Another Broody Duck!

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Momma Ducks name was decided today:
One of the neighbors came over to show the duck to his 5 year old granddaughter.
While she was feeding them with cat food, i told her the names of the ducks and how they earned those, Blanca was obvious and Alba means the same, just in Romanian. Explained that Nona came from Noname and the story about Katharina, my nurse from 18 years ago. Showed her a picture of Bazilla in my lap with her bumble-foot shoe and she would love to see Earthquack making Ducknamis in the pool

BAM! ​

Something crazy came loudly quacking out of the duck house and started to run left, right, back and forth at ludicrous speed bouncing off the drakes, running over ducks like bowling pins…

"So", said the five year old girl, "that ducks name is Pinball ?"

I was flattened! She just stated the obvious: That duck behaves like a the ball in a pinball machine, so her name now official is Pinball Duck.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

@shawluvsbirds you are so right! Broodiness is highly contagious: This morning Pinball decided to join the cat-food breakfast club, covered here nest carefully and then "rolled" out of the duck house, straight into the crowd grabbed a billfull of cat-kibbles out of my hand, ran over several ducks and bullied her way to the waterer drank and pooped… It was hilarious!
While she was busy i removed the three new unmarked eggs from her nest and collected all eggs from the neighboring nest into one of the other boxes - i forgot to take the egg basket with me,,,
About an hour later, Pinball was back on her nest, i decided to get the fresh eggs, got into the duck-burg and met this little dragon:

Never heart a duck hissing before!
Well i rescued all the eggs from her and left only the three wooden eggs in that box, if she really wants to sit, i will steal two of Pinballs eggs and put those under Pommes, so they will both have their ducklings at the same time and scan share the burden.
This evening Banca Duck started to run around like a boxer!
And i am seriously thinking about how to extend the duck house…

 

[shawluvsbirds]

@shawluvsbirds you are so right! Broodiness is highly contagious: This morning Pinball decided to join the cat-food breakfast club, covered here nest carefully and then "rolled" out of the duck house, straight into the crowd grabbed a billfull of cat-kibbles out of my hand, ran over several ducks and bullied her way to the waterer drank and pooped… It was hilarious!
While she was busy i removed the three new unmarked eggs from her nest and collected all eggs from the neighboring nest into one of the other boxes - i forgot to take the egg basket with me,,,
About an hour later, Pinball was back on her nest, i decided to get the fresh eggs, got into the duck-burg and met this little dragon:

Never heart a duck hissing before!
Well i rescued all the eggs from her and left only the three wooden eggs in that box, if she really wants to sit, i will steal two of Pinballs eggs and put those under Pommes, so they will both have their ducklings at the same time and scan share the burden.
This evening Banca Duck started to run around like a boxer!
And i am seriously thinking about how to extend the duck house…

Broody dust is in the air now!
There's no stopping them!
Never heard a duck hiss?
Normally mine hiss and huff. Not cry like Pinball did.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Broody dust is in the air now!
There's no stopping them!
Never heard a duck hiss?
Normally mine hiss and huff. Not cry like Pinball did.

None of my ducks has hissed ever! When Katharina Duck was sitting last year she made a sound like »ang, ang, ang, ang!« when i came too close to the nest. I guess she wanted to say she has "Angst" (fear)…
If Blanca goes broody, the duck house might turn into a no-go zone! She won't cry, huss or puff, just snap and swallow…

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Well... I have good news and bad news.
Good news is I haven't lost my mind yet.
Apparently that egg did hatch under Remi and I did not catch it in time.
It must have ventured out on its own and got bullied. I found a dead duckling at the bottom of the tank.
The original 5 are all still there so it had to be a new one.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

There was no hatched egg shell around anywhere.
They must have eaten it.
They do that sometimes.
Ivy continues to knock Maizee off of her nest and sits on her eggs with the ducklings.
I found her sitting with Remi on her nest today.
when I open the door Ivy got up and left with the ducklings and Maizee got her nest back.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Well... I have good news and bad news.
Good news is I haven't lost my mind yet.
Apparently that egg did hatch under Remi and I did not catch it in time.
It must have ventured out on its own and got bullied. I found a dead duckling at the bottom of the tank.
The original 5 are all still there so it had to be a new one.

Too bad for that poor duckling! It might had a different smell than the other's and was expelled. Still as adults, Katharina's babies are closer to themselves and their mother than to the other ducks. Aunts Nona and Curiosity are close too, but the other ducks are just tolerated...

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

There was no hatched egg shell around anywhere.
They must have eaten it.
They do that sometimes.
Ivy continues to knock Maizee off of her nest and sits on her eggs with the ducklings.
I found her sitting with Remi on her nest today.
when I open the door Ivy got up and left with the ducklings and Maizee got her nest back.

any way to separate Ivy and her ducklings from Maizee? Maybe just a piece of cardboard as a destraction is enough to keep her away from the nest…
Pinball Duck is glued to her nest during the day. In the night her sister Pompom shares her nest, which looks funny on the camera: One huuuge duck with two heads. Here is Pompom standing guard over her little sister:

And Pommes Duck isn't really broody, she likes to sit on that nest where somehow all those wooden eggs have ended up, and she likes to play »evil dragon« when i come into the duck house, but still spends most of her time outside with the others. Kind of »wash me, but don't make me wet!«

 

[shawluvsbirds]

any way to separate Ivy and her ducklings from Maizee? Maybe just a piece of cardboard as a destraction is enough to keep her away from the nest…
Pinball Duck is glued to her nest during the day. In the night her sister Pompom shares her nest, which looks funny on the camera: One huuuge duck with two heads. Here is Pompom standing guard over her little sister:
View attachment 2139112
And Pommes Duck isn't really broody, she likes to sit on that nest where somehow all those wooden eggs have ended up, and she likes to play »evil dragon« when i come into the duck house, but still spends most of her time outside with the others. Kind of »wash me, but don't make me wet!«

No.. Not really. Not without blocking access to food and water for one or the other.
And I don't wanna put food and water in the house.
They will just have to work it out.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

No.. Not really. Not without blocking access to food and water for one or the other.
And I don't wanna put food and water in the house.
They will just have to work it out.

I didn't meant locking one of them entirely in, just a larger or higher barricade between them. They can still walk around, bu if they don't see each other permanently, it may keeps them more separated. Just an idea...