Cheer me up, what are the GOOD things about pekins, mallards, buffs?

[KaleIAm]

Where do you find rescues? I've tried, but can't find any out here. Most places out here (Northern California) are sanctuaries and don't seem to adopt, but rather only accept monetary donations.

I found my 3 rescue ducks on Craigslist. They had been dumped on a pond and were being abused by the wild mallards so a kind person collected them and posted them.

My 4th was a word of mouth situation.

However I can always find rescue ducks on Petfinder in the bird section. Have you looked there?

 

[CoriM]

I have my own rescue (centraltexasduckrescue) but there are plenty in other areas here is a list of some http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/wfrescue.htm. I've found that wildlife rehabbers constantly need help with rehoming domestics unfortunately many domestic ducks get euthanized by wildlife rehabbers because they have noting to do with them and they can't be released.. I'd personally look contact your local wildlife rehabbers for domestics since they tend to get a lot, that's how I got dippy and most my other rescues is from people contacting the wildlife rehabber and the wildlife rehabber contacting me to get the duck. Dippy would've definitely been euthanized by a rehabber if he was taken to one he had a skull fracture and his cheek was broken he made a full recovery though.

Wow, that's amazing!! So great that you do that!

 

[SolarDuck]

Where do you find rescues? I've tried, but can't find any out here. Most places out here (Northern California) are sanctuaries and don't seem to adopt, but rather only accept monetary donations.

Mostly just dumped at local ponds at local parks. Easter is coming up soon so it's a good idea to check a few local ponds within the few months after Easter as that is when most seem to be dumped.

 

[KaleIAm]

I have no one to blame but myself for having too high of hopes and for wasting my money on overpriced 'mixed surprise ducklings', but I am so disappointed in what came. I ordered 7 surprise duckies, 5 female and 2 straight run. I ended up getting 3 female pekins, 2 female buffs and SR mallards.

I currently have blue swedish and giant french muscovys for their beauty, rarity, and fun-ness, and khaki campbells and golden 300 hybrids for their eggs.

Was hoping for a fun or odd assortment to mix everything up but ended up with 3 of the most common, boring duck breeds out there, making them way overpriced in the bargain. Metzer farms had about 20 breeds of ducks and all were hatching at the time of my order.
As they are female, the pekins will be useless for meat and from what I've read they are average/below average layers. Same for the buffs? And the mallards are as common as they get.

Anyways I am obviously a bit put out, and all is my own fault for not picking out specific birds.

Can someone help me see the bright side of these breeds? Right now I am leaning towards selling them at a loss and finding something more neat/useful in terms of egg laying etc. Won't the pekins basically be eating a ton and producing few eggs? And aren't mallards skittish and runty? I don't know much about buffs other than they are buff.

Never doing surprise birds again. I was dreaming of maybe a runner, a rare breed (welsh harlequin, saxony, cayuga, silver appleyard, swedish etc), or what I already had perhaps to thicken the breeding stock, and a few useful ones as far as proficient layers. Obviously that was unrealistic.

Tell me I am being pessimistic and silly and these are great and sensible birds to have around until they die naturally! LOL

Oh, I speculate that the mallards will have less health problems because of less inbreeding! That is definitely a desirable characteristic! Personally I would love some mallards.

 

[fatty and friends]

Link to wear you got clothes for them! I have ducks coming soon and I think I’m going to become a duck from all the time I plan to spend with them.

target and five below has lots of cute sweaters and coats i get for them! also if you have instagram here is my ducks account and i always link the shops i get them from

https://instagram.com/fatty_and_friends?igshid=41vkqer4dmq2

my ducks are my babies lol they love humans and love being dressed up, but i recommend starting diaper training as early as possible (i start at 3 days old)

 

[EllieandOlive]

Thanks all for your breed experiences! I am reinvigorated to discover and enjoy these new to me breeds!

 

[EllieandOlive]

Thanks all for your breed experiences! I am reinvigorated to discover and enjoy these new to me breeds!

Took them for their first swim today!

 

[Aunt Angus]

Took them for their first swim today!

Look at all the cute little fuzzballs!!!
❤

 

[Parront]

I have Buff ducks, a male and female. The male is the calmest male, he gets to stay! Nice large size male, too. The female has been laying a nice big white egg every day this week.

 

[Parront]

Pekins lay big eggs, and I had some long ago that laid pretty well. They eat a lot, is the problem. They are fine to eat at 8 weeks, not as large as the males, but larger than lots of other breed's males.