Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Duck Eggs for Sale!!!

 Quite spontaneously, we have become the caretakers of a small brood of ducks. One day, while discussing the limitations of our small backyard farm, Maria mentioned that it might not be feasible to include ducklings with the ordering of chickens and turkeys for this spring. I agreed and promptly received a link from Maria for ksl.com, the local classified ads, showing four Khaki Campbell Ducks that were available in North Logan. So within a matter of a few hours, we decided not to have ducks this summer, I acquired a crate, cleaned the chicken coop and transported one drake and three female ducks back to our house.

Turns out, a disgruntled father was finished with the life lesson he wished to impart on his daughter and the ducks no longer served well along with his landscaping. That's right, the ducks, a lean-to for shelter, a small wading pool and a whole slew of rose bushes were enclosed by a small wire fence in the back of his house. This is, of course, located adjacent to the built-in trampoline and full sized basketball court behind his half-a-million dollar home over looking Cache Valley.

I found out quickly he was not accustomed to handling poultry. I brought the cage to one size of the lean-to and asked him to escort his ducks into the trap. Unfortunately they quickly sensed the danger and fled backwards through his legs. So now it is my responsibility to round up the flustered fowl and urge them to scatter into the cage. The first and second attempt ended with him exclaiming that he never thought a duck could fit between the hole he had left between his leg, the opening in the cage and the corner of the lean-to. Clearly, he was mistaken. I finally had to pick a few of them up by hand and toss them into the cage. This was where he recognized that I had done this before and asked if I was just going to eat them. I had to remind him that he spent 6 months and about $50 in feed getting them to lay and I wasn't going to let that opportunity pass.

Needless to say, the brood is still relatively apprehensive when I enter the run in the morning to water and feed them. However, they must be comfortable enough as they continue to provide us with 2-3 eggs per morning. That means that the laddies are laying almost everyday! As there is no way I could consume all those eggs myself, they are available for sale. Duck eggs, aside from being rare, are much larger than a chicken egg and have a substantially higher fat content, best suited for egg sandwiches an baking.


Check out the "Items for Sale" page for the details on how to get yourself some delicious duck eggs.