My original ducks are 4 months old this week.  Cher (the white Pekin, always front and center) and Ringo (the ring necked Khaki Campbell) are finished with their feather changes.  Sonny (the large brown Rouen) will continue to change color until his head turns a bright green.  He will look like a HUGE Mallard duck.

Cher is absolutely the leader of the pack.  I’ll get a video of her sometime soon so you can hear our morning alarm quack. 

You can see that Sonny has gotten his curly tail feather.  That is the definitive signal that he’s a boy! 

Sometimes when I talk the ducks look at me like I’m crazy!  Or maybe, is it because I AM talking to ducks??

Maybe you can see that the front part of Sonny’s head is turning green in the front.  His breast is also getting lighter.

Kacey can’t stand all the attention and usually gets right in the middle of the ducks to show off her fabulous self!

Seems simple enough, but ducks really appreciate fresh water. I took this video today so you can see how much they play (and other things) in a clean pool. I’ll keep this as G-rated as possible for all my young friends out there, but you get what I mean!

I recently went fishing with my dad at Glen Elder Lake in north central Kansas.  I’m really not much help with getting the boat ready or hooking it up or anything like that.  My dad does all the work.  I’m just there for the fishing.   What a girl!  By the way, I do bait my own hook and take off my own fish, so there!

We went by an interesting “tourist” attraction on the way to the lake in Cawker City, KS, that I’m sure you all are dying to see.

It’s the World’s Largest BALL of TWINE! 

And then we went on to the bait shop for minnows, notice the sign!  We didn’t HONK or HOLLAR….I hope that was OK?

OH, wait!  I CAN pull the boat trailer OUT of the water and park the truck.  That’s pretty good, isn’t it?

Not a bad lake day, except for that Kansas wind that comes up when you least expect it.

And well, this one’s just for fun!

This is what we were catching that day…..lots of crappie!

I will admit, I do think it’s kind of pathetic answering a cell phone while catching a fish, out in the middle of nowhere, but hey, when kids call, you gotta answer!

At the end of the day, we had 30 crappie in the boat.  That’s not counting ALL we missed or the ones we put back.

THAT was a fun day!  Thanks Dad and HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

I am noticing these days that more and more friends and family are dropping by the house to “see the ducks”. I don’t know that I’ve heard anyone say, “Hey, we’re dropping by to see YOU!”  My great niece and nephew (OMG that makes me feel old), Myranda and Preston, made their parents stop in to see the ducks tonight. 

They fed the ducks some grapes……

And while the kids were having a great time swinging……

The ducks made themselves comfortable nearby and took a quick nap.

I’m pretty sure Myranda and Preston will talk about their night with the ducks for awhile.  And probably bug their mom and dad to come over again, sorry Steph and Mike!

At least I think that’s what the ducks are thinking. Seems like we are attracting a few extras these days….

The ducks could really care less.

But this guy is really starting to make me angry.  Besides eating the duck food, they also like my garden!

I can even go right up to the feeder and he doesn’t budge unless I make lots of noise, then he just comes back when I walk away!

He must think if he turns around I won’t notice!!??

You’re thinking, nice squirrel-ette in the window, right?

Whew! That’s a mouthful, but boy do I love this Nikon! I was at my dad’s farm recently and was picking mulberries. I experimented with berry pictures and WOW, some nice shots evolved. The great thing about this camera is you don’t have to be a great photographer, just shoot and holler and it does the work!

I had company while I picked……

This is STEALTH, my dad’s awesome black lab.

And then there’s PRINCESS, who is Stealth’s Shih Tzu Sidekick.  They make a comical pair!

My last, forever and ever (maybe), number of ducks is now…..drum roll please…..6! I found someone to take my 3 drakes, but there was a small catch. I had to meet his mom halfway between 2 cities. So this is how the story goes….

This is John, George and Paul (Ringo is in the background by the way), and the Pekin (whitey) is Cher.

My whole duck adventure started out with 5 Khaki Campbell ducklings, which I really believed from the beginning were all girls.  As they matured, 4 of them molted and the colors that returned were definite boys (dark green heads)!  During this time I also adopted 2 others, a Pekin and a Rouen.  At this point, I realized my ratio of boy to girl was NOT good.  The best mix (yes, men will love this) is about 5 hens to 1 drake.

I put out a 911 request on my favorite website, www.backyardchickens.com , that I desperately needed to save my hens and find a good home for my excess drakes.  I took one drake 30 miles east last week and from that drop off plus $20, I got back 3 new Khaki hens.  HOORAY, since they were instant egg layers. 

Last night I did some more excessing and the poor guys had to take a road trip….

If I had a few more hands I could have taken pictures of how hubby and I got them to this point, but it wasn’t so pretty.  Trust me, there are 3 ducks in the box.

I met “mom” in a McD’s parking lot and we quite literally smashed the box into her small four door car (with a child in a carseat too!) and away she went. 

This morning, of course, my first thoughts were, how did the ducks handle the drive, where did they go and will they be happy? I know, I know, they aren’t children.  Around lunchtime today I received a great note and pics from the new owner, Tim, showing off what he calls “handsome drakes” in his pond…..

YUP, I think they’re happy!!  I wanna go!!  Thanks again, Tim, I have no worries.

Have you ever thought about EATING a duck egg? I don’t think most people do. When I tell folks that I have ducks in my backyard for the eggs, they scrunch up their face and give me that “why would you want to do that?” look. We’ve had 3 more eggs in the yard this last day, therefore, we needed to have the celebratory egg on toast for breakfast.

Very fresh, free-range duck eggs are similar to very fresh free-range chicken eggs, in both appearance and flavor. The yolks are deep orange; the flavor is rich; and fresh eggs “stand up” when cracked into a pan.

Duck eggs have a slightly higher fat content and a bit more cholesterol than chicken eggs. I don’t plan to survive exclusively on eggs, so I don’t see this as a big problem.  One health benefit with duck eggs is that most people who are allergic to chicken eggs are able to eat duck eggs without allergic reactions.  Another recent study found that free-range eggs are much higher in omega-3 fatty acids than eggs from birds raised in confinement.  I’m all about omega-3!

Duck eggs also have more albumen (the protein in the white) than chicken eggs, which gives them more structure when cooked. For this reason, lots of folks really like duck eggs for baking.  The extra protein creates additional loft in cakes.

When fried, duck eggs set up firmer than chicken eggs (especially if they are very fresh). Many people call the result “rubbery” and recommend steam-frying them, but I think this is an exaggeration. I really don’t see much difference.

The shells of duck eggs are thicker than those of chicken eggs, which makes them harder to crack. I was used to cracking eggs on the flat counter to prevent bits of shell getting into the egg, but I’m going back to using the edge of a bowl.

Now, if you really want the nitty gritty, check out the nutrition comparison of a duck egg versus a chicken egg.  The flavor of a duck only varies slightly from a chicken egg.  They are rich, and their flavor is a bit darker than that of chicken eggs. That’s the best I can describe it and I think they are pretty darn yummy!

When it’s all said and done, what I have in the end is one damn ugly fried egg on toast.  It ain’t pretty, but it sure is good!  AND, I know where it came from…..

 That not so pretty hen, sitting outside, chomping on a  TOMATO PLANT!!!!!!!!  AHHHHH!!  Gotta run!