Day in the Life of a Runner Duck

So today's video is going to be a very special day in the life video. Today it's going to be a day in the life of a runner duck and this video is sponsored by my friends over at Open Farm. Release the quackers! Each morning I let all my birds out at sunrise but I will say there's nothing that rivals the energy and excitement that happens when I let the birds out on a nice spring morning like the one we're having today. All of our ducks sprint out of their duck house and run down to our pond and our pond this time of year is absolutely massive. It takes up a big chunk of our lower pasture as everything floods up. It's the perfect environment and habitat for waterfowl. All of the ducks including the runner ducks will sprint outside, come take a dip in the water, they'll swim around, get themselves clean and then they'll start looking for food. Ducks are filter feeders. They love to dig around in the mud looking for insects, looking for worms, looking for other little treats and oftentimes that eating is marked by that distinctive kind of noise that you're hearing a lot around here. Like you can see these khaki campbell ducks right here they're digging in the mud right now and enjoying a nice little breakfast. The other thing that you're going to start to see happen early in the morning is mating starts to happen. Our drakes who are the male ducks try to seduce the female ducks and to be quite honest seduce is a very sugar-coated term. The mating ritual between the ducks is rather aggressive and sometimes unsightly. It can often look like the drake is using the female duck as a surfboard. Because duck mating is so aggressive that's actually why it's important to manage your numbers so that you don't have too many drakes relative to the number of females you have in your flock or else things can get really bad for the ladies. On our farm we have four different species of duck. We have our khaki campbell ducks who are our first duck that we had. We also have Cayuga ducks who are those black ducks or maybe the black and white ducks that you see where they have lots of white little splotches and spots. They start off as black ducks but as they age they gather those white feathers. And then we have our runner ducks. We really haven't had runner ducks very long on our farm. We got our first runner ducks last year. My hope is that over the course of this year I hatch out a whole lot of other runner ducks because I think they're just such a great breed particularly for the way we're using the ducks around our farm these days. We also have some cayuga khaki campbell hybrids that you'll see around here. Most notably Ron Swanson who's the duck who thinks she's a goose is a khaki campbell cayuga hybrid. And then we have one lone pecan duck who's Jemima puddle duck. She was an adopted duck and she's been around the farm for a very long time. She's actually our farm's oldest duck. Of all the species of duck we have on the farm they actually tend to cluster in little groups based on how they were raised. So my original ducks very much stick together, my cayuga ducks stick together, and then the runner ducks generally stick together. That's not to say they don't intermingle or even interbreed, it's just as they all split off over the course of a given day to go explore the different parts of the farm. They usually work in groups that are based on the groups that they were originally raised in versus the larger flock. You know this time of year this is like the perfect weather for ducks and our pond makes the perfect habitat. You know the actual pond is really further back here this just is overflow and flooding but this is the part that ducks love right now you can see see these marks like right down here that's the patterning that comes from when they're digging around and looking for food it happens all through here so the ducks basically naturally aerate the land for a little bit. Part of why I actually love having them as part of the mix of our animals here on the farm. Although they look a little bit different than my other domestic ducks, runner ducks are much like the khaki Campbell or Cayuga or the Pekin, a domestic duck. They originated out in the East Indies and that's why they're often known as the Indian runner duck. They're relatively lightweight, they're mostly flightless, they are terrible mothers. They will drop their eggs anywhere and everywhere. I actually have to house them inside at night to ensure that I can collect some of their eggs. And while they do like swimming, what they like even more is actually foraging through the mud and the grass and the streams and all that sort of stuff. Runner ducks are great for egg production. They produce somewhere between 300 and 350 eggs per year which is more than most chicken breeds, which is about on par with my khaki Campbell breeds. Actually the khaki Campbell duck is a descendant of the runner duck. A woman by the name of Campbell, I think in the UK, ended up breeding them and creating that breed and she started her breeding project using runner ducks. Runner ducks are super flighty and much like their name they will run. If you're looking for like a pet duck I would not recommend the runner duck. It's not to say that you can't train them to be friendly and docile, but you'll have such an easier job with something like a Pekin duck or a Cayuga duck. They're just way more chill. Runner ducks come in a variety of colors. You can see our white or fawn runner ducks, which is like one of the ones that I had at the very beginning of this video. We also have chocolate runner ducks, which is that dark one. And then there's also the blue runner duck, which is the one that is like kind of a grayish color. We've got a little bit of a mix of each here on our farm. When we