Children's books and Duck Eggs

Five "Children's Books" worth revisiting as adults. Ten minute run time.

• Charlotte's Web
• The Man who planted Trees
• The Wind in the Willows
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Peter and Wendy

Honorable Mention

• Stuart Little
• The Giving Tree
• Something From Nothing
• Where the Wild Things Are 

Duck vs Chicken eggs

Alas, I am not well enough informed to have opinions worth sharing.

The fact that I have a few ducks is entirely by accident. I thought Southern Belle wanted some ducks for her homestead, but I was mistaken. She had been rapidly expanding and wisely decided that she needed some time to sort out what was working and what was not-working before adding more complexity.

So, there I was with some ducks.

The person selling them was allergic to chicken eggs*. They got that sorted out after consulting with a doctor who specialized in allergies and no longer needed them. They sold them to me at a VERY attractive price.

The ducks had started molting (losing their feathers) and were not laying eggs. I decided to give them a two month vacation. On March first, I started adding two hours of supplemental light in the morning and I increased it by a half hour every four days until I started seeing eggs.

I don't eat that many eggs BUT last year my garden was hammered by snails.

One of my readers (probably Michael) quoted Bill Mollison. "You don't have a snail problem. You have a duck deficiency."

In my mind, my duck enterprise is justified by their future in controlling pests in the garden and any eggs and down and meat and baby ducklings they produce is a bonus. Chickens can also control pests but they are more likely to peck tomatoes and dig up newly-planted transplants.

Their shelter is a free (thank-you Craigslist) truck cap and a 5'x8' run made from Tee posts and 2"-by-4" welded wire fencing.

*According to the internet, which sometimes tells the truth, most of the allergens in eggs are in the whites. Sometimes, egg allergies can be avoided by only eating the eggs. The internet cautions that this might only be a temporary fix.

The internet suggests that duck eggs tend to have a higher concentration of the kinds of proteins that are most likely to cause problems but some of them are different proteins than the ones found in chicken eggs. If a person is allergic to the proteins found only in chicken eggs then they will be able to eat duck eggs...for a while. If they are allergic to the proteins shared by both kinds of eggs then they will have violent reactions to duck eggs.

If you are subject to allergies and feel adventurous, then tippy-toe your way along. Try very small portions. Know exactly where your inhaler or epi-pen is and where the bottle of diphenhydramine is. 

So far, egg production has exceeded expectation. I am feeding "Broiler mash" with 90 grams of ground limestone (calcium carbonate) per kg of feed mixed in  per day. That is 15 grams per heaping teaspoon (i.e. six heaping teaspoons per kg). That is for two Khaki Campbell girls, one Rouen girl and one Rouen boy. I am getting three eggs a day.

One surprise has been that duck eggs are slippery! They are significantly smoother and heavier than chicken eggs. You have to be minding your Ps-and-Qs to avoid dropping them. 

Bonus Picture

Shared by a friend of mine in Jackson County, Michigan. Chicken eggs on the left, goose eggs on the right.

Geese make excellent alarms against intruders and have been used to control grass in strawberries and other crops.