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trystinnWith the encroachment of suburban and upscale housing into agricultural areas and the zoning laws being enacted against farmers, we're losing Americas farms. And once lost, we're not likely to get them back. With pesticides killing off our native insects and foreign insects like Africanized bees taking their place, the state of America's honey bees is the worst it's ever been. And yet, Nature working alongside humanity has created the world's most perfect natural insect hunter - the domestic duck. Mosquito larvae, Japanese beetle larvae, potato beetles, grasshoppers, snails and slugs - all on the duck's menu. Yet we've no national duck vs. mosquito program, we prefer to spray and spray and spray.
Weeds and invasive plants are clogging America's ponds and lakes, and since ducks are capable of foraging 100% of their food, a ratio of fifteen to thirty ducks can control the weeds on one acre of water. Yet we prefer to dump tons of chemicals into our waters and worst yet, introduce foreign species to handle the foreign plants - with no idea what will happen decades from now. Which is sort of how we got into that mess, originally.
The feed conversion of a duck - 2.6 pounds of feed creates 1 pound of duck - is nearly as good as the broiler chicken at 1.91:1. Yet the duck produces eggs 20 - 35 percent larger than chicken eggs. A Campbell duck, for instance, will lay 275 - 325 eggs per year. And will do it foraging on insects and weeds. Without antibiotics. And ducks will happily eat kitchen garbage - an experimental poultry program in Puerto Rico gave forty Rouens to a local school with a 5 acre pond nearby. The ducks were fed nothing but scraps from the school's kitchen and what could be found in and along their pond. Providing natural economy, eggs, fertilizer and when the flock needed culling (so as not to overwhelm the pond), the ducks provided much-needed meat, as well.
We hear a lot about endangered species nowadays, but we almost always mean endangered wild species. The endangered domestic species we don't quite worry about. Of the 20 recognized breeds of duck 3 are endangered and 5 are rare (watch listed), which at slightly more than half is something to worry about. And pound for pound, there's not many creatures as entertaining as the duck, especially when you consider how simple their needs are compared to other animals.
So if you've got a decent yard and have the time and energy to take care of a small pond, consider a couple ducks. You'll have the perfect excuse not to pull out those weeds, you're saving them for the ducks!
Weeds and invasive plants are clogging America's ponds and lakes, and since ducks are capable of foraging 100% of their food, a ratio of fifteen to thirty ducks can control the weeds on one acre of water. Yet we prefer to dump tons of chemicals into our waters and worst yet, introduce foreign species to handle the foreign plants - with no idea what will happen decades from now. Which is sort of how we got into that mess, originally.
The feed conversion of a duck - 2.6 pounds of feed creates 1 pound of duck - is nearly as good as the broiler chicken at 1.91:1. Yet the duck produces eggs 20 - 35 percent larger than chicken eggs. A Campbell duck, for instance, will lay 275 - 325 eggs per year. And will do it foraging on insects and weeds. Without antibiotics. And ducks will happily eat kitchen garbage - an experimental poultry program in Puerto Rico gave forty Rouens to a local school with a 5 acre pond nearby. The ducks were fed nothing but scraps from the school's kitchen and what could be found in and along their pond. Providing natural economy, eggs, fertilizer and when the flock needed culling (so as not to overwhelm the pond), the ducks provided much-needed meat, as well.
We hear a lot about endangered species nowadays, but we almost always mean endangered wild species. The endangered domestic species we don't quite worry about. Of the 20 recognized breeds of duck 3 are endangered and 5 are rare (watch listed), which at slightly more than half is something to worry about. And pound for pound, there's not many creatures as entertaining as the duck, especially when you consider how simple their needs are compared to other animals.
So if you've got a decent yard and have the time and energy to take care of a small pond, consider a couple ducks. You'll have the perfect excuse not to pull out those weeds, you're saving them for the ducks!
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Date: 2009-06-15 02:57 am (UTC)I know beekeepers who have AHB and while they are certainly more aggressive, those beekeepers also report that they aren't that much more difficult to manage. Beekeepers in Africa, the place where bees most likely originated, are managing just fine.
The problem with bees is really pesticides and the evils visited upon them by the philosophies of a one Lorenzo Langstroth. Bees are 'in trouble' because people have exploited them to the breaking point--which is usually the problem in all such cases.
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Date: 2009-06-16 01:14 pm (UTC)Otherwise, I probably would already own guinea hens, since their preferred food seem to be ticks. Of course, then I would have to deal with bobcats and coyotes...
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Date: 2009-06-16 06:25 pm (UTC)