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Saturday, April 23, 2011

Green things and ducklings

From the country....




Getting jobs done,




watching things grow,



and bringing home some new members to the livestock family.




Today we visited our local sales barn and purchased 5 ducks for the kids. We picked up 4 Khaki Campbell ducklings and Nate picked out a Black Cayuga duckling. After some research when we got home I found out some interesting features about these breeds. Both varieties are heritage breeds. The Khaki Campbell's are really proficient layers and can lay as many as 300 eggs a year. The Cayuga duck is a breed used for both meat and eggs (although Nate informs us we will NOT be making confit with his duck...) and that the duck starts out laying black eggs which turn white as the bird matures. Both breeds are great foragers, are overall hardy and are tamed easily. When I read that to Nate he jumped with joy and now has plans to hand tame his "Blacky" so that it will follow him around the yard.



This is the start of a little lesson in farming. Nate will help me to take care of the ducklings, possibly breed them next year and sell the eggs at market... and he is super excited!



4 comments:

  1. I love that pic of Nate. Look at his big farmer hands!

    hope the duckling babies are doing well.

    xo a

    ReplyDelete
  2. The ducklings are adorable! Hmmm....rent a duck?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love that picture too! So precious and innocent!

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  4. Yep Nate has his moments that make your heart melt... he goes on and one about them following him around the yard and hand training them.

    ReplyDelete

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