I got ducks!
If you watched my recent vlog titled Ducklings, you’ll see that I acquired 10 new little ducklings about 2 months ago. Now, I know that there are many, MANY blog posts out there describing how, why, and how much freaking fun it is to raise ducks on your backyard homestead, but this post is going to be a little bit different. I’ll run through what I’ve done so far and the oh so important perspective of how these ducks have made me feel. Without any further adieu, here is my experience raising ducks so far…
So, I got my ducks online, I know, so impersonal. So millennial of me. But, the reason for this was because I wanted a certain kind of duck. I got 5 black Swedish and 5 blue Swedish ducklings. The black Swedish are supposed like Daffy Duck when they grow up. Well, kinda. The blue Swedish are a pretty dappled grey color in stead of jet black like the others. Now that they’re almost fully grown, I’m so happy I chose this breed. They are beautiful.
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I got 10 total day old straight run ducklings, which means they weren’t separated into sexes yet. I got them with no idea which are boys and which are girls. Needless to say, if I ever do this again, I’ll be ordering them with clear labels because sexing them on my own was nearly impossible for me. I know this is already getting weird, but bare with me.
My decision to get ducks was mostly experimental. I wanted to see how it was raising little baby birds for eggs and meat. Yes, I said meat. Duck is a delicious dark meat and happens to be my favorite. Get over it.
When I made this decision, I wanted it to be as experimental as possible, so after researching for what seemed like years, I decided to get straight run ducklings to see if I could determine their sex on my own and also to have their jobs come to me randomly. You see, you can’t exactly keep all your male ducks (called drakes). Drakes are extremely violent when mating and fight with each other, so the ratio to hens (female ducks) and drakes must be pretty significant to keep healthy, happy, ya know ALIVE birds. I’ve decided that I’m comfortable with bigger than a 5:1 ratio of hens to drakes. Anyone see a problem there?
I only got 10 ducklings, so no matter what my ratio, there is a tiny chance that I have only one boy, which is the only way I can keep a boy at all. So, most of my boys have got to go, and my girls will be laying eggs with or without the guys around cause that’s how it works. Honestly, what better way to honor these guys than to bring them to our family dinner table? I think I’m doing something noble here.
Ok, on to how I’ve kept them alive so far. When I got these cute little squeakers they came to me all hyped up and hungry, so I moved them into my two dog crate brooders I’d set up. I had little waterers made for chicks, dishes full of duck starter, floors covered with bedding, and red heat lamps to make sure they stayed warm. I thought it worked well while they were little.
Than, they grew. They started growing so fast, I thought I’d need to speed up the duck house process within the first week! They were also extremely clumsy and messy, making a mess immediately after I cleaned their water dishes, replenished their food, and replaced their bedding. Then, I finally understood why people did this in their bathtubs.
So, that was my next move. It was actually a lot easier to manage in the confines of my guest bathroom. My dogs and cat were very tolerant and peaceful around the ducks since they were extremely curious and knew that one misstep meant I was banning them from the ducklings altogether. They had to sit down and stay still if they wanted to hang out with all of us. It did help to have all my furballs out of my face and sitting calmly while tending to the billed monsters I’d chosen to keep.
After the ducks were about a month old, I knew I needed them out. They had adjusted to living without the heat lamp and the weather outside was consistently warmer than inside the house, so I started on my DIY temporary coop. I took some extra chicken wire and wood I had and fashioned a covered area under my back porch with a small run along the side of the house for the crazies. As a short term solution for baby birds, I think I did a pretty good job.
The ducklings seemed to LOVE being outside. I also was letting them muck around in more water, so I know that was tickling their swimming urges. I had been paying attention to how they like to pull up weeds and decided to plan for a portable run for some areas in my yard I’d like to turn into garden beds. I know they’ll be awesome at clearing some light brush for me.
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Fast forward to 2 month old ducks. Fully grown, starting to really feather ducks. I expanded the coop to include a big patch of shaded area along the side of my yard and popped in an old kiddie pool to see how they liked the water. They have been living it up. But, 2 months old meant butchering time had arrived.
Like I said earlier, I was awful at trying to determine the sex of the ducklings, but the grown ducks was a breeze. Basically, the girls quack and the boys don’t. They try, but it’s more like a hoarse hiss or something. There’s no mistaking the difference. I had my leg bands handy and I went to catch the ducks to listen to them one at a time.
They like to huddle up, so it took some chasing and cornering, but once caught, the ducks were pretty calm. I walked around with each in my arms, waiting for them to make noise, and quickly found that I had 6 girls and 4 boys! I actually lucked out and got an even split of each color too, so I had my breakdown. I got lucky to be able to keep one guy, and I decided to keep a black one because the black ducks breed true, so in 50% of my eggs I’ll be able to know what color duckling will hatch out!
As for the 3 other guys… I butchered one of the three on Saturday. To spare everyone with weak stomachs and tender hearts, I’ll keep this quick. To sum up my experience, it was hard.
I had the help of my brothers, but other than holding the duck while I chopped his head off, I handled everything. If anyone is trying this for the first time, I recommend having help, but honestly, if you’ve handled meat before, the only difficult part is the killing. Just keep it quick and keep everything clean. Get to your familiar checkpoint as quickly as possible. That kept me from tears.
I tried plucking the duck after scalding him, but that was a ton of work and I was tired from the day’s work on the backyard fence, so I skinned it and popped it it in the freezer. No pain, no tears, no regrets.
Well, after all that, I hope no one hates me or is dreading butchering their own ducks. Let me hear your best death threat in the comments below!
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