Drake Excess

Slightly Kwackers

Hi, I had some Khaki Campbell eggs about six months back.
Ten hatched and I find I have four drakes.
Although duck is very nice when supplied by supermarket, my drakes are cute and I certainly don't have the backbone to prepare one for the oven myself.

What are the options? I don't think it's wise to keep four drakes to six ducks. I have an advert or two on the internet but don't expect to get many enquiries.

I expect this is a common problem? I should have thought things through but my initial concentration was purely on just trying to get the eggs maintained at the required temperature.

Any advice would be welcome as long as it doesn't involve me having to be nasty to them.

Holly Tree Farm

We were in the same boat earlier this year when we hatched our Aylesburys, unfortunately only 3 hatched out of 5 fertile eggs and all 3 were drakes. We already had 2 running with our 15 girls so certainly didn't need anymore. We advertised these but unfortunately we had no replies, but thats not to say you wont get any. Have you tried advertising them in your local agristore? We ended up doing what you dont want to, but then again thats why we got Aylesbury's as they are a dual purpose bird, but wanted them to go to a new home first?

Slightly Kwackers

Many thanks.
I had a couple of ads one on Gumtree and one on IrelandBuySell.com. There were some "hits" but no enquiries.

I found someone local though who kindly "attended to" two drakes for me. I did the plucking and cleaning, but just couldn't do the killing.

I gave the neighbour a duck and drake leaving me with five ducks and one drake.

Although the flavour was totally beyond the last supermarket ducks, I don't think I will be killing any more. I much prefer them when roaming around the garden, although "foraging" consisted of sitting outside the back door and mobbing me when I went out.
Outside downpours, the only other time they want to "forage" is when I get the rotavator out.

I believe Khaki Campbells are dual purpose too. I got the eggs partly to see if I could build an incubator and partly because my sister had pet Aylesburys years back and they were so funny.

Holly Tree Farm

I must admit when we first moved over to Ireland, we only ever had chickens and ducks as pets. So moving to the next step and culling for our own meat was a very big learning curve. Still not something I like doing but unfortunately we like chicken and duck meat too much lol We hate plucking the ducks, its a nightmare, so we normally end up skinning them, but unfortunately you lose the best part!!. We had Khaki Campbells in the UK and they are prolific egg layers but not as much meat as the Aylesburys. But hey duck is duck lol

Slightly Kwackers

Hi,
My sister had a couple of Aylesbury's here, but they were bought on an extended holiday and were a trifle noisy when taken home to Stoke On Trent. They were brought back here rather quickly and being ducks were not too difficult to pass on.

I like the Khaki Campbells, they are entertaining and help me with motivation to do something.

Their Argos paddling pool has succumbed to UV, so I was busy with a shovel today. They like my shovelling better than the rotavator operation, which was a brilliant excuse to take frequent breaks and leave them to assist with the digging.

Do you keep your chickens laying over the winter? I only ask because a neighbour would like to extend the laying season and bulbs and timers I have an assortment of, for light control.

The internet provides guidance, but I am a little wary of it, basically because of the quality of information that is provided for the subjects I am clued up on.

Extending the light duration in winter is no problem at all, but some sources apart from mentioning temperature and food requirements, also suggest that it might not be good for the chickens.

Have you thoughts or experience on the matter?

I hope you don't mind me posing questions, but quite often I find researching information does not produce anywhere near the benefits of someones experienced input.

Holly Tree Farm

Haha, yep we loved the Khaki's too. They are very entertaining, the Aylesburys are rather boring compared lol. We have kept chickens for a number of years but still only have limited experience compared to others lol We have always left the light on in the winter, generally on a timer. We put it on for an hour just before sunrise and then for about 3 hours after sunset. I must admit I've never heard that its bad for them? well ours have always been alright and never come to any harm, but then again you listen to lots of websites, Facebook groups etc and you'll always find people saying good and bad things, so we just stick too what we know lol. We've always mixed flaked maize / mixed corn in their feed but I've recently heard that its good to mix it in the feed at nights as it warms them up!! Although we do this our egg laying doesn't always produce more eggs. At the moment were getting between 4-6 eggs a day from 15 chickens, but the ducks we're getting 1 a day from 15 girls, but then again the Aylesburys do only lay approx 250 eggs a year compared to the Khaki's which are about 320 a year i think?

Slightly Kwackers

Many thanks!
I will stick a timer and bulb together. I assume a low energy fluorescent is o/k?

I have a range from UV to red, but I guess that it's just what the chickens see that has the effect. I doubt that much gets through the feathers.

The Campbells are indeed great and unpredictable. I used to hunt out snails when the weather was warmer, just walking the roads used to net around a kg. If I went for a particular type of soft shelled brown and white variety, I could just give them direct with shell on. The feeding frenzy was unbelievable. I even did a film clip, real horror stuff :-)

None are laying, I expect that it will be spring before they start, from what I read anyway.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, it is much appreciated.