Enter the Water Fowl

(Zholtee...Russian for Yellow... our new Embeden Goose at 2 days old. He/She should help protect my ducks from dogs and stray kids. I expect a tyrannical attack goose!)

 
(Ancona Duckling at two days old...love the spotted feet!)
 
Every year as the daylight comes back my farmer gene rears its evil head. It is a strange sickness but with the sun comes my need to acquire farm animals. It started with chickens and has escalated on and off from there. I have no idea why, but I just like owning animals I can eat when they become annoying. My dog is so lucky we have certain social stigmas in this country. I also think it is good for my kids to know where eggs and bacon come from.

We have had chickens for eight years. We live on a nice spot by Bethel standards and our back yard butts right up onto a shallow pond that is the first to thaw out each spring. There are no other houses on the back side of the lake so it makes for a nice view and I have been told over the years that I was missing out by not keeping ducks or geese.

This year as daylight started creeping back my farmer gene got the better of me. I discovered that I love, and I mean love, eating duck this last winter. It is fatty and juicy and at Kinley's in Anchorage they made it for me rare. It had the best crispy skin I have ever had AND it was rare. It defied the laws of physics and I am hooked. I decided to go for it. I ordered 8 ducks and 2 geese and decided I would go for it and see if they make a nice addition to our strange little homestead. Worst case scenario is that I just eat them all ... not a bad plan at all.

I have heard that geese can be really mean. I have kids so this gave me pause. Then I thought about all the stray dogs and stray kids that trample my garden and terrorize my chickens and decided a couple highly trained attack geese might not be a bad idea. I am pretty excited. I think they will protect my ducks and they will add to the lore of my yard. I aspire to be the crazy lady with the attack geese.

After much research I decided to go with:

Embeden Geese: very large and are actually not the most aggressive breed
Khaki Campbell Ducks: small but lay insane quantities of eggs if I can figure out how to winter them over
Rouen Ducks: a dual purpose breed good for either eggs or meat
Ancona Ducks: all purpose and mellow and stay close to home

The Geese will be huge and white with blue eyes. They are already obviously smart. It borders on creepy smart. The Khakis are small and frantic and run away from me constantly. The Rouens arrived with what looks like little bank robber mask markings and seem the most curious about people. The Anconas are spotted, even on their feet and are, in my opinion the cutest of the bunch.

I am more excited about this new adventure than I thought I would be. I especially like their creepy duck feet. I never realized they had toenails. So far they all have way more personality than a chicken and they are outdoor tough at two weeks. I like tough.