Backyard Duckonomics

[ChicagoDucks]

Another thing I do t control expenses is I figure out how much each duck needs to eat.  I weigh their food, split it into 2 feedings, and that is all they get.  Ducks will eat as much as you give them.  Once they are full they will keep eating and poop out the excess.  I figure the sparrows eat as much as the ducks do.

The ducks eat their food as soon as they get it, so the sparrows get nothing and the ducks get what they need and no more.  It makes a huge difference in what the feed costs are.

That makes so much sense! When I read it, I nearly slapped my forehead and said "D'Oh"! Feed the ducks what they need rather than what they want!

Feed costs just went up again here, and now I am paying $22 for 50#s of complete feed. I'd love to get some wholesale or direct from the mill, but I'd need to figure out a rat-proof storage system and I am sure my neighbors would not appreciate a galvanized feed silo in my yard..

 

[Oregon Blues]

I use metal garbage cans with tight fitting lids. Those are up on a bench inside my coop. 6 garbage cans and I can get 150 pounds into each one. But I buy for one month at a time. 6 bags is what I go through in a month. I use 3 garbage cans for poultry food. The pother 3 cans hold other things: cracked corn, rabbit pellets, flax seed, whole oats, cat kibble, oyster shell, grit.

The duck nests are underneath the bench. They seem to like the security of the semi-enclosed location of the nests. The stinkers, though, there are 8 nests and everybody will lay in the same nest.