9394_CCGuidetoBackyardChickens

Exploring

Now, years later and with much more experience, I confess I’m still fascinated by chicken behavior. I’ve found chickens are definitely smarter than people think. They are capable of learning basic routines and adjusting to meet their needs.

Our New Hampshire named Big Red knows that we have food inside the house. She’s well aware of where the door closest to the kitchen is located and will make her way there as much as possible. Once there, she’ll call loudly until someone hears her and either shushes her away or lets her pop into the mud room to grab a treat. She learned this because each time she came to the door we gave her a treat. We thought the whole thing was fun, and we unknowingly established a routine.

Red can also figure out where voices are inside the house and knows if she creates a ruckus then we’ll come outside and check on her, usually resulting in a treat being given. I first noticed this when my husband was in our bedroom on the phone. Big Red was smart enough to walk around until she heard his voice and then stand below that window and call loudly. After he got off the phone, he went outside to see if she was OK and, sure enough, she got a treat. Smart girl!

Perhaps one of the best things about owning chickens is the countless hours of entertainment and fascination they can hold for the whole family. Let’s explore the world of flock behavior!

BACKYARD CHICKEN

BEHAVIOR

The Pecking Order

By Pam Freeman

Learn

all about raising backyard chickens from small beginnings with chicks and eggs to identifying problems within backyard flocks and how to fix them in Pam Freeman’s Backyard Chickens: Beyond the Basics (Voyageur Press, 2017). Freeman’s practical advice helps to make chicken keeping easier. The following excerpt is from Chapter 2, “Flock Behavior.”

Until I started raising my own backyard flock of chickens, I never thought much about chicken behavior. Yet after I got my birds, I found myself entranced. It started with the chicks in my brooder. They were fascinating!

I spent hours watching them scratching, pecking for food, grooming, and even learning to perch. Once they were grown, I loved going outside and interacting with them.

My Barred Plymouth Rocks were the best foragers. Any time I dug holes for planting

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or turned over a rock or log, they were there to get the best goodies. My White Leghorns, contrary to their breed profile, were so docile I could hold them in my hand and pump them up and down like I was weight lifting.

Hoppy, our Partridge Cochin, formed a special bond with us. She loved to talk to us and come over for pets. One day our dog, Sophie, got out of our fenced-in yard. We needed to get her back safely so we split up places to find her. I went to the bottom of our driveway to make sure Sophie didn’t get out onto the road. My husband stayed in the backyard area calling for her and monitoring the front of the house too. I had been gone a while so I came up the hill to report my lack of progress. There I found my husband calling for Sophie and right next to his feet was Hoppy. Every time he would call, she’d call out too. (I definitely think Hoppy helped since Sophie returned to the backyard on her own!)

CHRIS CONE (2)/COURTESY VOYAGEUR PRESS

The pecking order is a natural and healthy form of communication that helps the flock establish and maintain dominance.

Chickens are flock animals that enjoy social interactions. As with any group, they have a way of organizing so that order is maintained. This is called the pecking order and it influences the daily activities of the flock, from eating and drinking to perching and dust bathing. It has been theorized that the pecking order started with Red Jungle Fowl in Thailand. When food was found, it was important that the flock stayed quiet and orderly so they did not attract the attention of predators.

The highest-ranking birds eat first and then lower-ranking birds eat. That way the strongest birds remain fit and able to reproduce, passing on their strong genes.

In a flock of chickens, the dominant bird is at the top and no other bird is allowed to peck that bird. However, the chicken at the top can peck all the others to tell them what to do. The pecking order descends like this from highest to lowest in rank, with the lowest bird not being able to peck any of the other birds while all the other birds are able to peck him or her.

The pecking order in a flock is established early. In fact, studies have shown that chicks can start to show competitive behavior at 3 days old. After they are 16 days old, they begin to establish the order of dominance. With an all-hen group, the pecking order will be set by the time the chickens are 10 weeks old. It can be even earlier for the small groups of birds—possibly as early as 8 weeks.

