Meet Bonnie and Clyde from Swanannoa. A mating pair of Indian Runner Ducks that are the latest additions to River Rest.

Ducks in general are excellent foragers. Known as insect, snail and slug exterminators. Runners lay more eggs per year than chickens. Duck eggs are also about 25% larger that chicken eggs. They are great for baking and taste pretty darn good too. Runners are also meat birds making them dual purpose.

Runners have a very unique appearance. They have been described as a wine bottle with a head and legs. They also have a more smooth running gait rather than waddle.

We  picked up Bonnie and Clyde last Saturday. We enjoyed meeting Pat and her son Darius(who actually named them). They have quite a menagerie including; ducks, chickens, goats, miniature donkeys, dogs, cats and a pair Capybara. Each one was a rescue animal. I could tell that they both have a good heart and are very good to their animals.

Along with the pair of ducks we came home with 9 fertile duck eggs. One of our hens, Red, went broody again. She just successfully raised a clutch of chicks. Since we no longer have a rooster we thought, hey let’s sit her on some duck eggs. I’ve read where a chicken hen will raise duckings so we decided to give her a chance. We gave her 7 eggs (kept 2 for breakfast). Duck eggs take about 28 days to incubate (chicken eggs take 20-21 days) so Red has about 21 days to go.

It’s going to be interesting to watch a chicken raise a flock of ducklings. Charley mused the other day about how Red might freak out the first time she takes them to the creek for a drink and the ducklings jump into the water!

You may ask, why we didn’t let Bonnie have the eggs. Well as far as I can tell she is not feeling broody. If she wants to take over raising them after they hatch then that’s between her and Red. Right now her job is to provide us with eggs for our table. It’s Clyde’s job to make them fertile so we can raise more Runners. They are very loving to each other and seem to like having the chickens around. They are very shy around us and it’s been hard to get good photos of them. I’m hoping that they will eventually warm up to us.

There’s alot going on here at The RiverRest this spring. We’ve been busy getting the garden ready, preparing the soil and starting transplants. It seems like every year it gets bigger.

We had to find ways to keep the chickens out of the garden. All of the Bamboo that Charley and Tony cut and hauled here really came in handy. We used it to build a fence around the main garden and the Potato Patch. So Far So Good. We’ll be publishing our stick fence building experiences as soon as we get around to writing it. In the meantime, here’s some photos of our new bamboo fences.

Last year we built a primitive stick fence around the new Strawberry Patch. We used sticks, limbs and twigs from the woods. It lasted the Winter but was in need of some repairs so we decided to try something new with the bamboo.

Probably the most exciting thing to happen is with the chickens. Red, one of our hens, went broody. She started sitting on a few eggs so we jumped at the chance to let her hatch them.

I’ve got many things I want to tell you all about. Like about how our dog Pearl has become an egg retriever, making Dandelion Jelly and what to do with KnotWeed. So, please bear with me. I’ll get around tuit, soon, I promise!

What a great addition the chickens have been. Not only are they providing food, the best eggs we’ve ever eaten, and meat, they are a great source of entertainment. Shortly after we got the 10 hens we got 13 roosters. The 10 hens are thriving and giving us plenty of eggs. We have 3 roosters left which is really one more than we need but Johnny is so ugly and goofy that… well he’s still around. [Read more →]

We have at least 3 laying now. 2 Wyandottes and 1 Ameracauna. One is giving us double yokes  & one is giving us green eggs. [Read more →]

As I was enjoying my morning coffee, listening to the birds, chickens, and the creek as it tumbled across the rocks I began to feel a bit poetic. Susan and Tony suggested that I post it so here it is. I hope you enjoy it. [Read more →]