Hatching other things besides snakes!

My wife and I have sort of a mini-farm. I only have an acre of land, and my house takes up about 1/4 of it, and the majority of it is fenced in. We hatch chickens and ducks out every week or so, and I figured I'd share a picture of one of the ducklings we hatched, along with a photo of Mama & Daddy...

Duckling:
http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/a...29-15_2871.jpg


Mama & Daddy:
http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/a...-10-17_556.jpg

Trey

adorable lol.

I love ducks! Yours are very nice! I def wanna get some when i get my own house. My friend has chickens but i dont like them, they kinda freak me out lol. Can you eat duck eggs and cook with them? Or are they not like chicken eggs.
I heard on a nature show once that ALL bird eggs in the world are completely edible for humans including the shell, idk if thats true though....

It is really difficult to think of a duckling as anything other than cute. I suppose that opinion might change once it decides to bite you or poop on you, but even still, that innocent, fuzzy yellowness is a pretty powerful thing. :)

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

I love ducks! Yours are very nice! I def wanna get some when i get my own house. My friend has chickens but i dont like them, they kinda freak me out lol. Can you eat duck eggs and cook with them? Or are they not like chicken eggs.
I heard on a nature show once that ALL bird eggs in the world are completely edible for humans including the shell, idk if thats true though....

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Thanks guys! You definitely CAN eat duck eggs. I actually prefer them over chicken eggs, they're more richer tasting to me than chicken eggs. However, I'm up to my ears in eggs, so I eat them both on a daily basis, and still have around 10 dozen, and still counting. Duck eggs are actually preferred when it comes to baking, they give cakes more 'fluff' or something, my wife knows all about that, not me. I just help feed/water/harvest when I'm needed. We always have a supply of chicken if food shortages happen. We also have 4 Khaki Campbell ducks, 2 Bronze Breasted Turkeys, and around 60-80 chickens, I haven't counted in a while. Oh, were hatching out Mallards and Guineas as well, I believe those are due to hatch in a week or so...

Trey

Great pics. I love ducks and chickens but every time we decide to try geese they hate me. Grumpy geese *grumble grumble*

awww cute so do you breed the ducks to eat them or just sell them to other people?

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Originally Posted by Wicked Constrictors

awww cute so do you breed the ducks to eat them or just sell them to other people?

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We sell them, trade them, or when we have more than 1 pair, we'll eat them. Along with the turkeys/chickens. Duck is really good wrapped in bacon and smoked on the grill. There's one chicken now who's about to be harvested. He's a Red Broiler, the breed is simply for meat. He's full grown, and spurs my wife every time she walks in the fence gate. She just told me about 15 minutes ago that he's the first to go.

Trey

Do you kill and pluck? I go to the local chicken farm and get fresh killed. I'm not sure I could deal with the mess.

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

Do you kill and pluck? I go to the local chicken farm and get fresh killed. I'm not sure I could deal with the mess.

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Yep! I do it all. It's really not as bad as you think. If you've ever bought a whole chicken from the grocery store, and it has those little bags in them with the innards, its basically the same amount that's in the bag, with only a few more parts. Plucking is easy, dip them in some boiling hot water for about 20-30 seconds, and the feathers just wipe right off. It's really not that bad.

Nothing like ducklings they are so much fun to raise, I must say seeing this pic makes me want to add one or two more ducks to the ones I have.

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Originally Posted by Chuckels

He's full grown, and spurs my wife every time she walks in the fence gate. She just told me about 15 minutes ago that he's the first to go.

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Excellent choice!

Cool, i want some ducks lol!

It's kinda weird that in my town I can have as many chickens/ducks/etc. that I want but it is a nightmare to get permits for a building (shed) to house them in. It would be easier to build a regular house and keep them in there than to put up a chicken coop. :confused:

Hahaha you do have a little farm goin on. Love the ducks. Been thinkin about getting some eggs for my incubator. Got my eye on the Mandarin ducks. Those guys are beautiful. Ive got a whole bunch of Coturnix Quail eggs in the incubator now cant wait for them to hatch out.

Hey Cendalla if you think geese are mean try Swans. We used the raise those. The babies are sweet but the adults will tare you up lol.