Creating the Ultimate Duck Paradise: Raising Ducks Regeneratively in Texas

Here on Sunny Willow Farms we have an amazing spring-fed pond and this gorgeous pasture just to the north of it. The more we thought about it once we bought this place we thought this would be the perfect home for ducks. But these aren't just any ducks. Oh no! These are our Eco-Warrior ducks here to help us with our regenerative farming practices and to be super adorable while doing it. So what's the big deal about ducks you ask? Well these guys are a powerhouse of pest control. They're great for soil regeneration and they also do a really good job of weed eating. Plus they're just hilarious to look at. It's easy to spend 30 minutes up here just watching them waddle around with each other. From building their house to getting them a water source we've set up a simple system to make sure that our ducks are happy and healthy as you can hear. Whether you have a big spring-fed pond like we do or just a kiddie pool in your backyard you'll be able to see how easy it is to add some of the most fun helpful animals that you can have. And you can't forget those delicious pasture-raised duck eggs. Our ducks play a very valuable role here on our regenerative farm and for the ecosystem in general. They're great for pond health, great for soil health, biodiversity, and pest control. Duck manure is full of nitrogen and potassium which is great for regenerating the soil and the grasses that the ducks travel on. So we have a whole area at the the northern end of our farm with some hilly pastures and it's right next to the pond here as you can see. So when the ground gets impacted enough they need to move on we just move them to a fresh patch of grass and let them graze and regenerate and then we get to see dark green beautiful grass come up behind them which is really fun. Another great benefit to our ducks is the pest control. They are awesome at balancing the insect population and we didn't use them in our garden this year because we only had a very small garden but a lot of people have great benefit from putting them in their garden to control the slug and snail population. They're great at that and it's also really good for the ducks. It keeps them healthy. They have fresh protein and nutrients in their diet that cuts down on food costs on feed costs for us which is great and it makes our ducks really happy and healthy and strong. When you have a great pond like we do it's hard not to want to put ducks in it. They just fit perfectly and naturally in here. They add to the biodiversity of the farm overall which is what we want. We believe in that you know not too much of any one thing and the more breeds the more species the more microbes you have the healthier farm is going to be and the more it's going to thrive. Not only is the pond really good for the ducks but the ducks are also really good for the pond. As they swim they kick their little flippers and that adds oxygen to the water which is really good for fish and plant life and any other animals that benefit or use the pond so things are kept in balance and they keep they do a really good job of keeping the water clean and just fresh. The ducks will also eat algae and any vegetative overgrowth in and around the pond. Which does a great job of keeping that balanced and contributing to the nutrient cycle so they're eating what's here they're pooping it out into the pond which benefits the pond good things grow they eat the good things it just keeps on going you know somehow like God designed it. You may be looking at our pond and wondering why is it not all fresh and clear? Well ours is still pretty muddy looking. We only just started this process and introduced the ducks to the pond maybe three or four days ago so we're so it's brand new but we're really excited to see it transform and regenerate which is what we're all about here on Sunny Willow Farms. So stay tuned because I'm sure in the future we'll have a video where you get to see the results of the awesome work that ducks can do here. As for duck feed two things we have to pay attention to whenever you're formulating any sort of diet the concerns for ducks you can feed them chicken feed but the two things you need to look at are calcium which is a lot of what people use oyster shell they'll supplement chicken feed for oyster shell and sometimes chicken feeds will just have a lot of calcium in it innately and a lot of calcium is bad for ducks so you want to make sure you check your tag. Number two is vitamin B or niacin is a big thing that ducks need and a lot of chicken feeds don't have it because chickens don't need it as much and that way that you can supplement with brewer's yeast that's what we got right here mix it in there's a ratio we mix it in but a lot of times I'm eyeballing it but just because I've gotten used to how much needs to go in they're all out so I'm gonna fill them up my hand mixer this feed is only about 15% protein it's leftover from feeding meat chickens ducks need a little bit more protein so what we've been doing is supplementing with potatoes and that's really big big hack ducks love potatoes great source of protein lots of vitamins and minerals if you can get the ones that are non-gmo a good way to add some protein to their diet without having to buy a whole new bag of feed bag of potatoes just boil them all we do is just boil them and mash them stick them in a stew I don't mash them that was a joke one other thing is I've got grit in these separate troughs grit's always important for any kind of bird helps them process the food digest the food well and they also get their minerals in minerals right they're minerals it's just good for them one thing about ducks I learned that they see us as predators and they see these little things as long claws so they're just naturally scared of us so you always want to be really