Has getting to know your ducks changed your mind about the freezer?

[grawg]

dumb_cluck, can I ask you why you keep "backyard" chickens/ducks? Your answer will help me understand better where you are coming from. And try to understand not everyone will have the same reason for keeping a "backyard" flock as you do.

 

[dumb_cluck]

I have Speckled Sussex hens for laying and Welsh Harlequin ducks(hens) for the same. No meat birds.

They both make me laugh and I enjoy their company. I don't ask much of them other than to lay an egg or two....

 

[Tivona]

Quote:
Ditto for me. I had a gorgeous drake that was a monster to the girls. I have three other drakes currently, one I have found a home for, another I will be keeping, and the third I may keep or eventually eat depending on how things go but I really prefer not to kill if I can avoid it. Keeping my girl ducks is a joy and its great to get all the eggs. I have no plans to go in for meat birds. Not worth it to me as I find it just to unpleasant.

 

[gryeyes]

Well, if you were to "change" to geese because you just can't process your ducks, the same thing is gonna happen. Geese have incredible personalities, even more so than ducks. They're smarter, too. I have chickens, ducks and geese.

I had NO intention of ever processing any of my backyard flock. Still won't, with one minor exception: packing peanut cockerels sent with an order. They will go to a home TO be raised as meaties and processed. I have worked very hard not to get attached to those 7 roosters. (I have a slew of other roosters I raised and am keeping, but not the RIR packing peanuts.)

One of the rules of BYC is to not make disparaging comments about other members' plans to process their birds. "Backyard" flocks can certainly be sustainable foods other than just eggs. It's also expected that folks will not scoff at people who keep theirs solely as pets. We each have our own desires and both are valid in individual circumstances.

 

[DB_Tex]

I can only speak for myself, but I find it more ethically responsible to know first hand that the animals I eat were bred to grow at a normal rate with ability to live normally, had grass and pasture to move and run in, sunshine, clean water to swim in, and good food to eat than it is to buy supermarket sale cuts and eggs from birds raised in teeny cages bred to be to heavy to walk.

When the tainted ground turkey hit the news I wasn't bothered so much that factory practices caused people to waste food they bought, I was enraged that those turkeys no doubt lived miserable lives inside a stinky poorly ventilated little cage inside a tin building --- for NOTHING!!

It shouldn't be any easier to end a life you never saw before you cut it out of the vacuum pack and rub it with seasonings, but it is, and I think that is really sad.

Of course if you are a vegetarian by moral choice, I respect your beliefs, but I can't eat that way (not won't, can't. I've tried cutting animal protein for entire days before and my body went into starvation mode.) The best I can do is raise my own.
I just got the thread going to gauge others' experience so I might have an idea what emotional obstacles I might face, but you know, based on others' experience, I think that my attitude towards death in general (and how it happens when you have livestock, even naturally) I'll be able to handle it.

 

[dumb_cluck]

Thank you gyreyes ! I knew some would appreciate the "flock" as I do ...........

 

[grawg]

I agree with you in some sense as I never plan on processing my ducks, I've even contemplated some sort of duck retirement area for my girls when they get too old to lay. Their sole duty would be maintaining a garden, which they did great job of this year. My drakes on the other hand...I want the girls to retire in peace you know?

 

[dumb_cluck]

If you "maintain" the flock without the excessive males,you will be OK.

 

[DB_Tex]

At the risk of sparking a duck civil rights debate... LOL My egg ducks are quite a bit different from this "as yet to be determined" group of meat ducks. I also have a small group of rescue ducks that have had a hard life thus far, and I feel that they deserve a long and happy life to make up for the pain and hardships they've suffered and they will always be yard ornaments.

We've discussed and planned out how the meat pekins would be handled differently. For one thing I noticed with the largest group of ducks I ordered, I didn't bond with any of them individually quite as much (yet)-- and that was only 12 ducks! My campbells came from a different hatchery and two of the 5 had accidents and slipped leg joints. One was a thigh I was able to coax back into the socket and the duck is perfectly healthy now, the other had a slipped hock I wasn't able to correct. (She's my one legged ducky!) That group was my first and required a lot more hands on. The babies in my brooder are replacements and they've been in my bedroom for the last couple weeks and they simply get handled more.

If I order specifically birds intended for meat they simply won't be handled with the same individual attention just by sheer numbers.

 

[dianaross77]

When I was young, we had a small farm. We raised goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, and one batch of ducklings. We knew from the start that some were pets and some were food. You treat the individual groups differently (in your heart and mind). That said, there was at least one occasion when a pet ended up on the dinner table. You can't keep a pet dairy goat complete with horns that pokes holes in your other goats. I personally would much rather eat a bird (or any other animal) that had been raised with love and care and allowed to walk, run, flap the wings, freely than one that was raised commercially. Those animals are not only happier in life but also death. They are stressed and handled unkindly. BYC is a place for everyone. There are many people who keep birds for pets, many people who keep them for meat, and many people who do both. No one in any of those groups should be made to feel that their way is the wrong way. So far, I only have laying hens and ducks for pest control. I know I wouldn't be able to eat any of my current flock. I have toyed with the idea of raising some of the ducks' offspring to be processed by someone else.