We were so excited to buy a couple of half grown female Ancona ducks this past fall. They’re so cute! One is what they call a Lavender — she’s a grayish-lavenderish and white duck. Her name is Clementine — Clemmie for short. The other is a Chocolate Ancona; white with brown and black splotches and her name is Ruby Jean.
They’re so comical to watch! When I open their combination house and run every morning they waddle in a mad rush down to the chicken run to see their five best friends in the whole world (Big Red, Maudie, LulaBelle, Hermione and Beatrice) otherwise known as our chickens.
In order to be a good duck owner, I researched Ancona ducks before I got them and one very informative article said that our ducks wouldn’t begin laying until spring based on their age. Our ducks don’t use the house part of their new home. They sleep in the run in a bed of straw so I hadn’t checked out the “house” section until a few days ago. It was the first time I checked it in about three weeks (since our last cold weather) because the straw has never been dirty or needed replacing like the straw in the run part of their home.
Well, apparently ducks don’t read any of the detailed articles on the Internet because lo and behold, there were 36 eggs in the house! That was quite the surprise! Unfortunately, we have had several nights in the upper twenties over those past few weeks and I wasn’t sure which eggs had gone through a freeze and thaw marathon. I also didn’t know if the “float” test would work on eggs that might have suffered from a freeze rather than those that might have simply gone rotten.
Turned out okay though. We don’t really like duck eggs unless I am putting one in a mix of four or five others for a quiche or omelet or I am baking something. We got the ducks because they’re great snail and slug “terminators.” So I bartered out the eggs to a friend with new pigs in exchange for some of her yummy frozen chicken wings. Win win because her new piglets get lots of duck eggs and I get to make Buffalo wings for the Super Bowl! But you can bet I am now checking the house every morning since I know they tend to lay their eggs between dusk and dawn and sure enough, I’m finding one or two every day. My apologies Ruby and Clemmie — I didn’t mean to waste your hard work! You silly, lovable, slug eating creatures!
