RAISING DUCKS: Why Khaki Campbell Ducks Are Back On The Homestead

[@littlehomesteadbythebeach]

Your projects are also interesting! Always make me want some. lol.

[@HickorycroftFarm]

well, we said "no new projects" in 2024, and we have a few smaller ones on the go (this one included!), but we are serious about taking it slow on amassing our flock. Though the doom is always there we are going to take it slow and see if that helps us get set up better. Ducks are not too bad to have around, different from chickens, but I've always liked them!

[@littlehomesteadbythebeach]

@@HickorycroftFarm Let say 2 males, just as pest control, would it be feasible? I know they do not do the big quack quack the females do, so they would be more easy to "noise control"

[@HickorycroftFarm]

@@littlehomesteadbythebeach Yes, it's possible to keep two male ducks without much issue, and you are right; they are a lot quieter than the hens. Some breeds of mallard-derived ducks are quieter, too, but all hens do quack pretty loud, at least sometimes.

[@MarjorieFlohr]

I love the quacking! I know duck eggs are amazing for eating and baking. My neighbour across the road raised ducks for a few years and we bought eggs from her. She no longer has them due to worries about predators. We have a lot of those here, ie. wolves, coyotes, foxes, Martin’s, weasels, eagles, hawks…and they all love a good poultry dinner.

[@HickorycroftFarm]

Duck eggs are fantastic for baking of any kind! That is one thing about ducks: they are not predator-proof, but at the same time, they are really the "safest" livestock going for kids/people since they are pretty much defenseless (except for maybe a scratch from toenails). The funny thing about the quaking is it blends into the background more than, say, a rooster crowing (even where we used to live, we had a lot of ducks, and no one cared but roosters.... that's another story!). That is one thing we always make sure the ducks are behind a 4 foot fence (still out in the pasture but not truly "free range") which has helped in the past a lot with predators.

[@larrylewis3573]

Dear Chris and Steph, What a delightful surprise! I confess I was very morose when you gave up both the geese and Chanteclers. I really liked both of them. But, as you always do, you put all the reasons together. I fully understood your reasoning, while not being entirely consoled. I do like the Silkie chickens and understand your choice of this breed. But, I did wonder, based upon what I had read, if the Silkies would produce enough eggs for you. So, it is good that you reassessed everything, resulting in the return of the ducks. Naturally, I will be closely following how both the Silkies and Kahki Campbell work out for you over the short and long terms. As always, thank you for your thoughtful and delightful posts. Sincerely, Larry Lewis London, Ontario😊

[@HickorycroftFarm]

Thank you, Larry, as always, for the great comment! We always find it so funny when you change what I call a "metric." It is amazing how many little ripple effects it causes on the homestead. That, I think, is a huge thing with the changes in the birds. As you mentioned, it was not without a lot of thought, but coming back to the idea of having at least a small flock of ducks makes sense on quite a few levels for us. The changes in our diet lately have been a big driver too, and while I still think the Silkies would produce enough for our "normal" needs, if we increase the egg consumption, then they would fall short a bit. We are really interested to see where this all leads, and we will be documenting it this year, so stay tuned!

[@marciaabbott5370]

I think it's cool the way you adapt as you go along. Squash bugs are the main pest we fight and I had no idea ducks ate them. That is great to know!

[@HickorycroftFarm]

Sometimes, it does feel like we put too much thought into things, lol. But in the long run, it's like you say: we just keep adapting as we go along. We don't tend to change things up as much as we have in the last two years, but there really have just been so many things in flux, both on-farm and off-farm, that influence things. Ducks are great at bug control, though not so much at putting in the garden with the veggies (what they don't eat, they trample), but since the squash bugs overwinter in the garden, ducks are really good at finding them in the off-season!

[@larrylewis3573]

Dear Chris and Steph, What a delightful surprise! I confess that when you gave up both the Chanteclers and American Buff geese, I was morose. Fortunately, as you do so well, you gave all the reasons for these changes on your homestead. While I understood all the reasons, it was very hard for me to be consoled. So, I was delighted when you got the Silkie chickens. At the time, I confess that, based on limited knowledge of Silkies, I wondered if they would produce enough eggs for you. So, I am glad that you reassessed things and now have ducks again. I am looking forward to see how the Silkies and Kahki Campbell’s work out for you in the short and long terms. As always, thank you for your informative and delightful videos. Sincerely, Larry Lewis London, Ontario.

[@mylesfalconer9183]

Chris you should do some video on your Canada geese and how this all started. I'm not as familiar with steph's beginning s but it would neat to just hear the stories

[@HickorycroftFarm]

A so many stories to tell. That's the problem. As you get older, the stories keep piling up! That is a good idea, though

[@KleverskoyeFarm]

JUst wait - i'll be sending some silkworm eggs in the spring when the mulberry trees start leafing

[@HickorycroftFarm]

lol, well we do have a mulberry tree! In all fairness, we have some much "smaller" experiments going on to not so much for human use but to help with keeping all this going or at least building a bit more resilience.

[@victorialg1270]

Please try using your silkies for hatching the duck eggs.

[@HickorycroftFarm]

We will see how 2024 goes. We want to hatch out quite a few silkies, too and only have so many silkie hens this year, but we will see how things progress!

[@sylvia4051]

Ducks are great! Glad you bring them back ! Are they mix breeds? They don't have the khaki color as mines?

[@HickorycroftFarm]

This little flock has been great so far (though we only have six). They are pure Khaki Campbell's. They can vary slightly, but the penciling is strongest on "newer" feathers. It looks like these birds molted out pretty well in 2023 and are only just starting to show the fading, which usually gives them the more typical khaki color.

[@janew5351]

Have the silkie egg production gone down or levelled off? Dobthey lay in a nesting box?

[@HickorycroftFarm]

It has gone down in January. They seem to be similar to our Chanteclers in that they don't keep laying (without lights anyway) consistently when the temperature fluctuates drastically (up or down), and we have had a few weeks of really yo-yo weather in that regard. It's not cold or hot (they have laid on some pretty cold days when it's got cold and stayed cold). These Khaki Campbells haven't started laying again (they usually stop when moved, and though they lay a lot of eggs, we always found them without a light; January was always a lean egg month), but our old flock used to lay in the nest boxes pretty good.

[@mildredarnold4052]

Silkies would sit on the duck eggs!

[@HickorycroftFarm]

They likely would if we needed them to sit a few. I do think we will be able to convince a few Khaki Campbell hens to sit, but we will see (when we used to have them, we had a couple that thought about it. We just never let them).

[@Damselfly54315]

They look similar to mallards

[@HickorycroftFarm]

They are really. Domestic ducks are either derived from the Mallard (like the Campbell's and most breeds) or the Muscovy, which is in itself a wild species of duck. The Campbells do keep a lot of the traits of their wild Mallard cousins.