NOTE: Pecking is not always bad or violent. It is a normal and important form of communication. In fact, pecking is usually gentle and not even all that noticeable by humans. You’ll find feathers are rarely disturbed as chickens “check out” each other and establish a hierarchy for functioning as a group.

Besides pecking, there are other ways chickens work out their

A chicken’s rank within the flock can change at any time depending on dominance displays. Opposite: A flock’s pecking order will be maintained even by its smallest members.

order and show dominance. One chicken might challenge another by puffing up her chest, standing tall, and flapping her wings.

The challenged bird can then either choose to show its dominance or back down.

Both roosters and hens will also show their dominance by flaring their hackle feathers, which are located on their necks.

Sometimes a bird will drop a wing and dance around in a circle to show the others who’s dominant. This can all look funny to watch and a little violent, but humans should not interfere unless a bird is hurt.

Usually this process looks worse than it actually is, and none of your birds will be injured.

The pecking order is ever changing, with lower-ranked birds challenging higher-ranked birds for a chance to move up. Within the order, it’s not unusual to see friendships form. You’ll often see hens broken off into friend groups that hang out together throughout the day. If a friend is lost or gets hurt and has to be removed from the flock to heal, her other friends can sometimes be seen standing in the spot they last saw her and looking for her. Once the bird returns, the friendship resumes.

Preening, Dust Bathing, and Sun Bathing

Preening is something that chickens do at least twice a day, and this behavior is easily spotted. You’ll see a chicken standing still and rubbing her head along her tail and then along her feathers.

What she’s doing is gathering some preening oil from her uropygial gland, which is often called the preen gland, and distributing that oil through her feathers. In ducks, this oil keeps them waterproof as they swim. In chickens, this oil makes the feathers www.CommunityChickens.com

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A Comment and a Recipe from Ashten

Bacon and cheese help send scrambled eggs to a delicious height.

Nancy Ayers: I saw a good camping recipe I thought I’d share; it can be used at home, too. Everyone writes his or her name on a freezer ziplock-style bag with a permanent marker. Crack 2 or 3 eggs into each bag. Add 3 tablespoons milk and whatever

Use the juice from a jar of pickled beets to pickle eggs.

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mixed up some eggs with Mrs. Dash original seasoning and a little dash of garlic powder, dumped it in with the peppers and onions, and scrambled it up. A couple minutes later, mmmmm yum, my kind of breakfast.

Laura: Sometimes, I hate having to heat up and clean a skillet to make scrambled eggs for 1 or 2 people, but if you do it right, scrambled eggs come out deliciously moist and fluffy in the microwave. Here’s how: 1. Crack 2-4 eggs into a microwavable bowl, add a little milk or water and seasonings to taste.

2. Whip eggs with a fork until the mixture is fairly even.

3. Microwave on high for 45 seconds (the eggs will not be fully cooked).

4. Remove bowl from microwave and mix thoroughly with the fork.

5. Return to microwave and heat for another 45-60 seconds.

6. Mix again with fork, and by the time you serve it, will be perfectly cooked.

There you go, eggs in the microwave in less than 3 minutes with only one thing to wash. I like to cook the eggs in the bowl out of which I am going to eat. (Just microwave safe, please!)

Lori: I think you could ask 10 different people how to hard-boil eggs, and you would get 10 different methods!

This is what I do. I place my eggs in a pan and cover with water. I bring that to a boil. When the eggs start to boil, I turn the temperature down and set the timer for 10 or 12 minutes. Less time for smaller eggs, more time for larger eggs. As soon as the timer goes off, I drain and put them in cold water. Let them cool until you can handle them, then peel.

The trick to getting the shell to come off easily has to do with the age of the eggs used.

