Grow your own duck food
21.08.2023 - 12:02
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
Many years ago, long before my gardening obsession began, I spent a season or two living in a ground floor flat in Newbury that had patio doors that opened onto a backwater. Shortly after moving in we made friends with the local duck population, to the point where we bought poultry corn from the pet stall on the market for them – bread not being the best food for ducks.
As the weeks wore on we developed a duck following, and soon enough they brought their adorable little chicks to our back door for feeding. The little chicks grew and grew, and turned into little ducks capable of hopping up over the door step into the living room. We thought they were adorable.
They kept growing. Eventually they were well-fed, mature ducks of monstrous proportions. At 5pm every day they would tap on the patio doors, waiting to be fed. They still tried to come inside, but having a duck the size of a chihuahua roaming around the living room was less cute, and we insisted they stay outside. I moved out not long after that, and I often wonder what they thought of the new occupants, and vice versa.
Feeding the ducks is part and parcel of English life, and throwing chunks of stale bread at them is the norm – according to the Canal & River Trust we throw 6 million loaves of bread into our canals and rivers each year. As bread is the equivalent of junk food for ducks, they would like to see our waterways become ‘no dough areas’, and have some suggestions of what else we can feed our feathered friends. On their website they have some ideas of what else you can do with your leftover bread.
They’ve also put together a list of possible alternative duck snacks, some of which can make use of leftovers such as sweetcorn, lettuce and cooked rice.
But what if
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