A hobby farm with a purpose

On a quiet, three-acre plot of land filled with small ponds, cover, and open land to roam, dozens of ducks wander the grounds of Momo Acres, a domestic duck rescue located just a few miles northwest of Christie, at W6678 Timber Lane Rd.

The rescue, which takes in ducks of all shapes and sizes that have been abandoned or surrendered, is working to spread awareness about how to take care of ducks, and making sure people properly educate themselves on raising and caring for ducks before taking them under their wing.

Kristin Kopecky works with her husband Danny at the Clark County sanctuary, where approximately 150 ducks reside at any given time. The ducks come in all shapes and sizes, with the reason for each duck being there as varied as the feathers and sizes of the birds.

Moving to the area in 2019 after life in the city, Kopecky said she and the rest of her family wanted to try something different and establish a hobby farm for themselves. They originally started with raising goats, and that was when she first became aware of the market for animals online.

“We really didn’t know at first just how many animals are up for grabs on Facebook’s groups,” she said. “There are a lot of animal groups out there, and a lot of them sell animals there even though they're not supposed to.”

In many of these groups, Kopecky said animals are put up for sale that have medical conditions, injuries, or other issues that make former owners unable or unwilling to care for them. Kopecky started out by focusing on buying unwanted goats, taking in more than a dozen animals before she learned just how much of a responsibility those animals were.

“We learned that visits to the vet are very expensive,” she said. “A lot of these goats, you realized why they were given up as they had a lot of issues, and we had to curb what we could do because of the cost.”

While they were still working with goats, Kopecky’s focus began to shift to another neglected group of animals: domestic ducks. Ducks, she said, are very misunderstood compared to other domestic animals, with a lack of awareness on not only how to raise ducks, but also what happens to them when the owners decide they can’t raise them.

Starting out, Kopecky said they did a lot of traveling on the road, visiting farms and other locations around not oniy Wisconsin, blit Iowa, Minnesota, and Upper Michigan to take in unwanted ducks. As was the case when they were taking in goats, she said traveling so many miles to bring the animals to their rescue was a challenge. But it did help them establish the network they needed to continue to have ducks sent to them.

“We have spent a lot of time on the roads, but we found that wasn’t feasible,” she said. “But we found connections to other farms and we are able to connect and provide help. They can send animals to us.”

Momo Acres receives their ducks in a few different ways. Some come from farms, where ducks can hatch in high numbers that are too much for a farm to handle. Ducks from farms can also arrive disabled, as misunderstandings of how to properly feed ducks during their first weeks of growth can lead to leg problems and other health issues caused by poor nutrition. Those disabled ducks are housed in separate pens away from the other ducks, but are still able to have a high quality of life while work is done to rehabilitate the ducks if they can.

“We have about 150 ducks that we take care of, and we have rescued up to 75 ducks at one time,” Kopecky said. “They will be hatched on a farm, and there will be too many ducks for one person to be able to raise and handle. Ducks also grow a lot faster than chickens do and a lot of people aren’t actually prepared for that. If you don't feed them right, they have nutrition problems and that can lead to leg and foot problems along with other issues as they grow. We take those ducks in.”

In addition to ducks from farms, Kopecky said they also take in rescues of domestic ducks from a more dire fate: abandonment in the wild. Since they got started with their duck rescue nearly five years ago, Kopecky said they have received many calls about ducks that have been abandoned on public land, left to fend for themselves in the wild as people assume the ducks will be able to still find a way to survive without human intervention. But that is a false assumption.

“A lot of people find that they can’t keep them and they abandon them in different waterways,” she said. “We’ll get calls about ducks found in neighborhoods, ducks that have been dumped in ponds, parks, and other local waterways.”

'The DNR has confirmed to me that there were two ducks dumped in the Wisconsin River. This happens all over Wisconsin with domestic ducks. But these aren’t wild ducks. They’re domestic ducks, and they are just like any other pet, like a cat or a dog. They can’t survive in the wild.”

Conversely, there have also been a few times when they have received calls about wild ducks and other birds that have been taken out of their natural habitats and introduced into backyard flocks — with disastrous results.

“What that does is it makes the wild duck no longer act naturally,” Kopecky said. “We partner with Raptor Education Group Inc. (REGI) in Antigo when we have to deal with such cases. These ducks and other birds have imprinted on humans and they can’t be reintroduced back into the wild because they don’t know how to survive on their- own. Right now, they have 11 Canadian geese that have imprinted on humans.”

A big part of the problem, Kopecky said, is an overall lack of knowledge about domestic ducks by the general public. Online resources on how to raise ducks —particularly in the Wisconsin climate — are almost nonexistent. But that has not stopped certain supply stores in the state from stocking baby birds that customers often impulse-buy before ever realizing what sort of commitment they are signing up for.

“People don’t realize just how fast ducks grow,” she said. “They’re not like chickens. Chickens take five to 10 months to grow. Ducks can be fully grown in six weeks. And ducks can live anywhere from eight to 15 years. Sometimes even up to 20 years. This is a long-term commitment, just like it would be if you got a dog or a cat. These people have to prepare anti there is just not a lot of information out there that is given to people prior to purchasing a duck.”

To combat this lack of knowledge on ducks with the general public, Kopccky has been working on educational outreach to give people a place they can go as a resource. With so little knowledge available to people who want to raise domestic ducks, she said she has been networking with the few experts in the area who know how to care for the birds, passing along the knowledge she has learned to other fanners and homesteaders who have backyard flocks.

“It’s hard to find quality information out there,” she said. “Vets around here often can’t take care of specific conditions or ailments because they’re not trained to take care of ducks. So there’s a lot of backyard care for farmsteads that have ducks. We work with one of the aviation experts from Wildwood Park in Marshfield, and it’s nice to be able to get advice from someone who lives in Wisconsin and handles these birds in our habitat as opposed to talking to someone who lives in California and handles their birds in a different climate.”

Momo Acres has also started a YouTube channel where Kopecky shares short videos about ducks to further educate the general public about their needs and how to raise them, w'hile also sharing some of the fun that comes with duck ownership. The videos can be found at youtube.eom/@MomoAcres.

Momo Acres is also a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization, with any donations made to the rescue being put towards caring for the domestic ducks they have taken in.

Anyone who is looking for more information about raising domestic ducks, has heard of ducks being abandoned in their area, or has any other questions, are encouraged to call Kopecky at 414-750-6150. She can also be reached on Facebook at facebook.com' MOMOacres/.

For any wild birds that are in need of rescue, the public is encouraged to contact REG1 at 715-623-4015.