Bad influence!

[Miss Ducky]

A little mallard hen has been hanging out with my ducks for the past two days. Last night she made it impossible to get them to bed! They kept on following the mallard hen! My ducks ended up being out all night. Arghh!

I took away their food for the night so it wouldn't attract critters and didn't give them their nightly peas until this morning. Actually I didn't end up feeding them until noonish because I was gone. We didn't even try to get them in tonight, mostly because we got home late. Kind of ticked off at my ducks right now. I was worried that I had to leave them out all night, but thankfully everyone is a-okay. Even that little mallard brat. I'm going to start feeding them in their house again (instead of on the beach), to get them used to going in the duck house more. Should I continue to give them peas with their bell during the morning, or only give them peas if they go in at night? I think I'll probably put the bowl of peas in their house and ring the bell, showing them in treats in the house, and then leave during the daytime, in hopes that they'll go in, and begin to associate peas with their home. Any tips? I'd also like to hear any information about domesticated ducks befriending wild ducks, just out of curiosity.

P.S. When wondering aloud how the mallard got to the top of the pecking order, one of my relatives mused that they liked her because she's exotic!

 

[katharinad]

I think you hit the nail on the head. No food unless they come home. They need to learn where their food is, and your not their servant around the lake. Mine get food in the morning which is usually gone by the early afternoon. Then they get nothing until the night in the duck house. Trust me they are hungry when they go home. Just give them enough for half a day. Then they have to forage around for the rest of the day. That makes them tired and hungry for sure. BTW mine do not go into their duck house until it is almost dark. Even though I put food in there around 5 pm.

 

[Miss Ducky]

Thanks Katharina! I've been doing that for the past couple of days, as well as giving the treats in the house. I plan to give them treats only in their house for the next week or so. It also turned out that there were two female mallards, instead of one. They've both been there all along, just one has been hiding. I've named them Bonnie and Claudette (Clyde for short!)

I think that they aren't full grown yet, as they are quite a bit smaller than my khaki's, but I could be wrong. We think they might be orphans

. Anyway, we haven't been able to get my duckies to bed at all since I posted this. We'll almost get them in, but then Bonnie will call to mine (Clyde will go into hiding) and they'll go back to her. It's actually rather sweet! It really didn't help that my ducks haven't learned to go to bed on there own yet, and were at my aunt's farm for the last week. I noticed that Bonnie and Clyde were gone when I got home from school today. I don't know where they went and if they'll come back. I hope that if they do, they'll wait until after bedtime!

(I must say I'm somewhat glad that they're gone, I was going to put on a bathing suit and herd my ducks swimming tonight, because it won't work otherwise with the mallards. It's 66 degree Fahrenheit right now!) Though I may have had secret hopes of taming them down and adding them to my flock

They were pretty tame for mallards, usually ones that visit our pond run away before you can get near the pond, but these guys would follow mine half way across the pond when mine swam up to greet me! Hopefully they'll learn to get to bed on their own soon