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Country Living in Japan - Inaka Life :: Farming & Land :: starting with ducks ~ Runboard

Country Living in Japan - Inaka Life
Farming & Land
starting with ducks

Johnny LaRue
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starting with ducks

At first I wanted to get Guinea fowl for our home mainly because we have a lot of kamemushi-stink bugs around the end of October. Also they will kill snakes. But alas TIJ, this is Japan.

Didn't consider chickens as they are said to dig up the garden and eat everything in sight. So I settled for aigamo ducks from
http://homepage1.nifty.com/kamoya/sub04.html
their eggs are supposed to be good and they don't get too big. Plus they're said to be kinder to the garden. We opted for week old ducks instead of eggs, didn't want to mess with an incubator, humidity levels, temperature etc. Definately made the right choice there. The breeders contacted us as to when the hatching was expected and we could expect our 3 ducklings about one week after.

They came no problem by Yamato takyubin. The driver didn't want to part with them nor did the staff at the distribution center, seems we brightend their day. I din't have any special feed on hand at the time so we made do with very finely chopped spinach and scrambled eggs for protein. Ducklings need a high protein diet initially 22%, this can eventually go down to 16% after 2 months. I put newspaper in a clear box, an old t-shirt for warmth and feed and water bowls. This was kept in the genkan for the first 2 weeks. Needless to say they made a fine mess of the box within 30 minutes of cleaning it. Replacing newspaper was required 3 times per day. The ducklings were fed 5 times or more per day. Water was always refilled when emptied. Ducklings as well as ducks must always have clean water available as they may choke to death on food. Ducklings are also easily succeptible to dehyration.

After the two stinky weeks in the genkan I built an A-frame ark/coop for about 2万円　half of which was the cost of the smallest diameter coated chicken wire. These eggs better be good!

My 3 children each named a duck and we all enjoyed watching them in their new home. At this stage they would follow us around the yard like dogs. A turtle shaped sandbox was their pond, but it took another week before they were brave enough to use it. This was funny because the breeder said they had already been in the pond in their first few days.

I encouraged the children to handle them so the ducklings would get used to us. The ducklings however never really cared for this even when they were tiny fist sized puffballs in the genkan. The children of course loved chasing the poor creatures.

My wife and I them moved the Ark to the sunny south side of the house. Although it is heavy, about 50kgs. , by attaching temporary handles of 2X4's screwed into the sides, it could be lifted a few inches off the ground and moved 10 meters at a time or so, before taking a break.

Once in the sunny, deer fenced garden the ducks rarely ventured outside the netting. At this time, about one month old they were being given a feed of cabbage, cracked corn and oats. They also grazed in the garden eating slugs, crickets , frogs and anything else they could.

The ark floor was covered in wara to absorb the droppings. By this time it was clear I was going to need a lot of wara. Changing the wara daily was using about 2 traditional hand tied bundles the size that people run through the old threshers. The used wara was raked out and put in a pile outside the garden to mulch. Fruit flies starting accumulating around the ark and it had a clear smell of manure. I hit the internet and was told to raise it up and hose it out daily. Hose it out daily? Oh this is not turning out to be the easy free ranging egg factory I pictured. I experimented with cardboard on the wire floor of the ark to save wara, but even one week of boxes, 2 per day, was quite a lot. They now sit at the bottom of the wara pile slowly mulching.

Now I have been keeping them on the double layer wire only, which is supported by cinderblocks/breezeblocks below. So there is solid footing for them. The ark sits on 15 blocks and about 4 inches of gravel. This has already become clogged with manure from the daily hosings. Growing ducks eat a lot and poop even more it seems. I have a clear manure problem on my hands at this point. A removable plywood floor may be needed, this to be taken out and cleaned daily. At least it is getting colder and the flies are gone. In spring the ark will be moved to the side yard which is grassy/weedy, and more importantly downwind of our kitchen. This is important. I didn't consider proximity to the house as a problem before getting ducks. But most reference material found on the net is dealing with people living on acres of land, not tsubo, and the manure problem or my poor dealing it is starting to show.

