Tiny Grass

I had been thinking for a long time about wanting to get some chickens so that my family has fresh eggs. For about the last year, our family has tried to avoid eating supermarket eggs. I’ve been visiting my local “egg man” - a local guy who lives on a busy road, but who has a sign announcing that he sells eggs. We get them from him for $3 a dozen, and they come in all shades - brown, green, blue, white, and a sort of pinkish hue. And the experience of going there is always a treat - he has a variety of animals, including peacocks and peahens, goats, a large goose, and of course, dozens of chickens. One day, while I was picking up some eggs, I was sort of attacked by a rooster, which was an experience. Well, I guess it wasn’t a real attack, but the thing kept creeping up behind me as I walked and trying to peck-attack my legs. Fortunately, I had on a good thick pair of jeans that day, and my “magic bag” (OK, it’s sort of a purse, but that word makes me feel like an old lady) with me to swing at it.

So anyway, I’ve been longing to own some chickens of my own for awhile. But I wasn’t sure I had enough room, or enough motivation for the project. I knew nothing about poultry except that I once knew a family friend who had chickens when I was little. I grew up in the suburbs, and I now live just slightly north in an area classified as exurbs, but which is becoming more and more of a suburb every minute. Even though our house is now close to many farms, the closest I’ve ever come to farming is having a small organic garden and spending my high school years working at a farm-stand.

One day I got up the guts to look up what raising chickens entails, and I happened to see some information about raising ducks for eggs. Ducks?! I was surprised and happy at the same time. As I did my research, which I am still doing now, 6 months later, I found many reasons to take on the project of raising ducks for eggs in my suburban/exurban backyard. Here are just some of the reasons that I have for doing it:

• Ducks are cute. In my opinion, they are cuter than chickens. I know there are some real chicken lovers out there that would disagree, but I’ll stand by my opinion. Who can resist that cute quacking, and the butt-in-the-air stance when they are dabbling in a pond? Actually, I still kind of like chickens too, but for now I’m sticking to ducks.
• Ducks can take cold weather really well. I live in New York State, and it gets cold and snowy here in the winter. Ducks do great in the really cold weather, and they don’t mind wet weather either. Because they are waterfowl, they have a whole lot of feathers, and they stay pretty warm even when it goes below freezing. I like the idea that I won’t have to do a lot of worrying about them when it’s cold.
• Some breeds of duck produce more eggs per year than a chicken ever could. I like that. I like the idea that if I’m spending all this effort to raise ducks that I will get a suitably large output of eggs, which is my main goal. I’m starting with 3 Khaki Campbells and 2 Runner Ducks. Both are excellent layers. Khaki Campbells, for instance, can produce 300-350 eggs per year - that’s almost 1/day! Nice.
• You don’t need a lot of space to raise ducks (or chickens, for that matter). I’ve read several books about people that even raise ducks and/or chickens in city environments, although on a small scale. Not all of us can afford to buy a farm, at least not today. Raising a few egg-producing birds allows us to bring a little of the farm into the suburbs (or city). My dream of owning some kind of farm may be far away, but I can get started today.
• I like eggs a lot. Read more here.

(photo is from FreeFoto.com)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 1:09 am and is filed under raising ducks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.