what does it take to grow ducks humanely?

[suburbanite]

I was just having a discussion with a grocer and they said that it is hard to find a source for ducks where the animals are grown in a humane organic manner.

What is required to be able to do that?

[RoseGarden]

I don't know.... I only have a few, and they are pets rather than food (they are so dang cute!) but they run around the back of the property like the Three Stooges, one male and two female. They seem pretty content. They quack and bathe in a horse waterer and nibble the grass and dig in the mud for worms (or something?) I would guess that 'humane' would mean content, maybe in a large pen or like mine just running around the property, and not caged?

ETA that the Three Stooges go into the hen's pen at night when the hens go to bed, and I shut the pen door to keep the raccoons out. The hens are out during the day too, and I guess the ducks think they are hens and go to bed when the hens do.

[jen74145]

I suppose everyone has different definitions, but it isn't THAT hard.

I provide mine with dry shelter, food, clean water, and flockmates. They get to swim when it rains and the yard turns into a bog, or I fill up a rubbermaid tote. I let them out for at least a couple hours a day, if I'm working out back they stay out while I am. We have hawks and a naughty dog, so it's for their own good.

If you wanted organic duckies, I don't know how exactly you coud certify that, since even if given organic feed, who's going to certify that the grass and bugs they help themselves to are organic?
I really believe most people who raise animals do it humanely... after all, though they are livestock, I like to see them happy and healthy, and you'll get more eggs that way.

[uncle Will in In.]

I've seen duck growing houses where the ducks could go inside and eat ground feed out of feeders, or go outside in a large lot which was always slopped away from the building so it would drain. The lot had a concrete water trough that had fresh water running through it all the way from the building to the low side of the lot. There was a large number of ducks out in the lot playing in the water, and just hanging out. The lot had all the grass tromped out by the ducks. The organic part would be dependent of what was being fed to them. I didn't see anything that I would consider inhumane with the setup. They weren't allowed to run wild, but they weren't exposed to about a dozen different preditors that kill and maime wild ducks either.