Comments

The Duck Chronicles Episode Thirty Seven – The Beginning of a New Lesson — 13 Comments

  1. I wouldn’t say to much more about the giant mulberry tree, my dad planted one on his place about 20yrs ago. Over the years we started noticing the dirty looks from the neighbors, today I went wandering around and found no less than 8 that have grown from seeds scattered by birds along the city’s storm drainage anywhere from 2-20′ tall. The only thing the neighbors hate more than the stray mulberries popping up in their yards, are the hackberries, which I had nothing to do with but get blamed for anyway.

  2. hey jack,
    ok i got a ton of questions ive been thinking about. so i hope this is ok on here. if not ill send in an email.
    1. can chickens, rabbits and ducks all live in the same coop? i have big coop on my property and i seen a thing on pintrest that gave me an idea. they had chickens and rabbits in one coop. i want to put chickens on one side of the coop, build rabbit hutches down the middle, and put ducks on the other side. is this ok, i mean any kind of diseases that can be transferred. figured the rabbit poop can mix with the others poop and mix for composting.
    2. listening to ur podcast about ducks today, im planning on doing a paddock system, can the ducks and chickens get along in the same paddock or do they need to be seperate?
    3. because of u talking about predators today, if it is ok to paddock them all in one paddock, will a rooster protect the ducks like he does the chickens? figured that might help with that problem but just wondering if itll happen.
    4. if i am able to put all animals in one coop or even if im not, how do ducks do with sand in the coop? ive been reading about people using washed construction sand in chicken coops for bedding and then use a pitch fork with hard ware cloth zip tide over it to scoop out the poop. heard it was cleaner and easier to clean. have u ever heard of this. is it a good idea? for chickens or ducks?
    sorry for bombarding you with all these questions. like always thanks for everything you do and helping me change my life.

  3. Great video Jack, thanks for doing 1 a week with the updates. The story just now continues with the new ducklings, the polts and the broody ducks and the mechanical incubation of eggs and the hatching of new chicks.

    I can’t emphasis how great of a job you do on this and how VALUABLE these videos will be to people wanting to raise ducks, and now turkeys thrown into the mix and how these all fit into the whole permaculture concept.

    I keep saying this because I know it will be true. The Duck Chronicles we become THE series of videos on raising ducks. Keep it up. Love it.

    Steve
    p.s. I take it the chickens are all gone now ??

  4. Jack, what’ll happen to the eggs that the other duck have been shoving under the broody ones? Will she sit on them till they hatch?

    • She will sit till some hatch, she will sit about 2-3 days after the first babies hatch and then she will abandon the eggs. There is always a possibility another duck will take over, she already has an assistant but most likely most that don’t hatch will be lost.

      I can jack up the humidity in the incubator, put them in on rotation and watch carefully for a few days, taking ones that are pipping to the side to finish hatching. But that is a Hail Mary pass to be honest.

      • It will be interesting on TDC to see a mama duck walking around with ducklings behind her. Its great that you don’t have to raise them.

        Steve

  5. Jack (or anyone else who knows)…

    What is the youngest age you would feed ducks the sprouted sunflower seeds?

    Ours are 14 days old. Is it too soon to do this?

    Thanks!

    • How old do you think a duckling is when raised by its mother when it eats something plant based for the first time?

      • Good Point 🙂

        I just wasn’t sure if the hard shell was too much or too big.

        Regardless, there is already a 50 pound bag in my trunk ready for them.

  6. Jack… its been about 11 days since our last Duck Chronicles update…. now that you are done with the 11th, can we have an update sometime this week ?? Check in on the broody ducks, and your new chicks, and the 50 ladies ? Are the chickens all gone now… are you down to only 2 geese now ?? Did the old ones finally get harvested ?

    Are you keeping the 5 new chicks outside most of the time in a tractor ?? Sounds like a better smell solution than inside. 🙂

    Steve

  7. Thanks for the inspiration Jack.

    Just ordered a small laying flock, of Golden 300s, for the backyard today. We’re pretty excited. Haven’t raised anything but dogs and cats before but figured we’d give it a shot and see what happens. One more step towards freedom for me and my family.

    Thanks again Jack.