Forget Backyard Chickens: Try Ducks!

Mocha

What a busy week we've had here on the farm. One of the highlights was a trip up-island to visit Smith Lake Farm. There, on a stunning 90 acre farm, Clea and Daniel raise Highland Cattle, Muscovy Ducks, and free range chickens. The farm also offers very comfortable accommodation in a completely private guest suite that looks out over Smith Lake. Even better, two horse stalls located immediately adjacent to the human quarters mean travelers can bring along their equine buddies to take advantage of the Williams Beach Community Forest trails. Next time, I won't be making the trip without a horse or two in tow!

What took me on a road trip? (other than the fact I love road trips...) After raccoons raided our flock of Indian Runner ducks, we needed to re-supply. We built a sturdy new duck enclosure so we can shut everyone in at night and then set off to choose the perfect new additions to the farm. We'd already found two handsome drakes to help ease the pain of our Runner Duck losses, but were looking for some breeding females so we could once again enjoy a steady supply of duck eggs. Despite raids by bears, raccoons, mink, rats, and crows, Smith Lake still had various lovely birds to choose from.

Here are the newest members of the Dark Creek gang...

 

From left to right: Latte, Coco Chanel, Mocha, Audrey, Brown Bomber (aka Joe)

The ducks have settled in beautifully and, so far, are getting along just fine with Perfect Man and Dynamo.

(Dynamo is the one in the front - you can tell by the few black feathers in his crest

and the fact he has a bit more white sprinkled across his back.)

 It's good to see all our ducks in a row, trimming the grass in our small field.

 

Brown Bomber

Muscovy ducks are a cool breed, not related to any other breed of domestic duck (all of which seem to be related to the good old mallard). In fact, if you breed a Muscovy to any other duck breed you wind up with mules, sterile birds that are useful as pets or on the dinner table.

Not that Muscovy ducks are exempt from appearing on a platter. The breed is a heavy bird, not as fatty as some other duck breeds, and is used mostly for the table, though we have yet to use ours for anything other than eggs and entertainment. However, if we (or, rather, the duck girls) manage to produce some ducklings next year, we may reconsider this. We are trying hard to be more self-sufficient in the food department and have been supporting local, organic, free range, meat producers, but it would be even better to raise our own protein right here in our back yard.


Each week we give away a copy of a book related to our theme, so this week our prize is a copy of Keeping Ducks and Geese by Chris and Mike Ashton. To have your name entered into the draw for the book prize, send us an email at allpointswest[at]cbc.ca and let us know why you'd be interested in a book about ducks.
 
Missed the segment live? No problem - give Amanda at the CBC a day or two and then check the All Points West website for a link to the archived segment.

Note: If you are reading this on Facebook, you can get back to the rest of the Dark Creek Blog by clicking here.