suburban homesteading question: how to replace layer ducks?

[mo_fawaazz]

I have a few khaki campbell hens and a drake. I raise rabbits too, i have a buck and 2 does. I do tend to buy animals in the spring but I find breeding my own to be much more cost effective and even beneficial to keep good strains going. Each of my productive livestock have a replacement period (for rabbits is 3yrs and for ducks is 2yrs), where by that time once they hit a target date (3.5 months before their 2yr mark), they breed, and after 4 months of their offspring growing alongside them, the old breeders are either eaten or given away. this way the offspring are ready to lay/birth soon and can replace the parents and I can avoid having any blank months without many eggs/kits. If any of the new offspring don't do well on the job (for example, a doe kits only three kits every time, or a single duck hen barely lays, a newly-bought replacement awaits them).

The assigned replacement years is because the livestock have a higher risk of becoming lame or less productive after those years. It may seem cruel to assign them replacement dates but its much better that I source eggs and meat with happy animals on healthy diets rather than buying factory-abused store meat and eggs.

The thing is that I want to completely avoid inbreeding and genetic bottlenecks. Because of this, I always replace my males with newly bought males.

I just want to confirm whether this is a safe practice for my farm. Every female is always replaced with her daughter when the time comes, but every male is replaced with a genetically unrelated new store bought male. for both rabbits and ducks, the healthiest daughter is selected to replace the mum. This does avoid inbreeding but I smell something fishy with this because I don't know a lot of people who do this. Most people I know just buy whole new flocks from TSC as replacements.

Is my plan safe for small farm populations? Or is it better to just buy a whole new flock each replacement year?

 

[Jenbirdee]

I have a few khaki campbell hens and a drake. I raise rabbits too, i have a buck and 2 does. I do tend to buy animals in the spring but I find breeding my own to be much more cost effective and even beneficial to keep good strains going. Each of my productive livestock have a replacement period (for rabbits is 3yrs and for ducks is 2yrs), where by that time once they hit a target date (3.5 months before their 2yr mark), they breed, and after 4 months of their offspring growing alongside them, the old breeders are either eaten or given away. this way the offspring are ready to lay/birth soon and can replace the parents and I can avoid having any blank months without many eggs/kits. If any of the new offspring don't do well on the job (for example, a doe kits only three kits every time, or a single duck hen barely lays, a newly-bought replacement awaits them).

The assigned replacement years is because the livestock have a higher risk of becoming lame or less productive after those years. It may seem cruel to assign them replacement dates but its much better that I source eggs and meat with happy animals on healthy diets rather than buying factory-abused store meat and eggs.

The thing is that I want to completely avoid inbreeding and genetic bottlenecks. Because of this, I always replace my males with newly bought males.

I just want to confirm whether this is a safe practice for my farm. Every female is always replaced with her daughter when the time comes, but every male is replaced with a genetically unrelated new store bought male. for both rabbits and ducks, the healthiest daughter is selected to replace the mum. This does avoid inbreeding but I smell something fishy with this because I don't know a lot of people who do this. Most people I know just buy whole new flocks from TSC as replacements.

Is my plan safe for small farm populations? Or is it better to just buy a whole new flock each replacement year?

Well, it does sound like you are avoiding inbreeding and if the only reason you think there’s something fishy is because you don’t know anyone else doing it your way that could be perhaps your way is a lot of work and trouble finding new homes for the older animals and continually buying new males. Personally, my duck flock are more like pets I keep them until they die of old age or perhaps some illness gets them, but I keep them and care for them all their life. I also have rabbits, but only two females because I don’t like the way the males territory marking smells. My chickens are all females, but I do have one gander and two geese and those I breed to sell the goslings. But since they live more like 30 years and are pets, I won’t be replacing them either. They will probably end up replacing me. I doubt I will outlive them. lol
I would like to also add that my 10-year-old ducks were still laying eggs up until last year. They tapered off after the first six years.