It is best to use eggs that are at least a couple weeks old. Eggs will keep in the refrigerator for a fairly long time. The USDA and the California Egg Commission both say you can keep eggs up to five weeks in the refrigerator. Buy a few extra dozen eggs, or if you have chickens, set some eggs back for a couple of weeks and designate them for hard-boiling.

I’ve also had all kinds of advice on things to add to the water when boiling to make the shell come off easier. I don’t know that any of them really work. I’ve been told a little vinegar or vegetable oil added to the water both help when removing the shell.

Nebraska Dave: Eggs, eggs, I love eggs.

Recently I sautéed onions and the first of the green peppers from the garden. Then I

Terrye Kinch: I freeze leftover eggs in 2- and 3-egg packages. Just break them into plastic bags, mark them, and into the freezer

Sheryl Renfrow: My husband likes pickled beets. I can them in quart jars and when the beets are gone, I put hard-boiled eggs in the juice and refrigerate for a few days. The eggs absorb the color, which is pretty enough in itself, but the eggs have the best taste, if you like pickled beets. If you slice and place them on lettuce on a platter, they look so pretty with the outside red, the white, then that yellow center.

Lori: Sheryl, our family likes pickled eggs, too! I can my beets the same way you do. For something different, after you have pickled the eggs, cut them in half and pop out the yolks. Then do them up like deviled eggs.

You’ll have pink little devils with a bit of a different, but yummy, taste!

(4)/ TONY CAMPBELL, DIRK R, LISA F. YOUNG, LIANE M

Lori’s blog post received a number of comments, with readers adding their recipes to the mix, including Lori’s daughter Ashten.

omelet ingredients you like: chopped veggies; cooked, chopped meats; shredded cheese; and herbs/spices/salt/pepper. Pinch out the air, seal the bag and shake it all up. Then drop into a pot of boiling water for 10-12 minutes.

The omelets slide right out, although some folks skip this step and eat it right out of the bag. They can be prepared in advance—great for camping.

And the good thing is everyone has a hot, custom breakfast at the same time, with no pots and pans to scrub!

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ISTOCK

I use them for egg salad—another great way to use up eggs. Like the deviled-egg filling, you can be creative with egg salad.

To my chopped eggs, I add, once again, mayo and mustard. Then I like to add onion, and whatever other seasoning I’m in the mood for. I like to add ground red pepper for a little kick.

Taste test as you go and adjust accordingly. Spread on some bread, add some lettuce, and voilà, a yummy sandwich!

If you have a favorite recipe you use all the time, please feel free to share. I’m always on the lookout for ways to use those eggs!

they go. They are good in cakes, brownies, anything cooked. Haven’t tried to use them for scrambled eggs yet, but I bet they’d work.

Gloria Williams: I, too, had eggshell problems. I put ¼ cup salt in the water. Also, to keep the green line from the yolk, don’t boil.

Heat to almost boiling, turn down the heat and let stand about 10 minutes. Drain and cover with ice to cool quickly. Don’t let them sit in water, egg shells will take up the water. To peel, start at the large end where the air pocket is.

Lori Zinn: When I freeze eggs, I first beat them lightly (unbeaten yolks freeze into solid balls that stay solid when defrosted), then pour them into ice-block trays and freeze. Once frozen, I tip them into a plastic bag, knowing that each egg-block is equal to about one egg.

Makes it easy to use for cakes and biscuits.

I sometimes lightly beat extra eggs and pour into 500g margarine containers. Each container holds about a dozen eggs, and I can easily cut it for three or a half-dozen eggs.

Another way I preserve eggs is by rubbing them with Vaseline or petroleum jelly. They don’t need refrigeration, but can be stored in cardboard boxes in a cool, dark place for months. If they are not stored for more than three months, the eggs are suitable for using whole (frying, poaching, etc.). If I keep them longer, I use them beaten (cakes, quiches, scrambled eggs).

Take it from Lori’s daughter. Her recipes are mouthwatering!

