Raising Ducks
Basics
Duckling diary
Management
Housing
Eggs
Links/Resources
Movies
and please note:
Resources and supplies
Please note: By listing the businesses below, I am endorsing them to the extent that we have purchased their goods, have been happy with the goods and with their service, and will do business with them again in the future. I do not have any business relationship with any of the companies listed here.
- Breeders: Clearview Hatchery, other breeders
- Food: Mazuri Waterfowl Food
- Other supplies: egg cartons, leg bands, general supplies, collecting eggs
Breeders
Clearview Hatchery
We purchased our ducklings from Clearview Hatchery in Gratz, Pennsylvania,
largely because they had the smallest minimum order we found. Their service
was very good, we are very happy with the ducks (obviously!), and we will
certainly buy from them again.
Clearview does not have a website, but they
will send a print catalog if you request one. They sell several breeds
of ducks besides Campbells, as well as chicks, bantams, poults (baby turkeys),
guineas, goslings, and game birds.
Clearview Stock Farm and Hatchery
P.O. Box 399
Gratz, PA 17030
717-365-3234 (phone)
717-365-3594 (fax)
Other breeders
If you would prefer not to have your ducklings sent through the mail or want to purchase only a few ducklings, there may be a small breeder near you. The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy publishes a directory of breeders of rare breeds of livestock in the United States. Information on ordering the directory is available on ALBC's website.
Food
Mazuri
Mazuri is a subsidiary of Purina
that makes feeds for zoo animals and specialty livestock. (You can buy
elephant food from Mazuri, should you need to feed an elephant.) We have
fed our ducks Mazuri waterfowl
starter formula (for ducklings) and Mazuri waterfowl
breeder formula (for laying hens) and are quite happy with both feeds.
A maintenance formula for
non-laying adult ducks is also available. Complete nutritional analysis
for each feed is available on their website.
Mazuri seems, from my research, to
make the highest-quality food available for ducks. Their customer service
is also shockingly good. When we called about our ducks, we spoke to an
avian specialist, not just a random customer-service representative. And
despite the company's size, they are apparently committed to supporting
even the smallest customers.
Cost and availability: Starter formula is $15 for a
25-pound bag; breeder formula is $24 for a 50-pound bag. You can buy
Mazuri feeds from any Purina dealer, but very few Purina dealers
keep waterfowl food in stock, so you will need to special-order it.
If your dealer balks at this (as ours initially
did), call or email Mazuri customer service and complain. We did, and
our dealer immediatelygot into line and has been extremely helpful
ever since. They now order in advance so they will have extra feed in
stock if we need it. Mazuri made it clear to us that Purina considered
it a privilege to sell their products, and that they would threaten to
revoke a dealership if necessary. Given the lack of support homesteaders
generally get from agribusiness, we thought this was wonderful!
Other supplies
Egg cartons
We saved egg cartons for four months before the ducks began laying, but we quickly used them up. Rather than scavenging our friends' trash we decided to buy some. A farmer we know recommended eggcartons.com, which sells cartons in a variety of sizes, blank or pre-printed. We bought 100 dozen-sized recycled paper cartons for jumbo eggs for $23 plus shipping, which really is not bad. The price per carton goes down for larger quantities ($40 for 250 cartons, last I checked) but we reuse cartons whenever possible, so we don't go through them very quickly. My only complaint about eggcartons.com is that their website could be a little less busy and easier to use. No complaints about the cartons or the service, though.
Leg bands
Leg bands for poultry are produced and sold so that you can tell different flocks of birds apart, or so that your processor can tell which chickens are yours. They are not sold so that you can tell individual birds apart. For the backyard duck farm, this is a problem! It takes a highly trained eye to distinguish one Khaki Campbell from another, and when you only have five to ten birds, it's useful to be able to identify them. Recently one of our ducks hurt her foot, and while we were checking on her daily it was handy to be able to identify her without having to pick up seven ducks and check their feet! When you have a hundred birds (or a hundred thousand), you don't care if one hurts her foot; when you have seven, you do. So you need multicolored leg bands, which can be hard to find in small quantities.
The velcro strips we used for our ducklings were velcro cable ties, 1/2" by 6", which we trimmed and cut in half lengthwise. The difficult thing is buying one band in each of seven colors. We found a 10-pack of multicolored ties for something like $8, which is outrageous, but these things are meant to be sold in quantity. Unfortunately the film supply company we found on the Web is now gone. Amazon and Yahoo's online store have multicolor packs available in various sizes; I would just search the Web for "velcro cable ties multicolor" and see what you find. If you can find velcro strips at a fabric or hardware store, of course, that's even better.
For a short time we tried using regular single-fold plastic spirals for leg bands. Smith's Poultry Supplies (see under General Supplies, below) sells them in single-color packs of 50 for about $2. The plastic stayed clean and bright and we could easily identify the girls from several yards away. Unfortunately, after several weeks the bands started cutting into the ducks' legs and had to be removed. The bands were the standard size for Campbells, so either our ducks are unusually large or the bands aren't meant to be worn that long.
A correspondent suggests using ribbon leftover from wrapping presents. Hold a chopstick against the duck's leg, then tie the ribbon in a knot around it and slide the chopstick out. This gives enough slack not to bind but won't slip off.
General supplies
Virtually everything you might need for a small-scale poultry operation is available from Smith's Poultry and Gamebird Supplies. This is a family-run operation in Kansas, but despite its size it sells everything from vitamins to cages to an excellent selection of books. You can allegedly order online, but despite their insistence that their website works just fine, I have never been able to access anything from my Macintosh, let alone place an order. If you have trouble with their website or don't want to order online, call them for a paper catalog at 913-879-2587, Monday through Friday, 7:30–4:30 Central Time.
Collecting eggs
A few years ago we bought a "Chuckit!" for our dog Toby, a plastic implement that lets you pick up a tennis ball and fling it a great distance. We mainly use it when we're in the hammock and can't reach the ball otherwise. Lately, though, I've left it by the duck house, because it's also perfect for collecting out-of-reach eggs. You can buy them at pet stores for less than ten dollars, I think. Decide for yourself whether it's worth the money just for retrieving eggs, but if you have a ball dog, give it a try.
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
