BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[bramblefir]

This was my view on the drive home from picking up the ducks our 6-year-old bought with her birthday money. They're all female Anconas and are settling in nicely with the geese. The only "issue" we've had is the gander chases them out of the kiddie pool whenever the goose wants to go for a swim. This is easily solved with a second kiddie pool. Surely the gander can't defend 2 pools at once?

 

[bramblefir]

Here is a silly question.

How do you think geese would do among my blueberry bushes, if they were allowed to graze that area temporarily?

I understand they like fruit, so it would need to be when the fruit isn't on the bushes or at least isn't ripe. They use geese to weed organic strawberry fields, but only do so before the berries have set and after they've been harvested. They're also widely used in orchards to graze and clean up dropped fruit.

That said, we've run the goslings in the garden and they ate the grass and weeds between the raised beds. We do have blueberries and raspberries in the garden and they never went over to them.

 

[hellbender]

Pinioning would probably be a better option, and I have no objections to the idea. I would see it as dubbing is. A reasonable management option when done correctly.

ETA: It would be more "humane" (I hate that word.) than keeping them in close confinement.

I have never actually performed this procedure but I did watch my dad do it. My son Jason (if we ever do get ducklings) will be doing the actual task. He has excellent vision as well as hand/eye coordination. He's the best caponizer of us all and he has a plan that he's been talking about that I'll not go into here but if it works on one duckling, it should work on all. I suspect it's been done before, by other 'thinking' folks.

 

[gjensen]

haha alright good to know, thank you

i have nothing against either if that is what a person does, it is no worse then docking tails or cropping ears or even neutering...it just isnt for me with my ducks/chickens. Pinion would be a good option if you wanted to get into production muscovy for meat.

My remarks on pinioning did not have you in mind when I mentioned them to someone else. I apologize if you felt as if it was a critique on your view.

 

[gjensen]

I understand they like fruit, so it would need to be when the fruit isn't on the bushes or at least isn't ripe. They use geese to weed organic strawberry fields, but only do so before the berries have set and after they've been harvested. They're also widely used in orchards to graze and clean up dropped fruit.

That said, we've run the goslings in the garden and they ate the grass and weeds between the raised beds. We do have blueberries and raspberries in the garden and they never went over to them.

I would not graze them there when the fruit was on the bushes. I have a lot of them. I water them from overhead, and the grass between the beds is in good shape late in the summer when we are typically dry. It would be nice to allow them access to these areas late in the summer and early into the fall. I have wondered how successful I could be rotating them according to the seasons.

How do you shelter yours?

 

[misfitmorgan]

My remarks on pinioning did not have you in mind when I mentioned them to someone else. I apologize if you felt as if it was a critique on your view.

no i didnt at all just making sure no one thinks i am trying to "condemn" them for doing it or anything.

I have never actually performed this procedure but I did watch my dad do it. My son Jason (if we ever do get ducklings) will be doing the actual task. He has excellent vision as well as hand/eye coordination. He's the best caponizer of us all and he has a plan that he's been talking about that I'll not go into here but if it works on one duckling, it should work on all. I suspect it's been done before, by other 'thinking' folks.

I have heard of folks using something like wirecutters and just cutting the tendon on the top of the wing at the last joint, leaves the full wing there but they can not perform the flying motion. Might be something like what your son has in mind. i did hear of one guy locally who got in trouble for purposefully feeding his muscovy to high a protein to make them get angel wing....as a "natural" pinion. His entire flock over 3-4 generations had angel wing, yes it does take care of the dirty work for you so to speak but i dont think it is a better option.

 

[bramblefir]

I would not graze them there when the fruit was on the bushes. I have a lot of them. I water them from overhead, and the grass between the beds is in good shape late in the summer when we are typically dry. It would be nice to allow them access to these areas late in the summer and early into the fall. I have wondered how successful I could be rotating them according to the seasons.

How do you shelter yours?

From what I understand a mature pair needs at least a 4'x6' pen at night that is secure against predators. We have a relatively big barn with two 12'x12' matted horse stalls on the north side. Since we don't have horses at the moment the geese go into one of the stalls at night. I keep it bedded deeply in straw and just pick out the manure daily and move the water to different spot in the stall every other day. Interestingly, they like to bed down around wherever the waterer is. So the manure is always concentrated around the water source. Simply moving their water moves where the majority of the manure lands.

We are going to move ours into a different pasture tomorrow morning. The grass in their current pasture is getting a little short and we won't have much rain again until the fall. The downside to a Mediterranean climate is not having any rain when it's most needed.

 

[misfitmorgan]

From what I understand a mature pair needs at least a 4'x6' pen at night that is secure against predators. We have a relatively big barn with two 12'x12' matted horse stalls on the north side. Since we don't have horses at the moment the geese go into one of the stalls at night. I keep it bedded deeply in straw and just pick out the manure daily and move the water to different spot in the stall every other day. Interestingly, they like to bed down around wherever the waterer is. So the manure is always concentrated around the water source. Simply moving their water moves where the majority of the manure lands.

We are going to move ours into a different pasture tomorrow morning. The grass in their current pasture is getting a little short and we won't have much rain again until the fall. The downside to a Mediterranean climate is not having any rain when it's most needed.

You can have some of our rain...we have had so much we were only able to plant 6 flats of veggies and now we have the other 8 flats that have been sitting over 2 weeks waiting to go in the ground, their starting to yellow

 

[JRNash]

The ducklings are CUTE!!When i get the rest of my property fenced,namely the stock pond,ducks are on my to do list.

 

[hellbender]

no i didnt at all just making sure no one thinks i am trying to "condemn" them for doing it or anything.


I have heard of folks using something like wirecutters and just cutting the tendon on the top of the wing at the last joint, leaves the full wing there but they can not perform the flying motion. Might be something like what your son has in mind. i did hear of one guy locally who got in trouble for purposefully feeding his muscovy to high a protein to make them get angel wing....as a "natural" pinion. His entire flock over 3-4 generations had angel wing, yes it does take care of the dirty work for you so to speak but i dont think it is a better option.

NO NO NO... We wouldn't do anything crazy like that with the diet. Never even heard of such nonsense. If we get ducklings, I'll tell folks about it...good or bad.