We raised chickens years ago, and they were always pecking each other. When I wanted to get back into raising poultry, I did a lot of research and learned that ducks are much healthier than chickens, and have a lot fewer diseases than chickens. Also, because they bathe every day, they normally do not have problems with mites and stuff (my ducks bathe in a plastic kid's pool from
Walmart). I had never eaten a duck egg till my girls started laying, but oh my! They are so delicious they just put chicken eggs to shame!! The taste is not really different, but they taste so much richer. Everything you make with duck eggs tastes better - even better than chicken eggs from free range farm chickens, like we used to get from our neighbor.
And, like the other poster said, their personalities are just so much fun. I currently have Welsh Harlequin ducks, which are an endangered breed that lays more eggs per year than chickens will (around 300 eggs per year, sometimes more). I will be getting another endangered breed of duck at the beginning of May, Saxony ducks, which are much bigger than my Welsh Harlequins and will be primarily meat ducks but which also lay over 200 eggs per year. They are both beautiful breeds. You can go to the website of the hatchery I always use, Holderread's in Oregon, to see great pictures of ducks. Their site is
www.holderreadfarm.com. Dave Holderread is considered to be the foremost waterfowl expert in America, and one of the best in the world.
My daughter calls me the "crazy duck lady", which cracks me up!
