new to duck raising: questions!

[Felony]

Quote:
to be honest I have thought of getting more ducks and free-ranging them with no fence and accepting the fact I might lose a few to predators. Lock them up in a house at night(thanks for the trick with the fence for a week...)since it's the time there is the most danger, and during the day they would have the pond as some protection, obviously not from flying predators...they would have a very good life but not free from dangers. would that be irresponsible of me? I know the answer is probably yes but somehow I feel that between letting them free-range and have danger or put them on gravel in a pen and have no dangers...both have their pros and cons ! (no judment towards pens, since I've seen some very nice pens and ducks look quite content!) Since i want to raise ducks to eat, i for sure want to let them free range since i'm sure it affects the taste of the meat and i would have to buy less feed.

so it's either more ducks and no fence, or a duck tractor covered with wire mesh, or moveable electric netting (more expensive i think, but would be great), or a more permanent (still moveable fence t-post style) with wire mesh and electric wire. I like the first and last idea better, either no fence at all, or set up a fence with like 4 different areas where i can rotate them every week so it doesn't get too bad...and put a house in the middle type of thing...that way i wouldn't even have to move anything all summer

i already can't wait. i also have to think of how im gonna get set up to brood them!

 

[Ducks and Banny hens]

Quote:
About 'feed conversion' while free-ranging, I only EVER feed my ducks when the ground isn't cover with snow. And they do better than ducks raised on feed. (I feed them corn all winter, because there isn't anything else to eat). I don't want to sound conspiricist here, but those who tell you that ducks will still need supplement feed in our environment while free ranging are telling you very mislead or uneducated information. Mallards survived in our region for thousands of years without ground soybeans and vitamins! I don't have a pond, but your ducks will do 2X better than mine, because you have a well vegatated pond. Having my ducks roaming all over the mountainside and the swamp has given me very healthy ducks, but, they aren't landfowl, their waterfowl, and naturally dabble and eat water plants.
You're certainly right about natural (gamey; wild-tasting) meat being better than (what I like to call) 'Corned Beef'. Corn is so flavourless! And it's what all store-bought meat was raised on! Ducks that eat cattails and pondweed will taste far better, and I've heard that cattails give them a nutty flavour.
And irresonsible of you for letting them free-range? I think it more inethical not to free-range if one has the oppurunity, and let me ask you a question: Weasels can kill ducks and slip through chicken-wire; Hawks can kill ducks, and they can dive into a fenced pasture; Pike can kill ducks, and they can kill them in the water. Ducks are always in danger! And they'd be much better off free-ranging. They can get away, they can eat, they can live.

By the way, most hawks won't attack ducks on water.


Banny

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

Quote:
What he said.

 

[Ducks and Banny hens]

Quote:
What he said.

I name my meat chickens!

-Colonel Saunders
-Dixie Lee
-McNuggets
-Big Mac (no wait, that was a steer)
-KFC
-Casserole
etc.

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
What he said.

X 2. With fervor.

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

My first summer with poultry I thought 30 chickens was easy so that equals 30 ducks would be easy...

. That was not the case, oh I kept all of them alive but had to baby them a bit more and more clean up and more water hauling. I have figured out for my property I have too many predators for free ranging. Although the ducks survived much better than the hens.

 

[duckdad]

Quote:
What he said.

I name my meat chickens!

-Colonel Saunders
-Dixie Lee
-McNuggets
-Big Mac (no wait, that was a steer)
-KFC
-Casserole
etc.

I guess you;re reminding yourself of thier destination with names like that !

A good psychological means of staying at arms length from "cute & cuddly". Harder to see a 'casserole' as cute.

Thats funny..

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

Quote:
I name my meat chickens!

-Colonel Saunders
-Dixie Lee
-McNuggets
-Big Mac (no wait, that was a steer)
-KFC
-Casserole
etc.

I guess you;re reminding yourself of thier destination with names like that !

