Hi all,

In this article, I’d like to talk a bit about ducks – we have four fluffy white pekin ducks (three girls and a boy).

Ducks are an important part of our farm and supply us with eggs, meat, and weed disposal.

Our girls lay an egg a day – duck eggs are big and white and have more egg whites than normal hen eggs and make the fluffiest cakes in the world.

Our ducks live in a huge pen with a pond in the centre – the pond was already here when we moved, so we constructed their pen around it. Water is important to duck health and they love swimming and splashing and preening in the water.

Our duck pen also has a house (a repurposed children’s cubby) where we lock them in at night, fruit trees for shade & a few small plants for them to eat.

We started off with eight ducklings who lived in our house – when they grew up the drakes were humanely killed for eating and we shared them with our neighbours.

Our ducks mostly eat comfrey, wandering jew (a weed in our area), cobblers pegs and any other stray plants that we give them.

Every week I clean out their house and put all the manure straight on the garden. Duck manure is high in nitrogen and doesn’t need composting before adding to the garden.

Ducks are a great asset to our farm, and are lots of fun!

– By Ellenie Kirkman