When I was a boy, my father brought a pair of Mallard ducks home that a farmer had given him to give to me. I named my new pets Sir Frances Drake and Petunia. We provided the young quacky couple with a modest home and tiny pool in our backyard. We allowed them to free range in the neighborhood and they mostly took care of themselves during the day before returning to their little coup in the evening for additional supplements.
Had I known better back then, I would have been more concerned about predictors, but apparently I lucked out because our dog Rusty was fiercely protective of all of us and with Rusty being a big chow mix, nothing wanted to challenge Rusty. Despite my youth and inexperience, Frances and Petunia fared quite well on "faculty row" which derived it's name from housing college professors like my recently deceased father.
Petunia paraded her offspring around every spring in the aftermath of nesting in our neighbor's flower garden. This was during a period in the USA when neighbors in towns were more apt to exchange gifts and help each other out without anyone asking, when help was needed.
Five decades and counting later, my wife of many years and I acquired a farm with a lake and a couple of ponds affording us an opportunity to not only make ducks happy, but host other fowl as well. Though I desired more of a "boy with his ducks" type relationship with Sir Frances and Petunia, they relegated me to an "if we need you, we'll let you know" kind of arrangement.
I determined to strive for a more affectionate relationship with our ducks this time around should that be possible. So I bought an incubator and several breeds of duck eggs so that our smiling faces would be their first welcome into the world.
I read the directions, put the eggs in my inexpensive, imported incubator and wondered how hard can hatching eggs really be? My first attempt produced a modest 26% hatch rate which made me realize that's there's more to hatching eggs than what the brief, poorly written directions I got with the incubator had led me to believe.
In hindsight, I'm surprised I got as many hatchings as I did based upon what I've learned since from watching YouTube videos and reading threads on this website. It didn't help that my "automatic incubator" wasn't even close to being calibrated correctly combined with me assuming at first that my Amazon buy surely wasn't as far off as I learned that it was.
Be that as it may, the ten survivors of my incubation deficits and corrections seem happy and well as can be. Our ducklings are delightful beyond words.
We've managed to endear ourselves to a Mallard hatchling we named Samson because he was the first and strongest to exit from his egg by a considerable margin. He has already established himself as an inquisitive bold leader and the most up for a new adventure. He doesn't flee and huddle up in the corner of the brooder with the rest should we move too suddenly within their viewing range without announcing our arrival into the room while speaking in reassuring duck-ese tones beforehand. Samson on the other hand remains relaxed and tilts his head sideways in order to look back at us.
Samson loves to jump into the measuring cup for a quick dip while we carefully fill the brooder's water trough. The more water that flies everywhere the better! Many of the others then follow Samson's splash and run example making whoever is holding the measuring cup of water an invaluable duckling asset. Should Samson prove to be a hen when we can ultimately tell the difference, then Samson will likely be rechristened Samsonena.
Our ducklings have turned my former city-girl wife into a duck lover as well. It was mutual love at first sight especially as far as Samson is concerned after spending some quality time in her hands following his great escape from the egg.
While our ducklings are frolicking in their brooder which resides in the family room, I have chicken, turkey and goose eggs incubating in higher quality incubators after learning some important lessons from my first attempt. Needless to say, keeping ducks as a boy doesn't make me anything close to being an expert, so I'm glad to have found this forum and my wife and I are eager to share and learn much, much more.
Had I known better back then, I would have been more concerned about predictors, but apparently I lucked out because our dog Rusty was fiercely protective of all of us and with Rusty being a big chow mix, nothing wanted to challenge Rusty. Despite my youth and inexperience, Frances and Petunia fared quite well on "faculty row" which derived it's name from housing college professors like my recently deceased father.
Petunia paraded her offspring around every spring in the aftermath of nesting in our neighbor's flower garden. This was during a period in the USA when neighbors in towns were more apt to exchange gifts and help each other out without anyone asking, when help was needed.
Five decades and counting later, my wife of many years and I acquired a farm with a lake and a couple of ponds affording us an opportunity to not only make ducks happy, but host other fowl as well. Though I desired more of a "boy with his ducks" type relationship with Sir Frances and Petunia, they relegated me to an "if we need you, we'll let you know" kind of arrangement.
I determined to strive for a more affectionate relationship with our ducks this time around should that be possible. So I bought an incubator and several breeds of duck eggs so that our smiling faces would be their first welcome into the world.
I read the directions, put the eggs in my inexpensive, imported incubator and wondered how hard can hatching eggs really be? My first attempt produced a modest 26% hatch rate which made me realize that's there's more to hatching eggs than what the brief, poorly written directions I got with the incubator had led me to believe.
In hindsight, I'm surprised I got as many hatchings as I did based upon what I've learned since from watching YouTube videos and reading threads on this website. It didn't help that my "automatic incubator" wasn't even close to being calibrated correctly combined with me assuming at first that my Amazon buy surely wasn't as far off as I learned that it was.
Be that as it may, the ten survivors of my incubation deficits and corrections seem happy and well as can be. Our ducklings are delightful beyond words.
We've managed to endear ourselves to a Mallard hatchling we named Samson because he was the first and strongest to exit from his egg by a considerable margin. He has already established himself as an inquisitive bold leader and the most up for a new adventure. He doesn't flee and huddle up in the corner of the brooder with the rest should we move too suddenly within their viewing range without announcing our arrival into the room while speaking in reassuring duck-ese tones beforehand. Samson on the other hand remains relaxed and tilts his head sideways in order to look back at us.
Samson loves to jump into the measuring cup for a quick dip while we carefully fill the brooder's water trough. The more water that flies everywhere the better! Many of the others then follow Samson's splash and run example making whoever is holding the measuring cup of water an invaluable duckling asset. Should Samson prove to be a hen when we can ultimately tell the difference, then Samson will likely be rechristened Samsonena.
Our ducklings have turned my former city-girl wife into a duck lover as well. It was mutual love at first sight especially as far as Samson is concerned after spending some quality time in her hands following his great escape from the egg.
While our ducklings are frolicking in their brooder which resides in the family room, I have chicken, turkey and goose eggs incubating in higher quality incubators after learning some important lessons from my first attempt. Needless to say, keeping ducks as a boy doesn't make me anything close to being an expert, so I'm glad to have found this forum and my wife and I are eager to share and learn much, much more.
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Glad you joined.
