Bedding Choices - Fallen Oak Leaves?

[Duckworth]

I live in the Central Plains and our winters usually include many weeks of subfreezing weather, without a thaw. I have a 50-60 foot pin oak tree in my yard that drops a LOT of leaves this time of year. I thought I read somewhere that fallen oak leaves are useful as bedding for ducks. I'm using a deep litter method in both pen and run and am wondering whether the leaves, with or without straw and pine shavings, would help my ducks stay warm and possibly provide more composting warmth than just straw and/or pine shavings?

Any advice?

 

[CntryBoy777]

They would make for excellent bedding and after ya clean them out, deposit them in your garden. They will be pre-fertilized and excellent compost for your plants. We use them every year for the chickens and ducks....tho, the chickens go on the compost pile, because chicken manure is hot....ducks is not. The chickens will even shred them for ya if used in their yard....also, it will aid in your footing on those cold frozen days....just keep layering them down for a safe walkway.....

 

[Duckworth]

They would make for excellent bedding and after ya clean them out, deposit them in your garden. They will be pre-fertilized and excellent compost for your plants. We use them every year for the chickens and ducks....tho, the chickens go on the compost pile, because chicken manure is hot....ducks is not. The chickens will even shred them for ya if used in their yard....also, it will aid in your footing on those cold frozen days....just keep layering them down for a safe walkway.....

Thanks CntryBoy! I already mulch my tomato beds with the straw from the duck pen and house because I don't have to worry about the hot composting of the duck poo. My tomato beds are 4'x12' and have re-mesh trellises about six inches in from each long side, with another 12' long piece of re-mesh on top for a cover, forming a flat topped arch the length of the bed. I plant the tomato plants alternately on either side of the trellis and use gardening twine to zigzag up each plant to secure it to the trellis as it grows. Once it grows up through the top, it spreads across the re-mesh roof. I put my duck straw under the arches, down the middle of the length of each bed to fertilize, mulch, and help keep the soil moist. If I have to walk under the trellises to harvest, the straw keeps me from getting muddy. I don't use duck straw or duck water on anything I will be eating directly, but fruiting plants on trellises seem to really benefit from them.

 

[CntryBoy777]

You can use it in and around vegetables without any problem....we have goats and deposit their bedding and the scoops off goat berries from their pen right into the garden also. It sounds like ya have a great setup.....we use cattle panels to support the vines and loosely tied hay bale twine to hold them to the panels.
Tho, with it just being my wife and me, we don't grow as much as we once did....we have 4 daughters, so my wife grows enough to can a few jars to give to the daughters for the grandkids. Neither of us can take the heat and humidity of the Summers here to work in and with the animals time is a premium. I can't do near what I used to before the 2 heart attacks, so we just have fun when the weather allows.....

 

[Duckworth]

Thank you, CntryBoy. I'm 57 and my husband is next to disabled, so I know what you mean about trying to keep up. Our kids are still teens, and two still live at home.

This was only my fourth year gardening. The first year was a six-pack of yellow tomatoes, six pack of wax peppers, and about three herb plants, including chives, which are still producing and have grown to several times the original size. I planted them in what is now my rose garden, and not until mid July. We had just moved here from the desert the previous fall and had to dig up eleven large yew bushes to create the space. The property is almost a quarter acre, with a large south-facing side yard, but it was severely overgrown with saplings and trumpet vines, some as thick as seven inches in diameter, three feet underground. It took us two weeks to cut and lop our way from the back porch steps to the back gate. My husband's parents were elderly and it had simply gotten away from them. We cut the back and side yards down to the ground the summer before we moved, then spent the next year digging up hundreds of stumps, mostly small, but tough. So those tomatoes and peppers were all I could do. That fall, we dug up three overgrown burning bushes and turned over that part of the front yard to plant a vegetable garden in the spring.