started and brought the runner ducklings onto the farm about a year ago, you know, they were definitely flighty and I started off with a bunch and actually had some health problems initially. And so I lost about half of the ducklings that I received, but the ones that have grown up have been absolutely wonderful, super healthy, super vigorous birds. All in all, I'm really glad to have the runner ducks. They are such a wonderful breed of bird to have here around the farm and they inject such energy and personality into absolutely everything. And speaking of energy and enthusiasm, I'd like to introduce you to our new dog, Flashlight. Hey Flashlight, how's it going sweetie? So yeah, you guys might notice Abby is wearing a new fashion accessory and I've got her penned up right now. That's because she just had to have a little bit of surgery and so she's in recovery right now. For the next few days, she's actually on restricted access around the farm, but she's I'll talk about the surgery in a future video. I don't quite want to get into it here. She's doing okay. Poor girl. Yeah, you're such a sweetheart. You know that? And you know, as she's doing her recovery and healing up, it's important to make sure that she's got all the necessary medicine and medical treatment. But the other thing that's important is make sure she's got the right diet. And that's why I continue to be a huge fan of Open Farm. Are you feeling hungry Flashlight? Well, here, let's feed you. So for Abby's breakfast this morning, we actually have the Open Farm puppy recipe. It's got the nutrition that's exactly right and balanced for a puppy like Abby. Here you go, girl. Dig in. She absolutely loves to eat her Open Farm. She's got her tail just wagging because she gets her favorite food to eat. But now don't think that I'm forgetting Mr. Toby Dog. Hey Toby Dog, you want a little breakfast? For breakfast this morning, Toby is getting Open Farm's grass-fed beef recipe, which comes from 100% grass-fed cattle, much like the we raise here on our farm. Oh, are you excited for your Open Farm, buddy? Yes, you are. You know, Toby is actually a really picky eater, but he never ever says no to his Open Farm. He absolutely loves it. Enjoy. You know, one of the things I love about Open Farm too is just their approach to ethical production of pet food. You know, they provide humanely sourced meats from high welfare farms. The other really cool thing with Open Farm is they offer 100% traceable ingredients. Like for example, if you wanted to know exactly which farm produced the dog food that I just fed Toby, I could go on their website and put in this code that you see on the back of the bag, and I can trace that information exactly to the farm. And then the other thing when it comes to Open Farm is as a company as a whole, you know, they're focused on reducing the amount of packaging they use to the bare minimum. They're looking at reducing carbon emissions, and they're doing a lot of great things. And so I'm really happy to have them as a sponsor on the farm. And Toby and Abby are very happy to have Open Farm as the provider of all of their meals. Isn't that right, buddy boy? Yeah. If you want to try out Open Farm, you can find them at your local pet store, or you can click on the link in the description of this video and use the code GOLDSHAW to save 15% on your first order. And if you guys are out there trying out Open Farm, let me know what you think. Let me know what some of your favorite recipes are. I'm really curious. I'm always looking to try new stuff with the dogs because what they eat is really important. And speaking of eating, I know I have a bunch of hungry birds right now. So when it's this time of year, I usually actually wait much longer in the day before I start feeding the birds. You know, part of what I'm trying to do here is encourage them to forage. And by holding back on the food here, making them get their food from the pasture, that's how you get them out there and eating the outdoor food first, and then coming back here to round out their diet. Okay, birds, time to get your food. That's not to say that they don't get very excited when they get to have their feed. So I've been out here this morning repairing water lines. It is a super windy day. It looks like my hoop house has gotten disrupted again. I'll probably have to take some time to fix that. I'm getting ready to move the cattle back out to pasture and this water line will help bring the water out so that they can have water to drink. And speaking of water, let's check in on our runner ducks. There's a group of them. You know, I should probably actually try to catch the one that was wearing the camera earlier today. This is the hardest time of year to try to catch ducks because they just go in the middle of the and there's not much I can do about it. You see the one girl who's got the camera on her. Let's see if I can catch it. Starting to go to a different part of the farm. They're gonna be so much easier to catch on dry land. Come on guys, keep going, keep going. Go get some food or something. See the one with the camera? Now I'm gonna have to try to corner her. There she is. I think you're gonna appreciate it when I get this camera off you. Flashlight is very concerned, as is that goose. You know, actually using these fishing nets is the most humane way to catch a duck. It took me about a year of duck keeping before I figured that one out. But as soon as somebody gave me that idea, it made all the difference. Let's get your camera off and see what you've been up to. Okay, back to your friends. Come on, flashlight. Hello, noble Mr. Toby Dog. I know you've been cooped up all day. You want to just run and play, but you're still recovering. Here, you get your petting though. Don't you worry. You get your attention