2 weeks ago I finally had my baby girl, yay! But, while I was in the hospital, my assortments of Holderreads ducklings and my replacements from Ideal showed up, all on the same day. Oh boy. My mother put them all in a chicken brooder inside for me but unfortunately had no idea what came from where. Sigh. So I had 12 from Holderread's and 5 from Ideal to sort when I got home. Fortunately it was easy with some of them, Holderread doesn't have mallards or crested birds (That I am aware of) but with others i got a bit confused. I think my final tally was: Holderread's: 6 black runners 4 blue runners 1 blue magpie 1 silver appleyard (maybe? Not sure, I didn't see this ducklings pic anywhere, looks kind of like a rouen, only more muted coloring and is huge!) Ideal: 2 mallards 1 crested blue swedish 1 anonymous black duck (cayuga, maybe?) 1 crested pekin Turns out I was a bit off, here it is 2 weeks later and I apparently was wrong about my anonymous cayuga, which also makes me wonder about his origins. My best guess is that he is a Black East Indie, he is itty bitty, slightly smaller than my mallards that are the same age. But both Ideal and Holderread's have them as well. Argh!!! And my mystery duck is still a mystery, i guess I'll have to wait till his feathers all come in before I have a better idea. But here's the point to this whole long post, how do I raise an east Indie duck? Same as the others or does it have special needs?
