Duck eggs

Ducks eggs are rich, creamy and very smooth.  The best laying ducks are the Khaki Campbell or an Indian Runner as they lay more than the Muscovy. So far my ducks do not like to lay in the pen like the chickens lay in the coop.

My Muscovies are the expert in hiding their laying nests

So far I have made a nest for them in the pen and I'm letting them out to free range mid morning which is making them lay some inside the nest. If you know of a way to train them to always lay inside let me know.  So far all I have read is that they are good at hiding their eggs.

As for the Pekins, they have been laying everywhere even on he side of the pond and also have dug a little whole next to the pen door and every morning I collect an egg there.

 

 Their eggs are a little larger than a chicken egg, when used in baking the result is a lighter, richer and moist.

DYI- Laundry soap

In October I made my first homemade laundry soap using a recipe I got from this site. So far I like it's performance.

I made 5 gallon bucket using recipe #1, having a toddler in the house I do a lot of laundry and anticipate saving some $ by using homemade soap and it's also better for us as we have lots of allergies.

Anyone have experience with DIY soaps free to share.

About

Thank you for stopping by to visit my homesteading world.

This blog is about my experiences in my backyard homesteading journey. Early this year I started keeping chickens and duck and also a small veggie garden all this I plan on increasing as the years go by. I've always loved farm life and kept my own little garden and had rabbits in grade school through teenage, my parents live in a farm and growing up they kept cows, goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, doves, dogs, at some point they kept pigs too.

In January 2014 we closed on our home and a few months later I seriously started my homesteading journey. Though a tough Journey, it's filled with pleasure as I experience the Joy of growing our own vegetables, collecting eggs from my free ranging chickens watching duck TV (they are funny creatures) and teaching my now 2 year old daughter to garden and feed poultry.

During your visit to this blog please leave a comment or suggestion if you like. All comments on all posts will get checked frequently. I'll try and answer every post as best as I can.

The beggining

After we bought our house I had been toying with the idea of keeping chickens for and on February 19th I went to our local farmers and planters store and brought home 7 sex link day old chicks.

A few days after I was shopping for their supplies at tractor supply and came home with 5 CX day old chicks. In the course of the next two months I added 4 more sex link chicks and 2 grown red star chickens.
To start with I raised them in a simple plastic tub changing their bedding daily, I kept them in a spare room in the house until they were 4 to 5 weeks old and moved them to the garage in a grow out coop.

Later I moved them outside to their coop and run and free ranging backyard at about 8 to 10 weeks of age.

They are now all grown and proving me and family with an overabundance of eggs. I also now have 9 ducks raised from ducklings bought off of craigslist, they are also laying fertile eggs that I plan to hatch out come spring.