That's okay! Glad to see you. Glad you tried duck eggs! I haven't poached any but I do love a good greasy fried egg sandwich. I love baking with them the most. I can tell a difference with making cakes and they are so moist!
I have one Pekin. She's a big duck. My black Swedish male is too short to get on her so no babies lol. I have four Black Swedish and one Khaki Campbell. If I ever buy ducks again I don't think I'd get Pekins again. They are beautiful but they are big birds. I feel my poor Sammy has a hard time keeping up with the smaller ducks and she gets tired out faster. We live on mountainous terrain so that makes it harder on her. I've read as they get older their legs can give out on them so as long as I live in the mountains I think I'll avoid that breed in the future. Her good qualities is she's super friendly and chill. No health issues after almost 2 years and she lays the biggest eggs.
My Khaki Campbell Reese seems to need a different diet than the other ducks. I constantly have to give her more brewers yeast, oyster shell, and other food additives especially in the winter. She was laying a lot of soft eggs and sometimes just had her legs give out on her until I special dieter her. Khaki Campbells are suppose to be super egg layers too so if you had more than one of them with the same diet it would a good breed. It's not always easy tweeking the diet for one.I have to catch Reese and make sure she eats what she needs to and she's fast!
The Black Swedish are really great and my favorite breed. Their eggs are smaller like a chickens in the winter but larger in the warm months. No problems with them. I just give them layer feed with no additives and they do fine. An egg a day from each girl. They are great foragers and my feed costs go down in the warmer months with them. They aren't skittish like my Khaki Campbell which are known for being skittish. They are cold hardy too so no need to heat their house in our climate.
So yeah....long response lol. I could talk about ducks all day! I hope you get some. They are just so cute and fun to have.
Thank you VERY much for your long response lol!! We travel a lot (yes we are headed to Australia from Canada, and then hopping on a cruise :) sooo, the girl that looks after our house and used to look after my cat (cat died recently) she is a total animal person and I told her that I would buy her all if she wanted to raise ducks :) Thank you again for your posts! I would have never have known nor tried duck eggs if it wasn't for you ! Now I"m hooked!
Be careful traveling. Here in the US the Coronavirus has everybody on lock down in their homes. A local couple here were quarantined for a month on a cruise ship because someone had it so their trip was ruined.
I'll be making lots of duck posts soon. I've got baby ducks hatching tonight and I'm going to be in duckling euphoria for a while. Depending on how many I get I'll be selling some of them. I hope you get some ducks. I'd time it so that you get them when you won't be traveling so you can handle them a lot as babies. Makes all the difference. My first 3 I handled a lot and they will chill with me and eat from my hand. The other 3 I got sick and couldn't be with them the first several weeks and they are more skittish of more. Won't come too close which is sad.