It's always exciting to me when we have mothers come off the nest with baby hatchlings.
We've just had two mother ducks come off with groups of ducklings.
One mother hatched a group of eleven ducklings and the other one came off the nest with tens.
We have twenty one baby ducks.
They're about a week apart and you can't believe the difference in their size.
I'm feeding them, speaking of size.
Come on in.
We give them a little grower starter, which is a food blended especially for babies.
It's got a lot of protein in it.
And I like to place the food in a shallow pan like this because the mother will put
some crumbles out for them with her bill, but you want it low enough where they can
reach over there and feed.
And also you want to make sure you have plenty of clean water for them.
It's always a challenge because they are ducks and not only do they want to drink the water,
they want to play in the water.
So here she is.
This is the mother that came off last week and she has ten little babies.
Come here.
Let me catch one.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
Come on.
And so this is a baby miscovy duck that is not very happy about me holding it.
It's okay.
It's okay.
You can see they have beautiful blue eyes and they can be very loud.
But actually they're not very loud as adults and they're actually a tree duck.
Oops.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
You can see these are sort of butter yellow in their color, which means that they're going
to end up being white.
We have white miscovies here, but they come in different colors.
They're colored miscovies, chocolate miscovies, blue miscovies.
Okay.
I'm going to let you down.
Go back over there.
It takes about twenty-eight to thirty days to hatch a miscovy egg.
They're a duck that can fly in the trees and they will fly around here.
That's why we crop one side of the wings on the mother so they don't fly out of the pins
and put them at risk of being eaten by a predator.
That could be a hawk.
That could be a land mammal like a bobcat or something that could take them out.
So we cut just one wing.
The reason we just cut one wing is if they try to fly, they're uneven and they fall over
and they can't take off.
So that's the reason for the one you can see just to the left.
Their wing has been cropped.
The other mother and the babies are in here.
They're a little older.
Let me step out of the way so they'll come on out.
Yep.
Here they go.
Come on.
Come on.
Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, don't get in a hurry.
Hey, okay.
They're all together.
They're talking.
And we're having a little territorial issue between the two mothers.
They're bickering back and forth.
The big one has a lot of the caruncle around her face and eyes.
That's characteristic of the scobies, by the way.
They have this red stuff around their face.
A lot of people don't think it's very attractive, but to me it's just another expression of
nature.
It's the tissues very much like what you see on a turkey.
The turkey tom has all that caruncle around his face.
And the breed has this.
Even the females, the males really have a lot of caruncle around them.
Some people call them turkey ducks because they do have all that red stuff around their
face and eyes.
I don't want them to hear this, but chefs love these.
They serve them all the time.
I've been in a restaurant probably seen on the menu, a muskovy duck.
You're looking for a breed of duck that's quiet, easy to take care of, fun to have around.
You might want to try muskovies.
If you're enjoying these farm race segments, check in regularly and subscribe to eHow Pets
to have a look at some of the waterfowl entries.
These are Bantam ducks, which can be a wonderful addition to any garden.
Now let's take a trip to California to a hatchery that's dedicated to preserving a wide variety
of domestic waterfowl.
It's a busy time here at Mezzur Farms in Gonzales, California.
They're dispatching thousands of ducklings across the country, so the slugs and snails
better watch out.
This can be one of the best ways to deal with slugs and snails in the garden, and a lot
of fun to have around.
This little guy is only a couple of hours old, but since he has plenty of egg yolks still
stored in his system, he won't need to eat for a couple of days so he can be shipped
anywhere in the world.
In just a matter of weeks, these day old ducklings will double and triple in size.
Seemingly overnight, they'll turn into slug eating machines.
They love the flavor of them, and a few ducks can eat hundreds of them in a day.
If you think domesticated ducks only come in one model, like the standard pecan duck
from nursery rhymes, you better look again.
These solid black ones with a green sheen are called kayugas, and the ruins are a French
breed that look like a big fat mallard.
And if you love the duck in the movie Babe as much as I did, you won't be able to resist
these slender Indian runner ducks.
If you're looking for a duck that's already dressed for Easter, you might try one of
these white, crested ducks.
It's already wearing its Easter bonnet.
Having a few ducks around can be entertaining, and a lot of fun for children, but the best
reason for me as a gardener is that it makes slugs and snails a part of the food chain.
I cannot believe how fast these ducks have grown.
These birds are about four months old.
They're hatched on the 5th of March.
These are blue Swedish.
They're a part of a group of ducks that I ordered.
Different varieties, some black kuagas, some mallards, some white crested ducks, and among
them were these blue Swedish.
I love their color.
Look at that steel blue color pattern.
This is a little female, a duck, and those are drakes.
You can see their heads are slightly darker.
Just look how docile she is.
Right, you're docile, aren't you?
Yep, you're not going to jump out of my lap.
Good girl.
These are a great duck for pets.
They're a large breed duck, and they're very gentle.
They're not jumpy and high strong like some breeds of ducks.
For instance, Indian runners, not to talk about a cousin of yours, but they're really very
skittish and they don't make the best pets.
They're fun to watch in the garden.
But these ducks are both delightful to have around and very calm, aren't you, Mavis Ann?
Not a very Swedish name.
Blue Swedish are actually raised for their meat.
They're a heavy duck, and chefs say they're among the most delicious ducks to eat.
Don't worry, they can't understand us.
They don't understand English.
You see they're Swedish.
At maturity, they'll weigh from six to eight pounds.
And the females, well, they'll weigh about 150 eggs a year.
That's a lot of eggs.
And if you raise black Swedish, you'll see that the eggs range from white to sort of
a greenish color, and some of them almost even range to gray to blackish in their eggshell
color.
There's a lot of variation in these birds, and you can see it in the feather patterning.
If you want to raise blue Swedish, you need to have some that are splashed and some that
are black to get this blue feather pattern.
You see, blue Swedish are considered by the ALBC.
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy considers the blue Swedish duck on the watch
list.
You see, they're concerned about us losing numbers of these.
The populations are going down.
In fact, they think there might only be 2,500 in North America and fewer than 10,000 birds
worldwide.
So, if you're thinking about keeping some ducks, think about raising some of these that
are threatened, like the blue Swedish.
They're beautiful.
They're productive.
Delicious.
If you're enjoying these farm raise segments, tell a friend about them.
Let me know what kinds of ducks you like.
Check in with us regularly and subscribe to Eat How Farm Raised.
