TREATS

[LittleBo]

What treats do you give your ducks?

 

[Miss Lydia]

What treats do you give your ducks?

Mine get Romaine lettuce, kale, peas, mealworms, corn, melons when on sale, tomatoes, cucumber. squash. pumpkin,

 

[mariehanson]

PEAS! I cant figure out why they go bonkers for peas. Mine also get chopped tomatoes, mealworms and salad leaves.

 

[wafflechicken]

In addition to mealworms, my flock (ducks, chickens, geese) get whatever odds and ends I have around. It's like breathing composting.

Less than perfect blueberries I won't freeze
Thinned veggies from the garden (tiny carrots, radishes, etc)
Corn cobs that I'm done with but they all manage to pick cleaner
Any trimmed ends of veggies I've prepped for dinner
Any veggies that are still fine but limper than I would like - my geese have a deep and abiding love for celery
Turnip and beet greens

You get the idea.

But it's blueberries the ducks seem to love the most after the mealworms.

 

[Miss Lydia]

In addition to mealworms, my flock (ducks, chickens, geese) get whatever odds and ends I have around. It's like breathing composting.

Less than perfect blueberries I won't freeze
Thinned veggies from the garden (tiny carrots, radishes, etc)
Corn cobs that I'm done with but they all manage to pick cleaner
Any trimmed ends of veggies I've prepped for dinner
Any veggies that are still fine but limper than I would like - my geese have a deep and abiding love for celery
Turnip and beet greens

You get the idea.

But it's blueberries the ducks seem to love the most after the mealworms.

I have a question about the celery, I haven't given my geese any because I worry about the strings, do you remove the strings before giving?

 

[wafflechicken]

For the celery I cut them into chunks probably about half inch or so. At that size any strings aren't really going to be anything worse than some of the stringy grasses they eat. (yes, I perhaps spoil the birds sometimes)

Heck, you should see them with the dark greens leaves (like turnip or collard) that have those stringy, fibrous ribs/stalks. Those I just throw out whole and they literally slurp them up like spaghetti. No problem there either.

 

[Miss Lydia]

For the celery I cut them into chunks probably about half inch or so. At that size any strings aren't really going to be anything worse than some of the stringy grasses they eat. (yes, I perhaps spoil the birds sometimes)

Heck, you should see them with the dark greens leaves (like turnip or collard) that have those stringy, fibrous ribs/stalks. Those I just throw out whole and they literally slurp them up like spaghetti. No problem there either.

And all this time I have been chopping up the greens. good grief. okay celery next shopping trip Thanks

 

[OliverZoe]

Mine love lettuce and grapes.

 

[inkedlady]

Lettuce, cherry tomatoes, grapes, melon meal worms koi sticks in the pool first thing in the morning and their fav treat PEAS

 

[wafflechicken]

And all this time I have been chopping up the greens. good grief. okay celery next shopping trip Thanks

(and I thought I was the soft touch for cutting up the celery!)

Ha! Yeah, with the greens you're totally making things hard on yourself.

That stuff comes from when I harvest greens from the garden (I grow a lot of root veg and harvest the greens several times before I actually pull the root). One bowl has the stuff I'm going to cook or freeze and the other has the holey, tough, limp, whatever stuff. That get's chucked over the fence. And is gone in about 4 and a half minutes.

The birds actually know now and hover around the garden when I'm out there working.

Celery I would cut up for them. Not like a fine dice like they're in a Michelin star restaurant but bite sized. As well as they can screw off your finger, geese have a surprisingly hard time biting off chunks of celery.