calm really quiet slow moving that always helps them make sure that they're not scared of you I think they're ready for food here I'll move over here and I bet they'll move so another really important thing about ducks you need to make sure that they have enough water we've got a pond a good old pond back here but uh we didn't always have that uh they were kind of on other parts of our property when they were a little too little that's a big thing with little ducks is you don't want to you don't want to put ducklings in water because they haven't developed a certain gland in their body that helps them float so ironically people can kill a lot of ducklings because they draft wanting to kind of see them swim earlier than they're ready even if you don't have a giant pond like this you can still make it work with baby pools and and waterers they love it and you just have to make sure you refill it and once it gets starts to get real dirty they like to mess it up that's the big thing a lot of people don't like with they're messy and I understand that um but they're also animals so animals are just messy so I think it's worth it I love them they're some of my favorite animals it doesn't take too much to take care of them water food a little swimming area you can get a walmart pool for ten dollars it works just fine up the hill here we have their house we made sure to put it on a higher location higher elevation right so it doesn't get flooded with water this is one of the higher points on our property spring feeds into the pond back there and then there's also a lot of water drainage down here and out to the runoff area this is their house we built them it's in the style of a salt box is what they call it I'll show you real quick um entrance right here real simple this is the the lid or the uh the roof that covers will close it up at night that way I have two bungees that make sure it stays closed a little ventilation so that it's not getting too hot starts off at a high elevation and slowly slopes down to a lower elevation it comes all the way to the back of the salt box we have a little area where you can open up and there are five nest boxes these nest boxes are bigger than your average so they probably will hold 10 depends on the size of the duck right we have some big ones and some little ones plenty of room for nesting plenty of room for space easy easy collection and we're ready for them to start laying here in the next month I'm really excited for that I wish I could show you but that's coming up soon as for fencing we're using an electric fence we bought from premier one really great at stopping predators ducks you know aren't trying to get out of it right now they have open access to the pond and at night we're closing in the fence and closing in the house to make sure there are no predator intrusions and it's been working great okay my big vision my grand vision for this place okay so we got the ducks over here in this area towards the pond perfect for them we have about 25 ducks at the moment four different breeds and we'll talk about that in a little bit but I have a bigger vision than that I don't want just 25 ducks no no no no I'm a man of duck culture and I just love ducks so I want as many ducks as I can fit in our property and we have about let's say two and a half acres in this front area nothing going on there but it has great water you know there's tons of water drainage throughout the entire property uh it's beautiful lush green grass healthy plants I'm sure there are tons of bugs that way they would love foraging it's a perfect area to add more ducks so takes a little time and to get to get more ducks so we're starting with 25 we'll expand out from there but my plan starts with this a tunnel it's hard to see on camera because it's chicken wire little chicken wire tunnel that starts from their house leads them down into this lower area I ran out of chicken wire so it's only stopped there but you know we'll get there lush green grass plenty of fresh air fresh sunlight opening up into a beautiful lush area where the ducks could just frolic free and just have the best duck life they can and I'd like you know get a setup over here get get up get fencing over here get fencing over here and I'd have you know every kind of duck I want all the varieties and just have the most beautiful duck sanctuary where where duck music is made throughout the entire property we'll have way too many eggs we don't know what to do with which is a good problem to have and I also want to plant a lot of blueberry bushes I've seen this amazing video talking about permaculture duck eggs how they have these tons of blueberry patches on their property and the ducks fertilize the blueberry patches and then they eat the blueberries and also they eat any pests that are annoying the blueberry plants seems like a perfect symbiotic relationship kind of a sunny willow farms style relationship and we want to emulate that so I hope over the years I can show you look I've added this kind of duck and I've added this kind of duck and you can just see it build on itself and just see the amazing duck power cobra kai never die one thing I wanted to mention was the geese as for predator control we have a lot of tree cover there's a lot of taller trees with good branches that overhang this area but when you were in the front area there's less tree cover so it's great to have geese geese are amazing at fending off any sort of aerial predators they're not always going to fight the aerial predators but they're definitely going to alert you make a ruckus and a lot of times that will scare off any sort of hawk or owl that's trying to swoop down and take one of your ducks they're great for defending chickens too a lot of people have them just a great which is helpful because ducks can't see up the way that geese can great point geese great eyesight