Chickens are great but let me present to you: ducks.
Hear me out - ducks cost only slightly more to obtain, if you get the right breed the egg production is still quite high, ducks are MUCH hardier than chickens - they can live in rain and snow with minimal shelter and are not susceptible to disease and parasites like chickens are. Their eggs are higher in nutrition and if you’re looking to sell your eggs they fetch a MUCH higher price than chicken eggs. Feeding ducks can cost less than chickens if you have decent yard forage for them (ie bugs and grubs and worms) so if you’re growing them for meat they can often be more economical per pound of meat than chickens simply because they require less input (see initiatives in poor equatorial nations, they’re feeding entire villages on what are basically feral duck populations). Also almost no municipality has rules regarding ducks since ducks and geese often live in urban settings wild. Icing on the cake is that ducks are much easier for novice growers to deal with as they simply require less work and are generally very mild tempered. Just make sure you have enough females for your drake(s) because they are horny little shits and will literally mate a female to death if they don’t have enough other females to work with.
Correct, just keep their flight feathers trimmed. I’ve also read anecdotal evidence that often they may fly but will return if they have good forage so some duck farmers choose to leave them in their natural state so that they can escape predators if needed. In town though I’d say clipping the flight feathers is a better option.
that’s interesting, i’ve mostly found chickens to be more disgusting just bc of how nasty their poo is and the fact that they’ll cannibalize their own eggs. I think the trick with ducks and water is either a constantly circulating pool or spring fed natural pond. standing water that never gets changed out or is reliant on rain will get nasty fast. a lot of urban duck growers will just empty and refill a kiddie pool every couple days but imo that seems like a LOT of water to go through. I guess if you’re recycling the duck water into your garden though it could work. Duck poo is pretty legit fertilizer.
Yes most growers clip the flight wings. In winter all they really need is a shed like shelter. Check out Goldshaw Farms on yt, that guy raises 2-3 varieties of ducks and geese and he was the entire reason I got into it. Very informative channel. https://youtube.com/channel/UCjl3zDun9SazYI0UWWu6_1A
Chickens are great but let me present to you: ducks.
Hear me out - ducks cost only slightly more to obtain, if you get the right breed the egg production is still quite high, ducks are MUCH hardier than chickens - they can live in rain and snow with minimal shelter and are not susceptible to disease and parasites like chickens are. Their eggs are higher in nutrition and if you’re looking to sell your eggs they fetch a MUCH higher price than chicken eggs. Feeding ducks can cost less than chickens if you have decent yard forage for them (ie bugs and grubs and worms) so if you’re growing them for meat they can often be more economical per pound of meat than chickens simply because they require less input (see initiatives in poor equatorial nations, they’re feeding entire villages on what are basically feral duck populations). Also almost no municipality has rules regarding ducks since ducks and geese often live in urban settings wild. Icing on the cake is that ducks are much easier for novice growers to deal with as they simply require less work and are generally very mild tempered. Just make sure you have enough females for your drake(s) because they are horny little shits and will literally mate a female to death if they don’t have enough other females to work with.
Just something to consider.
How do you keep them from flying away? Clipped wings?
Correct, just keep their flight feathers trimmed. I’ve also read anecdotal evidence that often they may fly but will return if they have good forage so some duck farmers choose to leave them in their natural state so that they can escape predators if needed. In town though I’d say clipping the flight feathers is a better option.
that’s interesting, i’ve mostly found chickens to be more disgusting just bc of how nasty their poo is and the fact that they’ll cannibalize their own eggs. I think the trick with ducks and water is either a constantly circulating pool or spring fed natural pond. standing water that never gets changed out or is reliant on rain will get nasty fast. a lot of urban duck growers will just empty and refill a kiddie pool every couple days but imo that seems like a LOT of water to go through. I guess if you’re recycling the duck water into your garden though it could work. Duck poo is pretty legit fertilizer.
do you clip their wings?
what do you do for seasons?
Yes most growers clip the flight wings. In winter all they really need is a shed like shelter. Check out Goldshaw Farms on yt, that guy raises 2-3 varieties of ducks and geese and he was the entire reason I got into it. Very informative channel. https://youtube.com/channel/UCjl3zDun9SazYI0UWWu6_1A