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Oat. Be good to you. you've

1:04

been convinced by

1:07

Christine Duncan-Ducks, and

1:17

the author of Raising Ducks for Beginners and

1:19

Beyond, to raise ducks like I pretty much

1:21

have, then this is going

1:23

to be a great episode. We're talking

1:25

about ducklings, so incubating duck eggs and

1:27

even how to rear them from ducklings.

1:30

I think that's what I would do if I

1:32

was going to do this. With chickens, Christine and

1:34

I raised from day-old chicks, instead

1:36

of going the pullet route with a four

1:38

or six-week-old hen. To

1:41

me, it was really rewarding, obviously,

1:43

somewhat time-consuming, but also really rewarding. Is

1:46

that how you typically do it? Do you go from duck eggs or do

1:48

you go from ducklings? It

1:50

really depends. I'm about a 50-50 split, on

1:53

whether I hatch my own eggs or I bring

1:55

in new stock, which I usually start with ducklings

1:57

because I always want more colors. And

2:01

when you do that, where are you sourcing

2:03

from most of the time, someone local? So

2:07

I have pretty much

2:09

always gotten my ducks somewhere different, which is

2:11

partially because I want different genetics within my

2:13

flock because I do every once in a

2:16

while hatch my own eggs. And I don't

2:18

want to. I know technically it's line breeding

2:20

with ducks, and it's not as bad as

2:22

true inbreeding, but I want

2:24

a wide genetic pool. So

2:27

most recently I got some call ducklings from

2:29

Metzafar. I've gotten

2:31

a lot of ducklings from just

2:34

individual breeders, local breeders, far

2:36

away breeders, all kinds of things. The

2:40

one thing I don't really buy them from farm stores,

2:42

though, because then they won't be sexed. And I definitely

2:45

do not want too many male ducks

2:48

because they will not treat

2:50

your female ducks too kindly. We

2:52

hear the stories. We probably can't even

2:54

mention the exact mechanisms here, but it's

2:56

pretty brutal in duck reproduction world, isn't

2:58

it? Yes, absolutely.

3:01

I say you should get at least a

3:03

minimum of three females for every one male,

3:05

but some males will require a lot more

3:08

females. The alpha ducks.

3:11

Yeah, crazy. Is

3:14

it easy to sex ducklings?

3:17

Because sometimes it depends on the breed for hens. Some

3:19

of them you really can't for a while, and some

3:21

of them you can pretty quickly. So

3:24

there's, I think, only maybe

3:26

one or two sex links duck

3:29

breeds. So for the most part,

3:31

the only way that you could sex them as

3:34

ducklings is either through event sexing, which you have

3:36

to be very highly trained to do that. So

3:38

in most cases, you would be ordering from a

3:40

hatchery in order to get sex ducklings, or

3:42

you could DNA test them. I use IQ

3:45

bird testing to test mine. You can do

3:47

an eggshell sample, a blood sample, or a

3:49

feather sample. Male it off

3:51

to them, I think it's like $15, and then they

3:53

tell you if it's a male or a female, which

3:55

is not cost effective

3:57

for most people. No. But

4:00

it's, I mean, it's an option if you're really, really

4:03

stressed about it. Okay. So let's

4:05

imagine, I think probably the most common thing

4:07

here would be rearing from ducklings, I would

4:09

say. Would you agree? Yeah.

4:13

Okay. Duck eggs are a

4:15

little bit more tricky to hatch than chicken eggs

4:17

because of their humidity requirements. Got

4:19

it. Okay. So maybe

4:21

we'll talk about that in a second, but I'm

4:23

curious. Let's imagine either way you're at the duckling

4:25

stage, what sort of brooding setup do they need?

4:28

It's definitely very similar to brooding for

4:31

chicks. Ducks are of course going

4:33

to be a lot more messy because they love

4:35

to splash water everywhere. I use a

4:37

heat plate for my ducks and a expandable pen. So

4:39

it starts as like a little square with the heat

4:41

plate. And that way when they're less than a week

4:43

old, they stay close to the heat. And then once

4:46

they get older, I can expand it and make it

4:48

bigger and bigger and bigger until

4:50

they get their adult feathers. But

4:52

the one thing that I absolutely recommend for when

4:55

you have baby ducklings is because they love to

4:57

splash their water everywhere and make a huge mess.

