Ducks! Why not… duck eggs are great for eating just the same as chickens. Duck eggs are especially good for baking too! Almost all of the same questions come up with ducks… what size/weight class, raising them for meat or eggs or both, temperament… hardiness is pretty straightforward… they manage the extremes well due to their down feathers.
Since most of our chickens were standard size and we were going to have bantams, we decided on the lightweight breed class to keep everyone around the same size. We wanted the ducks for eggs, not necessarily meat and the egg laying rate didn’t really matter because we were going to have so many chickens. Now, where to order? Many hatcheries were recommended online… it varies greatly with cost per bird, whether they will be male or female or sold as a straight run (unsexed), minimum quantity orders… again very important to do the research and decide what would work best for you.
We ended up choosing dual purpose breeds and to simplify life we ordered them from the same hatchery that the chickens were coming from. While this limited our options slightly for breed selection, and they were only sold as a straight run, it was still the best way to go.
We did not want the standard ducks that everyone else usually gets… Pekins, Giant Pekins, or even Mallards which are common around here in the wild. We wanted something different… a childhood favorite movie of mine was “Babe” (yes, the pig movie). Remember Ferdinand though?! The little white duck that walked around upright? Yep, that’s what I wanted – proper name is Runner Ducks, and there was only one color available, the fawn and white – I’ll take 2 please! And after looking at all the other ducks we absolutely fell in love with the Black and White Magpie Ducks, so we added 2 of those to the order as well. 4 ducks incoming! So exciting!!
-B
Feather in the Wood 