Why We Are Introducing Khaki Campbell Ducks to Five Bees Farm

If you farm in North Devon without chemicals, slugs are not a minor inconvenience. They are a genuine threat to establishment, particularly with young perennial herb plants whose tender new growth is exactly what a slug considers a fine evening meal.

We will not be using pesticides or slug pellets. Not even the organic-approved ferric phosphate pellets, which, whatever their improved safety profile compared to metaldehyde, still represent an input from outside the farm system. Our approach to pest management, like our approach to everything else on this land, is to find a solution that works with the ecosystem rather than against it. Which is where the ducks come in.

Why Khaki Campbells

Not all ducks are equal when it comes to working alongside crops. Some breeds are heavy and clumsy, prone to trampling young plants and compacting soil. Some are easily distracted, unreliable foragers, or difficult to manage in a rotational system. Some simply do not have the appetite or the persistence for serious slug hunting.

Khaki Campbells are different. They are a light, active breed, originally developed in the late nineteenth century and named partly for their distinctive khaki-brown plumage that mimics British army uniform of the period. They are exceptionally efficient foragers, moving systematically through vegetation in a way that heavier breeds do not, and they have a well-documented appetite for slugs, snails, and the eggs of both.

Crucially for our system, they are light on their feet. Where a heavy breed would damage young herb plants and compact the soil we have spent years building, Khaki Campbells move through the beds with relatively little impact when managed carefully and rotated correctly.

They are also excellent layers, producing close to an egg a day for much of the year, which is a welcome addition to farm life even if it was not the primary reason we chose them.

How they will work within the agroforestry system

We are not simply releasing ducks across the farm and hoping for the best. Slug management with ducks requires thought about timing, rotation, and integration with the growing calendar.

Young, newly planted herb beds are the most vulnerable to slug damage and also the most vulnerable to duck traffic. The ducks will be rotated through beds on a managed schedule, introduced once plants are sufficiently established to tolerate some duck activity, and moved on before they can cause damage to the crop itself.

The margins, the swale corridors, the areas under developing tree canopy, and the rougher ground around the ponds are where the ducks will spend most of their time. These are exactly the habitats where slug and snail populations build up, particularly in a system like ours where we are actively creating the moisture-retaining, organically rich conditions that slugs find attractive. The ducks will follow the slugs into these spaces naturally.

The pond system we are developing is another piece of this that fits together well. Ducks need water, not just for drinking but for cleaning their bills and, in the case of a properly managed system, for bathing. Our multiple ponds at different points across the land mean the ducks always have access to water close to wherever they are working, without being concentrated around a single source in a way that would cause localised damage to the margins.

What the ducks contribute beyond slug control

The most satisfying thing about introducing Khaki Campbells is how many different roles they play simultaneously, none of which we had to engineer or contrive.

Their manure is a genuine fertility input. Duck manure is high in nitrogen and, scattered across the land as they range, it contributes to soil fertility in a diffuse, gentle way that complements the woodchip mulch from our willow copse and the leaf fall from our developing tree canopy. It is not a primary fertility source, but it is a consistent and entirely free one.

Their foraging disturbs the surface litter and soil margin in a way that, in moderation, is actually beneficial. They scratch and probe at the surface, breaking up compacted crust and incorporating organic matter in the top layer. Again, this needs to be managed carefully to avoid damage to root systems, but at the right stocking density and with good rotation it is a net positive.

They also eat things other than slugs. Invertebrate larvae, small worms, and other soil-dwelling creatures that can damage plant roots are all fair game for a Khaki Campbell with her bill in the soil. We are not trying to eliminate invertebrate life from the farm, which is the last thing we want. We are trying to keep any one species from dominating at the expense of everything else, which is what happens when a monoculture removes the natural predator-prey relationships that keep populations in balance.

Fitting the wider vision

Everything we are doing at Five Bees Farm is connected. The attenuation ponds provide water for the ducks. The willow copse provides mulch that builds the soil and creates the damp, slug-friendly conditions that give the ducks meaningful work to do. The no-dig beds protect the soil biology that the ducks might otherwise damage if they were given unrestricted access. The trees provide shade and shelter for the ducks as they range.

And the ducks, in return, reduce our slug pressure without chemicals, contribute fertility, add a layer of life and movement and noise to the farm that no amount of careful planting can replicate, and remind us, regularly, that the best farming systems are not the ones that are most mechanically efficient but the ones that are most ecologically intelligent.

A farm with ducks is a farm that is paying attention to how things actually work. We are looking forward to having them here.