When my husband and I were dating, I could always count on him to come over to visit—if not for me, then for my mom’s good cooking.

As a couple, our favorite breakfast egg is mixed with garlic powder, parsley, basil, thyme, and lemon pepper. Top it off with cheese after the eggs are cooked and throw a generous scoop of chopped-up cherry tomatoes on top. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

But, Mom, you forgot to add the delicious egg custard recipe you made for Easter.

I’d like to share my fruit custard pie recipe.

— Ashten FRUIT CUSTARD PIE I make it into either a peach custard or raspberry custard, but you can use pretty much whatever type of fruit floats your boat! I think the next time I try this recipe, I’m going to try something off the wall like mangoes just to see what happens!

2 large eggs, beaten 3 ⁄4 cup sugar 1 cup fruit, blended 11⁄2 cups milk 1 tablespoon (heaping) flour (or 1⁄2 tablespoon cornstarch) Pinch of salt 1. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into unbaked pie shell.

2. Bake at 475 F for 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to 350 F for 30 minutes or until custard is thick.

3. Let cool after removing from oven, then cool in refrigerator.

This recipe is delicious and very easy. It must be said that eggs truly are one of the most versatile foods we have available to us, from breakfast to lunch to supper to dessert!

OLD-FASHIONED BAKED CUSTARD PIE Here’s the recipe Ashten mentions. Lori says it’s from Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking, A Mennonite Community Cookbook by Mary Emma Showalter. — Editors 3 cups milk 1 ⁄3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons flour Pastry for 1 9-inch crust 1.

2.

3.

4.

3 eggs 1 ⁄2 teaspoon salt 1 ⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg

Heat oven to 350 F. Combine sugar, salt, and flour. Add beaten eggs.

Bring milk to boiling point and add gradually to egg mixture.

Pour into an unbaked pie shell and sprinkle nutmeg over the top. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

www.CommunityChickens.com

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for

soothing at the end of a fulfilling day of work than to sit, cool beverage in hand, and watch the chickens just do what chickens do.

So, what is it that they do? Well, if the chickens in question happen to be one of the small handful of over-bred industrial breeds, those poor animals will have few social skills and may grow so fast and so out of proportion that they break bones or die of heart attacks just eight weeks after hatching. Watching these chickens do their thing may be more depressing than relaxing or uplifting—especially if they’re in a horrific factory-production setting—but that’s not their fault. It’s the fault of animal science’s morally questionable conclusion that animals such as chickens are nothing more than cogs in a moneymaking machine. As such, laying hens may legally be crowded into small cages where they cannot scratch, cannot interact socially with one another, and cannot lay eggs in the privacy of a nest box or other “secret” place. On top of all of that, most of the top halves of their beaks have been cut off to keep the overcrowded animals from pecking one another.

New Work

Old Chickens Using the flock to turn over soil is only one idea from the book, Plowing With Pigs and Other Creative, Low-Budget Homesteading Solutions.

in the day, fowl fanciers and

the country kept chickens because they were beautiful, particularly suited to a specific region’s environment, and for the services they could offer and/or the products they could supply.

Did you know that some fancy fowl

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were kept to supply the fashion and fishing-fly-tying industries with incredibly beautiful feathers, which were often harvested without ending the bird’s life? Others were kept for the eggs or meat they could provide. And all the while, the birds kept their premises free of all manner of pests, including flies,

ticks, grubs, caterpillars, and even mice and snakes in some instances. Plus, chickens are an end-of-the-day entertainment that rivals the best Broadway show or blockbuster movie. You’ve heard the expression “sit and watch the chickens peck.” For the homesteader, there may be nothing quite so

LEFT TO RIGHT: ISTOCK/GEORGE

Back farmstead owners all over

CLERK; OSCAR H. WILL III

By Oscar H. Will III and Karen K. Will

Thankfully, a sufficient number of folks interested in animal husbandry eschewed the entire industrial poultry production model and have maintained many of the old chicken breeds and lines. Thus it is that some of those sturdy, older breeds are available today.

