Does anyone know of a domestic bird that will eat snails? Thank you.

-- Lynne David (lynnedavid@email.msn.com), April 30, 2000

Answers

ducks

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), April 30, 2000.

ditto: Ducks!!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 30, 2000.

Once had a barred rock [full sized]that i taught to eat snails, she was also a great mouser to.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), April 30, 2000.

Ducks come by it naturally; but if you raise poultry (hens) with a few semi-squashed (to start with), then just cracked, snails in their food they get the idea. Takes a few weeks as they're growing to establish the habit to the extent that they go catch their own. If you're going to be gathering the snails anyway, why not? I don't know, but I suspect guinea-fowl would eat snails as well.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), May 01, 2000.

Yes, guinea hens do a great job too.

-- Jim Roberts (jroberts1@cas.org), May 01, 2000.

Ducks will also eat mice! I didn't believe it when I saw one of the hens gulping down a dead mouse that had somehow fallen into thier water pan. YUK. Took her a while, but she finally swallowed it. After a bit, I reasoned that it was just "meat" and got over it. Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), May 01, 2000.

We live on 5 acres of forest in a very wet county in NW WA, and we have -- corr: had -- a LOT of slugs, of every color, stripe and size. They were everywhere. In the beginning, I used a 20ft steel shipping container for my house, and I even found a slug sliming along on top of it (what was it hoping to find up there?!) They completely wiped out my first pathetic attempt at a garden, they were on the dog... Well, since I love duck meat and had heard about their slugeating prowess, I ordered up 10 ducklings and in about 7-8 weeks, the slug population started to go into serious decline. My second garden went really well,with the only major setback being the soybeans getting trampled by the dog. I think ducks are terrific, especially for soggy climes like the Pacific NW. We have no worries about protecting them from rain - they thrive in it! They take quite some months to start laying eggs, but mine are popping out about 1 a day now, made in large part of chug-a-lugged slugs (and they taste fine.) One point: when you order day-olds through the mail, it costs a little extra to specify their gender, but I think it would be worth it. I thought, if we just take straight-run, 50% should be female, right? well, remember, a big proportion of the females have been skimmed off for those who paid extra, and out of 10, only 3 were female. Ducks, definitely!

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), May 03, 2000.

My ducks, chickens, and geese all ate snails, however, for total clean-up of the property of all kinds of snails, slugs, and grasshoppers, none of them outdid our lowly pigeon flock -- and they took care of the entire property that way for years. Once the pigeons were gone, the slugs were back big time.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), September 02, 2000.