Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[18angovem]

Quote:
You would probably want some non-flighty ducks or they would swim or fly away. So probably no mallards.... I recommend a breed that cannot fly. While Muscovy might work. I recommend runner because they are fun to watch, playful, and lay many eggs!

 

[DuckLover1]

We already have a pair of Khaki Campbell's. They are so sweet. Funny thing is Floppy (our drake) can fly. He discovered that when he was about a year and a half. He took off flew about 20 feet off the ground and was headed to the park until he realized that I wasn't following him. Silly guy turned around immediately while squaking at me and then landed at my feet and began happy quaking. Lol he hasn't really flown ever since. He's three years old and has no interest in leaving. So I figure as long as the flock is all bonded to us and floppy it would be a similar result. Clover can't fly yet since she's not even a year. She is obsessed with water and sometimes she does make me swim after her but she always stays close and let's mom wrap her in a towl to take her home. Plus, she would never leave Floppy and since he doesn't care to swim when I'm not its safe to say my babies are gonna stick around lol. During the night I keep them safe and sound in a little duck apartment for two.

 

[Just Ducky10]

We were planning on around 15 acres. We want them for pets and because we love ducks. Of course, eggs are a plus and excess ducklings/birds would be sold. I don't know if we could bring ourselves to eat them :/ the land we were looking at has a river going through it. I figured any waterfowl would love that lol.

In Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks it says
The ideal [duck] yard has a minimum of 10 to 25 square feet of ground space per duck.
And since there's 43560 square feet in 1 square acre you could have 1,742 to 4,356 ducks per acre. But I wouldn't recommend that, but duck math usually has other ideas.
I would suggest getting less than you think you'll want, especially if you want drakes, since ducks mature young and pretty soon you'll have a bunch of favorites from their babies that you'll want to keep.
I've only had ducks for a year so I don't know anymore than what I've read and the small bit of personal experience I've had. Hopefully a more experienced person will chime in with a better answer for you.

As far as breeds
Khaki Campbells, Welsh Harlequins, Magpies, Anconas, and Runners are all light weight ducks (they eat less) that are good egg layers. They're all good at foraging for their food and all but the runners and some strains of khaki campbells are calm breeds that make great pets.

Muscovies are quite, great parents, great pets, come in lots of pretty colors, and love hatching babies, their own or not.

Hope this helps you.

 

[heatherscooby77]

My tom was the goose lover! I don't know if you remember him................

 

[fisherlady]

My tom was the goose lover! I don't know if you remember him................

I seem to remember you posting about his odd favoritisms....LOL

 

[BullChick]

http://carlsfriends.net/
If my asking about sourdough got anyone thinking, here is a link to a sourdough starter. It will just cost two stamps.

 

[chiques chicks]

Watch out! Here I come with my turkey questions... This is the first I've really seen broad breasted mentioned and now I'm wondering how the heritage are for meat. I know there is a big difference in chickens, but I haven't seen an overt preference for turkeys. We are hoping to keep a breeding pair from the 4 bourbon reds we got last week (is it okay to breed siblings?). We plan to process the other two - one for us and one for our big family Thanksgiving... I guess the question is, will the family be disappointed with a bourbon red on the Thanksgiving dinner table? Most prefer breast meat, a few of us prefer the thighs, the drumsticks are largely ignored because they are overcooked and tough by the time the rest is done. Any cooking tips? I always roast my chickens upside down so the fattier dark meat bastes the breasts and it all gets done at the same time. I think my aunt (who roasts the Thanksgiving bird) was going try that method this year - the difficult part is getting it flipped back over when it is piping hot.

My bourbon red toms yielded about 13# each. They were hatched beginning of may, butchered for thanksgiving. My family isn't picky about meat. Fed 9 people with a bunch left over.
Definitely not as much breast meat as broad breasted. Very flavorful. I want them again. I was going to breed, but had all male.

Cooking wise, I always use Reynolds cook in bags for anything big, turkey, ham. Really seals in moisture and is fast, 2-2½hours for a bird that size, if I recall. I never stuff the bird, cook that sperate. Haven't had a dry bird in thirty years that way.

I hugged having the turkey around even if I couldn't keep them in a in a run or convince them to go in their coop. They wandered a lot, mostly to come down to the house and tell me it was time to feed them! They knew the she'd their feed was in and would stand around waiting, then herd back to their run and wait for my to open the gate and feed them. And they loved treats, grapes, mealworms, stc. And they sound so cool.

 

[chiques chicks]

To all such lovers. My neighbor has, Welsh Harlequins, iv think that's what they are, and plans to breed and sell this year.
Since I'll probably be doing their incubating, I can try to get some if anyone wants any. If you want eggs, I'm sure they will sell you some to hatch. Last year they had eggs they were selling for eating just to get rid of excess.
I think they had another breed as well, so not sure of their current flock make up, but do know they were going to concentrate on Welsh.

 

[wingstone]

To all such lovers. My neighbor has, Welsh Harlequins, iv think that's what they are, and plans to breed and sell this year.
Since I'll probably be doing their incubating, I can try to get some if anyone wants any. If you want eggs, I'm sure they will sell you some to hatch. Last year they had eggs they were selling for eating just to get rid of excess.
I think they had another breed as well, so not sure of their current flock make up, but do know they were going to concentrate on Welsh.

I can vouch for these ducks.. They are very beautiful ducks.. I almost offered to buy his drake last year instead of processing it or him...

I may take you up on a few just for fast growing meat... these scovies will be a long time grow out till I see who stays and who camps.

 

[Just Ducky10]

To all such lovers. My neighbor has, Welsh Harlequins, iv think that's what they are, and plans to breed and sell this year.
Since I'll probably be doing their incubating, I can try to get some if anyone wants any. If you want eggs, I'm sure they will sell you some to hatch. Last year they had eggs they were selling for eating just to get rid of excess.
I think they had another breed as well, so not sure of their current flock make up, but do know they were going to concentrate on Welsh.

Do you think your neighbor would consider shipping ducklings? We would love some but Lancaster is a bit to far, and we don't have an incubator or we would ask to ship the eggs.