That's what so lovely about this site, you actually know that the members here understand and care about their pets in the same way you do; that we love them as others love their dogs and cats and it's great to have experienced people to chat to when you have a concern. As I said I've had adults ducks for over 14 years now but I'm still learning new things about them as I read the threads.
My ducks were killed by two dogs that belong to a neighbour two houses up from ours. Next door have Bantams and one of them (who we named Myrtle McCluck) didn't like being with the other chickens, she loved being with our ducks (probably because she grew up with them). So we had a small hole in the bottom of the adjoining garden fence the size of a house brick and she used to come through and spend the day with us, then go home to roost at night. My husband adores that chicken and they still spend the weekends together now whilst he's working in his shed, except he now goes to collect her. he talks to her and she answers him back, it is comical to see.
The woman that owns the dogs left them outside in her back garden and didn't check on them for hours. They broke into next door's garden but thankfully the chickens were in a run that day as our neighbour was going to be late home and was concerned about foxes so they weren't running around the garden loose like they normally are. The dogs actually chewed through the fence, making the small hole a lot bigger and them got into our garden. My poor ducks never stood a chance, I'm just thankful that my old Pekin of 14 years, Daisy, had to be put to sleep a few months before this otherwise I don't know how I could have coped with that.
It was hard enough losing my younger ducks, especially Dylis who had originally belonged to our neighbours. She had survived a fox attack, both her parents were killed - one taken, the other left headless. She had a broken wing and a big gash in her neck, she was found huddled in the corner of the shed terrified, not sure how she wasn't killed to be honest. Next door where going to put her down thinking it was the best thing to do considering the state she was in and I begged them to give her to me to try to save. I cleaned the neck wound and strapped up her wing and then put her with my ducks. She huddled up to Daisy, who actually seemed to look after her. This little duck looking after this big crested duck - but it worked. Her wing healed with limited movement but she made a full recovery. The fact that a pack of dogs them killed her has caused me a lot of pain and a lot of anger. I think I would have eventually forgiven the woman if a week later the same dogs broken into next door again and killed a chicken this time. Months later that fence still hasn't been replaced, just some wire but up on her side. My husband has completely replaced the fence on our side to ensure our ducks will be safe when they are outside again, it's a lot higher too but the dogs aren't big enough to jump it. We've never had a probably and if we hadn't had the hole for the chicken we'd still have our ducks. I felt so awfully guilty over that, I let them down.
So my ducklings have helped with the heeling process, they have brought me such a lot of happiness and although the incubation part caused me a lot of worry and stress it was a truly amazing experience watching my three Campbells hatch. We've talked about incubating some Bantums eggs in the future as my husband really would like some chickens but for now I'm happy with my family of 3 Khaki Campbells and 3 Alylesburys.