4:59

And you don't want them to be wet all the

5:01

time, of course. And if your bedding is

5:03

all gross and wet all the time, it's going to smell

5:05

and it's not going to be fun. So

5:07

I put their water bowl on top of a

5:10

paint tray with a grid. So

5:12

they're not getting the bedding wet, they're getting the

5:14

paint tray wet. And then you just dump the

5:16

paint tray once a day and rinse it, put

5:18

it back in. And you don't have

5:20

to worry about cleaning dirty bedding every single day. I

5:23

know most people that have ducklings have to clean

5:25

their brooder probably two or three times a day

5:27

because they just make it so gross. I

5:30

only clean mine every couple of days because I

5:32

manage the water very well. Yeah.

5:35

Yeah. I think something that I

5:37

did with my hens, both times I've raised from

5:39

chicks was I elevated the

5:41

food and the water at

5:43

beak level on this little concrete block.

5:46

And so I had those circular feeders

5:48

just because I noticed that they

5:50

weren't at the level of development where they were like,

5:52

I think I'll be nice and tidy, you know. And

5:55

they just kept stepping or pooping in their own food and water.

5:57

And I was like, okay, well, if I raise it off. It

6:00

went from literally having to clean it multiple times a

6:02

day to maybe once every three, four days, which was

6:05

just really nice. Yeah. For

6:07

ducklings in the brooder, you still, you have

6:09

to give them water, like you mentioned, obviously

6:11

for drinking, but also for the purposes that

6:13

they need water for just generally, right? Yeah.

6:16

And so what kind of, what kind of like bowl setup would

6:18

you give them? So a

6:20

lot of people will even just use like a, a milk

6:23

jug container because you can cut a hole out

6:25

of it and that way they have to stick

6:27

their head in, but they can't physically get in

6:30

and splash all of the water out. You could

6:32

use like a takeout container, anything, you know, with

6:34

a lid that you can cut holes in so

6:36

that the ducks can't actually get in

6:38

the bowl and splash it all out. You don't want

6:41

them. I mean, it's not like they're, well,

6:43

I guess they could drown in a bowl,

6:46

but most of the time they're not going to drown

6:48

in a bowl, but it is important to know that you

6:50

can't just like put your baby ducklings that were hatched in

6:52

an incubator in the bathtub

6:54

and leave them there unsupervised because

6:56

they will drown. Interesting. Yes,

6:58

they can swim, but only

7:01

for short periods of time when they first hatch

7:03

and they also don't have their oils yet, which

7:06

keeps them waterproof. So you don't want them to

7:08

get waterlogged and you know, run out of energy

7:10

and drown. So you don't want them to be

7:12

able to swim in the brooder. Definitely

7:14

not interesting. Didn't, wouldn't have thought of that. How

7:17

would that in the wild, I guess they

7:19

just alternate between being in a body of

7:21

water and then like waddling around on land,

7:23

right? Yeah. So in the

7:25

wild, the oils from the mom duck transfer

7:28

to the baby ducks. So that

7:30

is one benefit, but also in the wild, they're

7:32

not, they're in a pond where

7:34

there is access to walk out of the pond.

7:37

There's always a way for them to get out. There's always, you

7:39

know, the shoreline where they can just have their feet in and

7:41

they're not totally in. They also tend

7:44

to hop on their mother's back in

7:46

a bathtub. You put them in, they can't get out. Right.

7:50

Right. So I mean, even with

7:52

your duck pond, no matter

7:54

what you have, there should always be a way to be some

7:56

way that makes it easy for even adult ducks to be able

7:58

to get out easily. Like I have. concrete blocks

8:00

just stacked on mine so that they can use

8:02

them as little stairs and walk right out. Yeah,

8:05

makes sense. Okay, so, you know,

8:08

I'm everything I'm asking, I'm trying to map

8:10

to like my experience just with with chickens.

