[County Dangler]

I'm struggling to find a basic guide to keeping Ducks for the table so I wonder if someone could answer a few questions?

We have recently finished a batch of hubbards which we were really pleased with but i fancy a change and was wondering about ducks?

Firstly, I assume they will be ok in the same enclosure and house? Its around 45' x 30' and the house is 8'x4'x4' and i can easily remove the perches. Theres a gentle slope up to the door and an automatic door opener/closer. I guess they will put themseleves to bed like the chickens? I also plan on getting an old pond liner and filling that with water for them.

What about food? will chick crumb and growers pellet be ok as i can't find much on any specific duck food.

Breeds? any reccomenations? how long from chick to table and what weights to expect? will they need there wings clipping?

I'm not talking about a commercial quantity but i'd proibably look at a couple of dozen to start with.

Sorry about all of the questions and thanks in advance for any advice.

[clydesdaleclopper]

They won't put themselves to bed but you can easily herd them in. Ours respond to a shout of bedtime.


You need waterfowl pellets or if you just feed chicken layer pellets you will need to supplement them with brewers yeast to get adequate levels of niacin. For ducklings you must NOT feed medicated chick crumb.


If you are getting a breed for the table you won't need to wing clip as they are too heavy to fly.


We keep Blue Swedish - they give a nice carcass by about 20 weeks and they're pretty 

[Womble]

Hi,

We raised a couple of dozen table ducks a while back, and it wasn't too difficult. To answer your questions though:
 
 

• We fed them on goose & duck crumb, and then goose & duck growers pellets. (Note, not all chick crumb is suitable for ducks, since the medication they put in for coccidosis can be poinsonous to ducklings).
• We bought hatching eggs from Cherry Valley, and they turned into big white ducks!
• They probably won't put themselves to bed. Ducks often don't, or certainly not as reliably as chooks.
• The ducklings are REALLY, REALLY messy. We recently raised five ducklings, who needed their 5 litre waterer filling up twice per day..... because they emptied it all over the floor. Multiply that mess by two or three, and beware that although they're cute, dealing with the mess is a major undertaking, at least until they are able to go outside and mess up the grass instead!
• I think you'd want something like a childs sandpit or a shower tray for them to bathe in. A pond liner with no flow of water would become horrid very quickly indeed.
• I can't remember how long they took to grow. However, they did yield less than Hubbards etc, and were harder to prepare (so much fluff!).
• You won't need to clip their wings, if they're a large table variety.
• They were very, very tasty in the end, and thus a worthwhile experiment. However, I'll be honest, we won't be doing them again!

I hope that helps!

[County Dangler]

Thanks folks. I'm going to have a ring around and see if I can find any Aylesbury day olds localy (Cornwall) and take it from there. I'm not too worried about the mess as I'm going to convert a 6x3 shed right outside the backdoor for bringing chicks on. I'm really not worried about yield but rather quality. And the chap that came to kill and prep the chicken also does ducks (in fact it was him that sewed the seed) so i'm not worried about that either.

Any more hints and tips are welcome but if i can get some locally i think i'll give it a go. Thanks again folks.

[twizzel]

Just make sure whatever you feed is non medicated- I feed my ducklings Allen & Page Poultry Grower with a bit of mixed corn, they are doing very well on it. Think Allen & Page do a duck and goose pellet too but it's not suitable for chicken whereas the Poultry Grower is suitable for both.