too. You know, as the day starts to wind down, this is really another one of my favorite moments in the day. I've had a great day working around the farm. It's been so much fun making this video and watching the ducks and spending time with the animals. And the weather definitely seems like it's starting to turn and we're full on into spring, which to me is always such a nice moment. You know, working around the farm in the winter months is always this like brutal hassle of just do your chores, maybe enjoy some nice moments. But generally speaking, you don't want to be out doing projects. What are you even doing? Stop. I'm supposed to be keeping you clean. No, no, no. Abby is not taking well to being on restriction right now, but I've actually mixed up a special treat from Open Farm for both dogs tonight. You know, even if you have like the most pickiest dog in the world, if you heat up some water and add it to your Open Farm dog kibble, whether it's the puppy chow or the adult dog food, while they may like the dry kibble, they absolutely go insane with the moistened stuff. Let me just cover this portion up so that the cats don't try to get at it. Oh, muddy puppy. I can see you're standing at attention. You want some good food? Come on. There you go, sweetie. Enjoy. Don't worry, Mr. Toby dog. I didn't forget about you. The other added benefit of adding all this water is it just adds a lot more bulk and expands out the food. It makes the food look twice as much, which makes Toby dog twice as happy. There you go, buddy boy. My, oh my. Would you guys look at that moon? It's beautiful, isn't it? It's getting to be about that time when I got to say the magic words to get the ducks to bed. People are fascinated with the fact that I can just yell, all ducks go to bed and the ducks go to bed. I guess, number one, people should know I did not come up with this. There's a dude down in Texas by the name of Jack Spearco, who I once saw him doing it. When I got my ducks, I decided to copy it. The way I did it was basically when my first batch of ducks were young, they were like, I don't know, five, six weeks old. They were actually living in chicken tractors out on pasture. I would just start yelling, all ducks go to bed. They would go right to bed. Well, they didn't at first go right to bed. I had to train them by putting their food in there. That'd be how I'd get them in at night to lock them up. I had to do a whole corral system. It was a whole thing. Then, as time goes on, I started to move them to different duck houses and just continued the ritual. They know it because of the repetition, because of the pattern, because of the time of day, because of the expected action. It's really how it all came together. I could probably yell all sorts of things and they would go to bed. It's just a matter of me yelling at them this time of day that makes them go to bed. There's a lot of ducks, like the runner ducks, for example, that were never here when I did the training, but they just follow along with the rest of the flock. Let's do this. All ducks go to bed. All ducks go to bed. All ducks go to bed. All ducks go to bed. You can see they're all starting to drift in. They'll slowly make their way in. They're not going to rush with urgency these days, but they will make their way in as I go, all ducks go to bed. It's actually pretty gratifying to see. It makes owning ducks way easier, which is why people will tell me, oh, you should get a herding dog for your ducks. I just find with good animal husbandry practice, you don't even need it. Hey, Toby dog, you want to go do your favorite visit of the day? Toby loves this. Each evening I've started taking him over here and it makes him so happy. You know what time it is, buddy? Toby loves having an opportunity to say hello to the cattle. Cattle are sometimes mixed. Sometimes the calves are really excited to see him. Other times they actually get really mad at him and they run away. And in case folks are wondering, yes, the calves have been using the brush. It doesn't look like the cattle want to visit with Toby today. Come on, Toby. I don't think they want to spend time with you today, man. No offense. Kurt Cobain's looking at Toby like, better back off, you weirdo. Stop sniffing all our calves. Because yeah, Toby loves to sniff the calves. Pretty soon as they go out onto pasture, it'll be fun to see Toby with the calves. I haven't really introduced Abby to the cattle yet. I kind of want to give her just some time. She's just so high energy and sometimes poor judgment. And so I don't think she's quite ready for it yet. She is jealous that we're over here. You can hear there's our little youngest calf. We've got Joey Ramone in the back. That's Jimi Hendrix right there in the foreground. You've got Belinda Carlisle back there. Jimi Hendrix is actually probably the one most connected to Toby. What happens if I back up a little bit? The two older calves are actually the first to get into it. Well, now Toby's the one who's shy. Why are you being all shy, kid? You know, I started out as a duck farmer, but I feel like more and more of these cattle are just winning over my heart. What do you think, Toby dog? The cattle winning over your heart too? I think so. After you, sir. Hey, what are you doing there, girl? It's the Baldi. I got to give you a name. You're officially dubbed Curly. So I don't know if you guys remember that video about the chicken where I tried to put the helmet on her. This is that very chicken. I hope you guys have enjoyed this day in the life of a runner duck. If you'd like to see a day in the life of our barn cats, check out this video, or you can check out a day in the life of Toby dog down here. I think you're going to like either of those videos, so I'll see you over there. Thanks for watching.