Birds like the Jersey Giant will net you some eggs and grow to sufficient size to produce a fine table fowl. But more importantly, old breeds like the Jersey Giant thrive out-of-doors, and they will entertain you beautifully while performing tasks you’d rather not do and doing the work of agricultural poisons and synthetic chemicals you’d rather not use.

Chickens in the Yard

Whether you live in town or out in the country, keeping a small flock of chickens in the backyard is not only fun, it’s rewarding in a number of ways. As omnivores, chickens will gleefully seek out and devour all manner of insect, bug, grub, larva, worm, mouse, etc. They will also mow your lawn—to an extent, anyway. Chickens relish fresh greens, including grasses and forbs. When they are confined in relatively small areas, they can keep the lawn trimmed (though, when left to their own devices, they have a tendency to overgraze their favorite things, like clover and dandelions, and spend less time on the Kentucky bluegrass). If you enclose your birds in a portable pen, you can move it around the yard in a rotation, and your chickens will do a much more uniform mowing job than

arduous task involves hard, soil-scratching raking that pulls up the thatch of dead grass that collects just above the soil surface each year. Alternatively, you might rent an expensive gas-guzzling power dethatcher that will scratch the soil, while bringing all that dead grass to the surface for easier collection with a leaf rake or a power vacuum of some kind. In either case, you are expending all kinds of calories to undo something that mowing redoes every year. In addition, dethatching can make some turf grass crowns more susceptible to various pests. Here’s where the chickens come in.

When left to their own devices, hens will scratch the ground looking for worms, grubs, and other likely food sources. When given plenty of space, or moved around in portable (and bottomless) pens, this scratching will dethatch

Chickens left to roam freely will till the soil in your perennial beds, add beauty and entertainment to the landscaping, and enjoy an overall higher quality of life.

when they are completely free ranging.

So, moving them around in a pen can either keep the birds from overgrazing their favorite vegetation or it can encourage them to do just that—to help you prepare a new garden patch. As the chickens graze, they will fertilize the lawn with some of the finest organic material out there, but they’ll do oh-somuch more.

If you are a lawn purist, you might dethatch your yard every spring. This

and aerate the lawn while breaking the thatch into smaller, more easily decomposed pieces. The end result is that the chicken dethatchers will render the thatch gone and promote its decomposition in place. You don’t have to collect the debris and send it to the landfill or put it in your compost bin. Plus, you can employ chickens year-round to keep the thatch under control. At the same time, they’ll keep the lawn fertilized and help control grubs, bugs, and www.CommunityChickens.com

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Portable DIY

CHICKEN T RACTORS for Any Budget

A drop-down door on the coop end can be opened to let the chickens out, and offers nest box access. The rectangular coop kit is less expensive because it doesn’t use pre-bent hoops, and because the white pipe is less costly. Total price should be about $300. Coop kits can be easily purchased online. You may need to provide the wire mesh and other materials.

Tested over time, here are three portable laying-hen coops that might suit your homeplace.

A icon of today’s self-sufficiency movement. Birds kept in a few laying hens in the backyard has almost become the

portable chicken coop on pasture provide delicious, inexpensive eggs, and the eggs from birds that get plenty of grass, bugs, and seeds to eat are better for you than store-bought eggs. Hens are great converters of kitchen waste into valuable manure for the garden, and every chicken owner we know takes a lot of pleasure in just watching the chickens noodle around in the yard.

Free-range birds, however, are often taken by foxes, bobcats, hawks, dogs, or other predators, so unless you have guardian dogs that can keep predators away, your best option is probably a portable chicken coop that gives the chickens access to fresh grass and dirt every day, while also keeping them protected.

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Over the years, we’ve offered several DIY chicken coop plans, particularly designs for portable chicken coops, and it has been a challenge. The perfect coop should be lightweight and easy to build, yet sturdy enough to keep predators away from the birds—and it shouldn’t cost too much.

