are a little more gullible when it comes to Hardware Disease (eating hard, sharp objects mistaken for bugs), though. My ducks even try eating the buttons off my shirt when I pick them up! You also have to be wary of poisonous plants, like Hogweed and Virgins Bower.
Question What is the best Meat Breed?
Answer This depends on your personal preferences. True Appleyards, Rouens, Saxonies, and Swedes make excellent Meat breeds. Pekins are excellent for a commercial setup (they grow surprisingly fast), but most people find they lack good quality, as they are tough and fatty. Huttegems were the famed champions of the worlds meat ducks, supposedly having the best taste a duck could ever have, and excellently tender meat, but about 20 years ago, the breed met with a sad end. Since the Huttegems extinction, the Rouen has taken its place as the most revered meat breed in the world, but still is far out-numbered by the commercial producers favoured Jumbo Pekin, the second largest breed of mallard in the world (note; the West Virginia Mountain duck is the largest, reportedly reaching up to 16lbs.).
Question Do ducks need Swimming Water?
Answer Fundamentally, No. Large size breeds need Breeding water, though. This both stimulates breeding, and highly increases fertility. (Anyone whos ever witnessed a pair of Rouens mating on dry land probably also laughed their head off when the drake lost his balance). Bantams and Egg breeds dont depend on mating water, but it still increases their fertility. Ducks wholesomely enjoy paddling around in a pool or better yet on a pond. This lets them achieve their favourite form of foraging: Dabbling. There seems to be nothing in the world a duck likes better than to stick their fronts under water and their rears up in the air, and dine on aquatic plants.
Question Do ducks make good pets like chickens?
Answer Although I dont keep ducks or chickens as pets, the ones I know I am going to keep as breeder stock, I imprint them to me. Short answer: Ducks actually make better pets than chickens (with all due respect to those who have a pet chicken in their laps while theyre reading this). You see, ducks and geese are very easily imprinted creatures, with much stronger imprinting instincts than chickens. When you spend the first 3 days with a duckling or gosling, you are their Mama and nothing will separate you now. With chickens, the instinct to stay with mama is lower, and the imprinting takes a bit more work.
Question What kind of winter protection do ducks need?
Answer Ducks are naturally about twice as hardy as chickens and about half as hardy as turkeys. My ducks have done well in a small unheated un-insulated barn during the winter, even during days when temperatures bottomed out at -25C. Ducks should be kept inside during days as cold as these, but average winter days around -10C, they can be let outside. I keep mine in the barn, not because the ducks need the shelter, but because the bantams that are positioned in shelves above them need the extra heat coming from the ducks. Incidentally, dont worry about ducks feet freezing; I have read that their feet cant freeze because of a special system of blood vessels running through their feet; and likewise, my ducks have never shown ill effects from walking and standing on snow and ice.
Question Are ducks noisy?
Answer This is another Variable question. Generally, only the Hens (drakes dont quack) are noisy. In certain breeds, Pekins, Calls, and Swedes, for example, the Hens are especially loud, and in others, like Rouens and Cayugas, the Hens are almost mute. Authenticity plays a large role in this, too. True Appleyards are not as loud as American Appleyards (false Appleyards), like Harlequin/Appleyard crosses. A Harlequin/Appleyard cross hen we had in 2010 was the loudest, noisiest duck Ive ever heard. A false Strain of Buff Orpingtons we have around here is quieter than true Orpingtons, because they are descended from Rouen/Orpington crosses. However, bigger birds are generally louder than smaller birds. I have a true Orpington hen that seems to quack more often than she breathes, but my False Orpington hen can boast a rare, but very powerful, deep, harsh quack that carries much farther, although she is usually silent.
Question What can I expect to have to pay for a duck?
Answer I would love to give you all a specific price, but there is really no such thing. Ducklings from hatcheries seem to be in the $3-6 range, and from breeders there seems to be even more variation from $1-5. It depends on alot of factors; the Breed (the scarcest breeds will cost alot more, like say, Kromsnavleend ducklings can be sold for up to $10 apiece, and Ive heard of a W.V Mountain duckling being sold for $200), the trouble (breeders with more intensive means or raising ducks will charge more per duckling than those who raise ducks in an extensive environment), and the breeders personal preferences (some breeders consider their stock to be superior and charge accordingly more for their ducklings). Adult ducks usually cost about 3-5 times as much as they would as ducklings, and all the factors I listed count for adults as well.
Well, I hope this article has helped you with your decision as to whether or not you should get ducks. Thank you for reading this article.
