IN THE BEGINNING...
We didn't know much about ducks starting out in May last year. We've learned a bunch since then by living with these delightfully quirky birds. I'd like to share some of that with y'all.
We raise four breeds of heritage ducks. Here is a pic I shot of these babes this morning:
- 1 Silver Appleyard, crouching in top right
- 1 Welsh Harlequin, peeping up from bottom left
- 3 Dutch Hookbill (The Toucan of Ducks), like a boss in top left and right and center
- 2 Golden Cascade, showing off in the middle with their eyes that see right through you
We obtained our ducklings from the renowned duck and goose breeders at Holdrreads Farm in Oregon. They sent them in a cardboard box as day olds. They are somewhat rare breeds which have long histories of being excellent foragers and mothers, as well as being simply a delight to look at. Some of them almost went extinct in Europe during the world wars. Holdrreads has famously said, “it costs no more money to feed and raise beautiful birds than it does to raise all white ones.” AKA, Pekin.
This is my brother, Danyota the Serpent Slayer, along with a young Snoop Duck:
Our flock started at 50. We lost 3 chicks right off the bat. One was crushed in a coop move. Two drowned. We didn't know baby ducklings get tired in water which they can swim in, and if they don't know how to get out, and with no mother to show them, they get cold and tired and drown. This happened to us before we shallowed their pool, and it was very heartbreaking.
Our flock is now around 37. We "harvested" all the males but seven last November for our freezer. We have eaten 16 out of 17 of those drakes. We have cooked pretty much every bird in a different fashion to see what styles of cooking duck we love most. And we pretty much use every part of the duck for something. We brine and sautee the hearts. We make confit from the gizzard. We simply love the organ meat. Although we haven't yet figured out what to do with the beaks...
Winners on the meat front so far are prosciutto, smoked breast, and confit, IMHO. Nom nom!
DAY RANGING DUCKIES
Our flock is herded out daily to free-range on green pastures and swim in small ponds on our farm. We call this “day-ranging”, since we herd them back and close them in a coop at night to protect from all the predators here in our woods in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. We feel good knowing that our ducks live a free and low-stress life browsing on clovers and bugs. We also supplement our duck’s diet with organic 17% protein feed, which we get locally from Engelbert Farms in Nichols, NY - the first certified organic dairy farm in the US. This is what I imagine I look like herding them:
DUCK EGGS - WE ARE NOT WORTHY - WE WORSHIP YOU
Duck eggs are remarkable for so many reasons, especially their nutritional content. We like to say “they are the eggs we have been waiting our whole lives to meet.” Here is some nutritional information and Paleo propaganda that I enjoyed in my research comparing duck and chicken eggs: https://paleoleap.com/eat-duck-eggs/
A few of the nutrients ducks egg-cell at harboring in their embryos are particularly notable because there aren’t many sources of them aside from eggs, which is really egg-stra-ordinary, if you ask me:
~Choline: key for liver health: some evidence suggests that fatty liver disease could be to do with choline deficiency. Egg yolks = choline (if you don’t eat organ meats, they’re probably by far the biggest source of choline in your diet), and duck eggs are rich sources of it.
~Folate, or Vitamin B9 = great mental health, especially important for pregnant women and nursing mothers (Moi). One duck egg has over twice as much folate as one chicken egg. Spina bifida be gone! Watch out for those frenulums, though. Some babies are born tongue tied and there is evidence this may be due to too much folate. So, as usual, balance = everything.
~Also very notable is the Omega profile and healthy cholesterol content. Omegas = brains, people. Mmmm....brains...!
You can use duck eggs almost anywhere you’d use chicken (roughly 2 duck to 3 chicken eggs, although it varies depending on your recipe and the relative sizes of your eggs). Make sure to fry duck eggs on low to medium heat so that you keep all the good proteins intact. We like leaving the creamy yolk soft. Here are some other things we love to cook with them:
*Duck Huevos a la Lily (my signature breakfast)
*Duck egg quiche
*Duck egg mayonnaise
*Pickled duck eggs
*Duck eggs florentine
*Baking all kinds of delicious treats
In all honesty, we LOVE our ducks completely. They are family. We grieve their death when we have to harvest them. We have compassion for the mammas we steal babies from. We use their eggs in everything, and we like to go and watch their silly antics. We call this Duck TV, hosted at our Duckingham Palace.
We have had a lot of fun starting a small micro-enterprise. But the truth is, fun is not always money. And at this scale, it has not been profitable for us, even selling our eggs for $8/dozen at local markets. But it could be profitable. Duck eggs are a niche, gourmet item for some reason. And with the right infrastructure, the right and regular niche market access, and a really easy and streamlined business plant, the right homesteader/ entrepreneur could create an awesome value-adding and regenerative business. While preserving heritage duck breeds. While eating like a boss.
In Part 2, I will share some information about our rotational grazing system and how we cut their feed costs in half last year. I'll also talk more about the dirty business of raising ducks and how to set up your system to minimize stress for both the Humans and the Birds.
Thanks for tuning in, y'all! Can you believe I made it all the way to the end without one single DICK TYPO?!?!?!
Love,
Lily