featherkids
In the Brooder
Today was a busy day! My husband and I had the problem of too many drakes (3) to ducks (2). We rehomed two of our boys today, thank goodness, and were extremely fortunate to find someone selling 2 female anconas as well! We dropped the boys off at their new home (it was hard to leave them...) and picked up the new girls on the way back.
Our new ducks are said to be about 6 weeks old. Our original ducks are 12 weeks old. I figured that there wouldn't be too much pecking order change because of the age difference and the fact that the original three outnumber and are larger than the new ones. Ha. Can you tell I'm new to this?
We put the carrier with the new ducks down in the run and opened the door. The original three were in their pond swimming around. The new ducks began quacking and slowly came out. The old ducks came out of the pond to investigate. What happened next had me in stitches.
The new ducks ran over eagerly. And my usually calm, happy anconas ran away like their tails were on fire! They literally ran laps around their run. The new ones kept quacking like "wait! we want to be friends! let us in!" and the old ones just wouldn't stop. At one point, everyone got turned around and began running the opposite direction. Then our lone male got mixed up and somehow ended up at the back of the chase.
We finally got involved, and herded them all into the smaller enclosure area. They all stopped running, and started getting used to each other. After they all calmed down, we let them back out into the larger area. The established ducks got back in the pond. The new ones took a little while to figure it out. It seemed like they had never really been swimming before. They were trying to walk in the water, rather than swim. They figured it out pretty quickly. Once they all got into the pond it seemed like things were going to be fine. Everyone got a treat of cantaloupe and grapes and fish food pellets.
I was surprised to notice that one of our new little females is already trying to challenge the fearless leader, Sonya. So far Sonya is standing her ground. They don't seem overly aggressive about it, just some poking and mild nibbles. Has anyone else had an uppity newcomer take over the flock? Or is it likely that Sonya will put her in her place? Is there any behavior I should watch out for?
We managed to wrangle them all into the coop for the night, we'll see how they are come morning.
The new blackfoot gang:
Left to right: Sonya (female), Peter (male), Sasha (female), Katya (new female), and Misha (new female)
This is post-running. The new ones are in the middle.
Our new ducks are said to be about 6 weeks old. Our original ducks are 12 weeks old. I figured that there wouldn't be too much pecking order change because of the age difference and the fact that the original three outnumber and are larger than the new ones. Ha. Can you tell I'm new to this?
We put the carrier with the new ducks down in the run and opened the door. The original three were in their pond swimming around. The new ducks began quacking and slowly came out. The old ducks came out of the pond to investigate. What happened next had me in stitches.
The new ducks ran over eagerly. And my usually calm, happy anconas ran away like their tails were on fire! They literally ran laps around their run. The new ones kept quacking like "wait! we want to be friends! let us in!" and the old ones just wouldn't stop. At one point, everyone got turned around and began running the opposite direction. Then our lone male got mixed up and somehow ended up at the back of the chase.
We finally got involved, and herded them all into the smaller enclosure area. They all stopped running, and started getting used to each other. After they all calmed down, we let them back out into the larger area. The established ducks got back in the pond. The new ones took a little while to figure it out. It seemed like they had never really been swimming before. They were trying to walk in the water, rather than swim. They figured it out pretty quickly. Once they all got into the pond it seemed like things were going to be fine. Everyone got a treat of cantaloupe and grapes and fish food pellets.
I was surprised to notice that one of our new little females is already trying to challenge the fearless leader, Sonya. So far Sonya is standing her ground. They don't seem overly aggressive about it, just some poking and mild nibbles. Has anyone else had an uppity newcomer take over the flock? Or is it likely that Sonya will put her in her place? Is there any behavior I should watch out for?
We managed to wrangle them all into the coop for the night, we'll see how they are come morning.
The new blackfoot gang:
Left to right: Sonya (female), Peter (male), Sasha (female), Katya (new female), and Misha (new female)
This is post-running. The new ones are in the middle.
