I love mine! They forage really well, and aren't loud very often. From time to time, like today with gusty October winds ruffling the trees, one or two hens will get quacking, scolding the trees or just hollering about how much they love swimming around, or yelling at the goats. Who knows. It's definitely my chocolates who are loudest, for some reason. I can't imagine one of my drakes going after a person. My oldest ones will be two years in April, no one's so much as hissed. They're really very calm, always mooching around for peas. The egg-laying has been phenomenal. Most days I get one from everyone. They're molting now so I'm getting 3-4 instead of 6-7 a day.
My favorite part though is seeing what comes out of the egg. I have three drakes now - a blue split for chocolate, a black who might be, and a young fellow of 8 weeks who is a really lovely lavender (possibly tricolor - I need to see if that patch on his back has grown in dark or not.) As for hens I have 6 chocolate, 4 black, 1 tricolor, 2 lavender, and 1 blue. So - hatching is FUN
I mean it ALWAYS is, but you know what you're gonna get with, like, Pekins. With Anconas the suspense is awesome
I sold my first babies this year and had no trouble selling them locally. I plan to raise and sell more in Spring, as well as ship eggs.
And they are big enough to eat, though I wouldn't skin one again. They're not very fatty so you want the skin on IMO.
Gosh I really need to take new pictures.