Hi friends! Welcome back!
This spring we added ducks to the farm! As always, I agonized endlessly over the breeds. We wanted good layers that would get big enough to eat, that could free range well, would sit and raise their own replacements, and that didn’t need to swim.
I settled on Silver Appleyards. Heavy bodied ducks, males can be upwards of 10 pounds. Beautiful green heads on the males, the females have unique freckle patterns so the individuals can be identified.
The pluses: They’re hilarious to watch. They’re noisy and alert to predators, which has proven to be useful in keeping the chickens safer as well. We haven’t seen a single tick since we moved them out of the basement. The eggs (they started laying Tuesday, finally) are delicious.
The minuses: They’re messy. Really messy. We had our brooder in the basement. I was certain they were going to catch chill and die because they were constantly splashing all of the water out of the dish. They love mud, and they know how to make it. They also poop liquid. It builds up fast. It smells really bad. Worse than the chicken coop. Way worse. They are noisy. I don’t mind the noise, but that’s unusual for me, and for someone who did mind the noise it would be insufferable.
The drakes still have not grown in their adult feathers, so I have no idea how many we have yet. We will be keeping one drake and probably all the hens, and eating any extra drakes this year. In the spring, we’ll be hatching out a bunch of babies - as many as we can naturally, but we were also gifted an incubator that I want to play with.
As always, Thank you for joining us here at the farm! I look forward to sharing your thoughts below.
