‘In these places the ducklings are reared under the care of the good wife’: Women and the Aylesbury duck industry

The production of ducklings as a luxury, seasonal food for the London markets started in the town of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire during the eighteenth century. Unlike other livestock, Aylesbury ducklings were raised and fattened by poor women known as “duckers”, within the domestic home. Women developed methods of duck husbandry that reduced costs and increased profits by utilising household technology and locally available food. However, their success, and the blurring of the relationships and boundaries between the duckers, their ducklings, and the home challenged middle-class ideas of domesticity and femininity. This paper begins by providing a brief background to the industry before focusing on the incubation and feeding of Aylesbury ducklings with the cottage homes. A discussion of the methods used shows how women used their domestic spaces and household technology to raise ducklings whilst also drawing attention to changing middle-class ideas of the home and the role of women within it. The fattening of ducklings in the home raised moral concerns about women neglecting their roles as mothers and wives whilst paradoxically positioning the ducklings as surrogate children, lodgers, or pets.