Free Kindle Storey's Guide To Raising Ducks, 2nd Edition: Breeds, Care, Health ebooks Download
With in-depth information on feeding, housing, behavior, and health care, this comprehensive guide also provides proven strategies for creating a profitable business plan and marketing your products. Whether you’re about to acquire your first ducks or are interested in experimenting with rare breeds, Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducks will help you achieve your duck-raising goals.
Series: Storey's Guide to Raising
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC; 2 edition (February 5, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1603426922
ISBN-13: 978-1603426923
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #58,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #9 in Books > Medical Books > Veterinary Medicine > Food Animals #9 in Books > Medical Books > Veterinary Medicine > Bovine Medicine #37 in Books > Business & Money > Industries > Agriculture
This book is an EXCELLENT starter for when you're contemplating a flock of ducks but haven't made the move to buy them yet. Holderread bred most of the important duck breeds himself, so I trust his information completely. Unfortunately, because this is a basic, overall guide, he makes the information far too general and commercial. This book is decidedly aimed at the large, commercially breeding or laying flock and neglects details that a novice or hobby farmer might want to know (such as what human foods are acceptable duck foods and which ones are dangerous--he mentions only canola oil as toxic--and what ducks respond well to as treats, training and overall human interaction). If you plan to have a flock of a hundred ducks and set things up for minimal contact, then putting in wire floors and such as he recommends may be appropriate. If you care about the quality of life of your ducks, then don't listen to him when he claims ducks don't need to swim and that the only benefit of swimming is feather quality.Essentially, I recommend reading this through, but then finding books such as The Resilient Gardener to expand in detail on how to really care for ducks if you're not a big-time farmer.
I love the "Storey's Guide to Raising..." books. They are just packed with great information. I'm getting ready to start my backyard ranch and these books will be indispensable. I'll list all of the chapter headings for each of the books I got to give you an idea of the information you'll be getting. Here's the list for Ducks:Why DucksExternal Features and BehaviorChoosing the Right DuckBantam BreedsLightweight BreedsMediumweight BreedsHeavyweight BreedsThe Importance of Preserving Rare BreedsHybrid DucksUnderstanding Duck ColorsAcquiring StockIncubationRearing DucklingsManaging Adult DucksUnderstanding FeedsButcheringHealth and Physical ProblemsShowtimeThis book also contains Acknowledgements, a Foreword, Glossary, and Appendix which includes; Mixing Duck Rations, Symptoms of Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies in Ducks, Predators, Duck Recipes, Using Feathers and Down, Duck Breekers and Hachery Guide, Sources of Supplies and Equipment, and Organizations and Publications.Like I said, packed with great information.
I already had the ducklings on order from the hatchery when I put this book in my 10-year-old daughter's Easter basket. She had been begging me for ducks, and the babies were due to arrive a few weeks before her birthday. Instead of realizing why I had given her a book on raising ducks, she used it to try to convince me to get ducks. As she brought up facts, I just smiled and nodded."Mom," she said, "did you know that ducks get fewer diseases than chickens?""Mom, most ducks only need a 3-foot fence to keep them in. Chickens need a lot more than that!"I told her to keep researching how to raise ducks, and if she educated herself well enough, I'd consider it.Well, the ducklings arrived, and she already knew exactly what to feed them and care for them. They're doing very well, swimming in the pond outside, and much more fun than our chickens! We'll be keeping ducks as long as we have the land to put them on.
Nothing beats a Storey's guide for reliable and accurate information. I don't believe there is anyone west of the Mississippi who knows as much about ducks as Dave Holderread. Put the two together and you have one awesome resource for everything from choosing the right duck for your yard, personality, and purpose to how to handle an emergency. I couldn't quite bring myself to read the chapter on butchering my beloved pets, but everything else was interesting and helpful. The genetic chapter was over my head, but IF I were interested in breeding it would be a chapter I would study at length.It was lovely to have someone write to me and not at me or down at me. Some books treat readers as if they are children, others are trying to convince readers not to have ducks as pets, some are only about how to make money. Holderread covers all these things, but also gives the pet owner the information needed to have healthy happy ducks. Whether you want three little girls to eat your slugs or 100 gals to produce an income, this is the best book to get--you can trust me, I've read 47 books on raising ducks.
If you only buy one book about raising ducks, this is the one you want.This book helped me choose a breed, design a predator-resistant duck house and duck yard, and create a healthy feeding/watering plan. With its help, I raised mail-order ducklings to a healthy laying flock--losing only 1 out of 9 ducklings.It is a VERY PRACTICAL guide written by a man who has tons of experience breeding, raising, and showing ducks of many different breeds. It has probably some of the best breed descriptions (although, of course, not lots of beautiful color photos) in any duck book I've read. His duck feeding, watering, and housing guides are in-depth and practical. I refer to them frequently as the needs of my flock change. I find if I'm running into trouble--it's usually because I disregarded one of his suggestions. His health section has tips to prevent illness in the first place, and treatment suggestions keeping in mind the real world value of your average duck. There is a short section on butchering/ recipes too, as well as showing.
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