The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Womble on February 16, 2010, 08:48:38 pm
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OK folks, tongue in cheek but......
I'm just about used to the hens now. They need their feed topping up once a week, their water done every few days, and they put themselves to bed just like clockwork. In truth they're no hassle at all - you just need to remember to collect the eggs, and feed them pasta once in a while to keep them sweet ;).
Ducks on the other hand (from what I've read at least) are a bit of a nightmare. They won't keep their water clean, and are harder to get to go to bed than a teenage sleepover party.
So, from those of you who have them, what's the deal? Can you train them to go to bed on their own and can you feed them ad-lib like with hens, or do you just resign yourselves to never accepting an evening dinner invite ever again? ;D
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I've got mine trained! They come to the whistle ;)
No, seriously they do - I whistle recall for Bobby the pup and go to the food bin, next thing I know I have a black puppy and four ducks beside me - so I walk over to their run, throw the food in their small run attached to their shed and in they go! In the morning I don't let them out of there till the big dogs have been out because they'd jump over and retrieve them.
But yes, they dubble their water and paddle about the grass, so I change the water once a day mand tehy ahve to suffer muddy water from then till bedtime.
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I have kept ducks for many, many years and really wouldn't be without them. You are right they are more "needy" than hens but they are great to have around. I have 17 and they spend all day on the river but come a certain time of the afternoon and they are back on land knowing that they get fed before going off to bed. If for some reason they are still on the river when I go out I just have to call on them and they normally come home. They are messy and dirty and shitting machines but they do go to bed when I herd them up, the odd night it goes pear shape but all in all they are easy.
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I could not persuade mine to go to bed until hubby discovered that they would go if you shone a torch on them, seems they don't like to be in the spotlight. Mind you in the summer it is a nightmare they don't go to bed before 11.pm
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We just go out with a torch and shout IN YOU GO and they do;until then they pop up to the shed for food or sit on the pond.
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Yep dinner parties only possible in the winter unless you want to be the host!!!!!!
We're putting up fences so that at least they will be in a run and not so easy to get too by foxes if we do go out while its light in the summer.
Our geese are frre range from dawn until the afternoon feed which they get in their 6 ft pen. then they are penned in and then shut in the hen house overnight. So far the system is working
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What were you planning to do, Womble, take them with you to your candlelit suppers? ;D
They can learn just as quickly as pigs, cos they're quite smart, but you might get the odd bloody minded one, so I suppose you may get a good story to tell around the table, when you're all dressed to go out one night, and they choose that night not to go to bed and you've got to trudge around after them in your dinner jacket ;D
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So sagehen you've bin there as weoll ah ah ah :farmer:
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I've got all this to come... Just but 12 Khaki Campbell and 6 Indian Runner eggs in the incubator this morning. Only 28 long agonising days to go!
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messy, muddy, noisy, good eggs though, water bowl muddy in 5 mins, pond disgusting in a few months, if i didnt have a running stream though my plot i wouldnt have them but as i have a stream i have kept ducks now gone back to geese again.
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What were you planning to do, Womble, take them with you to your candlelit suppers? ;D
If dinner's at our place then we might invite one occasionally I suppose! ;)
I think the problem is that we have life easy with the hens, and have no issue with going away for a couple of days, leaving them in their secure run with plenty of food and water. Friends of ours used to do the same with their pigs, and had a timed feeder which could be charged up with four days worth of pellets, so they could leave the farm to attend agricultural shows etc (obviously I know many folks on here would not entertain such a thought).
I suppose what it comes down to is whether duck housing / runs etc could be arranged so that they would be ok if you weren't there to lock them in at sundown, and preferrably for a full 48 hours. If not, then it's probably too much commitment unless we could find a reliable neighbour who really likes eggs. !! ;D
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I could leave mine - I have an old dog kennel with vinyl on the floor, and straw, and a removable roof, with a great dane sized dog cage attached to it. They can come and go anytime they want, the plastic floor can be hosed down, and in the morning they are let out into their own little paddock, but I could equally leave them in there all day or even a couple of, days if they were left enough food and water in such a way that they couldn't spill it. Mind you I only have 3 ducks and a drake.
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Womble They are not made of anything fragile nor do they need wrapping in cotton wool CVF ducks has all the food and water they want all the time.As you must be aware they don't poo as such its a fluid and the drinkers and food troughs are charged all the time and are placed above a pvc coated 25m/m square mesh floor so it all falls through and is scraped away and pumped to a pacifier ditch where it is circulated and oxygen added before it is discharged to the river.It is monitored 24hrs a day with auto samplers.As such the birds never see day light in all their 49 days :farmer:
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Goodness - it never even occurred to me there were battery ducks as well!
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Yep and the conditions are just as awful as hens endure; people are not as aware as duck is not as widely eaten as chicken.
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Annie Gavo The rest of the shed is nice clean bedding they are bedded with nice wood shavings or chopped straw every morning.The CVF ducks have a lot of room compared to some chickens I have seen on deep litter.A very short life of luxury.Plenty of food and drink and a nice bed. :farmer:
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Annie type in the google box Cherry Valley Duckling and follow the pictures One lot shows the cold store and freezer prep lines :farmer:
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But they don't get to exhibit normal behaviour ie dabbling in muddy puddles; having a good [nose] beak in the mud and immersing their head under water to clean and preen and having a swim.
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Womble, as you know I wouldn't want to be without my ducks. But I had to say goodbuy to my lawn, as they found a spring, created a stream and now are determined to build a pond...the duck house is harder to clean than a chook house, but I do it less often. The ducks eat less than the new chickens! So it evens itself out, really...And aren't our birds having a great life! :&> :chook:
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This article shows cherry valley in quite a good light. This farm had 300 cherry valley ducks.
