Garden for your Ducks

[ducklover87]

I only have my 4 Pekin ducks and so when I treat them to something I usually just get it from the store. But this year I've ordered some more ducks and will have 14 ducks and would like to try to cut down on some feed costs by building a garden specifically for my ducks. My mom is a partner is a strawberry business and so over the summer I get them fresh strawberries (for free

, family benefits) and I have a cherry tree in the yard and that was their treats. When they are really good I give them some yogurt. I used to pick the cherries off the tree and throw them in their kiddie pool they went crazy over it. I've also tried Okra with them and they love it. I'm glad they did because I did not enjoy it at all. I just warmed it up like you would any other vegetable as never having ate it before and it was super slimy not sure if that's the way its supposed to be or not. I also mix their layer pellets with cracked corn. But I'm not really sure what to put in the garden. I was thinking Okra, carrots, maybe some beans and other than that i'm not really sure what else I should put in it. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[melissamerry]

Mine go nuts over romaine lettuce and bell peppers. I grow those as well as tomatoes for them. Luckily, tomatoes seem to grow the fastest and most plentiful, which just happens to be their favorite treat! Score!

 

[Amiga]

All kinds of greens but go easy on the spinach since it can bind calcium, making it less available in their systems.

Mine like chickweed, dandelion, lettuce, lamb's quarters, comfrey, most tender herbaceous plants. Nice to have perennial berries like blueberries. I have ordered some honeyberry for all of us. Ducks also are supposed to like mulberries.

Many like watermelon and cucumber, too.

Don't forget oats. I grew oats last year and harvested them by cutting them near the ground with a scythe (best fun I have had in a long time), gathering them up and storing them in giant brown paper bags, and then serving them up whole to the ducks. They ate the seeds and then the stems were superb bedding.