Almost a year and a half ago, we went out for Chinese food and then had to stop by the farm store on the way home for a tractor part. When we walked through the door - there was this wondrous cheeping sound coming from the black troughs near the door. When we looked inside, Jerra and I fell in love. There were so many little ducklings - a tub of yellow ones, a tub of yellow and black ones and then four tubs of multi-colored chicks. We spent several moments and then hatched a plan to take them home. We have 5 acres, we could use the ducks to help eat the grubs in the lawn and keep down the bugs in my garden. It is a great selling point, but really wasn't the reason for the ducks. They were adorable, and the sweet little pink beaks just begged to be taken home. After some eye-lash batting and carefully placed requests, we took three home in a box. It was great - they followed us everywhere.
Unfortunately, as they got bigger, they needed more and more attention. This came at a very inopportune time for the family as our new addition was deciding a wife and kids was not what he bargained for - so some of the joy was sucked right out of the house each time he complained about the noise from the precious little ones. Finally, at his insistence, the ducks were put in a pen outside. The first night, a fox came in and took the female away. I was demolished - and determined to replace her - so I did a little research.
The males I had are Rouens - they look like wild mallard ducks, but don't fly more than a couple of feet. I called a couple of hatcheries to ask about getting baby girl ducks. One woman was hesitant to give me any babies because she was afraid the males I had would be sex crazed - what an image, sex-crazed ducks. Weird. The female Rouens are pretty good egg layers, but Indian Runners are the most prolific - so if I was going to go into business, I needed some girls who were prolific. If you are allergic to chicken eggs, the duck eggs are a good substitute. I found some online for sale upwards of $40 for a dozen and a half. These ducks would be "free range" because I feed them corn, but the majority of their diet is the alfalfa and wild grasses and bugs that live in the yard. I don't use pesticides...So a thought occurred to me. I talked to the local health food store and they were interested in buying duck eggs provided I could verify they were organically raised. No problem there. They were also interested in any excess from my garden - which in the rich soil from the flood plane, is always producing in excess.
Coming soon - part two, Ducks in a Box
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