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Re: New from Brockville area

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:08 pm
by baronrenfrew
well good day and welcome eh! ducks are great, but they have to be hatched and raised alongside chickens or the chickens will boss them and not let
them eat (if housed together). nothing cuter than ducklings! the big question before getting birds is who will butcher/process them when you have too many or too many males or they get old and stop laying (and that q is true for any bird). once you have that answered you are good to go.

case in point: "no kill" pet shelters/humane societies in big cities where backyard chickens are allowed have a chicken problem. people get romantic notions of backyard chickens, they have have them and get eggs for three or four years, then they don't have the heart (or aren't allowed) to butcher them so they drop them at the humane society.

I hope I didn't dampen your enthusiasm. :beer: :farmer:

Re: New from Brockville area

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:55 pm
by TomK
:welcome: to PTO...I'm a chicken guy but my wife has an ongoing love affair with ducks so they will be in our future here as well...lots of great info here and awesome people in this area...not too far from you ...hope you enjoy the forum... :running-chicken:

Re: New from Brockville area

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 12:22 pm
by SusanH
Good point. My parents, in their hobby farm retirement, had ducks, and could not do the killing, so they took them somewhere to be "processed", but then sheepishly admitted that they still couldn't eat "Henry" so they gave away the meat and never had livestock again. We resolved from the beginning, knowing we would likely be the same way, that our hens would be able to retire from their egg-laying careers, take part-time jobs as garden tillers and pest-killers, and be pets until they die of old age.

Re: New from Brockville area

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 12:26 pm
by SusanH
Yes that's why we have only three....

Re: New from Brockville area

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 4:04 pm
by baronrenfrew
:beer: cheers to you for figuring out your plan (even if its different from mine) and not waking up one day and thinking "oh crap! now what?"

Re: New from Brockville area

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 5:06 pm
by thejonesboy
Welcome to :PTO:

Re: New from Brockville area

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 5:55 pm
by kenya
I let my old girls free range more, I think they have a happier life , enjoying the sunshine and eating bugs even though because of predators it may be shorter.

Re: New from Brockville area

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:13 pm
by KimChick
Welcome! I am still fairly new with lots of questions, and am down the road a few miles, near Westport.