Much has changed since I first started raising ducks and chronicled my experiences here in 2002. Then, backyard poultry was almost unheard of, a thing of the past I was fighting to revive. At the turn of the century few urban places in the U.S. allowed poultry in residential areas; now, in many mid-sized cities, it’s become common, or at least not surprising, to hear the bwaaawk<\/i> of a neighbor’s chicken. In 2002 the Internet was still a fairly new medium, and it was hard to find and share personal experiences with the few people who did know something about raising poultry. As resources I had a book written for professionals, a couple of skimpy websites, and a veterinarian whose workshop at a sustainable agriculture conference first got me thinking about ducks. For day-to-day details I was on my own. <\/p>\n
For the first few years, I received hundreds of emails from around the world \u2014 literally, six continents and, if I recall correctly, more than forty countries \u2014 from people asking questions and sharing experiences. Those conversations with fellow “new agrarians” was the reward for building this website. What I wrote here seems to have helped a great many people get started raising ducks on a small scale, and for that I’m grateful. <\/p>\n
Over the years, what I built in 2002\u201303 seems increasingly dated (hard to believe, but those tiny movies were high-res back then), even though the information and advice is still perfectly sound; and there are plenty of other places to get help. Moreover, I no longer keep ducks \u2014 that’s a long story; I hope to again someday \u2014 and I have no more experiences to share. My “Raising Ducks” collection has become effectively an archive. But I’m going to leave it here and preserve it, in hopes that it may still help someone. If you have questions or thoughts, do feel free to email me<\/a> and I’ll try to get back to you. <\/p>\n To close it out \u2014 for now, at least \u2014 I’ll stage a brief interview with myself about the experience of raising ducks. There’s also a movie below the jump. <\/p>\n I would say you’re not going to make money raising a small flock of ducks, but if you’re careful, frugal, and plan well, you can produce eggs for your family for no more, and probably somewhat less, than you would pay for equivalent quality eggs (assuming you could find them).<\/p>\n Of course, there are benefits that don’t have obvious cash equivalents, and that’s what tips the balance \u2014 if you enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s a dumb thing to do.<\/dd>\n And, as I suggested above, I’d keep fewer ducks but get new ducklings every couple of years go try to keep production more or less steady. I don’t need four dozen eggs a week, as I got the winter of 2002\u201303, and while selling the occasional dozen is possible it’s a bit of trouble.<\/dd>\n Finally, I’ll share a movie I made in 2003 for a workshop I led on raising backyard poultry. It was meant to win over chicken people, and I do believe I got a couple of converts. The ducks here are the original flock (there were seven of them, note); they were molting at the time, so they don’t look so great, but they’re fun to watch anyway. Somewhere in the middle are bigger versions of the duckling movies I posted elsewhere.<\/p>\n It’s quite silly, of course. Enjoy.<\/p>\n\n