Good morning Tara! Well - after listening to your essays religiously, finally something that we might not agree on entirely. Last year we got our first Pekin (not Peking) ducklings. We'd been raising chickens for years but wanted to add some of this delicious protein to our diets as well and had never raised ducks before. We also wanted to have a source of protein that we could reproduce easily. So, last March we picked up our 10 ducklings and we raised them until we could distinguish the hens from the drakes. We processed two drakes and kept two drakes and six hens over the winter. The big surprise to us was what prolific egg layers they were! Over the course of the winter we averaged almost 5 gorgeous big eggs every day from our six hens. No lights, no roosts, less feed than our chickens, easy to herd into their enclosure at night. Last month we ran our first round of eggs through our incubator. 100% fertility and 85% successfully hatched. We have another round in the incubators now, due to hatch next week. At 8 weeks we will process most of these birds as that's the optimal time to avoid pinfeathers and they don't put on much size after that. They will dress out at about 6lbs. We don't have a dedicated pond. We have large kiddy pools that we put drains in so we just pull the plug, rinse and refill daily (that water is pure gold to the surrounding area). We are encouraging many local farms to consider Pekin Ducks as a great addition to their food security plan.
Haha... that's great, glad we finally disagree on something :) But I'm not sure what we disagree on? I've had Pekins for years and I'm pretty sure by this point they're nicely mixed into the breeding of most of my birds. Whatever did I say about them? I have no recollection.
Pekins aren't broody though. Their eggs are hatched out by our more broody birds.
Oh my goodness Tara!! After reading this I had to go back and re-listen to your bit on ducks (Pekins) as I couldn't remember exactly what we didn't agree on :-D We believe that the Pekins are amazing dual (egg & meat) purpose and not specifically meat birds. They lay a startling amount of eggs! Our ducks live on "pasture" so they eat a lot of greenery, without a specific pond - although they do love their paddling pools. Although we'd love to have a pond, it's lower down on our priority list. We do supplement our ducklings with niacin as we don't have access to duck grower, only chick grower. So - I think that you focused on the necessity of a pond for Pekins which makes them more problematic than having chickens. We find them easier and a better dual purpose bird than any of our laying chickens - and so much easier and happier than meat chickens.
We do have one hen that didn't read the books on Pekins (I know that they're not prone to broodiness) and is pretty serious about hatching a small clutch of eggs :-)
Ah, okay. So, we keep Pekins year round. Most ducks will lay that amount of eggs initially and then generally taper off. Same with layers. We have three purebred Pekins that are going on three years old now and dozens that are mixes. One of the Pekins is a drake that's been getting it on with some of our other breeds. We no longer use strictly layers in the duck breeds. We've crossed ours with good results. Most of them are heavier breeds. My favourite, by far, is the Saxony. They are, for us, a great bird, amazing mothers, and do so well with just forages.
I'm so glad you added your comment. It adds to the possibilities of anyone looking to get some chickens vs. ducks.
Interesting - I don't know anyone around here that raises Saxony - although we were considering adding Cayugas as they're also a dual purpose bird. Plus we're partial to black and white ;-) We just hatched (via incubator) 21 Pekin ducklings and have another 40 or so hatching this week - along with a half dozen Roman Geese. So, the plan will be to process the Pekins we got last spring when the new batch start laying. That should keep our egg production up if they taper off as they age. An incubator definitely helps this process when broody mamas are few and far between :-)
Sounds like a great setup! I'm always going for the mamas that will hatch. You could keep a few muscovies if you would like to forego that incubator, but it sounds like you have a system there. :)
I also have cayugas. I think I have had every type of domestic duck that lives. Paddy, my little duck pal, is half cayuga. They're good, small carcass though. I don't find they lay anymore than the rest of my breeds. The Blue Swedish are also a nice size, but the males are maniacal sex machines. I have tried a few different ones because I like their size and they're also great moms, but the males are just... grit your teeth. A few years ago, a wild mallard drake flew into our duck pond and never left. It was during hunting season so we aren't sure if he lost his flock or if he himself was injured. Anyway, he is a true gentleman and the papa of many of the ducks out there. :)
I would never be without a few Saxony. There is something very special and personable about them. They're "gentle hearted" and quiet. Not quite sure how to explain them but I really find they add a peace to our flock.
