Tag: ducks

Meet the Ducklings! Three new members of Stargazer Hollow

Posted on by Meghan Buckley
3 ducklings cuddled together on a heating pad in a cardboard box

Today we welcomed three new members to the Stargazer Hollow team — a trio of Indian Runner Ducklings!

3 ducklings cuddled together on a heating pad in a cardboard boxThey are just two days old today, and will live inside with the family until they grow enough of their adult feathers to be ready to swim in the duck pool with our three adults.  I expect this will be sometime around the end of August.

Living on a small farm with limited space for now, we are keeping to a maximum of 6 ducks.  In the future, when we have bought a larger property, we definitely want a big flock! The ducks are delightful to watch, and their eggs are our most popular product at the markets.

All three ducks are likely to lay blue or blue-tinted eggs, once they start laying.  I’d expect their first eggs around the end of September.

Without further ado…

Xena is a black runner duck, like Aurora.

Zelda is a blue runner duck, like Cinder.

Leia is a chocolate runner duck, our first one!

The ducklings took their first trip outside today as well, since it was a nice day.  They explored the herb garden and had a few snacks.

National Egg Day

Posted on by Meghan Buckley
A basket full of colorful eggs with decorative daisy flowers. In the corner, text that says "National Egg Day".

Yesterday was National Egg Day, according to those fun “unusual holiday” calendars.  A basket full of colorful eggs with decorative daisy flowers. In the corner, text that says "National Egg Day".

We celebrated by gathering up this week’s eggs in a basket to take a picture of their awesome variations.  Our ducks lay eggs with shells that are different colors from each other, which is pretty cool to see! This doesn’t impact the taste or color of the egg itself at all, and is mostly related to the bloom on the egg.

The eggs are also still coming out with some variation in size, since the ducks are young and only recently started laying.  Buttercup is the first duck to lay consistently — basically all “extra large” size white pretty eggs.

We also gave the ducks a bouquet of trimmed arugula flowers as a treat!

In honor of National Egg Day, I’d also like to pass along a recommendation for my ideal method of making scrambled eggs.  Such an easy food, but it’s so easy to make bad scrambled eggs.  Follow these instructions and it’ll be perfect.

 

Snow Day

Posted on by Meghan Buckley
The field covered in snow, with the raised rows still visible

The field covered in snow, with the raised rows still visibleToday we had the first day of snow on the little farmstead.  It’s cool that you can still see the raised rows even with the snow! Our cover crop winter rye and vetch is still green and well underneath the blanket of snow, and the garlic is tucked in beneath a heavy bed of straw.  Gonna be a little tough to get to the compost pile for the next few days!

The three ducklings in an ex-pen in the snow

We brought the ducklings outside for their first taste of snow as well.  They were only out for a few minutes, since it’s pretty chilly and they don’t have their full set of adult feathers yet to keep them warm. 

We sat out on the deck with an expen set up to prevent them from accidentally slipping through the railing of the deck.

Aurora and Cinder were pretty underwhelmed, but Buttercup gave it a good try! Seems like a good representation for how we all feel about snow and the beginning of winter.

Our Australian Shepherds Surge and Jenny playing in the snow. Surge has a snowball in his mouth.

The dogs also got in on the action, with an impromptu lunchtime snowball fight!

Though the farm is quiet right now, the days of seed starting and soil amendments are right around the corner.

Introducing Our Ducklings: Aurora, Cinder, and Buttercup

Posted on by Meghan Buckley
baby ducklings in a small pile, napping

Here on our little farm we have our first three farm animals: Indian Runner ducklings.

baby ducklings in a small pile, napping

The ducklings came home on October 30 at 1 day old, and have grown a ton already!

We picked ducks to start with over chickens as they are quite quiet (we are in a suburb with neighbors nearby), and they are excellent at foraging, which will make them a great add to our organic methods of gardening.  They will spend their days out picking bugs off of our plants and splashing around in a small pond that we made them!

Ducks also lay excellent eggs.  They lay about as many as chickens, and the eggs are larger and notoriously good for baking.

We picked Indian Runner Ducks because I wanted an heirloom breed known for high egg production and good foraging ability.  As a side bonus, runner ducks have a really fun very upright posture, and they’re very fast moving!

Since they’re just babies, they’re set up inside our kitchen in a brooder right now.  We are working on their coop and run, which we should have completely ready by the end of January.

 

 

Cinder is a blue runner duck, and she will be a dark slate silver when her adult feathers grow in. Her eggs will be a mix of blue and white.
buttercup, a fawn and white runner duckling, in a bowl
Buttercup is a fawn and white runner duck.  Though she is mostly yellow now, when she grows up she will have a mixed pattern of brown and white feathers.  Her eggs will be white
Aurora, a black runner duckling, in a bowl of water
Aurora is a black runner duck, and she will be close to jet black when she grows her adult feathers. Most of her eggs will be blue.