One early version, designed in 2003 by Steve Maxwell and former M E N Editor-in-Chief Cheryl Long, was a wooden A-frame with wheels on one end to help make it easy for one person to move.

Created after Maxwell and Long conferred with poultry experts, the coop (www.grit.com/diy-chicken-coop) is a gorgeous piece of work meant to last for years. However, it requires a fair amount of carpentry skill to build, and the cost

DAVID STILES (3)

By Robin Mather

of the materials and the required tools are beyond some folks’ budgets.

In 2007, Long presented another coop idea, a portable chicken mini-coop (www.grit.com/chicken-mini-coop-plan).

“I set out to create a coop design that would be low-cost, easy to build, light enough to move easily, and scaled to fit well even in small backyards,” Long wrote. “It’s intended for three or four hens, costs only about $100 in materials, and can be assembled in a few hours from standard welded wire fencing.”

This portable chicken coop plan includes an inexpensive plastic doghouse, slightly modified, to shelter the chickens.

The super-lightweight, low-cost option

works fine if you can place it inside a fenced yard or garden. Unfortunately, the run’s unframed wire mesh walls are not strong enough to prevent large dogs from smashing them down and killing the chickens, as Long sadly learned.

Undaunted, she next designed an ultra-sturdy coop, M’s Mighty Chicken-Mobile (www.grit.com/builda-chicken-coop), in 2011. It’s sized to fit on a raised garden bed so the chickens can till up the soil with their scratching. This portable coop with a welded iron frame is solid and predator-proof indeed, and it will last forever, but Long reports that the steel frame makes it too heavy for some people to move easily (and you’d have to find a welder to build it for you if you’re not skilled in welding).

Now we have a new and improved incarnation of the portable chicken coop with your choice of shapes. This

pen is framed with 1-inch Schedule 40 plastic pipe, and its walls are covered with 1-by-2-inch welded wire mesh. A removable panel of 2-by-4-inch welded wire mesh covers the bottom, which gives the chickens room to scratch but is easy to take off if you wish to set the coop on a garden bed and let the chickens till in their manure.

Like its portable predecessors, this coop-with-run is designed for three to four chickens. The birds shelter in an enclosure at one end made of the same durable yet easy-to-work corrugated plastic that the postal service uses in its mail tubs. The portable coop is cleverly fitted with a 5-gallon pail with a special cover that serves as a nest box.

We worked with Joe Ramey of Circo Innovations in Grass Valley, California, to design two easy-to-build coops that anyone from age 9 to 90 can assemble using no special tools. www.CommunityChickens.com

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Breed Profiles

Why

Duck Attributes

Well-suited to the small homestead, the quack pack offers a versatile set of skills that serve multiple aspects on the family farm.

By Dave Holderread

The

popularity of ducks—often described as the happiest animals in the barnyard—is increasing in many areas of the world. It appears that the rest of us are beginning to understand what

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many in Asia and Europe have known for centuries: Ducks are one of the most versatile and useful of all domestic fowl. For many circumstances, it is difficult to find a better all-purpose bird than the duck.

