Bucking Duck Ranch LLC

Bucking Duck Ranch LLC We pride ourselves on the animals we raise and the transparency with which we do so.

•Pasture Raised Grass Fed Calves
•NONGMO Pasture Raised Turkeys
•Hatching Eggs
•Exhibition Poultry & Waterfowl
•Holland Lops
Pinned posts for more info
https://buckingduckranch.wixsite.com/bucking-duck-ranch
NW Indiana At Bucking Duck Ranch, we are dedicated to producing high-quality, delicious products through regenerative land management and humane animal husbandry practices. Our livestock are a

ll grown with the utmost care, attention to detail, and love, the way God intended. We are dedicated to sustainable farming practices that promote healthy soil, healthy animals, and healthy communities. Our regenerative farming approach allows us to produce the highest quality meat, and our no-till methods and rotational grazing practices ensure that the land remains healthy and able to sustain itself for generations to come.

Well… I messed up.When the weather was cooler, I was leaving my garage door open. I had new pullets that had just starte...
09/05/2026

Well… I messed up.

When the weather was cooler, I was leaving my garage door open. I had new pullets that had just started laying, and apparently they decided that my garage was the perfect place to come looking for a spot to lay their eggs. They were checking every possible corner, nook, box, and random spot they could find… and of course, while they were wandering around looking for the perfect place to lay an egg, they were also leaving little “presents” all over my garage.

So I put a box with shavings in the garage.
My thinking was: Less wandering around = less chicken p**p everywhere = they can just walk in, find the box, lay their egg, and leave.

Well, the last week and a half has been HOT, which means the garage door has been closed.
And apparently… THEY ARE NOT OKAY WITH THIS😂

Now these pullets have decided that the garage is their designated maternity ward and they WILL NOT BE DENIED. They have started gawking at me loudly trying to find me so I will come open the garage door. Then I started noticing chickens jumping up onto the outside window mantel by my kitchen sink, basically yelling through the window:

“HEY! LADY! OPEN THE GARAGE!”

And because apparently that wasn't enough, one of my back doors has a half-window, and they're jumping up against the window like:

“EXCUSE ME. WE HAVE AN EGG TO DELIVER.”

So now here I am having to go open the man door to let them in the garage. They happily walk straight inside, go directly to their little box of shavings, and lay their egg.
And now I've created a problem.
I have officially trained my chickens to ask me to open the door when they need to use the "bathroom". I apparently have chickens acting like dogs now.

I normally do not like blue eggs, but when they are covered in white speckles is when I love them. I am crushing on the ...
09/05/2026

I normally do not like blue eggs, but when they are covered in white speckles is when I love them.
I am crushing on the olives covered in tan speckles this year.

These ones are hard to let go!CURRENT AVAILABLE EXHIBITION BIRDS: The rest of what is available is the best of the best ...
09/04/2026

These ones are hard to let go!
CURRENT AVAILABLE EXHIBITION BIRDS: The rest of what is available is the best of the best of what we will have available for the year.

If you are ready for the fall show season or already planning ahead for next year's fairs make sure you don't miss these birds.

We are only selling because we need the space and to lower the feed bill, otherwise they'd be staying.
First Come First Serve. We do not hold birds.

*2- 2025 White Call duck males.
*1- 2026 Pekin Pair. Extra girls with the purchase of any male from this list.
*1- 2026 White Runner Male.
*2- 2026 LF White Rock Males.
*1- 2026 Brown African male.
Please PM to discuss. Serious inquiries only. I do not send pictures or have time to play the "million questions" game.
Farm pick up only in NW Indiana.

Choosing the Final Roosters (Cockerels) for your pretty egg baskets.How do YOU choose which grow-out roosters you keep f...
09/03/2026

Choosing the Final Roosters (Cockerels) for your pretty egg baskets.

How do YOU choose which grow-out roosters you keep for your breeding program when your goals are those pretty, speckled, colorful egg baskets?

This is honestly one of the hardest parts of breeding for me.

I wanted to keep every single male that is in this picture... all had good temperaments, so handsome, and colorful, but I just can't keep them all so away these 20 had to go.

First I narrow down by, temperament.
If a rooster is mean to humans (which we have yet to have), overly aggressive with the girls, or constantly wants to fight with the other males, he's an easy NO for my breeding program.

Then I look at my goals for the next generation.

What am I trying to improve?
What egg colors or traits am I trying to reinforce?
Which rooster brings something to the table that the next generation actually needs?

Then I look at size.

