Am I the only one?

[Miss Lydia]

m.kitchengirl :

I have 2 pekin ducks about 6 months old. You feed your duck mashed potatoes? Prepared the way people eat them? What other treats do you feed them? Thanks, Cindy

I do not put butter, salt, or pepper in the potatoes for the ducks. Just a little splash of milk to cool them down.
Mine love the "pumpkin guts" after I remove most of the seeds. They also love stems from Kale and Collard Greens (my drake, especially). They have also loved the patty pan squash I grew this year - the ones that weren't big enough or got attacked by slugs were a popular treat for them.
I feed them most of my vegetable and fruit scraps (along with my chickens and soon bunny) and whatever they don't like gets tossed into the compost.

I have tried to give them oatmeal, but they weren't crazy about it. It seems like ducks (maybe just mine) have to try something a few times to really know if they don't like it. I think sometimes they are just scared of the big, tough oatmeal.

My friends say my ducks are "spoiled". I think that my friends are just jealous. Sounds like we all treat our ducks.

Amiga/Miss Lydia, which one of you mentioned taking your ducks for walks in the winter? I would love to try this. They will only go into certain parts of the yard when I am there, I keep the big pool on the porch (it has built in drainage) but the ducks will only swim out there if the life guard is on duty. My SO is getting me one of these: http://www.sleepingbagsuits.co.uk/, so I can keep the pool open all winter.

Not in yellow. In forest green. I think they would be scared of the yellow. They are scared of me when I get home from work if I forget to take my headband off. (My chefwear is SCARY!)​

Amiga takes hers for walks, she needs to post that video again it's so cute. I haven't tried much besides mealworms and peas with my ducks, and w/w bread. my chickens usually scarf up any cooked food. They can pretty much go anywhere they want to, I open up the gate when I let them out in the mornings, but they perfer to stay close to the back door which presents a problem when trying to walk and miss all the booby traps they leave for us.

 

[Amiga]

Last winter, with a few feet of snow on the ground, I began walking the ducks. The fence was completely buried anyway!

I use a four, five or six foot rod. I never swing it at them or point it at them, but just holding it upright at my side seems to tell them to pay attention. It also helps keep me from slipping on ice and falling (yup - learned too late for the first time or two).

Anyway, at first I would keep treats handy in case they wandered, but they didn't. As long as I was nearby, making my little duck-duck-duck noises, they stayed within about 20 feet of me.

They rather disliked snow and ice at first. I put straw down in an area so they could get off the snow and ice. But they began going cross-country skiing, and even some downhill, as the piles of snow we threw off the deck were five or six feet tall after a while.

This tradition of a morning walk continued through spring, and when I expanded the gardens to add another 1800 square feet of forest garden, that became one of our walks. We have a front yard walk, a woods' edge walk, a forest garden walk, and a compost and shrub walk.

There is next to no traffic on this little cul de sac, so we even sometimes have a closely supervised roadside walk from time to time.

Every now and then the flock gets a little jazzed up and particularly distractable and (it seems to me) strong willed and disinclined to listen to me. That happens when I forget the stick. All I have to do is hold it next to me. Sometimes I raise it up a little, when it's time to go back to the day pen.

I remember fretting about how and if I would be able to herd them from one place to the other. But these runner girls seem like naturals. I think they trained me, actually.

They are now training the ducksitter, and they tell me she is doing nicely.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:

 

[featherfinder]

Boiled potatoes. Never tryied that. Do you peel them or leave the skins on them? Then just mash and serve?


I know mine love duckie omlets! If i have extra duck eggs or any other eggs i will add peas, carrots, tomatoes, and what ever veggie i know they like and i have on hand in and scramble it all up and serve! They go nuts! In summer they also enjoy when i make a frozen block of water with fruits and veggies layered in for them to pick at and play with.