8:12

But as they grow up

8:14

in the brooder, do they get

8:17

to a point where much like chickens, you get

8:19

to kind of that pull it stage and you

8:21

can introduce them to the larger coop where they're

8:23

eventually going to live their life is does that

8:25

map similarly, like four to maybe like six to

8:27

eight weeks from from hatching or how does that

8:29

work? Yeah, it's very

8:32

similar to raising chickens.

8:34

Once they have all their adult feathers

8:36

grown in, then they can regulate their

8:38

body temperature and then they can go

8:40

outside. Of course, they can go outside for

8:43

short periods, you know, before that. But the

8:45

only thing is like with integrating them. You

8:48

can just you know, once they're eight weeks old,

8:50

put them in with your, you know, your adult birds.

8:54

But keep in mind that they are not fully

8:57

developed in their reproductive organs for

8:59

a few more months. So if

9:01

your male ducks try to

9:05

mate with your female ducks during this

9:07

time, that could end very poorly. So

9:09

you might consider keeping them separated a

9:11

bit longer. Got it. Well,

9:13

I didn't, I did not think about that.

9:15

Yeah, it's interesting. Because with, with

9:18

hens almost all the time, especially even on

9:20

a regulation basis, you just can't have roosters

9:23

in like a suburban environment often. There's

9:25

one, or there used to be

9:27

one down the street, and I knew because obviously it was growing

9:29

all the time. And so you just

9:31

never run into this problem of the male-female

9:34

dynamic with hens. It's just a

9:36

bunch of girls running around. I keep

9:38

having like reset my mind on on that. Because

9:40

would you ever just recommend not even having male

9:43

ducks at all? Oh, you definitely

9:45

don't have to. Unless you want fertilized duck

9:47

eggs, because you're trying to hatch ducklings. You

9:49

don't need a male. I mean, they, they

9:51

do, you know, protect their, their women and

9:53

keep an eye out for predators. But if

9:55

they're in a predator proof coop, it doesn't

9:58

really matter. You could also keep a free. flock of

10:00

just male ducks because male ducks tend to be

10:02

rehomed a lot more often and like they

10:04

kind of have to go somewhere. But

10:07

then you might still run to issues where they fight

10:09

a lot during mating season. Yeah. And

10:12

you're not getting eggs in that case, right? Right.

10:15

Right. Which I assume, I mean, is

10:17

that part of why you're raising ducks is to enjoy the

10:19

duck eggs or? You know,

10:21

I don't really like eggs in general,

10:24

which is so weird because like I

10:26

have probably 200 eggs on my counter

10:28

right now. That's so funny. Just waiting

10:30

to be eaten and maybe, you know,

10:33

maybe one day I'll make something like

10:35

an angel food cake or something

10:37

and use a bunch of them. But

10:40

they do work really well in baked goods

10:42

compared to chicken eggs. Like they make everything

10:44

fluffier and more rich and. Is it the

10:46

fat content or? I

10:49

don't particularly remember what specifically about

10:52

them makes them make

10:55

things fluffier, but they do have

10:57

a different egg yolk to egg white ratio.

11:00

I see. I see. Yeah. I

11:03

was going to ask if I haven't, I've had duck eggs, I'm sure.

11:06

But I haven't had them like back to

11:08

back with the chicken eggs. So I was going to ask

11:10

what the taste difference was. It sounds like they're

11:12

a bit more rich. Yeah. So

11:14

they're definitely a bit more rich. And so

11:17

my problem with my personal duck eggs is

11:19

that I feed my

11:21

ducks a diet that is mostly made of fish

11:23

meal. And I, I don't like fish.

11:26

I like fish. They're a little fishy.