I don't want a small rooster.
We have HARD winters here, and I want my birds to be hardy, substantial birds that can handle our climate. I also don't want to continually breed smaller and smaller birds and potentially pass along genetics that could contribute to smaller egg size down the road. Silverudds are the smallest breed we utilize in our program, but even with them, if a rooster is just too small, he's got to go.
But I'm also not looking for a massive rooster either.
In my exhibition world, massive can be a GOOD thing. That's a completely different breeding goal.
But when I'm breeding egg layers, I don't want a rooster so massive that he's simply too much on the girls.
I'm looking for that sweet spot- good size and structure, a rooster that compliments the hens.

And then there's the part that makes it REALLY hard…

THEY'RE ALL SO DANG FANCY and FLASHY.

I swear, this is where my personality gets me in trouble.
With pretty much every animal I've ever owned- horses, birds, rabbits, you name it- I have always been the person who wants one in every color. The ONLY animal where I have absolutely no problem picking my favorite color?
Dogs.
I'll choose a chocolate Lab every single time.

So tell me- how do YOU choose your keeper roosters?
Do you have a system, or do you struggle with wanting to keep them all too? Do you have a list that you go through to help you narrow them down or just one thing?

Side note- in my exhibition birds I call them what they are, cockerels or c***s, but in my colored egg birds I call them roosters. For some reason that just makes the most sense to me. 🤣

This customer bought a Buckings Beautys Dozen. 100% fertility!!!Also bought a Cayuga pair and a bantam cochin.
09/03/2026

This customer bought a Buckings Beautys Dozen. 100% fertility!!!

Also bought a Cayuga pair and a bantam cochin.

I see breeders posting their “plain” looking eggs and the hens that laid them, looking for new homes.We don't do that he...
09/02/2026

I see breeders posting their “plain” looking eggs and the hens that laid them, looking for new homes.

We don't do that here.
Our "plain" eggs? They go into our EATING EGGS.
And those hens that are laying them? They just stay in our free-range area. They get to live their best chicken life, laying eggs for our families to eat.

The fancy eggs, the bangers, the ones with the crazy blooms, heavy speckles, ink, unique textures, deep colors, and all the WOW factor?
Those are the eggs I want going into our hatching egg program.
And that applies whether they’re staying here for our own breeding program or going to a customer.

Because when I'm selecting birds for a breeding program, I'm not just looking at “Does she lay a colored egg?”
I'm looking at which birds are producing the kind of eggs I actually want to reproduce. If a hen consistently produces a plain egg while another is producing the kind of eggs that make me stop and take pictures… well, I know which genetics I'm more interested in keeping in the breeding pen.

That doesn't mean a plain egg is a bad egg. In fact "my plain" might be someone else's fancy. But if they don't have texture, blobs, speckles, camo, all the things, they are not going to be hatched.

So tell me, what do you do with your "plain" eggs?

📷 of our plain eating eggs & Mr. Peanut laying in the shade on the concrete trying to keep cool on this hot day.

🦃🍂 This past weekend, we Pre-Thanksgiving Dinnered it! 🍂🦃 Who else LOVES Thanksgiving?!One of the best parts about raisi...
09/02/2026

🦃🍂 This past weekend, we Pre-Thanksgiving Dinnered it! 🍂🦃 Who else LOVES Thanksgiving?!

One of the best parts about raising our own turkeys is that we don’t have to wait until November to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner! We can have Thanksgiving any time of the year! Over the years, we’ve tried just about every method of cooking a turkey, fried, roasted, you name it. But after trying them all…

🔥SMOKED is hands-down our favorite🔥

There’s just something about a pasture-raised turkey, smoked low and slow, surrounded by all the Thanksgiving sides. 🤤 And knowing that turkey came from our own farm makes it even better.

So… are you a smoked turkey, fried turkey, or oven-roasted turkey person? 👇

09/01/2026

Party Favors anyone? I'd take these party favors all day any day.

I had been trying to find something that would replace the mesh hatching bags because they were a pain in the butt. For me, the mesh bags have three BIG problems:

-Wasteful. You have to cut them open usually which means one and done.
-A pain in the butt to tie, untie, or cut open. Especially when you have a whole hatch full of chicks moving all over the place and trying to escape.
-Large and bulky. They take up more space than they need to and can make keeping track of individual chicks harder.

I switched to these little party favor bags at the beginning of the year and I absolutely love them!

