Welcome to The Hearty Hen House
Hobby Farming at its finest!
My mom tells the story of when I was a toddler, we went to the park. There, of course, was a lake at the park with lots of ducks. I had a bag of popcorn which I was evidently sitting on the bench thoroughly enjoying. My mom suggested that I share some of my popcorn with the hungry ducks and my response was, “No! I no like ducks!”
Are you thinking about adding some ducks to your flock or hobby farm? There are a couple of really important things that are good to know if you plan to take the plunge and try your hand at raising ducks. One has to do with water and the other has to do with Niacin.
I am a planner. Spontaneity is not my strong suit. It stresses me out. During the winter months I plan out my schedule to include spring cleaning, planting the garden and animal acquisitions. I allow room for change, because you never know what might come up, but I try to stick to my schedule. This year I had planned to add some baby ducks to my flock, as my ducks are getting up there in years and no longer lay eggs. They just hang out in the pasture, enjoying life. I had decided that late spring would be a good time add the ducklings, when the weather was a little warmer and some coop changes had been completed. Well…you know what they say about the best laid plans… Earlier this week I needed to make a trip to the feed store. With this being baby chick season, it is impossible to walk down the aisle of any feed store and not have the opportunity to ogle at the sweet little balls of fluff. As I walked by the tanks filled with little peepers, I noticed the one with the ducklings and a big sign advertising “Ducks, $1.00 with the purchase of feed”. Well, I was already buying feed and $1.00 a duck was a price that was hard to beat. To top it off, these ducklings appeared to be between two and three weeks old, so chances are they were a little hardier than fresh hatches. The situation wasn’t ideal, but a buck a duck was difficult to pass up! So…I went home with five yellow, fluffy, peeping ducklings! I enjoyed watching my daughter-in-law pick them out and I think she did a superb job. My ducklings are adorable!
