Pet Ducks Dumped in Neighborhood Pond, Help?

[shawluvsbirds]

First, I want to thank everyone for the help and kindness over the past few weeks.

And second, I was not expecting to get so many comments. I tried my best to reply to everyone but I did miss a few. But I read every comment, and took everyones suggestions to heart.
Onto the updates.

We got their diet completely changed. No more chicken food, just flock raiser from now on. The girl gets a bowl of oyster shells and they both share a bowl of grits.
They are well stocked up on food, and treats for a good while.
They also get Nutritional Yeast sprinkled on their food. And thank you Miss Lydia for recommending the PND, they really perked up after having it in their drinking water.

View attachment 1682700
Both bags are 50lbs, my back should know.


Thank you @KDOGG331 for suggesting the bag of grits, Im sorry I forgot to reply to your comment.

View attachment 1682705

No more food or water inside of their ark, and food/oyster shells gets locked up inside the garage at night.
We leave their water, and bowl of grits inside their pen at night but they get locked inside their duck ark at sundown.

View attachment 1682712

They can no longer swim, or poo inside their drinking water.
We used ideas on other threads, and our kind sister in law donated us this food grade safe bucket.

View attachment 1682715 The bucket says "Duck Sause", my sister in law has a good snice of humor.
I have to admit its pretty funny, and very appropriate for a ducks water dish.

The duck ark got moved closer to the house, now we can keep a closer eye on them 24/7. And its makes hosing them down a lot easier.

They got a brand new pen.
Before I post pictures, I want to say we are going to make it 100% predator proof within the month.

We will buy hardware cloth, and cover the bottom, sides, and gaps around the door of their pen with it.
As of right now they only use their pen in the daytime under supervision, and locked up with a key at night.

I do realize the gaps are huge enough for something to grab them, but it will get it update with hardware cloth, I promise.

View attachment 1682718
Also the pen gets locked up anytime we are not out their supervising them.

And just to repeat they get locked in ther duck ark every night with key as well as the pen.

Ever snice they go their new pen, they have been coming out of their duck ark. It use to take hours for them to come out, now it's like ten minutes at most.

View attachment 1682724 View attachment 1682725 Fergus and Downy enjoying that fresh green grass.

They are becoming more comfortable with us, they let us pick them up to check for bumble foot. I forgot to take pictures, but my SO said their feet looked healthy on the bottom.

Downy did have a small hole through the webbing on one of her feets. I think she might of stepped on something sharp.

We might end up grabbing some poultry wound spray for it, what does everyone think? The hole on her webbed foot is the size of a pin hole.

They officially got a kiddie pool, and they both seem to love it. They splashed, and stayed in for a while cleaning themselves. They both can get out safely, but I did but a brick ramp in front of it to make it easier.


View attachment 1682733

Last major update, and perhaps the most egg-citing of all.
Yesterday, we discover not one but two eggs inside their ark on the same day. We are 99% positive they were laid on the same day.

Its way to early to tell if they are fertile or not, but we did end up taking them inside the house. As Downy had no interest in sitting on the eggs.

View attachment 1682735
We did candle them, we know it's way to early to tell if they fertile. But here are the pictures if anyone is curious to see.
View attachment 1682736 egg 1
View attachment 1682738 egg 2

Both eggs are currently set up in a homemade incubator, with stuff we found around the house.

View attachment 1682742This is a pic of when we first got them in the incubator, hudmity was only 34 and temp was at 106.
View attachment 1682743 sorry the image is mirrored, but the temp is currently 100 and the humidity is at 65. Trying to get the humidity at a perfect 55.

What does everyone think, is this a decent enough incubator?
I know theres no grantee they are fertile, but if they are, would this set up work fine?

Also is it normal for a duck to lay two eggs in one day? Because I swear we would of noticed a egg yesterday if their was one.
Does this mean they are white layers? Can pekin ducks lay two eggs in one day.

And before someone say we could have two girls. Fergus was in the pool mating with Downy again, and we clearly saw his penis once he fell off.

I think this was all the updates.

I know we need to get some hardware cloth on that pen asap, and we will post pictures on the updated pen once it's done.

But besides that, I think we got everything else right.
Hopefully we are one our way to being great duck owners.
Being a duck Papa is hard, but they are very rewarding animals.

And I just wanted to say again, thank you everyone for the help and advice.

Without everyone here on BYC, these ducks would currently be in a open pen, eating chicken food.
Everyone has taught me so much on duck ownership, and I cant thank you enough for it.