Thank you for sharing your experience with ducks! What success you have had. Probably hard to think back now but would you ever recommend starting with ducks? We have access to local chickens for meat and eggs and I really would like a different variety of eggs and duck fat.
Good morning Alexandra! The Pekins we raised this past year provided more than enough eggs to sustain our household. We had six hens and we averaged almost 5 beautiful big duck eggs a day all winter long. If you have access to local chicken eggs/meat then we would definitely recommend a dual purpose duck variety for your farm. We only have experience with Pekins - but are very, very happy that we added them to our farm. The eggs and meat (fat) are amazing. We also run about 60 laying chickens on our farm.
I liked your details about how and why you raise your ducks. Much appreciated. So interesting about the spiders in your barns and coops. Oh my! It makes sense and now I am kicking myself because I just used permectrin on my chickens to get rid of bad lice and also because I had the mites last year.. I wish I hadn’t of sprayed the coop down as I know it will deter spiders too which is now NOT what I want😞. I am learning. But I am not sure how to turn that around. Without using the stuff to get rid of lice. The other thing I am going to try is putting more dry sand so they can dust bath which I know helps reduce parasites. Thanks for the helpful info!
Ohhh my god. Mites! This is the second year we are dealing with them. We lost two chickens last year before I realized what the problem even was. I had never seen them before, let alone have an infestation so bad a chicken could die! Say more about that experience! I’m about ready to burn the coop down and start over with a new one.
What symptoms did the chicken who died from mites exhibit? We've just lost two chickens.... I know our coop needs a good going over (We've just had a baby so farm work has gone by the wayside) so am wondering if cleanliness is the culprit...
So good. Thank you. I love the idea of using Lime paints and I'm trying to learn more about it. (Along with further my obsession with straw bale...) Thanks for all the juicy tidbits of information of all kinds! Much appreciated!
I read the comments before getting a quiet moment to actually listen to your audio so was researching limewashing chicken coops before listening. The internet tells me that hydrated ("builders") lime is toxic to chickens and to make sure you only use 'garden' lime (calcium carbonate). So was interested to hear you say you use hydrated lime. Obviosuly you haven't had any issues with it? Do you think it would make a difference? I have dolomite here which is lime and magnesium so am wondering if I could use that instead too? Who would have thought there'd be so many options for lime 🤣🤦♂️
Hi Tara, thank you so much for all the wonderful information. I was wondering where I could find information on how you created your chicken feed mix if you have shared it somewhere with us already? I am researching it now, but there is so much controversial stuff out there. I am looking into low PUFA, no soy, no corn. We will probably mostly need it for winter as we aim to have chickens free-range mostly in summer through our property. Look forward to your tips!
Greeeaat Q &A sesh! I had the question about pickling. Re: the sweetener question, it was more about whether you add any type of sweetener to your pickling brines? All the recipes I’ve seen add some. Didn’t know if it was necessary to the pickling process or results. Thanks for the time you out into answering all these questions. Love listening to them, even though we don’t have any animals (which I would love to have)…educates me for better conversations with our local farmers.
Thanks Tara my gut (haha micro biome joke) was telling me that the sanitizing could be detrimental but having chicks for the first time I also don’t want to do something so terribly wrong we lose them! I appreciate all the advice!!!
Loved this Q and A. Love hearing about all your farming knowledge! Wonderful wisdom for beginners like us. Wondering what you feed your chickens and ducks exactly.. if it's a mix, what's in it? Or do you mix your own?
Hi Tara! Thank you for all of the wonderful information you share so generously. A question came to mind when listening to the bit about not feeding things that have been expelled from an animal back to an animal. Would you use this same line of thinking when considering a placenta?