By spring 2015, I had designed the raised bed garden I wanted for the front yard. I was worried that if I didn't make it look nice, the city would give us trouble. (We live in a historic district.) I now realize that about a third of the houses have front yard vegetables growing. This is what I built:

Now it looks more like this:

And this:

Then I started converting the side yard behind it into raised beds:


I think I have over six hundred squared feet of bed space, which grows a lot of vegetables, but I'm still a novice. We have three semi dwarf apple trees between the veggies and the garage. I love getting advice from people who have more experience than I do. The second and third year, I kept good records of what I planted and made notes, but this year, we had so many medical issues and added the ducks, with their need for me to build them a house and pen, that I just did what I could to get things in the ground and took minimal care of them. Still, we got better yields than ever. I would love to let the ducks range in my garden after it gets established in the spring, but my fence is only 48" and I'm afraid they will be able to fly out into the neighborhood, which would not be safe for them.

So thank you for your advice. I really appreciate it!

 

[CntryBoy777]

We live on 20acres and I'm 59...my Dad is 95 and owns the land, but only gave me "Permission" to do as I wished with the property 2yrs ago........Mom passed in '12 and they used to be very active, but their last 6-8yrs things got well out of control, but wouldn't allow me to do anything...I've been here since '06...so, it has been difficult in the catch-up department here for my wife and me. We started with goats and added the chickens and ducks in June of '16....my wife is still working on reclaiming portions of the garden. Your place looks really nice and your setup looks great. I saw your watermelon, we plant a hill of Jubilees each year....they are my favorite....last yr the biggest was 43lbs....we grew one in '12 that went 58lbs. We found out this yr that our ducks absolutely love watermelon and shared portions with them. I was raised having to work a garden and pick, shell, and freeze enough to get thru the winter, so the "Thrill" of the garden has left me a while back and so it is the wife's playground for the most part....I handle cutting grass and doing the major heavier work, but there are other issues other than the heart, so I do what I can. We have expansion in the works for this next yr, so this Fall and Winter I have to work on the accomodations for the expected additions next yr....along with getting some major cleanup done....I do the cleanup when it doesn't grow back as fast and can make some headway with it. I told my brother that I was going to fill the property with animals so everyone will have Fun dealing with it after I pass....and there will be enough for everybody to get something........I'm not a lay and wait person....I'd rather go out digging a post hole than lying in bed....

 

[Duckworth]

After growing up in the desert, nursing along a couple of weak tomatoes, a little leaf lettuce and some spinach and chard during the fall and winter, and spending the seemingly endless summers stripping the citrus trees and fighting back the Bermuda grass, the Prairie is a wonderful place to live. Things grow here faster than I can keep up with them.

We lost my husband's mother last winter and she had been widowed for several years before that. The house is a bit like an Olde Curiosity Shoppe, filled with all kinds of things that caught their interest in antiques. It is over 100 years old and in a neighborhood. We have good neighbors, which means a lot to us. I try to be the kind of neighbor I'd like to have. We can't have goats or larger livestock and there is a limit on what we can have in the way of poultry and water fowl. Our city is surrounded by farms and I would love to have more land zoned for animals, but I don't think my husband's health will allow him to do the work that I can't--at least not reliably. The spirit is willing, but his body can't keep up with it. He's allergic to chicken eggs, which is why I keep ducks.

This morning, we had three eggs for the first time, so only one duck isn't laying now. It looked like the very first egg we got, so I suspect that it is a first egg for one of the previous not-yet-layers.

 

[CntryBoy777]

I grew up in the country...lived for 30 yrs in the city and had a house on 3acres in Florida when I had the 1st attack and lost everything I had...moved back here to Mom and Dad's property and sure hope I don't go back to the city ever again...except to shop. I understand tho, about ypur situation and wish ya well. We have the birds for bug control mainly and prefer the duck eggs, we give all our extras away to others....not much business here selling them....but, we have some in a tight situation that we help out with free eggs....

 

[Duckworth]

Us, too, with the giving away produce and eggs. Our neighborhood is very integrated, both financially and culturally. My immigrant neighbors bring me dishes they cook from their family recipes with my produce. It's wonderful to be able to learn from them. I'm learning about Turkish, Lebanese and Filipino cooking.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

Well, lemme jump in here and say HI to both of y'all!

@CntryBoy777 is right on the money with his advice....... so, no need to rehash that! Garden is looking terrific Duckworth!