Need to rehome at least 1 male ancona duck - Michigan

[featherkids]

Hello everyone,

If this is not the right place for this post, please let me know and I will move it. I'm still getting the feel for the layout of these forums.

My husband and I got five ancona ducklings in May. We raised them in our house (they loved the bathtub), moved them outside to a fenced in area with a secure coop and a small pond, and are delighted with our sweeties. However, they are now old enough that their genders are becoming apparent and we have a problem: 2 hens, 3 drakes. Not a good ratio and we know we need to fix this soon.

I have heard from another ancona owner that we might be able to keep 2 and 2, since they were raised together. (She isn't looking for males, sad to say.) But even if we do that, at least one male needs a new home. Probably safer to move two. We would rather not just post a craigslist ad and end up with them getting eaten... we've become pretty attached and think of them as pets rather than dinner.

What we would really like to do is make a trade, 2 males for one female. Or 1 for 1 with possibly some cash involved. Is there a place on this forum for that sort of advertisement? Anyone in the south to mid-michigan area interested?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Darkwing4]

Hi there, sounds almost identical to my situation - we started this spring with 4 ducklings; 3 male/1female. We were quite sad when their adult quacks "came in" as we were attached to all of them.

We got another adult female from the same breeder we got our troop from and rehomed 1 drake. He's very happy in his new home with access to water and several other ducks. New owner kindly sent pics.

I used Craigslist and was lucky enough to find someone close by. They emailed good information, showed up when they said they would. Visited and checked out our handsome boy. Took time to think about it - but not too much time.

3 other people responded but with vague messages, didn't show up (twice). I quickly ruled them out. It's pretty easy, actually.

Anyway, the new duck settled in nicely after a week or two of pecking order stuff. She and my other female are BFF. The male that found a new home is doing well. He has a new name and their daughter loves him.

Good luck. Take your time. My Anconas are pretty laid back, not overly aggressive so it wasn't a dangerous situation (yet) for my female.

So our two pairs seem pretty happy. No one is getting harassed. Good luck. They're 4 months old now. I'm in SE Michigan.

 

[featherkids]

Quote:
After reading your post I convinced my husband to give Craigslist a try. And it worked out better than we could have hoped! Thank you so much. We found a new home for two of the boys. A nice couple with lots of different poultry took them in. They had ducks, quail, geese, chickens... a little bit of everything. They seemed very nice, the birds all looked well cared for, and we felt ok leaving our guys there. We also found someone close to the Lansing area who had two ancona females for sale. So we swung by and picked them up after dropping off the boys. Now we have 4 hens and 1 drake, which is perfect. We introduced the new girls this afternoon. After some confusion and lots of circling, they all jumped in the pond and settled down.

 

[Darkwing4]

Wonderful news!!! Glad to hear it. Your boy must be very happy.

Let me know how egg laying goes. Our new girl laid two eggs the first couple of days but has since stopped. It's been 3 weeks. Either the change has thrown her off or she's laying them while free ranging. We have a pond they go on so its quite possible. They've stayed in their own a couple of days and still no eggs.

I'd be curious how yours adjust. Again, great news that everything worked out.

 

[featherkids]

I'll let you know. None of ours were laying yet. The older ones are about 12 weeks old, the new ones are about 6 weeks. So we've probably still got a little bit to go. The older ones are displaying some mating behaviors. Should we be introducing oyster shell into their food soon? I've read different things in different places on that.

 

[Darkwing4]

I'll start introducing it to the girls. I'm going to grind up snail shells which I've read are very good for ducks. They're all over the shore of the pond. I have an old pasta maker that I can run them through - placed in plastic bag, first crushed with hammer then ground up in pasta maker. They're eating a lot of bugs and frogs so I think they're ok with protein. Might get some worms, too.