PEST PATROL
March, 2008

People who keep ducks are absolutely passionate about them. Just say the word duck and stand back: you’ll release an avalanche of words. “Ducks seem to be much happier critters than about anything,” Corvallis resident Carol Deppe told me. “It’s almost impossible to stay down or depressed if you just sit for a while with a bunch of foraging ducks.” In addition to their sunny personality, ducks lay eggs – and foraging ducks are superb at pest control.

Ducks eat slugs, snails and their eggs. They also eat sowbugs and insects (ducks can snatch bugs out of the air) and insect larvae and pupae, including those of mosquitoes. Much of this is true of chickens, too, but their fans say ducks are more enthusiastic foragers than chickens, and chickens are harder on the garden. Ducks graze on tender grass, just like geese, and probe in wet soil and mud with their sensitive bills, but they don’t scratch in the soil the way chickens do. Ducks are better adapted to wet weather (they love it!) and show better disease resistance.

Deppe keeps a flock of about 35 ducks, mostly Anconas and Golden Cascades. She is a great source of duck wisdom. “I had to figure out for myself how to manage ducks and vegetable gardens,” she says. Ducks will eat just about anything green and will poop on everything lower than one foot. But while many gardeners simply let ducks in the garden in fall and winter to clean up before planting time, Deppe says “ducks in a pen have a protective effect on a nearby garden, because slugs like to eat duck poop even better than plants” and will crawl into the duck pen to get it, with predictable results.

Deppe has learned that a two-foot fence - a height the gardener can step over - is adequate to pen ducks in a particular area in the day time, or to protect vulnerable greens. (Protecting ducks from their many predators is quite another matter.) And if you let ducks into a part of the garden where they don’t normally go (to combat a plague of cabbage worm, perhaps) “They’ll go for the protein first. Then they’ll go for the salad.” So keep an eye on them, and take them out after 15-20 minutes. For a treat, ducks LOVE tomatoes. “Grow extra for them – regular size, cut up, not cherry types.”

Hen ducks of most varieties are noisier than chickens; it’s the hens that quack. “If neighbors are 50 yards away, they are unlikely to even know you have ducks unless they’re visible,” Deppe says. If you have neighbors a few yards away, she suggests some of the quieter breeds. “Khaki Campbells, Welsh Harlequins, and Anconas are all pretty quiet” she says. Female Call ducks, a bantam breed so called because they were bred to be live decoys, are noisiest. Drakes of any breed don’t quack. They can get by without females and are adequate for pest control.

Muscovy ducks come closest to being mute. Unlike most domestic breeds, they are not descended from mallards, and neither sex quacks. Eugene duck fan Jenya Lemeshow says they just chirp and hiss. She adds that these rugged ducks are great foragers.

Deppe’s Anconas, classified as a mediumweight breed, are perhaps the best foragers in their weight class. Bantam breeds (including Call ducks and East Indies) and lightweight breeds (including Runners and Campbells) are all excellent foragers. 2 or 3 Bantam class or lightweight ducks should provide good pest control in a small city lot, though small-billed Calls can’t eat the larger slugs and snails. Unlike most domestic ducks, which only attempt flight when desperate, bantams can really fly, so clip their wings yearly if their daytime quarters are open to the sky.

Khaki Campbells and Anconas are the best layers. If eggs are important, make sure you get your ducks from a reputable grower with a good egg-laying strain. And be prepared to feed high-protein food and provide some artificial light in fall and winter if you want eggs year-round. Deppe finds the dim lights in their night quarters are enough to keep her ducks laying. But with natural daylight only, natural forage and some grain, Campbells still beat out other breeds at egg production.

What do ducks need? Food, water and shelter. And other ducks. “Ducks are flock animals. Keeping just one is cruel,” Deppe says. Two is minimal; three or more is best, and hen ducks should out-number the drakes. Deppe also considers it cruel to keep ducks without water to swim and bathe in. They obviously enjoy it, and they can’t keep themselves clean without it. A plastic ‘kiddie pool’ is adequate for a few ducks. For a larger flock, multiple kiddie pools are a good solution. Water attracts predators, so keep night quarters away from ponds and pools if possible.

Although ducks might prefer to be outside day and night, they need to be housed at night in a shed or securely covered pen than will keep them safe from predators. In addition to hawks and foxes, raccoons are bad news. They can climb fences and open simple latches. Ducks need some solid cover in daytime, too, for shade and protection from hawks, but that can be as simple as a propped-up sheet of plywood. Very little equipment is needed for adult ducks. Deppe uses sturdy two-gallon buckets both for feed (corn or wheat grain, oyster shell and broiler crumbles) and for clean water. Buckets must be deep enough for ducks to submerge their heads and clean their eyes and nostrils.

Light woodland and orchards make ideal duck runs. What about ducks in flower gardens? My sister and niece in Devon, England both keep Calls, in fairly small gardens. Both say that, with enough space, small ducks don't do any real harm. The muddier it gets the more they enjoy the slug hunt, though, and “When they are confined in wet weather, they do wreck the grass by dabbling in it,” says my niece. “When they have access to the whole lawn, the damage is hardly noticeable and the grass survives.” Mature plants don’t seem to be bothered, but ”Baby plants may need protection from beaks moving the soil around too roughly and not allowing roots to develop.”

A friend of my niece keeps Runners. Along with the usual testimonial to the anti-depressant qualities of ducks (and Runners in particular are incredibly entertaining) she too tells me that her grass survives. “After persistent rain you can have whole rivers of mud. I have always found, though, that the grass grows back after just a few dry days. Of course they eat everything in and around ponds edges! I've just made a barrier to stop them raiding our frog pond, to give the spawn, tadpoles and plants a chance.”

Most raisers don’t sell sexed ducklings, so be prepared to dispose of excess males – perhaps to a friend who wants a quiet flock. Adult ducks are sometimes offered in newspaper ads and internet lists. Don’t expect anyone to give away adult ducks, though: Deppe points out that raising one can cost $20 in feed alone. And check your local land use regulations about keeping fowl in town.

Carol Deppe leads workshops entitled the Tao of Ducks. The next one is March 9th. For details, contact Cheri Clark and Harry MacCormack, Institute of BioWisdom, Sunbow Farm, Corvallis, 541-929-5782 or www.sunbowfarm.org
Another indispensable resource: Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks by Dave Holderread, Storey Communications, Inc., 2001, available from Amazon (and local libraries). For great pictures of different breeds, visit www.holderreadfarm.com

Enjoying Duck Eggs
When it comes to egg laying, ducks of the right sort are the most dependable and productive of all fowl. Their eggs are excellent, with a flavor even richer than a free-range chicken egg. Some people say they don’t like the taste or texture of duck eggs. Carol Deppe believes this is because people don’t know how to cook them right. She says the albumens in duck eggs set at a lower temperature, and require gentler cooking than are typically used for hens’ eggs. She gave me a hard-cooked egg to prove her point. It was tender and delicious. with no off-taste of any kind. Had it been cooked like a chicken egg it would have been over-done and sulfurous. To hard cook duck eggs (preferably two or three weeks old) she places the cold eggs in a big pot of unsalted water, brings it to a rolling boil, then removes it from the heat and lets it sit, covered, for exactly 16 minutes. She shells the eggs hot or air-cooled; don’t plunge them in cold water.
When baking, Deppe uses duck eggs just like chickens’, but because her duck eggs are larger she measures by volume rather than egg number. In recipes, four chicken eggs to a cup is standard. Do the math.

Another valuable tip: Duck eggs may be fine for people with an allergy to chicken eggs.