How Comfortable Are You with Duck & Goose Down Production?
When I was a small child back in the seventies we had a family eider down. It was a hand me (eider) down from my great grandparents. I loved the eider down, I used it whenever I was feeling poorly or cold in bed. It was a beautiful thing finished in silk with intricate embroidery. […]
Stop Following Me! Imprinting in Ducks & Geese
Ducklings and Goslings will follow the first moving object they find after hatching. They treat it as their mother. So even if it’s a large man with a big hairy beard, he becomes ‘mum’!
How to Care for Wild Baby Ducks
Note: This article on how to care for wild baby ducks pertains to wild Mallard ducklings only. Domestic breeds of duck require different types of care. There is information on feeding domestic ducklings here. Mallard ducklings are more likely to be found in the first 24 hours after hatch as the mother may have to […]
Foie Gras
Zoe Brodie-James has written several articles on the welfare of ducks for us, some of which have been quite moving but none of them have been quite so emotive as this one which focusses on foie gras [liver fat] and its production. Gavage [noun: The administration of food or drugs by force, especially to an […]
Commercial Duck Welfare
Most of us have been aware of High Fernley Whittingstall’s ongoing campaign to raise the welfare standards of British commercially reared chickens, but what about commercially reared ducks?
Releasing Domestic Ducks into the Wild
Zoe Brodie-James investigates the ethics and law of releasing domestic ducks into the wild on the local pond and finds some sad and sometimes illegal scenarios that go on there.