If you want information on housing chickens, backyard or otherwise, a simple web search turns up quite a bit. Where to buy a coop, what to feed ‘em and when, what to do if they’re broody, moody or just a bit odd. Acquiring an actual set-up just for ducks or attempting to build the same, prepare to dig deeper. After several hours of confounding on-line research, I ordered Holderread’s classic tome, “Raising Ducks” then rather waiting for the mail to come, I kept browsing. Maybe I could find someone in the poultry community who could help.
Clicking around, I came up with the idea of taking my daughter to Stone Barns Center, the agri-chic model farm in nearby Pocantico Hills, NY where we could pay $14 for the fun of plucking eggs from under a bunch of chicken butts. (That’s $14 for both of us, btw.) If the name rings a bell, maybe it’s because that’s where First Lady Michelle Obama made her now-famous announcement launching her campaign against childhood obesity. Like I said, why not start at the top?
Although we had already ordered our birds, we were well within the cancellation period so I thought it might be a good idea to see how well Pamela and poultry actually performed. Overkill? Perhaps. But I’m a part of the generation that had to go to a local hospital to have someone show me how to diaper a baby (don’t laugh—the classes, in Westside L.A., were packed.) So the way my mind works, Want an Egg? Find an Expert! (Thought I was gonna to say, Eggspert, weren’t you? Ha!) Living in suburbia, I figured I had a choice: drive a few painful hours to/from Brooklyn or hop on the 287 to a town in idyllic lower Westchester a mere 30 minutes by freeway….ok, it’s official. I’m a suburbanite! (sigh)
Copyright 2012, Lori Fontanes
What the Ducks! 