Proselytizing poultry and webbed additions

Being purveyors of poultry is pretty great. Last weekend my dad asked us if we could help home two chickens. Apparently Easter ends early for other suburban chickens and my dad was aware enough to know that we would take care of them. Whether that meant adding them to our flock or adding them to our stew pot really didn’t matter to us. Fortunately, I had been talking to a friend about adding a few chickens to his family’s backyard. The great thing about being a suburban chicken farmer is that it is very inexpensive to get set up with a few chickens, food, a coup, and even a run. His family got two “teenage” chickens for free and I would venture to say he spent about $100 to get all the supplies necessary to facilitate them. Their family will get fresh eggs nearly every day starting this summer for the next two or three years with minimal effort. If every suburban family in Portland got the three chickens that the city allows without permit I’m certain there could be an effective change in the way eggs come to market. It is so cheap and easy! I mentioned in one of our earlier blogs that our four hens give us about 90 eggs a month. We eat a lot of eggs. Even two chickens could probably serve a family of four adequately each month.
As far as our flock is concerned, I’m afraid that things might be getting a little crowded. Our new affinity for waterfowl might mean that a grumpy or under-producing chicken might end up in a stewpot this summer. Earlier this week we got our duck hens. We ordered a Pekin and a Rouen; both are supposed to be great general purpose ducks. The Pekin is the duck that you would be served in most culinary experiences. When we went to pick them up I fell in love with a Swedish hen. Our duck flock is up to five. We have a Rouen drake and four hens that are: Indian runner, Rouen, Swedish, and Pekin. This flock will create offspring that will be our future meat source.
There are many things we need to do to prepare to introduce the ducks to the rest of the flock. A larger water source, separate housing, and clean conditions are going to be essential to having happy birds. Once we have them, however, we will have excellent eggs from two varieties of poultry, ducks that will procreate and feed our family, and birds that have a better quality of life than what is found in any commercial operation