Duck supplements and green manure?

© 2010 Joshua Stark

No, this isn't about the next weight-loss miracle. I'm actually wondering if anybody grows any food to supplement their ducks' feed. I'm considering taking a bucket to a friend's ditch and bringing home some duckweed to grow for them, as I hear it grows fast and easy, and can supplement up to about one-quarter of their food. In addition, I'm going to start herding my ducks to my neighbor's place across the street, to pick up snails and slugs and all the other things they love and completely wiped out at our place.

I've also added common nettles to the backyard (see my post over at Lands on the Margin about gathering wild nettles), in hopes of harvesting some of the great nettle-tips for a variety of recipes, and also in turning them for green manure. Being a weed, I'm taking a little risk, but we'll see how it goes...

One last duck problem we discovered last year was house flies. This year, I want to kill them quickly, and I'm going to try diatomaceous earth to do it. If anybody has any other 'green' methods, please let me know. I believe they grow in the duck poop in the grass yard.