I definitely will be keeping everyone on BYC updated with their pen, and the eggs development.

hooray for the new set up and diet change! That's wonderful.
On the eggs, a duck will not have interest in sitting on them until they go "broody" (which means when they start defending and sitting on their nest)
And you will not know if they will go broody until they have laid all the eggs they want. Normally one egg a day until they have a good pile up. They don't sit on them until then. So if you want to see if she will sit and hatch her own just leave the eggs from now on and when she's ready she will start to sit. It may take a week or so for her to start sitting. Or she may not go broody at all.
Regarding incubation. . hopefully the eggs weren't in there when it was 106?
Those temps will kill the embryo.

You should be able to tell at about 3 to 5 days if they develope. But I wait until day 10 before I throw in the towel.
Here is and excellent article for you by @Pyxis for you to study up on incubation.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-beginners-guide-to-incubation.73350/
And another by @WVduckchick on humidity
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/incubation-humidity.73386/
Both I consider to be required reading for us beginners in incubation!

 

[SansDuck]

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the updates!
I'm also happy everyone approves of their new pen, I was a little worried. And once we can wrap it up in hardware cloth, I wont have to worry as much.

@shawluvsbirds Yeah, we read that 106 temp can harm a embryo
We are hoping it was just the thermometer that was reading higher, snice its black and the eggs are white. We also read, that they might still be okay snice the eggs themselves might of not actually reach the temp 106.
It was only on 106 for a minute, we cool them off right after we realized.
Also, I know we shouldnt be candling so early but it's hard to wait so we checked today.

Egg 1 looks the same as yesterday, but egg 2

Has this little tiny red dot, that is moving all around.
Is this a good sign?
Sorry it's hard to tell in the picture. Its definitely not a red ring, but a tiny little dot that likes to move.


Also, Downy gave us another egg.

I'm no egg expert, but every egg she has laid has been very pretty. Not small, not big, no lumps or cracks or soft shells. All of them seem to have a nice hard shell. One did have a few scratches, but besides that they all seem perfect.

Here's a few bonus pictures I took of Downy and Fergus today.

Nap time in the front yard.

Fun at the pool

They absolutely love their new pen. When they got let out of their duck ark this morning, they couldn't wait to swim and eat grass again.

Also its not to big of a problem, but I notice Downy and Fergus like to drink out of their pool, instead of their bucket. Not a issue, but I did put PND in their drinking bucket and I would like for them to drink a little bit of it.
If they aren't using their bucket, could I put the PND directly in their pool?

 

[Jpat]

theyr awesome i love it

 

[Miss Lydia]

You could put it in their pool but gosh you'd have to use a lot for it to do any good. Just a suggestion the fencing you originally had up did you get rid of it? Thinking maybe if you still have it put it around the front of their pen where the gate is. Put their pool in their and keep food and water in the main set up. That way they will be away from the pool when they are eating and use their water bucket with the PND in it. Just a thought. They are such gorgeous ducks and Congrats on another egg. Hope you get some ducklings. Love the pics!!

 

[onaharley]

You could put it in their pool but gosh you'd have to use a lot for it to do any good. Just a suggestion the fencing you originally had up did you get rid of it? Thinking maybe if you still have it put it around the front of their pen where the gate is. Put their pool in their and keep food and water in the main set up. That way they will be away from the pool when they are eating and use their water bucket with the PND in it. Just a thought. They are such gorgeous ducks and Congrats on another egg. Hope you get some ducklings. Love the pics!!

Great point on the pool and feed.

 

[SansDuck]

@Miss Lydia @Cayuga momma @shawluvsbirds @Texag87

So now that we are getting eggs, we can start to panic and ask questions lol.

Obviously we cant let every egg she lays hatch, that would be way to many ducks.

I have no problem giving away, or eating unfertilized eggs myself.

But with the fertilized eggs, that comes the questions.
Would it be more humane to let them hatch, and give them away to other good homes( and risk them getting dumped)?
Or
Is it humane to put fertile eggs in the fridge(collect them out of the nest, and straight into the fridge) so they have no chance to develop, and then give those eggs away for eating?

Or
is their way I can stop Fergus from matting with Downy?
can I put a duck diaper on him? Or on her?

Someone had mention Duck 'birth control', but they never explain what they meant.
Is their an actual duck 'birth control' pill or does it mean something else?

And I want to be straight up, I have never killed a animal.
If the animal was sick, in pain, ect. I would obviously put it out of its misery, but I couldn't do that with healthy animals.

And of course, Downy and Fergus are strictly pets. As long as they live with us, they are not meat birds. That also includes their future children.

Right now I think we have the room for two more ducks, is the reason why we are incubating the eggs currently.
But after that, I would like to wait until we can build a bigger ark and pen before we go past four ducks.

So what is everyones suggestions?

Refrigerate the fertile eggs for a week, and give them away so they have no chance of ever hatching?

Or let them hatch, and give away the babies?

Or find a way to stop them from mating? Preferably, without separating them completely.

