Ducklings are adorable and don’t get much less so as they age.
If you could travel back in time to a typical European farm, you might be surprised by what you’d find there when it came to poultry. Unlike today’s North American small farm that usually includes chickens, or sometimes turkeys, European farms as early as 800 B.C.E. would have had a heavy emphasis on domesticated ducks and geese over chickens.
Fast forward to modern-day, and the only type of poultry that seems to have withstood the test of time is the domesticated chicken, produced today in staggering numbers, exceeding 60 million head in Canada in January 2018 alone (Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada). Ducks may have fallen by the wayside on the modern-day farm, but the benefits of raising this waterfowl still exist, with few downsides.
To begin with, ducks are adorable at every stage of life and will provide endless hours of entertainment for your entire family. Ducks are friendly, affectionate with those they are familiar with, and highly entertaining. Forget the TV, park a lawn chair in front of a duck pen and sit back to enjoy the show as they waddle, run, and scurry back and forth, all day long. If you keep ducks, prepare to be amused.
Of course, there are practical considerations, too, and ducks are part of a swiftly growing niche market. In Canada, the number of ducks being raised has been steadily increasing over the past five years, to meet a growing demand for a market that has tremendous potential at both regional and national levels.
Numbers of ducks and geese on the rise
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, ducks and geese numbers in Canada have been steadily increasing over the past five years, with an increase from roughly six million in 2015 to six-and-a-half million in 2017. The growing popularity for duck meat stems primarily from the Asian market, but duck is also gaining in popularity in the natural food industry, as consumers look for alternatives to chicken.
Ducks make good mothers, and are very protective of their ducklings. They are much larger than chickens, and bring a higher price at market, but farmers can also expect to pay more for ducklings, up to $10 a duckling, depending on the breed.
Small farms that make the transition to duck production may be looking to capture their fair share of a niche market, but their reasons are just as likely to be about how easy to raise and well-suited ducks are to a small farm environment.
The list of advantages when keeping ducks is seemingly endless: Ducks are excellent foragers,
Muscovy ducks make excellent brooders. You can put any kind of egg under a Muscovy hen and she will brood it to hatch! Duck eggs take about 35 days to incubate, depending on the breed.
hardy and good brooders and mothers. They are easy to raise, resilient and bring a higher per-pound price at market. Raising ducks gives small farmers an opportunity to diversify their poultry stock, without adding a wealth of additional costs.
For meat breeds, ducks are bigger and heavier, bring a higher price than chickens, and they also make an excellent roast in the winter months. For farmers looking to keep ducks for eggs (which is also a popular niche market), some duck breeds can reliably produce up to 300 eggs a year, a production level that is comparable to chicken laying breeds.
So why doesn’t every small farm include ducks? Part of the reticence may lie with misconceptions about how easy ducks are to raise, or a lack of understanding about how to care for them. Read on to learn more about raising ducks; they may be just the addition you need on your small farm.
Duck management
Ducks are considered to be one of the easiest types of poultry to raise. First off, for farms with limited space, ducks can be easily raised alongside chickens, as long as consideration is given to their unique nesting and housing requirements. Ducks are hardier and sturdier than chickens, and less prone to illness and disease.
When housing ducks, it isn’t necessary to give ducks their own pen, they can be kept in the same pen as chickens, with some caveats. Ducks need about four square feet of space, each, and they don’t perch like chickens do, they can instead benefit from a nice straw bed to nestle down into. They also can’t climb or jump, so food, water, and entry into their pen must be made accessible. For layers, nesting boxes should be bigger than that used for chickens, and placed on the ground.
Because a duck has down to keep it warm, a duck pen needn’t be kept as warm as a chicken pen, but when it comes to predator-proofing, extra care needs to be taken to ensure housing and fencing are safe and secure. Ducks are limited in mobility when it comes to escaping a predator (hence the expression “a sitting duck”), and for free-range birds, it’s recommended they be locked in at night for their own safety.
For farmers looking to reduce feed costs, ducks are where it’s at. Ducks love to forage, and will wander around the farm filling their bellies on insects, worms and even weeds. Let them loose in your garden in the shoulder seasons and they will clear out any unwanted pests, while fertilizing the soil at the same time. When the garden’s planted, you won’t need to worry too much about fencing ducks out of your produce. Unlike chickens, any duck can be excluded by a simple two-foot high barrier.
Care should also be taken to ensure that duck waterers are deep enough that they can dunk their whole head inside, to flush their nostrils. From a feeding perspective, ducks will benefit from duck starter for the first two weeks of life, but eventually they should be able eat the same feed as chickens, with a roughly 16-to-18 per cent protein and 2 per cent calcium feed (depending on whether they are layers or meat birds). Ducks aren’t fussy eaters, but will need more food in the winter than they will in the summer when they are able to forage.
One thing that must be kept in mind with ducks is their association with water; while ducks don’t technically need a pond or pool to swim in, they will be cleaner and healthier if they have some kind of water access, even if it’s just an old tub or kiddie pool (plus, they’ll be a lot happier). Ducks use water to preen and spread their waterproofing oil over their feathers.
It’s also important to ensure that drinking water is consistently available; ducks who feed after a temporary water shortage can suffer from the “staggers,” leading to death.
Ducks are ready for slaughter between seven and eight weeks of age, depending on the breed.
Good-bye turkey?
Ducks may have been overlooked in the past few hundred years, but their time to flourish may now be at hand. As consumers look more and more to alternatives to traditionally farmed products, in true Dickens-style, a good roast duck may soon be a contender for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners, ousting the homely, traditional turkey. Stay tuned for more duck tales as the industry expands.
— Amy Hogue