MALE/FEMALE POUNDS

YEARLY EGG PRODUCTION

EGG SIZE PER DOZEN OUNCES

MOTHERING ABILITY

FORAGING ABILITY

STATUS

BANTAM

Australian Spotted Call East Indie Mallard Mini Silver Appleyard Silkie

2.2, 2 1.6, 1.4 1.8, 1.5 2.5, 2.2 2.2, 2

50-125 25-75 25-75 25-100 50-125

20-24 16-20 18-24 24-28 20-24

Excellent Fair-Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent

Excellent Poor-Fair Excellent Excellent Excellent

Endangered Common Fairly Common Abundant Endangered

2.2, 2.0

50-125

20-28

Excellent

Excellent

Endangered

LIGHT

Bali Campbell Harlequin Hook Bill Magpie Runner

5, 4.5 4.5, 4 5.5, 5 4, 3.5 6, 5.5 4.5, 4

120-250 250-340 240-330 100-225 220-290 150-300

28-36 28-34 29-34 24-32 30-38 28-36

Poor-Fair Poor-Fair Poor-Good Fair-Good Fair-Good Poor-Fair

Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent

Endangered Fairly common Rare Endangered Rare Common

MEDIUM

Ancona Cayuga Crested Orpington Swedish

6.5, 6 8, 7 7, 6 8, 7 8, 7

210-280 100-150 100-150 150-220 100-150

30-38 30-38 30-38 30-36 30-38

Fair-Good Fair-Good Fair-Good Fair-Good Fair-Good

Excellent Good Good Good Good

Endangered Common Common Fairly common Fairly common

HEAVY

Appleyard Aylesbury Muscovy Pekin Rouen Saxony

9, 8 10, 9 12, 7 10, 9 10, 9 9, 8

200-270 35-125 50-125 125-225 35-125 190-240

34-40 38-44 38-50 36-46 36-44 36-46

Fair-Good Poor-Fair Fair-Excellent Poor-Fair Poor-Good Fair-Good

Good Fair Excellent Fair Fair-Good Good

Rare Rare Abundant Abundant Common Rare

flocks are seldom bothered by sickness or parasites.

Temperature Resistance

Easy to Raise

People who have kept all types of poultry generally agree that ducks are among the easiest domestic birds to raise. Along with guinea fowl and geese, ducks are incredibly resistant to disease. Even when kept under lessthan-ideal conditions, small duck

BREED

NOTE: Information presented in this profile is based on the average characteristics of each breed. Actual performance may vary considerably from the norm.

KIM CARR PHOTOGRAPHY

DUCKS?

Many reasons exist as to why people raise ducks. These amazingly adaptable fowl produce meat and eggs efficiently; in many situations require a minimum of shelter from inclement weather; are active foragers; consume large quantities of flies, mosquito larvae, and a wide variety of garden pests (such as slugs, snails and grubs) and weed seeds; produce useful feathers; and are exceptionally healthy and hardy. A wonderful bonus to their myriad practical qualities is the entertaining antics and beauty they add to our lives.

WEIGHT CLASS

Mature waterfowl are practically immune to wet or cold weather and are much better adapted to cope with these conditions than are chickens, turkeys, guineas or quail. Thanks to their thick coats of well-oiled feathers, ducks of most breeds can remain outside in the wettest weather. Muscovies (which tend to have less water repellency than other breeds) and any duck that has poor water repellency due to infirmity should have easy access to dry shelter during cold, wet weather.

While chickens have protruding combs and wattles that must be pro-

tected from frostbite, as well as bare faces that allow the escape of valuable body heat, ducks are much more heavily feathered and are able to remain comfortable—if they are provided dry bedding and protection from wind— even when the temperatures fall below zero degrees Fahrenheit. When people express concern about mature, healthy ducks being cold, I remind them that these waterfowl have the original and best down coats on the market. Because ducks have the ability to regulate how much down they grow depending on weather conditions, they also thrive in hot climates if they have access to plenty of shade and cool drinking water.

During torrid weather, bathing water or misters can be beneficial.

Effective Exterminators

Because they nurture a special fondness for mosquito pupae, Japanese beetle larvae, potato beetles, grasshoppers, snails, slugs, flies and their larvae, fire ants and spiders, ducks are extremely effective in controlling these and other pests. In areas plagued by grasshoppers, ducks are used to reduce plant and crop damage during infestations. Where liver flukes flourish, ducks can greatly reduce the problem by consuming the snails that host this livestock parasite.

Productive

Ducks are one of the most efficient producers of animal protein. Strains that have been selected for high egg www.CommunityChickens.com

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