Good morning Tara! Well - after listening to your essays religiously, finally something that we might not agree on entirely. Last year we got our first Pekin (not Peking) ducklings. We'd been raising chickens for years but wanted to add some of this delicious protein to our diets as well and had never raised ducks before. We also wanted to have a source of protein that we could reproduce easily. So, last March we picked up our 10 ducklings and we raised them until we could distinguish the hens from the drakes. We processed two drakes and kept two drakes and six hens over the winter. The big surprise to us was what prolific egg layers they were! Over the course of the winter we averaged almost 5 gorgeous big eggs every day from our six hens. No lights, no roosts, less feed than our chickens, easy to herd into their enclosure at night. Last month we ran our first round of eggs through our incubator. 100% fertility and 85% successfully hatched. We have another round in the incubators now, due to hatch next week. At 8 weeks we will process most of these birds as that's the optimal time to avoid pinfeathers and they don't put on much size after that. They will dress out at about 6lbs. We don't have a dedicated pond. We have large kiddy pools that we put drains in so we just pull the plug, rinse and refill daily (that water is pure gold to the surrounding area). We are encouraging many local farms to consider Pekin Ducks as a great addition to their food security plan.
Haha... that's great, glad we finally disagree on something :) But I'm not sure what we disagree on? I've had Pekins for years and I'm pretty sure by this point they're nicely mixed into the breeding of most of my birds. Whatever did I say about them? I have no recollection.
Pekins aren't broody though. Their eggs are hatched out by our more broody birds.
Oh my goodness Tara!! After reading this I had to go back and re-listen to your bit on ducks (Pekins) as I couldn't remember exactly what we didn't agree on :-D We believe that the Pekins are amazing dual (egg & meat) purpose and not specifically meat birds. They lay a startling amount of eggs! Our ducks live on "pasture" so they eat a lot of greenery, without a specific pond - although they do love their paddling pools. Although we'd love to have a pond, it's lower down on our priority list. We do supplement our ducklings with niacin as we don't have access to duck grower, only chick grower. So - I think that you focused on the necessity of a pond for Pekins which makes them more problematic than having chickens. We find them easier and a better dual purpose bird than any of our laying chickens - and so much easier and happier than meat chickens.
We do have one hen that didn't read the books on Pekins (I know that they're not prone to broodiness) and is pretty serious about hatching a small clutch of eggs :-)
Ah, okay. So, we keep Pekins year round. Most ducks will lay that amount of eggs initially and then generally taper off. Same with layers. We have three purebred Pekins that are going on three years old now and dozens that are mixes. One of the Pekins is a drake that's been getting it on with some of our other breeds. We no longer use strictly layers in the duck breeds. We've crossed ours with good results. Most of them are heavier breeds. My favourite, by far, is the Saxony. They are, for us, a great bird, amazing mothers, and do so well with just forages.
I'm so glad you added your comment. It adds to the possibilities of anyone looking to get some chickens vs. ducks.
Interesting - I don't know anyone around here that raises Saxony - although we were considering adding Cayugas as they're also a dual purpose bird. Plus we're partial to black and white ;-) We just hatched (via incubator) 21 Pekin ducklings and have another 40 or so hatching this week - along with a half dozen Roman Geese. So, the plan will be to process the Pekins we got last spring when the new batch start laying. That should keep our egg production up if they taper off as they age. An incubator definitely helps this process when broody mamas are few and far between :-)
Sounds like a great setup! I'm always going for the mamas that will hatch. You could keep a few muscovies if you would like to forego that incubator, but it sounds like you have a system there. :)
I also have cayugas. I think I have had every type of domestic duck that lives. Paddy, my little duck pal, is half cayuga. They're good, small carcass though. I don't find they lay anymore than the rest of my breeds. The Blue Swedish are also a nice size, but the males are maniacal sex machines. I have tried a few different ones because I like their size and they're also great moms, but the males are just... grit your teeth. A few years ago, a wild mallard drake flew into our duck pond and never left. It was during hunting season so we aren't sure if he lost his flock or if he himself was injured. Anyway, he is a true gentleman and the papa of many of the ducks out there. :)
I would never be without a few Saxony. There is something very special and personable about them. They're "gentle hearted" and quiet. Not quite sure how to explain them but I really find they add a peace to our flock.
Oh I do like gentle hearted birds so I might see if I can source out some Saxony in this area. Thanks so much for the great conversation Tara!
