Chickens and Ducks

Today we found another huge duck egg! We've been weighing the large ones, just to see how big the biggest one is. We weighed one about a month ago that was 158 grams. The one we got today was 153 grams (5.4 ounces).

Here is a photo to show the difference in sizes. The egg on the left is a normal duck egg, the egg on the right is a normal chicken egg, and the one in the center is the giant one that we got this morning.

Vet2Be raises Golden 300 ducks from Metzer Farms. If you are interested in a nutritional comparison between duck and chicken eggs, you can find it here:
http://www.metzerfarms.com/nutri.htm

I've also included some photos of our new chicken tractor. Our son-in-law built one for us last week. Vet2Be is almost 14 and is working on his Eagle Project for Boy Scouts. His project is to invite people in our area to visit Welcome Home Farm and learn how to raise small animals in their own backyard.

While we do have a fantastic barn (and now a really cool chicken tractor), we make do with lots of other un-fancy things (like cardboard apple boxes for lay boxes in the chicken coop). We often have visitors who want to see what we do here and how we do it. Vet2Be's Eagle project will provide the community with an opportunity to come see the farm and ask questions. One of the things people ask about is chicken tractors.
Above is a photo of the chicken tractor with the top doors closed. Below is a photo of it with the doors open. This chicken tractor is rather narrow (about 32" wide) so it will fit between the rows in the garden this year.


This is the right side of the chicken tractor with the roosting poles.

And the left side with the nesting box. Here is this morning's egg!

In the photo below you can see the skies sticking out the end. These are children's skies that I bought at the local thrift store for $5. It makes it easier to pull the chicken tractor around.

Here are the ducklings that came yesterday to Welcome Home Farm. This is our favorite way to raise ducklings--in an old rabbit cage! It provides a non-slip surface for the ducklings to live on, the poo falls through the bottom so it is easy for us to clean up, and we cover it with an old wool blanket to keep out the drafts.