Welcome Kristine Ellis, the author of Raising Ducks for Beginners and Beyond

Welcome Kristine! I hope you have a nice week here with us at Permies! :)

Welcome!

Thank you for coming to spread the good word of all things duck.

I can't wait to see what discussions unfold.

Welcome! This is perfect timing as I am a new duck mom to 4 female runners. They are darling of course and 3 weeks old.

Finally getting to building my chicken/duck coop. I'm sure this book will help me learn some ins and outs that have way forgotten since my younger days helping my grandma. Best of luck with all sales.
Kurt

We keep losing our female ducks. We think they go off to sit on their eggs but we can't find them and then maybe something else finds them. We don't think it's a fox because we have a fox this year and he eats chickens and won't go away.

We like to have the ducks swimming in the creek and it would be terrible to lock up only the females but what choice do we have?

They are cayugas.

Edith

Welcome Kristine!
Hope you have a great week here.
Your book looks like it is very informative.  The wife and I have talked about raising some ducks, but never got past the talking stage.

Welcome Kristine - yes, let's everyone talk ducks!!! I have Khaki Campbell ducks and I've always referred to them as "Noisy Ducks" because we also have Muscovy (which really aren't "ducks" at all, but humans label things from their perspective!)

Thank you all so much for the warm welcomes! I am looking forward to chatting with all of you about all things duck and helping answer your duck questions

Kristine. It looks like a great book.  I am in northern Idaho and currently planning and setting up for a small flock of Muscovy Ducks next Spring.  They will be (mostly) free range.  I know these ducks are from a different linage from domestic ducks.  Do you cover Muscovy's in your book?  Also plan on setting up a 300 gal. duck pond (they will also have a very nearby medium sized creek).  Am interested in learning about Quakaponics and using the duck pond fertilized water for my Zone 2 perinial plants.  Does the book talk about this as well? Daniel W Hash

Welcome to the forum!

I am looking forward to learning more about ducks during the book promotion.

Interesting. I just started to befriend the idea of implementing ducks as a central remedial buffer and support element/function on our own little half acre plot in continental Croatia when this dailyshous popped up. 💚

Hello & welcome, Kristine!! Our ducks are a (mostly) delightful part of our farmstead, and we've had one breed or another for most of the almost 6yrs we've had this place - but, I still have lots of questions!

I lived on a farm in Pennsylvania and the owner of the farm Norman would eat several duck eggs for breakfast. There were ducks everywhere. I think he got them from the Amish Farmers down the street. They ate a lot of duck eggs as well. Big large dark yoke duck eggs what a treat. Better tasting than geese eggs. Peace and love, Lance

Hi Kristine!

I'm glad you wrote this! I would like ducks but know nothing about them. Thank you so much for sharing your valuable knowledge!

Tina

Happy to see people talking about ducks.  My son raises ducks, about 35, and they just started laying.
Kristine, what do you think is a good ratio of drakes to hens?  Thank you.

Hello Kristine, welcome and a quick silly question. Would the pond information in your book also apply if I simply want to maintain our pond for wild ducks that visit seasonally?  We have a pair of Mallards that show up every spring like clockwork.)

Hi Kristine!   I've heard that ducks can be great at keeping ticks under control.  Can you give me some idea which breeds might be best for this?

Hello Kristine!
Welcome to permies!   I am excited to read your book.  I have raised ducks for years.  I know there is a lot more to learn and things I can do better.  

Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us!

Looking forward to the book if i ever get the time

Daniel Hash wrote:Kristine. It looks like a great book.  I am in northern Idaho and currently planning and setting up for a small flock of Muscovy Ducks next Spring.  They will be (mostly) free range.  I know these ducks are from a different linage from domestic ducks.  Do you cover Muscovy's in your book?  Also plan on setting up a 300 gal. duck pond (they will also have a very nearby medium sized creek).  Am interested in learning about Quakaponics and using the duck pond fertilized water for my Zone 2 perinial plants.  Does the book talk about this as well? Daniel W Hash

Hi Daniel,

My book focuses on domestic ducks derived from mallards, but there is a section outlining some key differences between muscovy ducks and mallard derived ducks. I found it important to only focus on one species, as many things that are true for one species aren´t true for the other. While writing it I found myself having to constantly type in parenthesis that something I said didnt apply to muscovy ducks, so it was easier to just focus on one species and give the muscovies there own section.