11:28

Now if you were feeding your ducks a diet

11:30

that was, you know, corn meal based, you're not

11:33

going to be fishy. But my own eggs are

11:35

a little too fishy for my taste. That's

11:38

so funny. Any

11:41

tips and advice on if someone does want

11:44

to hatch, what

11:46

would they need? What would they need and how would they do

11:48

it? I would always recommend getting

11:50

an automatic egg turner in your incubator. Just

11:53

makes life a lot easier. You don't

11:55

want your ducklings to get stuck to one side of the

11:57

shell because they haven't been rotated enough. And

11:59

then... And I just personally definitely recommend using

12:02

an incubator that has a humidity reader because

12:04

that is a lot more important for ducks

12:06

than it is for chickens. You

12:08

know, a lot of people with chickens, you can do a

12:10

dry hatch, you could try it with ducks, but it's a

12:12

lot less likely to actually work. With

12:14

my own eggs, I usually keep the

12:17

humidity around like 50 or 60% for the first period

12:21

of their egg laying, egg

12:23

life. And then when they get to the last three

12:26

days before hatch, I raise it up

12:29

usually to like 70 or 80% for them. Most

12:32

duck eggs take 28 days to hatch, that's why I

12:35

didn't use a specific number of days. But

12:37

the ones I raise only take 26 days. Okay,

12:40

got it. And it's, would you

12:42

say that it's recommended or is that like kind of

12:44

like, hey, if you really want to get into this,

12:47

try it from eggs, but otherwise I'd recommend just doing

12:49

ducklings? I mean,

12:51

I feel like incubating can

12:54

lead to a lot of issues if you don't, like if

12:56

you, if you don't do it right, you

12:59

might be producing ducklings that have issues.

13:02

Like if there's too many fluctuations and

13:05

things and you don't get it perfectly right,

13:07

you're going to hatch ducklings with problems, which

13:09

isn't great, of course.

13:12

So it's oftentimes a lot easier for people

13:14

to just start with ducklings that are healthy

13:16

and strong and came from people who really

13:18

know what they're doing. But if

13:21

you're into hatching, if

13:23

you have experience with hatching chicken eggs, or

13:26

even if you just do a lot of

13:28

research beforehand, you can definitely make it happen. Yeah.

13:31

Okay. I'll have to think about this because I'm, I'm

13:33

excited about the idea of ducks. I don't know if I'll

13:36

get them on this property or not, but I, even

13:39

with chickens, I have never hatched. And so

13:41

that part of the journey seems a bit

13:43

fun to explore. So thanks

13:46

for sharing, Christine. And I know you've got the book, it's

13:48

out. I'd love to hear a little bit more about it

13:50

and where people can connect with you in general. Yeah.

13:53

You can find me on all social

13:55

medias. I'm on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube threads.

13:58

I am posting.com. content pretty much

14:00

everywhere. It's a fun mix of fun

14:03

little duck videos and educational videos and my

14:05

book can be bought anywhere you buy books

14:07

online. So Amazon, Barnes and Noble. If you're

14:10

in Canada, you can buy it on Indigo. And

14:12

my book is just a beginner's guide

14:14

to all things duck. And I called

14:16

it for beginners and beyond because even

14:18

if you already have ducks, I can

14:20

almost guarantee you're going to learn something

14:22

new from this book because I

14:24

had pretty much spent my whole life loving ducks and

14:26

learning about ducks. And I continue to learn more about

14:29

ducks as often as I can because I just love

14:31

them so much and I just want to make the

14:33

world a better place for ducks. Yeah,

14:36

I love it. I love it. I appreciate

14:38

you coming on and you've definitely converted me

14:40

to probably getting ducks at some point. Like

14:42

I said, I don't know if it's going to be at this

14:44

house. So don't hold me to it. But either

14:46

way, I'll be following along and thanks for coming on

14:48

Christine. Thank you. If

14:51

you don't know, I'm about to tell you, my

14:53

friends, we own a seed

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company. Yes, that is right. Botanical Interests,

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one of the best seed companies in

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is part of the Epic Gardening family now. What

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that means for you is that

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15:35

for supporting us. It's so exciting to be

15:38

in the real world now, not just on

15:40

the internet. So thank you guys. I really

15:42

appreciate it. We

15:59

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