[Sca-cooks] duck eggs

[Saint Phlip]

On 1/3/07, Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
> Phlip replied to my joking about her growing flock of chickens and
> ducks with:
>
> <<< Stefan, no matter how hard they might try, hens and roosters do not
> produce ducks. Neither do Barred Rocks (Cogburn) and Buff Orpingtons
> (his ladies) produce Rhode Island Reds, Banty Old English, or Banty
> Cochins. They do, however, produce songs at 4 AM and throughout the
> day, as well as sufficient eggs most of the time that I have to give
> them away. In fact, my mail carrier has learned that if she opens the
> box and spies a dozen eggs, to just shut up and take them. >>>
>
> Do you get duck eggs, too? How much bigger is a duck egg? Have you
> noticed a different taste from the chicken eggs?
>
> Stefan

Well, I've gotten a couple of duck eggs, and eventually I WILL be
getting a good supply of duck eggs, but there's a bit of a problem-
the ducks don't like their house.

See, before I got them, I made Rob build them a house, the idea being
that I could put them in at night and keep them safe, and let them out
in the morning. And, this breed of ducks anyway, is a breed that very
conveniently lays their eggs about dawn every morning (unlike
chickens, who lay them throughout the day, to a loud chorus starting
with the lady singing, "An egg, an egg, an EGGGGG!!!!!", with the boys
chiming in with, "A son, a son, a SONNNN!!!!" and Souage howling along
with the chorus, singing "Woo Wooooo, woo Whooo Wooo HHHOOOOOO"), so
the (usual) routine is that you go out and let them loose, collect the
eggs, and you're done, other than feeding them and closing the doors
at night. And, this particular breed, Indian Runners, aside from being
very upright so they look like self motivated bowling pins, also have
two interesting characteristics- they out lay chickens (laying about
300 eggs per year) and they tend not to brood their eggs (meaning that
if I want more ducks, I'd have to give their eggs to one of the broody
chickens). Also means you don't get assaulted and battered by a broody
mama when you try to go collect your eggs ;-)

But, with them not going into the house, I've got no idea where in Hel
the little dears have been laying their eggs, other than not in the
duck house, so, since I got them, I've only managed to get two eggs
from them. And yes, I have, I think, two ducks and two drakes (by the
curl of their tailfeathers), so I SHOULD be getting eggs, but I'm not-
yet.

As far as taste, the eggs taste rather like chicken eggs, which isn't
too surprising, since I feed them the same things I feed the chickens-
layer mash, dog food, and crushed oyster shell (for extra calcium) AND
they free range, and this breed is well known as excellent foragers.
However, according to rumor, the eggs have much more protein in them
than chicken eggs, which makes them absolutely excellent for baking,
but means you don't fry them in oil, but rather in water, unless you
have a particular reason to want to produce your own rubber. As far as
size, their eggs are just a dab bigger than most of my big chickens'
eggs (about twice the size of my banty eggs).

Despite all my griping at Johann, I'm very glad he influenced me to
get the poultry- in fact (damn his eyes!!!), I'm wanting to get even
more breeds and species, once we have the poultry yard set up better.
Cogburn the Incorrigible, my Barred Rock rooster, is an absolute
sweetheart, at least towards me (he attacks any other human being
which is why he's locked up with the hens- he tried to tree Margali
one too many times, and the only reason I'm allowed to keep him is
because he also attacked the Tax Assessor;-) and his son, Goldenrod is
my assistant farm inspector- follows me all over the farm,
investigating whatever I'm doing. Little Chewie, the Old English
bantam who is maybe 1/4 the size of Cogburn (and who attacked Cogburn
in a contest that was reminiscent of slapstick at its best) is quite
full of himself, and crows at least two octaves higher than the rest
of the boys, and is a snugglebug when dealing with people, and Tie
Dye, who looks like he fell into a dye vat just tries to stay out of
everyones way, and jumps the ladies when he thinks Cogburn and Chewie
aren't watching. Then there's the Girlz, Cogburns Buff Orpington (more
or less) daughters, who thought the banty roosters were funny looking
hens, and while busily trying to run the pecking order, got into
another fight with the boys that was another slapstick classic- hen
fight vs rooster fight. And, the two Cochin twins, who are never seen
very far from each other. Then there's Princess Layer, who is
everyone's ideal of a mama chicken. She's the one I'm thinking of
putting any duck eggs to, if I finally get any, if only to see the
expression on her beak when they decide to learn to swim.

In short, I fand them all higly amusing- who needs TV? It's
interesting, watching their interactions, and how they're so similar
in some respects, but so different according to the characteristics of
their various breeds ;-)

-- 
Saint Phlip

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

Psalm 146
King James Bible