Carol Deppe on Ducks (audio with Jim Phillips)

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Jim Phillips considers his awesome series of interviews with Carol Deppe. The topic of this episode is on Ducks, the last of her 5 staples.

Why a laying flock: not for protein but for long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, and not everyone can convert short-chain to long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, tho those that can may be able to get by with plants only, but difficult... "some people are obligatory omnivores" - and this only works for animals that are grown and finished on fresh grass, not grains or even hay! major deficiency in modern diet, a laying flock is the simplest way (7m30); fatty cold-water fish is the best, e.g. salmon or herring, wild game is also good if you eat the fats (garden rabbits!) (12m30); animals need to be really free range, running around and eating bugs (17m30); eggs and egg yolks are not responsible for cholestrol, sugary-fatty things are (21m); chickens vs. ducks, incl laying breeds of ducks - Cortlain(?) Khaki Campbells, etc., go to Holdereads hatchery (24m); but Khaki Campbells a scrawny little bird, so with the 50% males, you eat them - dual purpose breeds have mellower personalities, can hatch out their own eggs (26m); ducks vs. chickens - great in the damp northwest winters, can get all their protein from reasonably sized yard with slugs and snails, chickens miserable most of the year, if frozen much of the winter, would choose chickens because nothing can free range and chicken is a better confined animal, but if wet land, swamps, creeks, might consider ducks (31m); how to cook and eat duck eggs - cook at a lower temperature than chicken eggs, easy to overcook, how to fry a duck egg, to boil bring barely to a simmer than cover and leave for 15 min (34m45); getting the shell off a hard-boiled duck egg (38m); don't feed them fishmeal because will taint flavor (87m45); Considerations of ducks vs. chickens after climate - what kind of forage have you got? insects good for both, slugs/snails ducks, compost piles chickens (44m30); fencing and security for ducks vs. chickens - out at day, in at night, so what are your daytime predators? a 2 ft high fence will keep most laying ducks out of a garden, role of electric fencing (46m); ducks lay regularly in the morning, chickens lay at all times and need to go back to the nest box during the day (51m); creating cover for birds, pruning trees to 1.5 ft branch level above the ground (54m); Ducks as pest control - herd them, they love eating plants, slugs will leave the garden and go to the duck area because they love eating duck poop! duck area within 50 feet of the garden area, you can get rid of most of your big slugs, also turn them out into harvested area, also if you're supervising them, they'll clean out the slugs and stuff BEFORE they go for the plants, at least 10 min, but don't let them run around a salad garden any time close to when you're going to harvest (60m); protect rows of seedlings with lattices, sticks, whatever to keep them from walking on them (65m30); summary for pest control: 1. supervise, 2. keep time short, 3. keep them out of salad gardens, 4. protect seedlings from getting tromped on (66m30); more on compost/chicken synergy (68m); CHICKENS ARE ALWAYS A BETTER CHOICE FOR CONFINEMENT (69m30); feeding ducks - free range + poultry chow or if not available, table scraps plus any grain you can grow, commercial chow should be cooked potatoes, squash, slugs enough protein in winter, and more(71m30); For larger flock, 100 years ago, a farm would have 100 dual purpose laying birds, would have good forage, would feed them all their butcher waste and family waste, also dry scrap meat from urban butcher, the modern equivalent is commercial broiler chow, two containers so birds can pick and choose - high protein commercial chow, then a grain of some sort like corn or wheat, in summer time maybe 1 bucket corn to 4-5 buckets chow, in wintertime 1:1 or even not eating chow at all because of slugs and nightcrawlers (74m30); need to supplement calcium - provide oyster shell grit free choice, for broilers rock grit is fine, oyster shell will give calcium and help digest (80m); you can save eggshells and add them back into the diet, oyster shell is a good thing to stockpile (81m); how many males you want for flock reproduction - 1 to 4-5 for ducks, 1 to 12-20 for chickens, maybe one extra male, but don't keep more! (84m)