The khaki-Campbell duck Thread !!!!!!!!

[Robeenop]

The best thing to say is the POOP. Chickens plop mostly, except the brown cecal. Ducks sqirt. No other way to put it. Ducks LOVE water, weather a pool, a bucket or a mud puddle. They don't peck at their food , they shovel it. I don't have a problem with either. They are farm animals part of the maintenance. Duck is delicious. The eggs are awesome. I have no plans to butcher any of mine any time soon. Had a flock of mallards on our lake growing up. ( we bought them and put them there) They never migrated. Walked up the street every evening for their feed, to the front door if you were late feeding them. The hens would "demand" there food!

 

[Carcajou]

I love my chickens, they all have different personalities...ducks are the clowns of the flock. They way they "discuss" everything amoung themselves, and yack yack yack. They will stand and watch the chickens, but i swear they are gossipibg about the chickens! Ducks are a hoot! And the waddle flap run is hilarious! I have two Roeun hens, and three Khaki Campbells. All hens.

Yep!!! Ducks are definitely yakkity, gossipy, very entertaining clowns!! Love mine immensely. Do you have a "spokesduck" in your flock? I certainly do!

 

[AxolotlLove]

I do! Carly is the gossip queen in my flock

Here's Carly's current "boyfriend" DJ Quack hahahaha

 

[AxolotlLove]

My 3 KC and my 2 Roeun, took it upon themselves, to move into my big chicken coop. I had built them there own duck house. They go in with chickens at night. They lay eggs in two of my three coops. In the winter, I put straw on top of my sand base. In the spring all the straw comes out. The ducks have pools to swim, and use the nipple waterers. I have betta 10 watt aquarium heaters in my waters. Ducks are messy, but I keep everything pretty clean. I have not had any issues with my ducks and 30 chickens co-habitating. They like each other! My father raised 2500 broilers and 1000 pekins til ready for market. They mingled when they wanted. Ducks stayed mostly on the pond. They eat the same pellets-everything natural and/or Organic. I get 5 eggs every day from the ducks. The Rouens are very friendly, the Khaki Campbells are a bit smaller and stand offish, but all are gorgeous!

My rouens and KC seem to get along together very well too. Some duck breeds don't get along (my KC don't like my pekins or Cayugas) but despite size difference they're great friends

 

[nchvac]

When I raised my two pekins about 10 years ago I noticed they were very skittish even though I raised them from 2 days old (Ideal Hatchery ducks).
I raised them for meat and really didn't care if they were tame but we did play with them a lot when they were very young but they just stayed scared of people and really anything. I wonder if one has to hatch them and be the first thing they see for them to be less skittish.

 

[Robeenop]

I doubt it, my Rouen were 2 days old, handled a lot when little. They follow me around the yard, and I can hand feed them. they pull on my clothes to get my attention. The KC's I rescued from a co-workers husband, before he killed them, he didn't want ducks...I didn't want him to have ducks either...so I took them. I can understand them being skittish, but they are coming around slowly...I will have to post some pics.

 

[Robeenop]

[/IMG][/IMG you can the size difference between the two breeds, and how they all get along with my chickens.

 

[Robeenop]

My ducks and clucks

 

[Robeenop]

 

[nchvac]

So what am I missing here? I have always thought of chickens as egg producers but in reading these posts it sounds like the duck eggs are more nutritious, alkaline and they lay more and on and on. So why don't most people raise ducks for eggs and leave the chicken to the soup pot? I must be missing something or there is some drawbacks or something.

At this point I am considering raising chickens for meat and the reduced egg production seen by the meat breeds and raise ducks for eggs, especially being the KC is basically the size of a chicken so the feed should maybe be close to the same? Maybe someone can advise on feed to egg ratios and in general maintaining good health how much feed is needed to maintain a KC compared to a heritage bred chicken.