A good psychological means of staying at arms length from "cute & cuddly". Harder to see a 'casserole' as cute.

Thats funny..

Just wondering if Colonel Sanders is Crispy or Original recipe...

 

[Felony]

Quote:
thanks for your response! At my place the more common predators would be hawks (no eagles) coyotes, foxes, bears, and minks and raccons. also river otter but not sure if they eat ducks. For sure I would lock them up at night, I would make them a safe house for that. As for all animals, if I decide to raise ducks, I will take it seriously, I did not think that they were such high maintenance though! But thanks for pointing it out! I want to know what I'm getting into and I might start with less to see how it is. I will read about it and prepare for it so that it is as easy and trouble free as possible to take care of them! I am still debating how i am going to raise them, I would much prefer to have a secure electric fence around them, even if that means putting a pool for them and not giving them access to the pond. I do want them to free range and forage weeds and bugs and grasses. I just need to figure a way to keep the vegetation growing, so it means either make different runs with a semi-permanent fence with strands of electric wire so i can move them or buy a electronet fence. It's just the cost of shipping to canada i'm not sure of.

thanks for the info on drakes and ducks and also about the drakes behavior. I think to make sure i will get one drake to 9 ducks, and possibly just start with 10 for the first year...we are also going to have meat chickens so it should be good enough to start. I don't think I'm going to name them, that's what my husband always tells me!

another question : in terms of meat, are ducks and drakes equally good in taste and are drakes much bigger than ducks?

 

[Felony]

Quote:
About 'feed conversion' while free-ranging, I only EVER feed my ducks when the ground isn't cover with snow. And they do better than ducks raised on feed. (I feed them corn all winter, because there isn't anything else to eat). I don't want to sound conspiricist here, but those who tell you that ducks will still need supplement feed in our environment while free ranging are telling you very mislead or uneducated information. Mallards survived in our region for thousands of years without ground soybeans and vitamins! I don't have a pond, but your ducks will do 2X better than mine, because you have a well vegatated pond. Having my ducks roaming all over the mountainside and the swamp has given me very healthy ducks, but, they aren't landfowl, their waterfowl, and naturally dabble and eat water plants.
You're certainly right about natural (gamey; wild-tasting) meat being better than (what I like to call) 'Corned Beef'. Corn is so flavourless! And it's what all store-bought meat was raised on! Ducks that eat cattails and pondweed will taste far better, and I've heard that cattails give them a nutty flavour.
And irresonsible of you for letting them free-range? I think it more inethical not to free-range if one has the oppurunity, and let me ask you a question: Weasels can kill ducks and slip through chicken-wire; Hawks can kill ducks, and they can dive into a fenced pasture; Pike can kill ducks, and they can kill them in the water. Ducks are always in danger! And they'd be much better off free-ranging. They can get away, they can eat, they can live.

By the way, most hawks won't attack ducks on water.


Banny

The reason why I want to raise ducks and chickens myself is because I have tasted home raised chickens and the difference between that and supermarket chicken is imcomparable. AND they weren't even fully raised on grasses and weeds, so imagine! I also love duck meat so I thought I would raise some. I also want to raise rabbit for meat but that's another story!

I think a little bit like you. I feel ducks would have a more natural life free-ranging. I also think it's great that people create good environnement for their ducks so that they are less in danger. I guess ducks if you give them what they need and enough space, they will be happy and they probably wouldn't know better anyways. But definitly in terms of taste, and for my personnal satisfaction of seeing ducks what I think ducks should be doing, wich is walk around eating natural stuff, I want to free range them. But while free-ranging them I have to make the decision of protecting them from predators or not(electric fence or not). I have heard people say if they have a pond to swim on, they will be able to get away from most predators. also if they have a place to hide under on land, maybe that would help? I think the major issue is to protect them at night, in a closed house. I did see minks during the day, and don't these things swim? fast enough the ducks won't be able to get away though?...anyways, maybe I should of posted this in the predators section