Thank you for sharing your experience with ducks! What success you have had. Probably hard to think back now but would you ever recommend starting with ducks? We have access to local chickens for meat and eggs and I really would like a different variety of eggs and duck fat.
Good morning Alexandra! The Pekins we raised this past year provided more than enough eggs to sustain our household. We had six hens and we averaged almost 5 beautiful big duck eggs a day all winter long. If you have access to local chicken eggs/meat then we would definitely recommend a dual purpose duck variety for your farm. We only have experience with Pekins - but are very, very happy that we added them to our farm. The eggs and meat (fat) are amazing. We also run about 60 laying chickens on our farm.
I liked your details about how and why you raise your ducks. Much appreciated. So interesting about the spiders in your barns and coops. Oh my! It makes sense and now I am kicking myself because I just used permectrin on my chickens to get rid of bad lice and also because I had the mites last year.. I wish I hadn’t of sprayed the coop down as I know it will deter spiders too which is now NOT what I want😞. I am learning. But I am not sure how to turn that around. Without using the stuff to get rid of lice. The other thing I am going to try is putting more dry sand so they can dust bath which I know helps reduce parasites. Thanks for the helpful info!
Dust bathing is really important. You may want to mix some diatomaceous earth into your dust bath. What is your bedding?
Ohhh my god. Mites! This is the second year we are dealing with them. We lost two chickens last year before I realized what the problem even was. I had never seen them before, let alone have an infestation so bad a chicken could die! Say more about that experience! I’m about ready to burn the coop down and start over with a new one.
The cobwebs (spiders), bedding(?), dust baths are mandatory, good feed quality. Washing down with lime every year?
What symptoms did the chicken who died from mites exhibit? We've just lost two chickens.... I know our coop needs a good going over (We've just had a baby so farm work has gone by the wayside) so am wondering if cleanliness is the culprit...
Spiders eat mites? I did not realize. I've got lots of spiders! Lucky for me.
God bless Patty!💙
So good. Thank you. I love the idea of using Lime paints and I'm trying to learn more about it. (Along with further my obsession with straw bale...) Thanks for all the juicy tidbits of information of all kinds! Much appreciated!
Hi Tara,
I read the comments before getting a quiet moment to actually listen to your audio so was researching limewashing chicken coops before listening. The internet tells me that hydrated ("builders") lime is toxic to chickens and to make sure you only use 'garden' lime (calcium carbonate). So was interested to hear you say you use hydrated lime. Obviosuly you haven't had any issues with it? Do you think it would make a difference? I have dolomite here which is lime and magnesium so am wondering if I could use that instead too? Who would have thought there'd be so many options for lime 🤣🤦♂️
Hi Tara, thank you so much for all the wonderful information. I was wondering where I could find information on how you created your chicken feed mix if you have shared it somewhere with us already? I am researching it now, but there is so much controversial stuff out there. I am looking into low PUFA, no soy, no corn. We will probably mostly need it for winter as we aim to have chickens free-range mostly in summer through our property. Look forward to your tips!
Greeeaat Q &A sesh! I had the question about pickling. Re: the sweetener question, it was more about whether you add any type of sweetener to your pickling brines? All the recipes I’ve seen add some. Didn’t know if it was necessary to the pickling process or results. Thanks for the time you out into answering all these questions. Love listening to them, even though we don’t have any animals (which I would love to have)…educates me for better conversations with our local farmers.
Thanks Tara my gut (haha micro biome joke) was telling me that the sanitizing could be detrimental but having chicks for the first time I also don’t want to do something so terribly wrong we lose them! I appreciate all the advice!!!
Hi Tara,
Loved this Q and A. Love hearing about all your farming knowledge! Wonderful wisdom for beginners like us. Wondering what you feed your chickens and ducks exactly.. if it's a mix, what's in it? Or do you mix your own?
Thanks!
Hi Tara! Thank you for all of the wonderful information you share so generously. A question came to mind when listening to the bit about not feeding things that have been expelled from an animal back to an animal. Would you use this same line of thinking when considering a placenta?
You all remind me f the word “hope”❤️❤️