Quackwacker
Songster
- Apr 4, 2020
- 112
- 195
- 153
Where to begin...
It all started about a year ago when we saved a mallard from certain death. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
Hubby and I have always talked about being self sustaining but never had the property to do it. We always lived within city limits were county rules said we can’t have chickens. So as we shopped for property, one of our first Questions to the Realtor would be “can we have chickens here?” Our quest to find a home with property lasted 3 years.
What's this have to do with a mallard? Last May, while hubby was driving the kids home from school, there was a commotion in the street. some lady was frantically trying to stop traffic as cars continued to drive over a mother mallard crossing the street with her hatchlings. Hubby got out to assist her and children watched in horror as wounded mother flailed away to her death and babies continued to get smashed. They were able to get three little ducklings back to safety inside the gates of the park we assume they came from. But one little ducking would not stay inside safety and kept running back to find momma. The poor woman begged my husband for a solution to which he said, “I’ll take it to a shelter.” The shelter was right inside my hands because he knew how I had always wanted a pet duck. So off we went to the nearest feed store ignorant as ever to get what we needed to care for a single duckling inside a tiny duplex with 5 people. It’s fine! The next day we went back to the park to make sure the other ducklings survived and to see if we could get another duck family to adopt our rogue duck. We already loved him but knew it was best he be raised in his natural habitat. We searched and found no babies without mothers. We saw a mommy with three babies about the size of our rescue and put him in the water. He immediately swam to them. The other ducklings seemed to think this was great but the momma duck was not having it. After watching her try to drown him for several minutes we frantically pulled him out and took him home again.
The duckling quickly imprinted on my oldest son against my desires, but it’s fine, he turned out to be a good duck mother. Then we learned ducklings get lonely while we are away for the day. So we bought two Cayuga ducklings and the three of them were the greatest of friends. And sooo stinky inside the house. So we made a make shift little coup and put them in the yard of the duplex with a heat lamp until all their feathers came in. About a month later we got a letter from the landlord telling us that the ducks needed to go as this was not a farm and they depreciate the property value. We pleaded with her, but she gave us 30 days. We had an offer in on a house at that time and were praying it would go through so we would not have to get rid of the boys ducks. But it didn’t happen. We were blessed enough to have some friends with their own poultry farm and they agreed to foster them for us indefinitely. 3 months later we finally closed on a house and got most our babies back. One of the Cayuga was got by a predator so having them back was bitter/sweet. But mostly an answer to prayer. Later that month we invited relatives over for the week of thanksgiving and thier housewarming present was 5 red sexlinks. We were so happy to add them to our still make shift coup at the time. The ducks and chickens were all still young and got along great. So now we have a mallard, a Cayuga, 3 muskovies for our ducks, and our chickens are one light Brahma rooster, the 5 reds. 2 speckled whites, a road island red, a white Giant, and an Asian and some other straight run from the farm store. Oh and of course two new ducklings because I am obsessed with them. So in Total we have 15 chickens and 7 ducks. And about a million questions. Which is why we are here.
It all started about a year ago when we saved a mallard from certain death. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
Hubby and I have always talked about being self sustaining but never had the property to do it. We always lived within city limits were county rules said we can’t have chickens. So as we shopped for property, one of our first Questions to the Realtor would be “can we have chickens here?” Our quest to find a home with property lasted 3 years.
What's this have to do with a mallard? Last May, while hubby was driving the kids home from school, there was a commotion in the street. some lady was frantically trying to stop traffic as cars continued to drive over a mother mallard crossing the street with her hatchlings. Hubby got out to assist her and children watched in horror as wounded mother flailed away to her death and babies continued to get smashed. They were able to get three little ducklings back to safety inside the gates of the park we assume they came from. But one little ducking would not stay inside safety and kept running back to find momma. The poor woman begged my husband for a solution to which he said, “I’ll take it to a shelter.” The shelter was right inside my hands because he knew how I had always wanted a pet duck. So off we went to the nearest feed store ignorant as ever to get what we needed to care for a single duckling inside a tiny duplex with 5 people. It’s fine! The next day we went back to the park to make sure the other ducklings survived and to see if we could get another duck family to adopt our rogue duck. We already loved him but knew it was best he be raised in his natural habitat. We searched and found no babies without mothers. We saw a mommy with three babies about the size of our rescue and put him in the water. He immediately swam to them. The other ducklings seemed to think this was great but the momma duck was not having it. After watching her try to drown him for several minutes we frantically pulled him out and took him home again.
The duckling quickly imprinted on my oldest son against my desires, but it’s fine, he turned out to be a good duck mother. Then we learned ducklings get lonely while we are away for the day. So we bought two Cayuga ducklings and the three of them were the greatest of friends. And sooo stinky inside the house. So we made a make shift little coup and put them in the yard of the duplex with a heat lamp until all their feathers came in. About a month later we got a letter from the landlord telling us that the ducks needed to go as this was not a farm and they depreciate the property value. We pleaded with her, but she gave us 30 days. We had an offer in on a house at that time and were praying it would go through so we would not have to get rid of the boys ducks. But it didn’t happen. We were blessed enough to have some friends with their own poultry farm and they agreed to foster them for us indefinitely. 3 months later we finally closed on a house and got most our babies back. One of the Cayuga was got by a predator so having them back was bitter/sweet. But mostly an answer to prayer. Later that month we invited relatives over for the week of thanksgiving and thier housewarming present was 5 red sexlinks. We were so happy to add them to our still make shift coup at the time. The ducks and chickens were all still young and got along great. So now we have a mallard, a Cayuga, 3 muskovies for our ducks, and our chickens are one light Brahma rooster, the 5 reds. 2 speckled whites, a road island red, a white Giant, and an Asian and some other straight run from the farm store. Oh and of course two new ducklings because I am obsessed with them. So in Total we have 15 chickens and 7 ducks. And about a million questions. Which is why we are here.
Glad you joined. 
