Big Day for My Ducks!

[SeaSea47]

Sweet sympathy n blessings on loss of your mom. I hope you are not sad about ur loss!
Your eggs should get bigger and your ducks are lovely ! I have two female Indian Runners

Thank you - your ducks are adorable!

 

[SeaSea47]

For those of you who free-range...do you have hawks? That's my biggest worry with these guys.

 

[Quatie]

Sorry to hear about your mother. You will find a lot of us here excited to hear about your ducks. What a great reason to look at more duck photos .

They are beautiful ducks. They are going to love foraging. Give them time and you find them going further and further. Congrats on the first eggs!

In my experience, all ducks can be friendly. I find Cayugas and Saxony to be the most social. Muscovy don't like being handled, but go out of their way to spend time near you. I love my Pekin, but I wouldn't get them again. Too many leg health issues. They have great personalities, but sadly breed to live a short life. If you raise some new ducklings, we will all love to see photos!

 

[Sammster]

I'm mostly posting this because I'm so excited. My mom died in August, and she was the only person I know who truly got excited about these things, so I need to share with someone.

My heartfelt condolences on the loss of your mom. ::great big hugs::
My DH brought home some duck eggs that he bought from a duck farmer near our camp. I was surprised at the smaller size. For some reason, I expected them to be larger than chicken eggs. I don't know why.
How exciting that your birds have had their first "outing"! For some reason, I have not done this, yet with my chickens. Perhaps I am being over protective.
I'll bet your mama is very proud of you ♡

 

[mamaduk]

For those of you who free-range...do you have hawks? That's my biggest worry with these guys.

I haven’t had any issues with hawks and I’m located in rural Utah

 

[Quatie]

For those of you who free-range...do you have hawks? That's my biggest worry with these guys.

I haven't had Hawks attack my ducks yet. My neighbor's chickens have been taken out by predators. My property has a lot of trees, burn piles, and my dogs share the area with them. I don't let them out till 40 minutes after dawn and put them in before dusk. More you have, the more likely they will notice a predator too.

 

[SeaSea47]

Sorry to hear about your mother. You will find a lot of us here excited to hear about your ducks. What a great reason to look at more duck photos .

They are beautiful ducks. They are going to love foraging. Give them time and you find them going further and further. Congrats on the first eggs!

In my experience, all ducks can be friendly. I find Cayugas and Saxony to be the most social. Muscovy don't like being handled, but go out of their way to spend time near you. I love my Pekin, but I wouldn't get them again. Too many leg health issues. They have great personalities, but sadly breed to live a short life. If you raise some new ducklings, we will all love to see photos!

Thank you! The ducks were kind of something she and I planned to do together, but she got sick shortly after I got them and never really had a chance to be a part of raising them.

 

[SeaSea47]

Thank you all for the kind words. Though I have seen them try, I've never had a hawk take out any of my free-ranging chickens (though I have lost some to ground predators - mostly fox), but I've just noticed them flying so low lately. I think I'd freak out if they went after the ducks! For now, they'll probably just be free range when I can stay out with them or check on them regularly. Luckily, I work from home, so that shouldn't be a huge issue. And they have a pretty large, very predator-proof run, so they're okay inside too. I just thought they might like to munch on some grass since the run is a mud pit now.