Maybe they run a franchise business. This made me feel better about them - what do you think?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-446357/Resilient-Stumpy-legged-duckling-steps-limelight.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-446357/Resilient-Stumpy-legged-duckling-steps-limelight.html)
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Although its a very short life and they don't go outside They want for nothing in the growing sheds The shed has continuous food water and is maintained nice and warm about 70 F Yes there are several farms who have CVF ducks where the ducklings are brought to the farm,All the needs are provided for the ducks the farmer only has to look after them. :farmer:
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Ducks are designed for an outdoor life;and as egg producers are not picking up all those little extras that make their eggs special and full of goodness if they live in a shed.Why must mankind force animals to live totally unnatural lives?I have customers who have previously bought shed produced duck eggs and after eating our free range eggs would not go back.Not only better for the customer but even better for the duck.
Sorry to get on my soap box[family call me the food police].
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There is a fairly simple answer Gavo Money!
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I keep all my livestock free range and still manage to make a profit [not huge] but a profit. Not just money but greed and the self important belief that we are the only species on this planet that matter; and the thought we can plunder what we like with no consequences;are to blame. I don't charge an excessive amount for my eggs either £1 per half doz which seems to be the average quoted on here;and much cheaper than the supermarkets.
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The more I watch my animals the more difficult i find it to eat any animal that hasn't lived a free range life. I do wonder if I will end up vegetarian. I hope not. But the ducks are so sweet I'm really not sure about killing them. I wish we had a local despatcher as on the 'accidental' thread.
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Sorry Gavo No intention of quarreling but can you think of how much space you would need for a million ducks think of the mess they would make free range ??? think of the labour involved instead of £6-£7 they would be X 10 I think a few in the yard is a different thing.Like you Marigold but one does become attached and children think like the Bambi story I posted ;D :farmer:
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So Wizard, because it makes it easier for man it is acceptable to keep too many animals caged up in appauling conditions?
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I hope we're you're all still going to be friends at the end of this debate?
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No james not at all just cheaper to the mass consumer Of course we are we are airing our views arn't we james
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Oh Wizard ofcourse we are just airing our personal views. Although from time to time we do get some good heated
arguements debates on here.
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Well thats how I look at it If I think it may upset some one I always try to say no offence intended to start with after all its only my opinion intit.On RCC I have been in real hot water for disagreeing with HFW and some of the Greenies talk about laugh.I remember I decried the 6kw wind genny it developed and I compared it to Drax at 4000 megawatts if all the boilers were generating at the same time and asked if they knew how long a 30 tonne lorry full of willow biomass lasted in any one of the boilers ;D ;D ;D ;D :farmer:
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George, I think companies need to think about getting less profits if it means giving their animals a better life. Instead of a million ducks, they ought to keep less, and yes labour is expensive and the cost is passed on to the consumer, but the mass consumer needs to be aware of the true cost - cheaper ducks usually mean the duck's life wasn't a good one. Obviously in a capitalist system, the great god is profit, so that's not going to happen, which is why a lot of us are going back to the land, so we know what's going in the food we eat.
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Much of this debate comes down to food supply and food miles.Free range usually feeds local demands;whilst intensive farming is aimed at a far larger more wide spread market.Also people have forgotten seasonal food supply ie strawberries all year round;and have lost the ability to use in season fruit and veg amongst other things.
People have also forgotten the old adage[ waste not want not;] so many only want the premium cuts of meat and huge portions ;that large quantities of quality meat either get wasted or shipped abroad; leaving many consumers unable to afford good quality meat thus providing an outlet for intensively reared cheap unhealthy meat/eggs etc.
Perhaps more education at all levels may be an answer[home ec with unusual cuts of meat etc]
No offence taken or meant it would be boring if we all thought exactly the same although it doesn't hurt to try and "convert" a few people along the way if you know what i mean?
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The more I watch my animals the more difficult i find it to eat any animal that hasn't lived a free range life. I do wonder if I will end up vegetarian. I hope not. But the ducks are so sweet I'm really not sure about killing them. I wish we had a local despatcher as on the 'accidental' thread.
Marigold, you're not alone. I have a friend and her husband is vegetarian. He does eat meat, but he will only eat meat if it has been reared by his wife. So they occasionally slaughter a male goat, a sheep, chickens etc. It makes sense in a way, he only eats meat if he knows exactly how it has been treated, reared, fed and looked after.
Beth
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Lol Beth - a vegetarian is someone who doesn't eat any living flesh at all. My OH is a vegetarian (no animal flesh at all), and gets into a tizzy when he hears about vegetarians 'who eat fish or chicken' ;D Better not tell him about what you said! ;)
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LOL! And all I wanted to know was whether ducks put themselves to bed or not! ;D
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there you go Wombles, you've started someting off unwillingly ;D ;D ;D
back to your question: in the winter they do- in the summer, not really! Must have to do with the light levels (did I already say that a few pages back??) :&>
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I think its a vital part of poultry keeping Putting them to bed Raynard will get them and I don't think any wire will keep him out for ever,he will find a way in.and he kills for sport or at least doesn't eat what he kills.I once saw a chicken hut with 50 dead chickens Laying hens in and the fox.Tell you what if you shoot one from 5-6 yards he doesn't half make a mess all over the side of the hut.alas he kills no more chickens ??? :farmer:
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so how do you round them up at night in the summer then..? feed them in the house??
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they do learn relatively quickly where they are supposed to go. we just walk behind them until they are in the run. at the start it took 2 people to round them up but now one can do it. in the summer it can be annoying as it might be midnight and they still don't want to go to bed! just now they go by themselves by around 6 . once in the run they have a nibble and find their own way into the house - shut door. I don't feed any birds in their house, just makes a mess and you get rats in there... :&>