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  1. North Woods Quack

    sick(poisoned?) duckling needs help

    True, Pollo, All my ducks were eating the leaves, especially the Pekin ducklings who are super greedy/grabby about anything that might be edible and NOBODY reacted except this one Appleyard. All 8 ducklings are same age from the same clutch (mixed parentage from appleyard, harlequin and Pekin.)...
  2. North Woods Quack

    sick(poisoned?) duckling needs help

    Thanks Miss Lydia, My girl is now in the kitchen in a big clean dog crate, lots of starw and newpaper bedding and water. I'm going to try the oats and egg diet. I gave her a "salad" of shredded bib lettuce and watermelon chunks (my ducks all go mad for melons) but little girl is not...
  3. North Woods Quack

    sick(poisoned?) duckling needs help

    So, the other day when I let the duck gang of 16 out to gambol in the yard while I did my gardening, I noticed most of the ducks snacking on my rhubarb plant. Ugh, they were eating the leaves, which are loaded with oxalic acid which is pretty darn toxic. I shooed them away and put a chicken...
  4. North Woods Quack

    Ducklings growing exponentially!

    They are nice ducks to be around, and they lay well. I am selling 4 to a friend and *might* keep the rest. The babies are still skittish but my older ducks know who brings the treats and eat out of my hand. Favorite foods : tomatoes, Japanese beetle and earthworms, yum.
  5. North Woods Quack

    Ducklings growing exponentially!

    My duck, Matilda, hatched 8 eggs back on July 10th. The drake is a Pekin and the various contributing moms are Pekin, Silver Appleyard and Welsh Harlequin. So now they are FOUR weeks old and they aren't little anymore. Three are definitely pure Pekin, and the other 5 are.... Appleyard? They are...
  6. North Woods Quack

    Lots o ducklings

    Thanks all for the love. I love a good broody/momma no matter the breed or variety. This mom reminds me of my late great heritage bronze turkey hen, who I had for 9 years and every year hatched out 8-10 poults. She had the full set of instructions, as I like to say. Below, first photo...
  7. North Woods Quack

    Lots o ducklings

    Hello Backyard crew, just wanted to let you know that I took your good advice regarding NOT letting 2-3 girl ducks set the same nest (Woes of a Communal Nest thread). After that disaster (3 girl on 11 eggs and they only hatched out one duckling) I put together another clutch in a big dog crate...
  8. North Woods Quack

    What breed of duck is this and is it make or female

    Whoops, I didn't use the picture with the clean duck pool water. Here it is :
  9. North Woods Quack

    What breed of duck is this and is it make or female

    Yes, I agree - Welsh Harley drake. This guy looks like my drake, Sir Francis Quack, when he was immature. The head will turn metallic green, like a mallard, and his tail feathers will curl too. AS you can see from the first picture the girls have darker bills. The drake has a darker head and a...
  10. North Woods Quack

    Communal duck nest woes

    The communal nest with originally 11 eggs and three moms produced.... ONE duckling which looks to be an Appleyard (or, Harley) X Pekin cross. Big baby so I'm thinking : AppleYard. I apologize for mostly out of focus photos because I didn't want to overly excite the co-moms. Matilda now has...
  11. North Woods Quack

    Communal duck nest woes

    Yes, I am glad she settled. I am working on building a little fenced in yard with mini pool (a small black rubber Fortex "feed" tub) so i can leave the crate door open during the day and she can have a stroll and go swimming without bossy flock buddies getting on the nest. The drake keeps...
  12. North Woods Quack

    Communal duck nest woes

    Update. Yesterday morning I set up that really big predator proof dog crate (wire crate enclosed in 1/4 inch hardware cloth, so hopefully rat and weasel proof) filled with clean straw, food and water and ten clean newly laid duck eggs and left it with the door open while the flock milled around...
  13. North Woods Quack

    Communal duck nest woes

    PS. I am thinking of gathering some fresh and clean eggs and setting them up in one of my predator proof super big dog crates and introducing ONE broody duck to the situation. I probably won't use Matilda as she has already been setting 30 days+ (I shooed her off the nest for 4-5 days before I...
  14. North Woods Quack

    Communal duck nest woes

    good plan. Just came from DuckLand and it was a sad sight indeed. We were down to 5 possibly viable eggs scattered under the derrieres of 3 ducks yesterday morning, one externally pipped. This AM there were only four eggs, the pip gone and nowhere to be found. I (finally) did a quick candle of...
  15. North Woods Quack

    13 Muscovy duck eggs, days from hatching suddenly disappear & Momma Duck is devastated.

    Hopefully you just have an egg eater. I once, long ago, went to close in my chickens for the night and saw a small skunk in the coop happily eating layer pellets and a few late laid eggs. All the girls were on the roost, unharmed. I waited for Mr. Stinky to leave and then closed them in for the...
  16. North Woods Quack

    13 Muscovy duck eggs, days from hatching suddenly disappear & Momma Duck is devastated.

    I'm thinking minks or weasels would go for mom first, and then eat the eggs. and there would definitely be ploufs of feathers around the attack site. Up here in Vermont we have two kinds of weasels, and also mink and the dreaded fisher cat which is a really big weasel, 30 to 40 inches long and...
  17. North Woods Quack

    13 Muscovy duck eggs, days from hatching suddenly disappear & Momma Duck is devastated.

    My guess would be rats or snakes. Last year my Harlequins were setting 12 eggs in the chicken coop and eggs kept disappearing, no shell fragments, feathers or other signs of a struggle. The floor was dirt and deep litter bedding, and I later realized a huge momma rat had burrowed into the coop...
  18. North Woods Quack

    Ducks outside

    No worries, the wee ones need their greens. And bugs. I try to get my littles out on grass as soon as possible, and weather permitting. These are my baby Pekins and Silver Appleyards from last May when they were about 7-10 days old. If they had had a mom I wouldn't have worried as much about...
  19. North Woods Quack

    Communal duck nest woes

    PS I have to go to work soon, so if folks weigh in here - and I thank all in advance - I will not respond till this evening. Cheers!
  20. North Woods Quack

    Communal duck nest woes

    So I think I posted this story a bit yesterday on the new members forum. I have 7 ducks. Two 2-year-old Harlequin ducks, Snow White and Golden Girl, and their one - year-old daughter, Whistle-Peep (only hatchling from their communal nest of 12 eggs in May 2022.) Last May I (of course!) acquired...
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