this duckling is two weeks old it's really starting to feel like a duck and
get from the big over the last two weeks it's been so much fun having these
ducklings and you guys have just been given me a ton of feedback and asked me
a whole bunch of great questions and so in today's video I'm gonna take a little
time out to answer those questions for you guys they have a chick starter which
is just like a blend of a bunch of grains and corn readily available at all
times but I'm finding that they go absolutely nuts over these greens this
means I'm gonna have to get them outside pretty soon plus they're getting so big
I'm worried that they could jump over the edge of the brooder there you guys
are gonna do so good on pasture someday
these aren't even really good greens these are just carrot greens and they're
going nuts
so my first question comes from my friend Camilla and she asks can the
ducklings come inside and the answer is technically yes but practically no when
it comes down to it we keep them in the brooder here in the barn the ducklings
make an awful stink and mess you know the water splashing and I've made
countless videos about the water splashing and dealing with the water
situation just make it really impractical and kind of gross to keep 40
ducklings inside the house you know generally speaking we actually try to
keep all the animals out of the house so the cats live here in the barn
the Ducks lived out here in the bar and forget any other animals maybe other
than a dog probably live out here in the barn too
hey that's why farms have barns right to keep the animals so the next question
comes from my friend Lael in Washington DC and she asks are they calling you
Papa yet and I would say absolutely not you know you can look on the internet
and see all these videos about people who have raised ducklings to think that
they the human or the mama duck our Ducks are not that way at all they cower
and terror every time I walk into the brooder room they absolutely despise
when I change their shavings and bedding they freak out like I'm I've had times
where I've been worried that they were gonna kill one another because they just
pile up into one corner freaking out from me trying to do a change of
shavings or just put down a fresh bed of shavings so they do not call me papa
they are very skittish the kaki Campbell breed which is the type of duck that we
have is in general somewhat skittish they cluster and inform together as soon
as there's danger and they try to move away from it as far as possible as
quickly as possible for these ducks that's not such a bad thing once we put
them out on pasture there's going to be predator situations where you might have
coyotes at the the fence or you might have foxes or Martens at the fence
you'll have Hawks swooping down and you know that can all those can all be
sort of problems that we've got from predators my hoping is that that
skittishness and that clustering instinct actually helps keep these guys
alive a little bit more by you know alerting the whole flock to the predator
and having them cluster up so speaking of Hawks our next question
is from my friend Bridget who asks would Hawks grab the Ducks and and the answer
is that yes absolutely Hawks could grab the ducks I'll probably make a future
video about some of my Hawk deterrent systems that I'm gonna put into place
but it's probably the biggest predator risk I've got going this next question
is from Mike who's now living in New Jersey and Mike says and it's not so
much a question I'm calling it right now you're going to adopt that little run
and I gotta be honest with you Alison wanted to do the exact same thing she
was the one who spent a ton of time those first couple days hand feeding
that little duckling jamming little grain pellets in its mouth putting you
know moisture and water into its mouth and dropping it in there and so she
absolutely fell in love with that thing and if she had her way we would have
adopted it but I actually put my foot down and you know really explained hey
look these are farm animals they can't be treated like pets and and we really
can't be running like a home for wayward ducks here at the farm that's just not
in the vision and that's not in the plan and I don't even think that that's all
that's sustainable so we will not be adopting the runt and I think the good
news there is - I don't even know who the runt is anymore he's he's pretty
much impossible to pick out of the pack at this point their growth is all sort
of caught up and you know he's gotten so big and successful that he's looking
really good all right Oh another question from my friend Bridget so do
the Ducks have parents do they see a vet so I guess that's two questions Bridget
and the answers are number one yes obviously the Ducks have parents Ducks
are you know bred so they have like it's just known as breeding stock at the
hatchery the hatchery collects though eggs puts it in a giant incubator and
they sit in that incubator I think it's for like 28 days and they hatch in the
incubator and then once that happens the ducklings are packed in a box and
shipped off almost immediately and so you know we got our ducks they were
probably about two days old I made a whole video about that as well
and I was really worried about them having the cross country transit going
from California to Vermont but that was just I guess unfounded on my part they
do it all the time I shouldn't have thought that I knew better yeah as far
as your question Bridgette about the vet no they will not ever see a vet you know
animals like this you know just the cost-effectiveness of going to a vet
doesn't make sense I'm trying to raise these guys on completely organic feed
with no antibiotics and no medication I'm putting a lot of attention to making
sure that they're raised in a healthy clean way which keep a lot of the
diseases down any other things that happen are generally just probably
defects on a genetic level with the Ducks as they get older I might have
issues in terms of the whole flock and maybe if there was a problem with the
whole flock I might call the vet out there but again it's only 40 Ducks
and let's see these guys cost me I don't know about $220 or so the cost of
getting a vet out to here to the farm would probably be at least that if not
more and so just you know from a financial perspective doesn't make much
sense for them to see a vet I'm just gonna focus on good animal husbandry
tactics and hope for the best so Bridget's brother Pat actually has a
question as well and Pat's question is this if I send you a recipe for vegan
duck confit can you let some of the bros off the hook Wow Pat that's a tall order
a pardon for some ducklings and you know what I will make this deal with you my
friend if you provide me with the recipe for vegan duck confit I will put it out
here on the YouTube and I will pardon two additional male
ducks just for you just for the recipe I'm not gonna go get into the whole
ethics of veganism versus eating me I'll just say I feel really good about eating
these guys they are animals that have been leading very healthy happy lives
they're gonna leave you in greater lives once they get out on pasture as they get
older and get their feathers and so I have no ethical qualms about eating them
I know that it can bum some people out especially as I'm making all these cute
little baby animal videos right now about the ducklings and you know you
guys know that probably about 40% of them are going to head off to the
freezer that said I'm planning on carrying a handful the males over to
next year and yeah they are I will give them a pardons and like I said I was
only probably gonna do three but Pat because of you if you provide that vegan
duck confit recipe I will pardon two ducklings just for you my friend so
that's the deal so that's all I got for QA for right now might if you guys like
this video let me know down in the comments section I will maybe make
another one in the near future keep sending me your questions and comments
whether they're on Facebook or Instagram or YouTube and we'll keep watching the
Ducks grow up and very soon they're going to be going outside probably
earlier than I originally planned so stay tuned