I use my duck pond water to fertilize my garden and it has worked great so far. I noticed the grass near my duck pen is so much greener than the rest of the lawn and grows incredibly fast. Duck manure can be used immediately as fertilizer, unlike chicken manure which has to be composted first. I don´t go into crazy detail about this in the book- but I hope you end up doing this with your ducks, because it is truly wonderful in my garden!

Gary Sandahl wrote:Hi Kristine!   I've heard that ducks can be great at keeping ticks under control.  Can you give me some idea which breeds might be best for this?

Hi Gary,

Runner ducks are best known for being great at pest control, but their favorite pests seem to be slugs and snails. All domestic ducks derived from mallards (which is all of them except muscovys) will certainly eat ticks if they happen to see them, but ducks tend to forage more near their water source if they have one so they eat a lot of water bugs and drill holes looking for worms around the pond. If you want a bird specifically that seems to favor ticks, you'll want to look into guinea fowl.

Kristine Ellis wrote: If you want a bird specifically that seems to favor ticks, you'll want to look into guinea fowl.

I think it's amazing that for every "problem", Mother Nature has perfected a solution if we just ask her - on in this case her knowledgeable minion!  I've heard the same about guinea fowl and I should remind a friend of that.

Am I right that guinea fowl have a greater need to be free-ranging? I have a friend who complained they were quite uncooperative about coming home to a safe roost at night.

Kristine,  A very warm welcome to Permies.  I hope that you enjoy this site as much as I do.  There is a wealth of information about many topics and with your knowledge about water poultry it will be even better. I think the reason I keep coming back to Permies.com when there are so many other sites online now is that the members give their knowledge and experience to others freely with no reserve.  People don't look down on the beginner level person . Instead they seek to elevate and educate the new person. This attitude,  encouraged by Paul and his staff who give away things all the time,  has motivated me to teach others in my area about gardening and permaculture. I sincerely hope your book sales go well.  Jeff

Welcome Kristine! So glad you're a part of permies!

Hi! So happy to see you here with us!

Congratulations to our winners!

Jon Jensen
M Waisman
Carmen Cullen
Carla Burke

Winners, please keep an eye out on your email inbox for an email from the publisher to arrange the shipment of your books!

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Thank you so much, Kristine, for hanging out with us this week, and for helping answer so many ducky questions!

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For those of your bummed that you did not win, here's a handy-dandy link to buy her book and support this awesome author (and learn a bunch in the process!)

Congrats to the winners and a BIG thank you to the author!

WooHOOO!!! Thank you, Kristine and everyone who made this happen! Y'all rock!

Congratulations Carla, Carmen, Jon and M!

I have sent you an PM here at Permies, please reply in 24 hours!



A huge thank you for Kristine for this week!

Thank you so much Kristine for this give-away. Feel free to drop in anytime and post adorable duck pictures, or share your wisdom.

In honour of this give-away, yesterday Salty hatched out 6 Khaki ducklings for me. They've already figured out how to eat, drink, and cuddle/huddle.

Nicole Alderman wrote:Congratulations to our winners!

Jon Jensen
M Waisman
Carmen Cullen
Carla Burke

Winners, please keep an eye out on your email inbox for an email from the publisher to arrange the shipment of your books!

---

Thank you so much, Kristine, for hanging out with us this week, and for helping answer so many ducky questions!

---

For those of your bummed that you did not win, here's a handy-dandy link to buy her book and support this awesome author (and learn a bunch in the process!)

Just want to say thank you all so much for welcoming me to permies this week! It has been a pleasure getting to chat with so many duck lovers and answer your questions. Congratulations to the winners, and I hope you enjoy reading! -Krissy

WooH0000! Look what came, today!