that's one of the big things about geese and ducks really struggle to see up great to have geese for that purpose to make sure that that they're seeing anything in the sky and alerting the rest of the flock the ducks are just great about staying together in a flock which is very different from chickens chickens are spreading a lot of times will spread out you know just kind of do their own thing a little more independence sometimes they'll stay together but ducks man they are in one pack and it's funny we got two different sections of ducks and the first grouping of ducks we bought are a little bit bigger they stay together the second section of ducks which is three different varieties they stay together but they also stay together in a big in a bigger pile so they're they're all together but they're also separated within their respective uh breeds and and when they grew up together i think it's pretty cool those instincts are really cool so they're staying real close together no one there's no duck that's straying off at least not that i've seen and this kind of leads me to talk about the breeds the first group of ducking ducks we got i was really really interested in welsh harlequins if you know anything about ducks khaki campbells are the go-to layer breed people love khaki campbells and they lay the best well welsh harlequins a lot of people think that they were bred from khaki campbells and they just have a little bit different coloring i ordered the welsh harlequins and i got them from a big hatchery and they called me oh we had a bad hatch you know oh and i've been waiting months to get these ducks and so i was just i was so so excited about them i heard the news didn't end up getting those welsh harlequins they said hey we'll send you these apple yards instead apple yards look pretty similar to welsh harlequins they're white with brown and lots of lots of color really really pretty ducks the drakes have green heads and for a while i didn't know which ones were the drakes they all looked similar and up until the last few weeks the drakes the male ducks started getting their green heads apple yards are great layers and they're in the heavyweight class so females can get around eight pounds males around nine pounds and that's a pretty big duck they share a similar weight category category with a pecking duck which a lot of people have heard of because a lot of asian restaurants will use a pecking duck so apple yards are great dual purpose but they're supposed to be the grit the best lane and they were kind of bred to be that perfect dual purpose duck that was the first batch the second batch i ordered and after weeks of trying to convince jenny please let me get more ducks i just want more ducks we got khaki campbells um because they were just cost effective high high egg production for a lower amount of money per duck and then i threw in a couple for just for fun i threw in a couple indian runner ducks and you should show your boots we realized later on jenny's got little runner ducks on her boots with uh on her galoshes the ducks have galoshes they're just the funniest looking ducks i refer to them as wine bottles with legs or with wings they stand straight up and waddle and it's just it's hilarious uh the cayuga duck was the fourth and final duck and those are just beautiful ducks they're they have that green iridescent sheen on them they're they're it's starting to come in on a lot of ours and they're just beautiful ducks and they're they're pretty good layers too those are our four breeds we'll start with that i'm excited to get more of course i want my welsh harlequins eventually i will get them you know who you are robbed me of them no they don't you don't have duck eggs yet but we will so get ready for the best the most delicious the best for you egg you've ever had the duck pastured duck eggs get it straight permaculture uh duck eggs are great for a lot of reasons nutritionally and you can look up all the the various benefits they have online so i'll just briefly touch on them but they're great for a lot of vitamins and minerals iron b12 mega fatty three acids and they can have up to 50 percent more protein than chicken eggs if you want to up your protein intake duck eggs are great for that they're also a lot of people use them in baking and they say a make a big difference there's also a lot of people that stay away from duck eggs because they think oh duck eggs that's gross you know i'm just a chicken egg eater because that's just what as americans we've we're just comfortable with and i get that but a lot of people if you feed them a duck egg and they've never had a duck egg before or they even you kind of blind taste test them right you feed them a duck egg and you don't tell them it's a duck egg people just come out saying oh this is the best chicken egg i've ever tasted it's just richer and fuller and people love it so i'm just throwing it out there if you haven't had a duck egg you need to try a duck egg and i'm not just saying go to your joe blow duck egg down the street you need to get your sunny willow farms duck egg i'm sure by the time this gets edited and pushed out and by the time you're watching it we'll have duck eggs and you can give us a call give us call and say hey i want your pasture raised duck eggs because they're the most delicious things on the planet and uh you know we might look been sold out for months i can try to get you on the list but you know waiting list is also filling up fast uh either way i'm really excited about duck eggs and all the benefits that come with it uh and i want more ducks did i say that already i want more ducks jenny give me more ducks oh and that's sunny willow farms duck video in the books you want ducks we got them you want eggs we don't got them but we will soon come back more for next time subscribe like do the thing get me pay for more of my ducks