The khaki-Campbell duck Thread !!!!!!!!

[Robeenop]

So 2 years ago, when I go my first chicks, I had plenty of room to do what I wanted coop wise, so I thought I would be effecient. I ran pvc for my watering system, drip system,made fancy gravity fed feeders, spent over $1000 on my first coop and run. The coop is 8'w 8'l 6'h and the enclosed run is 8x8x24. The waterers froze in the winter, the girls did no like the gravity feeders. So in cold weather I had to re think my system. Using hanging feeders,and the brite taps- it works year round. You gotta do what works for you. It worked so well, I built an additional "a" frame that is 8x8, holds 6 hens, a 5x5 two story that holds 6 more. My big coop can hold 30+ comfortably. So I actually have coop room for 60, but only have 30, not including the 5 ducks. I guess that is why my mixed flock works. Their entire fenced in pen is about 3000 square feet. I will probably get a few more chicks next month, maybe turkens, I have 13 different breeds, need one more to stay even. Haha. Turkens are just cute to me, and not to forget my saipan jungle fowl rooster, gotta have him too this year.
BTW, my Light Brahma rooster is recovering nicely from his sprained foot, he stands so nice in his warm epsom salt soaks. Maybe by the weekend, I will put him back in the flock. I have put one of his girls with him at night to keep him company. Such a good boy, but such a clutz!

 

[LeannS]

So lets talk kitchen scrapes. At my house we eat ALOT of fruit and vegetables and I take out about a 1/2 gallon to a Gallon of scraps to the composter each day. I have 3 chickens that aren't premadonas and will actually eat scraps (my 2 RIR won't even eat a worm and they are the ones I let free range, but they will eat snakes so go figure). I am getting some dark Cornish this spring and they will eat the scraps. I am thinking KC ducks for most of our eggs and Dark Cornish Chickens for the Meat, though I have been advised to some dual purpose ducks with decent egg production, but I really want/need eggs every single day so maybe the KC is the best option, plus them being lighter will work better on my wire floor hutch until I can get things setup for them to be on the ground.

But what I am thinking is feeding the scrapes to the ducks and here is why- I only want one kitchen scrape compost material holding bucket in the kitchen as they tend to attract Knats. Now if someone knows of a good holder for this type of material let me know, but what we use is a stainless steel type small trash can with the lid that lifts when the pedal is mashed down. It works well and keeps hands sanitary while dealing with something quick like droping in a banana peel after peeling it. But the top doesn't seal well so thus it attracts knats. So anyway we eat eggs every morning and the shells go in the compost. Well I can't feed egg shells in their whole form to the chickens as it will show them that eggs are good and we know what that leads to. I could crush them up by hand but I will miss one eventually and that is all it takes. So instead of digging through compost to get egg shells out, I put the compost in the composter outside and I have filled up two large Garbage Cans this winter because composting slows with the cooler temps.
So what I am thinking, and please advise me here, is that I suspect the ducks have a way harder time getting into their own eggs compared to a chicken due to the shape of the beaks and the duck egg is harder and given the large surface area of their beak I would suspect that ducks can't normally eat their eggs (normally meaning they have enough calcium which in this case they would get plenty by eating the egg shells and they shouldn't need supplements for calcium as well). So in that case I could feed the kitchen scrapes to the ducks and let them compost what they care to and give the leftovers to the composter.

Sounds good, so now tell me the reality.

I would say to just compost it all ,egg shells too, egg shells are not the best source of calcium, use oyster shells.
I have been there done that followed directions of drying the egg shells in the oven, crushing them , and in the end I ended up with 2 cups of crushed shells. I started out with a bucket. And for all that work, storing them until I had enough to oven dry. The shells can develop bad stuff too before they are dry`d in the oven. When the shells are dry`d, they do smell nice and are eaten by the duck, but when I did not dry the shells the ducks would not touch them.
With my kitchen scraps , I get them to the ducks soon, when I go there, I take the scraps before it causes a problem. We are encouraged to feed our ducks mold free and good feed. They can get sick on it too. What ever.... I would not rely on the eggs shells for their only source of calcium.

 

[LeannS]

My Leghorns poop in their water every time I replace it so I am kind of used to that kind of a mess. I have no idea why they do that- at least the ducks are swimming when they crap their water.

Quote:
If you hang your water container up off the ground the chicken`s poop might miss the water.

 

[NZDuckNewbies]

That pekin looks awesome. While we have 2 KC crosses at present, we still miss having our Pekin around. Her demeanor and general friendliness was awesome.

 

[AxolotlLove]

This is Carly, mother(?) of my KC mix Hershey Kiss. (Her mother may be a call)

 

[Robeenop]

All my kitchen scraps are fed immediately, to my flock. I wash ALL my egg shells both duck and chicken. I put them in one those square ice cream tubs. When the tub is full, I bake them in the microwave. Careful not to burn them. When cool, I crush them all. The flock, ducks too gobble them up for a while. They also have oyster she'll available 24/7. Never had a problem. Anything NOT moldy or rotten goes straight to the poultry pen. If it is, that goes to my co post bin. My KC lay EVERY day. My Rouen might skip a day. The Rouen are both egg and meat. Nice larger birds. I won"t give my birds anything I would not eat myself. At first my chickens would not eat worms, but would watch them. We get huge night crawlers, because of the cow pasture. Now when it rains, they are all walking along the fences looking for worms. Then is asses and elbows , grabbing and running...funny to watch!

 

[nchvac]

So I am seeing a lot of mixed flocks. I am wondering about hybrid vigor with crossing breeds. Staying with KC hens for the eggs, what breed of drake would be a good meat cross with the KC hen? Size isn't everything being there is only 2 of us, so maybe the KC would be big enough, but I see the feed conversions are off which may not be bad being I will be feeding scraps and occasional wheatgrass that we have left over and definitely the wheat grass roots that we have. Should make some good eggs if they will eat our scraps. Do they eat things like banana peels and advocada peels, potato peels? I guess all could be in the bowl and they will pick what they want and the rest goes to compost.

 

[caesargirl]

I don't feed rind or peel of anything to mine. Leafy stuff, absolutely! During the summer I also pull every dandelion plant I come across, that isn't on my property. I pull, wash and freeze. It makes a great winter salad for the ducks! Tomatoes and cuke scraps they love too.

 

[AxolotlLove]

Pekins are good crosses with KC's, makes a similar size duck to a KC, except bigger eggs, super friendly ducks, and very beautiful! Definite eye candy ducks

 

[LeannS]

So I am seeing a lot of mixed flocks. I am wondering about hybrid vigor with crossing breeds. Staying with KC hens for the eggs, what breed of drake would be a good meat cross with the KC hen? Size isn't everything being there is only 2 of us, so maybe the KC would be big enough, but I see the feed conversions are off which may not be bad being I will be feeding scraps and occasional wheatgrass that we have left over and definitely the wheat grass roots that we have. Should make some good eggs if they will eat our scraps. Do they eat things like banana peels and advocada peels, potato peels? I guess all could be in the bowl and they will pick what they want and the rest goes to compost.

The 3 peelings that you just mentioned are not to be fed to ducks. There are reasons for each one but NO, not if you want to keep your ducks healthy.