Bryan C Aldeghi wrote:Hello fine permie folk -
We have 26 ducks right now on 1/2 acre. They are a variety of ages from chick to laying adult. All are going to be layers or breeders - no meat animals. Our goal is to get off the feed store feed as much as possible. Our ducks get lots of opportunity to forage and get trimmings and scraps from the kitchen. During the warmer months, they seem content with minimal feed added to their diets. But during the cold months there is less for them to forage. Does anybody have experience with growing food for ducks for the winter dearth?
Thanks!
Bryan
Skandi Rogers wrote:I grew Muscovy (meat) over winter on home made feed, they got potatoes (boiled) barley, wheat, black oats, alfalfa and pumpkin. I carefully worked it out so it came to 18% protein (dry weight) they grew and that is about all I can say. They hated the black oats and the alfalfa, the rest was gobbled happily, but the next lot that I did on commercial (pig) feed grew at twice the rate got larger and had more fat, so my mixture certainly needed improvements. The weather was mainly ice and snow so no forage at all.
'Theoretically this level of creeping Orwellian dynamics should ramp up our awareness, but what happens instead is that each alert becomes less and less effective because we're incredibly stupid.' - Jerry Holkins
Dillon Nichols wrote:
Skandi Rogers wrote:I grew Muscovy (meat) over winter on home made feed, they got potatoes (boiled) barley, wheat, black oats, alfalfa and pumpkin. I carefully worked it out so it came to 18% protein (dry weight) they grew and that is about all I can say. They hated the black oats and the alfalfa, the rest was gobbled happily, but the next lot that I did on commercial (pig) feed grew at twice the rate got larger and had more fat, so my mixture certainly needed improvements. The weather was mainly ice and snow so no forage at all.
Great data to have; do you have any theories about what might have been missing? Will you try it again with alterations?
Was the next batch in substantially different weather?
'Theoretically this level of creeping Orwellian dynamics should ramp up our awareness, but what happens instead is that each alert becomes less and less effective because we're incredibly stupid.' - Jerry Holkins
Bryan Gold wrote:Hello fine permie folk -
We have 26 ducks right now on 1/2 acre. They are a variety of ages from chick to laying adult. All are going to be layers or breeders - no meat animals. Our goal is to get off the feed store feed as much as possible. Our ducks get lots of opportunity to forage and get trimmings and scraps from the kitchen. During the warmer months, they seem content with minimal feed added to their diets. But during the cold months there is less for them to forage. Does anybody have experience with growing food for ducks for the winter dearth?
Thanks!
Bryan
I think rotational pastures are great and wish I had some, but I would suggest you have at least one back-up run that you can deep mulch if needed and rely on food from elsewhere so that if your planted runs need a longer break than available, you have back-up. Plants grow at different speeds depending on the season, so a paddock that can recover in 21 days in May, may need 2 months in January.We are going to be building four mini pastures in a circle to rotate them through.
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Jay Angler wrote:
We soak wheat for our ducks just for 48 hours - it's not really sprouted, but it's quick and easy. We dump it in a fresh bucket of water so they have to dive their heads to the bottom to get it, so we know they're getting their faces cleaned at the same time - stacking functions!
sam na wrote:I'm also interested in this.
Going to try perennial wheat and sunflowers this year. Guess they need to be crushed before can be accessed
Gail Gardner @GrowMap
Small Business Marketing Strategist, lived on an organic farm in SE Oklahoma, but moved where I can plant more trees.
john mcginnis wrote:"They won't eat raw zucchini or cracked corn,"
I have found that soaking the corn with some winter wheat into a mash will usually interest chickens.
Gail Gardner @GrowMap
Small Business Marketing Strategist, lived on an organic farm in SE Oklahoma, but moved where I can plant more trees.
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