Montana

[BreInFlannel]

Hey guys! Found this website with a great list of herbs and their benefits. The lady refers to them to give to both her chickens AND ducks! Most herbs are sooooo easy to grow yourself too! The second website attached is a tutorial about the herb satchels she makes to put in the brooder....genius!!!!! Wish I would have seen this before my gals arrived! But now I have a project for the next few days!
http://fresheggsdaily.com/2012/07/benefits-of-herbs.html
http://fresheggsdaily.com/2013/04/diy-brooder-box-herbal-sachets.html
Hope everyone is having a great Sunday! PS...Just wanna add about the Burdock...I spent hours today pulling burdock and barely made a dent in it...I know its a great medicinal herb...but dang, that stuff .....

...did you know one plant can produce up to 40,000 seeds...so I cant stress enough to pleaseeeee be careful with it if you for some CRAZY reason want to grow it yourself. hehehe
-Bre

 

[BreInFlannel]

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[FishingMT]

Are Black Billed Magpies(black & white scavenger bird) & crows a threat to ducks & geese? We don't have very many crows that stick around, but you can almost always spot a magpie around the property. They steal dog food from the yard & have befriended one of my dogs. It comes in the morning & sits in the small tree in the yard. It sits there & squawks & my dog goes running out & barking all around the tree. The magpie jist sits & squawks back & forth. Pretty entertaining until the magpie gets bored & flies off. My dog chases it as far as she can haha. It's very comical. But my question is, will the magpies gang up on ducklings or goslings? Are they a threat to my flock? They are very intelligent. Does anyone know what kind of bird I'm talking about or have them around your flock?

They eat everything & anything. Will they eat my ducklings if given a chance? Please someone help me with this.

 

[Adalida]

I don't think I've seen those magpies around where I am. We do, however, have an absolute ton of crows/ravens. I asked about them a while ago in this thread because they seem to hang around and I don't like them. The general consensus was that they're good to have around because they chase off hawks. But I've had plenty of hawks here and it doesn't seem like the ravens do a thing about them. The ravens hang around and fly over the chickens and I guess they're just looking for scraps, but I think they could kill a chicken pretty easily if they wanted to. I haven't had one attack a chicken yet, and fortunately the chickens scatter and hide when they see anything fly over. I think the crows you have would be more of a danger to your ducklings than the magpies (assuming they're like the ravens around here). Seeing a dead raven up close, they have wicked claws and a sharp bill.

 

[Bantambird]

Are Black Billed Magpies(black & white scavenger bird) & crows a threat to ducks & geese? We don't have very many crows that stick around, but you can almost always spot a magpie around the property. They steal dog food from the yard & have befriended one of my dogs. It comes in the morning & sits in the small tree in the yard. It sits there & squawks & my dog goes running out & barking all around the tree. The magpie jist sits & squawks back & forth. Pretty entertaining until the magpie gets bored & flies off. My dog chases it as far as she can haha. It's very comical. But my question is, will the magpies gang up on ducklings or goslings? Are they a threat to my flock? They are very intelligent. Does anyone know what kind of bird I'm talking about or have them around your flock?

They eat everything & anything. Will they eat my ducklings if given a chance? Please someone help me with this.

Where I am there are 3nesting pairs of magpies. Haven't had problems with them. I do Chuck my dead eggs from the incubator into the field for them, they love those. They have never harassed my babies.

 

[FishingMT]

Good to know! Thank you guys for replying! My babies will be here in June. Very excited! I'll just keep a watch over them. Pretty sure the geese once fully grown will have no problem with magpies. They are little smaller than a crow & way smaller than a raven. No hawks might be a challenge here. But I think I'm prepared for them.

 

[Adalida]

I meant to answer the question earlier about what kind of landscaping people had for their ducks...my ducks have annihilated my landscaping! They love tearing up wet grass, especially around all the downspouts. When they spend all their time doing this:

My yard now looks like this:

 

[FishingMT]

I meant to answer the question earlier about what kind of landscaping people had for their ducks...my ducks have annihilated my landscaping! They love tearing up wet grass, especially around all the downspouts. When they spend all their time doing this:

My yard now looks like this:

I have also asked this question, I am also concerned about landscaping. From the answers I've gotten, I would block off half your yard at a time, to let the other half repair itself. On bald mud patches, block off with chicken wire or even good netting & plant new grass. Keep ducks off until it makes a good comabck. I also got advice to plant more duck hardy plants & shrubs to let them focus more on those instead of your lawn. Herbs are a great way. Maybe put in a duck garden sort of speek. Fast growing (duck safe) herbs & do the same. Block off half while the other half recovers. You can also grow sprouts indoor in all sorts of different containers. I will post some pics of other people's great ideas.

Takes about 7-10 days to grow. So when you give them a container full just resprout in that container & put it back on your rack. Do you have a pond or swimming area for them? I think they are over grooming your yard because there isn't anything else to do. They are so busy bodied they can't help it. They need a fun distraction from your grass. Even a kiddie pool makes them happy and they'll spend most their time in it. They love water more than grooming I think, or at least as much. Here's few possible ideas.

Kiddie pool & some bricks. People add a drain & PVC for easy cleaning

If something like this is doable, I doubt your ducks would rarely leave this area to eat up your yard. They'd be having to much fun swimmimg. You could add your sprouts & other treats to their water to keep them even more occupied. Throw in sliced apple, kale, carrots, honey melon, ect. They'll be swimming & munching most of the day. Hope this helps & excited to hear others thoughts! They most definitely need a swimming area of some kind, keeping ducks without being able to swim is like keeping a horse that never gets to run, they will 'live' but not fully happy. You can make all sorts of different swimming areas for your ducks at little to no cost. Just be creative. He's a few more ideas

Canoe

Bath tub

Another bath tub idea, can find old bath tubs & water troughs on craigslist for next to nothing.

Draining concrete pond. Run you about $200 if you do it yourself. Concrete it the way to go in my opinion. Easiest to keep clean, just drain & spray out once a week or so & refill. Lasts forever & is nice to sit by & watch the ducks have the time of their lives. Best of luck to you! Please update!

 

[FishingMT]

Also, they need to fully submerge their bills in clean water to cleanse their cavities. Is the mud hole in your pics the only source of water they have throughout the day? They why they go to your drains. They want clean, dirt free water to clean their bills. They will get sick if you do not provide that for them. At the very least get them buckets of clean water everyday, maybe even twice a day. Or just go spend $20 on a kiddie pool & spray it out & refill it daily. You can move it to different spots around the yard so it doesn't kill your grass. Bonus- the duck water will really make your grass grow fast!!

 

[Adalida]

Oh no, they have multiple swimming areas. They've got a giant kiddie pool that's big enough for all of them to jump in and swim around, plus a smaller rubber tub that's big enough for three ducks to get in at once, and a shallower area they can play and splash in, not deep enough to truly swim. Plus three other big water bowls. And they get fresh vegetables daily, they're certainly not deprived in any way! They just enjoy tearing up the grass too. Looking for bugs, I'm sure, but they enjoy eating it also. They've been pretty much free ranging all day for weeks, which is why the grass has gotten so destroyed. If they weren't out all day, I'd have a better yard; but they're so happy free ranging, I've been letting them out early every morning.