Thank you everyone, for all the help.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the updates!
I'm also happy everyone approves of their new pen, I was a little worried. And once we can wrap it up in hardware cloth, I wont have to worry as much.

@shawluvsbirds Yeah, we read that 106 temp can harm a embryo
We are hoping it was just the thermometer that was reading higher, snice its black and the eggs are white. We also read, that they might still be okay snice the eggs themselves might of not actually reach the temp 106.
It was only on 106 for a minute, we cool them off right after we realized.
Also, I know we shouldnt be candling so early but it's hard to wait so we checked today.

Egg 1 looks the same as yesterday, but egg 2
View attachment 1683318
Has this little tiny red dot, that is moving all around.
Is this a good sign?
Sorry it's hard to tell in the picture. Its definitely not a red ring, but a tiny little dot that likes to move.


Also, Downy gave us another egg.
View attachment 1683321

I'm no egg expert, but every egg she has laid has been very pretty. Not small, not big, no lumps or cracks or soft shells. All of them seem to have a nice hard shell. One did have a few scratches, but besides that they all seem perfect.

Here's a few bonus pictures I took of Downy and Fergus today.

View attachment 1683327 Nap time in the front yard.

View attachment 1683330 Fun at the pool

They absolutely love their new pen. When they got let out of their duck ark this morning, they couldn't wait to swim and eat grass again.

Also its not to big of a problem, but I notice Downy and Fergus like to drink out of their pool, instead of their bucket. Not a issue, but I did put PND in their drinking bucket and I would like for them to drink a little bit of it.
If they aren't using their bucket, could I put the PND directly in their pool?

You shouldn't have to give them the pnd every day as long as they have adequate feed. Your doing the nutritional yeast also which should cover any extra niacin needs, also peas have some niacin and make a healthy snack for treat time.
I would save your nutri drench for times of stress or long periods of winter when foraging time isn't available.

Red dot is good! In a couple more days you'll see the heart beating with veins coming from it.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

@Miss Lydia @Cayuga momma @shawluvsbirds @Texag87

So now that we are getting eggs, we can start to panic and ask questions lol.

Obviously we cant let every egg she lays hatch, that would be way to many ducks.

I have no problem giving away, or eating unfertilized eggs myself.

But with the fertilized eggs, that comes the questions.
Would it be more humane to let them hatch, and give them away to other good homes( and risk them getting dumped)?
Or
Is it humane to put fertile eggs in the fridge(collect them out of the nest, and straight into the fridge) so they have no chance to develop, and then give those eggs away for eating?

Or
is their way I can stop Fergus from matting with Downy?
can I put a duck diaper on him? Or on her?

Someone had mention Duck 'birth control', but they never explain what they meant.
Is their an actual duck 'birth control' pill or does it mean something else?

And I want to be straight up, I have never killed a animal.
If the animal was sick, in pain, ect. I would obviously put it out of its misery, but I couldn't do that with healthy animals.

And of course, Downy and Fergus are strictly pets. As long as they live with us, they are not meat birds. That also includes their future children.

Right now I think we have the room for two more ducks, is the reason why we are incubating the eggs currently.
But after that, I would like to wait until we can build a bigger ark and pen before we go past four ducks.

So what is everyones suggestions?

Refrigerate the fertile eggs for a week, and give them away so they have no chance of ever hatching?

Or let them hatch, and give away the babies?

Or find a way to stop them from mating? Preferably, without separating them completely.

Thank you everyone, for all the help.

there is no way your going to stop them from mating besides separating them, sorry. Even if you did they would be very unhappy. Ducks are extremely sexual creatures.
A fertile egg is not an embryo until incubation begins. . just gather your eggs daily just like you would chicken eggs and there is no baby inside.
My Cayuga ducks laid eggs all summer long. . that would be hundreds of eggs to hatch if I hatched them all!
Gather them daily and eat them. . give them away to your neighbors to eat. Duck eggs are yummy! It's not inhumane.. No incubation, no embryo. It's totally fine. You'd be surprised how many fertile eggs you've probably eaten from the grocery store and never knew!

 

[Jpat]

Hatch every egg they lay and have the funnest neighborhood in the world

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I'll also add that duck eggs keep longer than chicken eggs. I've left duck eggs unwashed on my counter top for up to 2 weeks. .I have only cracked a bad one once. And I think that one got left out in the sun on my deck for a day is why it was bad.
Have you noticed the
The waxy or oily coating on the eggs? That's called the bloom. It's the natural way the egg is preserved. If you don't wash that off it will preserve the egg at room temperature for long while. If you wash your eggs, make sure they are dry then refrigerate them right away.
Always wash your eggs in slightly warmer water than the egg feels, cold water will pull bacteria into the egg like a vacuum.