Amusement for ducks in winter

[Valntyn]

I'm not GQ, so I hope you don't mind my offering a reply... We, too, have Muscovies, as well as Anconas and a Buff Orpington. We bought a big ol' stock tank from Tractor Supply, thinking, "They're DUCKS! Of COURSE they want water to swim in!"

...

Our Muscovies drink from tank, but it's the Anconas who live in it.

We have Muscovies who enjoy standing in the little pool (smaller than a kiddie pool), but none really care for a good swim.

Having said that, of course you should have water for them to drink and clean themselves in. If you only have Muscovies, though, I wouldn't go hog-wild on a fancy swimming set-up.

 

[HauiBali]

Plans: 1. I will buy a few dozen of mealworm in the petshop and just throw it on top of the snow.
2. In angling-shops little crustacean carps are available here as livebait (for pikes), and the little ones are not a fast seller, so I can get them for cheap - I will fill the pond with a little warm water (kind of 20 Celsius) and put the fishies in. And then I release the ducks! It will be fun.


My runners are not very interested in veggies, yet they dont eat a lot of high-protein pellets, which has kind of made me worried.. Until I found out the answer: we have extreme amounts of common vole (Microtus arvalis) this year, and I caught my ducks more than once camping at the holes the voles dug in the grass. Sometimes I flood an area with water for my ducks to play in (we have fruit trees, apricot and plum mostly, they love water, and I don't care about grass), and I seen them girls hunting for voles when the water made the little mammals flee.

It's a fun fact that ducks have common nature with wolves: wolves roam and hunt in packs too and most part of the year wolves feed on voles and mice.

 

[DawnB]

Hey Valntyn - no worries...the more info, the better. Glad to know that I don't have weird ducks. They definitely like to root around in the yard. They've been permanently parked on the front hill (where there's pretty much the last decent patch of grass). It was snowing yesterday, so I expect their hunting will be limited quite soon. I can't wait to see them next summer...we have a ton of grasshoppers, crickets and slugs...should be a hoot watching them waddle all over.

HauiBali..I like the idea of mealworms. Could be pretty fun. My boys would probably get into the 'worm' thing.

We have a lot of voles and ground mice around here too. We have 3 cats who pretty much keep the mouse population in check, but a little extra help in that area won't be bad at all! Have read on the forum that the chickens like mice and frogs too...should be a fun spring/summer seeing what they can round up!!

Have a great one!

 

[Going Quackers]

Quackers - I see in you also have Muscovies...I have a question...do they like to swim in a pool? I've read that they don't necessarily need as much water as other breeds for preening (or something like that). I do have a kiddie pool that I've been filling up for them when they are out to free-range. They haven't really done more than use it to drink from. I don't believe they were ever given a pool (or water source larger than a large rubber dish) from their previous owner (he bought them as babies). Frankly, I don't know if they were ever allowed out of their pen to free range at all. It's funny, they're always the first 2 out of the pen.

I know they're ducks and everything, but will they know what to do? I know it may sound like a strange question, but I had a dog once that I adopted who didn't know how to play (with any toys), he'd just been kept in a pen for breeding and had little interaction with people or other dogs. I get the feeling that these ducks are the same way. I have a tarp in their pen and when decent-sized puddles formed, I expected them to splash around and play...Nope, just drank the water.

Even my goose doesn't do much more then walk through the rubber pan. He's shown little interest in the pool either. He was purchased at the same time as the ducks and raised from a baby by the previous owners.

The majority of my birds, love water, love to swim and dive... I really don't know where the concept comes from with 'scovies, yes, they do have a more underdeveloped oil gland in comparison to other breeds but they are still ducks.

I only keep kiddy pools as we have no ponds but mine swim/dive happily in them, puddles and the horse trough if they get a chance.

 

[rickardson]

DawnB,
My Muscovies swim in a little pond I have for them. Not as much as the other breeds I have but they still use it. I think they learn how to play in the ponds from the other breeds too.

 

[HauiBali]

So, after some results I decided to report: my runners absolutely loved the mealworms I scattered around their pen. Now I raise some more (a big tupperware box with an inch of rolled oat and a few half-cut potato), I already have a few pupae, means it's only weeks and I have breeding bugs, yaay. Mealworms are very expensive here ($10 for half a litre), so self-sufficiency is a good thing.

Also, a few days ago I bought some livebait (little crucian carps), one for each duck I have (five fishies for 1$), 3x about 2" long and 2x a bit bigger, and put in their pond. Ducks were absolutely happy, they pursued the poor fishes around happily till bedtime. The 2" fishies were eaten, the big ones died, so I had them cut in half and thrown back. My advice is to buy/trap 2", but these are hard to find in angling shops because for pikes the bigger is better. It is easy to capture baitfish, btw crustacean carp is an invasive specie here and everyone is happy if one traps them.

 

[veronicasmom]

Dawn- I saw your question about the muscovies and the pool. I have 4, three of them occasionally swim/bathe. The 4th has feather issues so I have never seen her in the pool. I have other breeds that LOVE the pool so we need one. JMO, but if the pool is a pain, maybe just get them a large shallow pan, like a livestock feeding pan, that they can get in to if they want to bathe. For the winter, you can put a bird bath heater in it and they have the option of using it if they need it.
As far as toys, my scovies crack me up. We have had cold nights here recently and the water bowls and pool have gotten icy. When I dump the dishes and the ice breaks up into chunks, I will find the muscovies playing with the ice chunks. They peck at them, push them around, bite them. It is pretty funny. So, they make their own toys! I can guarantee that if I put toys in their area, they would act like the toys were duck eating monsters!!

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

all but one of our french whites will swim out back on the large water with the geese.

 

[veronicasmom]

I wonder if it is just the pool they are not crazy about, and like ponds or lakes better?

 

[DawnB]

Too funny about the ice chunks Veronicasmom! Believe it or not, my little girl duck FINALLY decided that playing in the pool was fun. She hopped in and out a couple times splashing around like a fool. It's the first time that I've seen her (or either one for that matter) in there.

I'm not sure if they, overall, just don't like the pool, but their kinda SOL on that. We don't have any ponds or streams on our property...manmade or otherwise. Closest stream is about a 1/4 mile down the road!

So, it's the pool or nothing! I'm sure they'll figure it out...and I'm pretty sure I'm WAY over-thinking stuff!