A few weeks ago, I eagerly pre-wrote the following post as I was driving to Michelstown to collect 6 ducks and their drake. 3 hours later, the fox had got them all and I was left with an empty paddling pool and a sad, sad face. I decided not to get any more ducks for the time being until we sorted out our security problem. They were €15 a piece and we had been told some scare mongering stories about salmonella from a hen breeder so we let the idea go. A few weeks later, I was at the Cork Summer festival in Ballincollig, where it amazed me to see all the livestock and poultry being sold at the fair with competitions for the best calves and ewes and a poultry and duck sale. I met a breeder who had presented the ducks in a spacious cage ( the other breeders had crammed hens and ducks in together and they were sweating in the sun) and arranged to buy from him ( he delivers too, so send me a message if you want his number and I will gladly pass it on).
So, here I am, almost two years later, embarking past hens and into ‘the great unknown’ territory of…. ducks. On paper, I know quite a bit as I did my research almost a year ago and kept researching in case the lucky day came sooner than later but finding a reputable breeder in Cork has proven tough. This hasn’t turned me off keeping ducks, it just shows me that when I begin to successfully breed them, there will be a market for selling the offspring.
What do I know about ducks? Well, apart from the bare obvious differences between their features – ( beaks and bills, claws and webbed feet) – Ducks are not as agile as hens, in that they don’t have claws to climb up to roosting poles. With their webbed feet they need a coop lower to the ground and clear access in. Other interesting facts are that ducks don’t need water, they just enjoy splashing around. Mistakes by others in the past have been providing a paddling pool for them to swim in with no access out which has resulted in drowned ducks, so even though I am purchasing this little pool from Argos: I am making sure that there will be plenty of ways for them to get in and out.
I know that my hens lately have taken to jailbreaking out of our back enclosed area and out into the lush grass of the front garden, undestroyed by their scratching. The ducks will keep them interested in reclaiming their territory and reestablishing the pecking order. Better still, when and if one goes broody I can stick duck or hen eggs under the duck or hen and they will hatch them. However, khaki campbells are known for laying almost 300 eggs a year and because they lay so many, they enjoy being off the nest foraging rather than on it, hatching. In this situation, when one does go broody for her chosen days (rather than the full 21 days term) its best to have an incubator with fertilised eggs running in the background. Just before the hen (or duck) decides she’s fed up with trying to hatch an egg, you carefully lift her from her nest and place the hatched chickens or ducklings underneath. She’s fooled into thinking she’s a mother, probably right up until she see’s what she thought were hens jumping into the pond, quaking and paddling away from her.
Here are some pictures of the house we provided for them. All in all, it cost about €5 and that would be the cost of the lock on the front. Why? Our local co-op allows you to take wooden pallets for free people. FOR FREE. With one handy man and his even handier table saw, alot of valuable wood can be salvaged. The base of the coop is one pallet and the rest of the coop is salvaged wood.
And here are some pictures of our ducks, who should come into lay around September.
