Whitneys first 4 eggs
Sunday found half an egg under the cherry tree. Monday my brother brought a monster egg out of the coop, she seemed to have caught up, the shell was lovely and thick.
All going well! I'd heard that you have to lock up free range ducks in the morning or they lay anywhere and you can easter egg hunt constantly, so Tuesday morning when the birds had scurried past me out the coop door I searched around quickly, no new eggs.
The plastic training eggs placed in the chicken's nesting boxes and the darkened corner (the one with tarps the ducks refused to live in) had become partially buried but I put it down to the chickens scratching.
We all tried searching for Whitney's mysterious Tuesday egg with no luck. Oh well, maybe she won't lay every day?
Wednesday morning found... still no eggs? weird. Whitney quacked around outside. Now the plastic egg in the dark corner was gone. Crud I'm already a bit late for work. I'd better search for that plastic egg, what if a rat took it? I don't want them coming in here taking eggs.
Better start in the last place I saw it, digging around in the wood shavings and there it was! completely buried, along with two little duck eggs!
wait, ducks bury their eggs?
Not always apparently, Thursday she laid it on top of her nest in the corner, but apart from her first couple of days there has been an egg a day in that same area. Sometimes she digs right down to the concrete floor and gets distracted before covering it again, other days you have to find it but so far it's always there. Friday evening she got a big fright and we found a half formed egg in the duck pool and another next to it, poor girl. Saturday I was not surprised to find nothing, but Sunday she had laid another giant egg!
Mondays huge egg next to Wednesdays egg
My first thoughts were that the bigger eggs were normal sized for her, but it turns out they were both double yolkers
As usual the birds didn't take too kindly to the addition of new layer food with their grower food, I've been mixing the two together. Chuck in particular picks out what he doesn't want and makes a pile next to the container. The layer feed I've chosen is less processed than they are used to, I like that you can still see the grains and bits in it, but found my picky eaters would leave most of the smaller dustier things behind. Mixing water in has fixed that and they go nuts for it now! Whitney has even been spied nomming up the free choice oyster shell, although that gets tipped all over the place more often than not.
I had been concerned about whether the entire flock should be eating layer yet, the 'dottes are a few weeks off laying yet although I expect Whitney to start soon, and the boys won't lay ever. Layer feed has added calcium that young birds shouldn't be eating, mine all do free range though so they can supplement their diets with bugs, grass and whatever else they decide they like. Which apparently is not yogurt...
It's exciting to see the chicky girls little combs starting to develop, I understand they will get big red combs and waddles, maybe start squatting when heading into the time they will start to lay...
I don't mind if they take their time though.
I can entertain myself by learning how to cook duck eggs in the meantime. I've tried frying them, they are quite good!
To me they taste pretty much like a chicken egg, although the whites have quite a different texture as they have considerably more protein so it is important not to overcook them.
I can also distract myself by trying to figure out whether the little egg yolks show a simple tiny white dot, or the concentric white circles that display whether Stevie has figured out how to fertilize them or not... I'm pretty sure no at the moment, but he has plenty of time until spring.
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