At 8 weeks old the ducks were still confined to the ark most of the day and let out 2-3 times per day to swim in the pond. Outside 2-3 hours per day. The pond water was of course changed daily or twice daily by dumping it over and filling it by bucket from the mizou. Now it gets filled by hose from the house . In spring I hope to set up a rainwater collecting tank and fill the pond by gravity . Their feed was also changed to a commercial chicken feed plus kitchen scraps. About 2000 yen for 20 kg. in the home center. lasts 2 months or more http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/soukai/4951761482337.html
It is much cheaper and easier to deal with than chopping cabbage. The cracked corn and oats proved to be too expensive as it is high quality and only available in 3kg bags. 3 cups of feed, 3 times per day. This will be decreased to 2 times per day as they grow.

I was very much afraid the ducks would be targets for the many taka -kites that we have around, but it seemed they were now about the same size, perhaps too big for the kites, as they never tried to attack. Or we just got lucky. The ducks have keen eyesight and would turn their heads sideways and look up whenever something flew over. They often freeze for many minutes in this funny looking postion.
Confident they would not be taken from above, we began to let the ducks out in the morning, leave them out all day and put them back in about an hour before sunset.

This system seems to have worked well. We had no predator attacks in the daytime or night that I knew of.

However human error proved our undoing. I'm aware that once you take on farm animals there is the risk that at some point you will lose one or more to the wild. Having only 3 ducks makes it worse. Well, last night someone left the rear door of the ark open and we came home after a lovely day to 2 scared ducks wandering around the driveway. My 9 year old daughter was heartbroken to say the least. My wife and I searched the yard and surrounding property for about 40 minutes and finally heard some bizarre noises coming from some dense sasa grass in the sugi forest. I couldn't make out if it was a tanuki or fox protecting it's kill. There were no duck noises just growling and barking. Eventually I saw a tanuki acting aggressively to something unseen in the sasa. It must have been 2 tanuki or 1 tanuki and a fox fighting over the kill. This morning I was able to find some feathers and bones in the forest.　I told my daughter that Cookie must have gotten lost and probably made her way to the river and eventually down to the big river where she is enjoying living wild. We'll get a new duck for her in spring.

The remaing 2 ducks are still very spooked and will not go into the sleeping area at night, which is where the attacker entered from.

Worst of all it was the smallest duck that appeared to be female. The other two look like males, but it's not 100% cause they are a cross breed. Maybe no eggs for us come spring due to stupidity. Well that won't happen again.

Overall caring for the ducks takes about 20-30 minutes per day, I assume about the same as caring for a dog? It's a little more difficult than I thought due to the cleaning of the ark. My morning routine goes like this: Wake up, have a cup of coffee, go out and greet the hungry ducks, dump the pond and refill, put some feed in the feed bowl near the pond. Let the ducks out, they do their wing excercises, some jump flying and head straight for the pond. I then hose out the ark and refill the water in the ark, ( a plastic sled) This all takes about 15 minutes. At noon they get 3 more cups of feed. The noon feeding will be reduced by 4-6months old. At 4 pm herd them back into the ark and feed. I keep an LED light in the sleeping quarters to deter predators and relax the ducks. This will be replaced with a CFL bulb in winter, and lowered down to almost floor level to give some heat.

They are very nice pets, and fun to watch especially in the water. Their silly antics make us all smile and relax. I love to sit and eat looking out the window at them frolicking in the pond.

http://homepage1.nifty.com/kamoya/sub04.html

http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/soukai/4951761482337.html

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=42

http://shop.genesis-ec.com/search/item.asp?shopcd=07100&item=478

Though we are raising Aigamo, this link applies.

http://www.newagrarian.com/homestead/ducks/index.html

Last edited by Johnny LaRue, 11/17/2008, 10:41 am

11/16/2008, 5:15 pm

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kirinclassic
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Re: starting with ducks

Very informative post, Johnny. Lots of food for thought. Thanks a lot for sharing.

KC

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"Ooda thowt it?"

11/17/2008, 8:28 pm

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KenElwood
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Location: Nobi-Plain, Suzuka Mountains
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Re: starting with ducks

Hi Johnny,

Hope you don't mind if I print your writing and tuck it away in my 'How-to Homestead file'.

Thanks so much for that.

Sorry to hear about the female.

ken