They are:

-Reusable, you don't have to cut them open.
-SO quick and easy to open and close. No tying or fighting with knots.
-Plenty of room for the chick without having a huge bulky bag.
-Keeps chicks separated so they aren't trampling all over each other.
-Makes identification SO much easier. I can keep each chick matched to the egg it hatched from.
And when you're hatching for color, genetics, breeding projects, or keeping track of specific pairings, being able to know exactly which chick came from which egg is important.

I've used these for every hatch this year and honestly don't know why I didn't switch sooner. Typically, once they start pipping I put them in their little party favor bags.

Sometimes the best hatching supplies aren't even sold as hatching supplies.

If you're still using the mesh bags, give these a try. Your future hatching self will thank you!

Here is the link to them directly.
https://amzn.to/4h1vweC

A LITTLE HATCHING EGGDUCATION THAT CAN SAVE YOU SOME DISAPPOINTMENT… WANT THE EGGS YOU SEE A BREEDER POSTING RIGHT NOW? ...
08/31/2026

A LITTLE HATCHING EGGDUCATION THAT CAN SAVE YOU SOME DISAPPOINTMENT… WANT THE EGGS YOU SEE A BREEDER POSTING RIGHT NOW? THEN YOU WOULD WANT THEIR PREVIOUS SEASON’S EGGS THAT PRODUCED THOSE EGGS.

If you are looking at a breeder’s eggs RIGHT NOW and thinking…
“Those are EXACTLY what I want in my flock!”
There’s something you need to understand before you order.
The eggs you are seeing today are the result of the breeding pairings from the previous generation.

So if you fall in love with the eggs a breeder is posting this season, and you want the best chance of reproducing those same genetics, you would want to look at the hatching eggs from the previous breeding season.

Think of it this way:

Last season's breeding pens → produced this season's laying hens → which are producing the eggs you're seeing now.

The eggs you purchase and hatch this year are the next generation.
And that next generation may look different.
Even if the same hens are involved, if they were bred to a different rooster, you're introducing a different combination of genetics. Their daughters may lay eggs that are lighter, darker, more speckled, less speckled, different in bloom, different in texture, or even fall into a different shade altogether.

That's why you can't look at a breeder's current eggs and assume:
“If I hatch these, my hens will eventually lay exactly this.”
Genetics don't work that way.

The eggs you're admiring today are showing you what that particular generation and those particular pairings produced.

So if you see a breeder posting eggs right now that you absolutely LOVE, don't just ask:

“Can I buy these eggs, I want these exact eggs in my basket?”

Ask:

“What breeding season produced these eggs?”
Because you would want to be buying those eggs if you want the same eggs you are currently seeing.

And here’s where it gets interesting…

Breeding pens can change from season to season.

A breeder may have changed roosters.
A hen may have been moved into a different pen.
A new rooster may have been introduced.
A breeder may be making a completely different genetic cross this year.

You're not just buying an egg. You're buying a snapshot of a breeding program at a specific point in time.

Never did I think this day would ever come… but it has.I have been watching that odometer, waiting for the big 200,000 m...
08/30/2026

Never did I think this day would ever come… but it has.

I have been watching that odometer, waiting for the big 200,000 mile mark, and somehow I MISSED IT! I am so bummed.

I cannot believe I am driving around in this minivan with OVER 200,000 MILES on it. At this point, we don’t even call it the minivan anymore. It’s officially the Farm Van because this thing will never be clean again.

We bought her practically brand new back in 2010, and she has been through A LOT with us.

She’s been ran into twice. Nothing that Jesse’s telehandler couldn’t straighten out, though. 😂 True story. He literally used the telehandler to straighten the frame back out after the last person ran into us, crushing my front left side and drivers door in.

Yes she has some dents, dings, and scratches, but this old girl has been SO good to us.

She has hauled kids, groceries, farm supplies, bags of feed, shavings, more dirt and bird feathers than any respectable minivan should ever have to endure. And through all of it, she has kept us safe.

She’s still such a nice, comfortable ride, and I have zero desire to buy a brand-new vehicle just to have a minor heart attack the first time someone dings the door in a parking lot. Or when the inevitable rock hits the windshield.

Because yes I have been driving this van around with a broken windshield for most of the time we’ve owned it. A lovely little rock decided to make its mark, and apparently that windshield and I have just been in a long-term relationship ever since.

She may not be pretty, but she’s dependable, comfortable, paid for, and has a LOT of memories attached to her.

So here’s to 200,000+ miles and many more farm miles to come.

Address

Wheatfield, IN

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 7pm
Tuesday 11am - 7pm
Wednesday 11am - 7pm
Thursday 11am - 7pm
Friday 11am - 7pm
Saturday 11am - 7pm
Sunday 11am - 7pm

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