“Can my ducks use your waterers?” 
I get this question a lot from customers, and my standard answer has
always been, “Yes, but they’ll need to be able to submerge their heads
in water somewhere else so they can keep their eyes clean.”  Now
that we’ve got our own ducks, though, and I saw firsthand how awful their living space gets if they have an open water source inside, I decided to look further into the issue.



Metzer Farms did a great study in which they raised ducks in several different
watering systems.  They found that posture, walking ability, body
weight, and growth rate were all unaffected by watering system —
unsurprising since ducks raised commercially only have access to poultry
nipples and still grow fast enough to be economically viable. 
However, the ducks without any source of open water did tend to develop crusty eyes and nostrils and sad-looking feathers.  Plus, they really seemed to miss playing in the open water.



On the other hand, the
study also found that ducks only spend about 5% of their time dabbling,
which suggested a compromise that would keep both us and the ducklings
happy.  We opted to provide a nipple waterer inside their brooder
to keep things as clean and dry there as possible, then to give them a
little bathing pool outside (supervised at first since young ducklings
can drown).



So far, this hybrid approach has worked great.  Wet duck poop does require us to add fresh bedding
in the brooder every day, but the space stays acceptable.  Our
ducklings have no problem drinking from the nipple waterer…and they
adore drinking and paddling in the pond water I provide in a pie pan
outdoors.



Interestingly, the chicks
we’re raising with our ducklings seem largely uninterested in the open
water.  They did run over to see what all of the commotion was
about when the ducklings first started to play, but soon the chicks
hopped back into the brooder to enjoy clean drinking water.  And
who wouldn’t after the ducks turned their playground water brown? 
Hopefully the poop-free drinking water will keep both chicks and
ducklings healthy, while the outdoor dabbling station will let the
ducklings enjoy their innate duckness.  Sounds like a good compromise!

Want
to win a free EZ Miser or combo pack?  I’m looking for accounts of
poultry helping deal with bugs in the garden for use in my upcoming paperback, The Naturally Bug-Free Garden.  If your photo(s) and account make the cut, I’ll send you either a premade EZ Miser or three premade Avian Aqua Miser Originals (your choice).

Best of all?  You can tell your friends because every entry that’s
good enough will win!  I’m hoping to select one to five winners,
but if there are more good entries, there will be more winners.


What am I really looking for?  Although we all love chickens
(obviously), I’ve got a lot of first-hand data and photos in that
category, so your entry would have to be stellar to make the cut if it’s
about chickens.  I’m more interested in your use of other kinds of
poultry to help out in the garden.  Do you run ducks through your
aisles to eat slugs?  Have you trained geese to weed your
strawberries?  Are guineas your go-to birds for tick control? 
Be sure to show me what you do on your own homestead.


The fine print: All entries
must reach my inbox (info@avianaquamiser.com) by Friday (May 9) at midnight.  Be
sure to send photos one at a time if they’re larger than 2 MB apiece. 
You
can enter as many pictures as you want, but all of your photos (and
your written explanation, preferably 150 to 500 words) will
be merged into one entry.  All photos and text will
become the property of Anna Hess, which means I might share them
with readers via our blogs or ebooks as well as including them in my
upcoming book (although I don’t mind if you continue to use them
elsewhere).

Thanks for entering!  I look forward to seeing how your poultry and gardens merge into a symbiotic whole.