Hello, BYC folks! I've been lurking about this big, beautiful website for about a year now and thought it time I finally showed my face.
I just posted a quick hello in the Introductions section, but I enjoy sharing pictures about as much as you people seem to enjoy looking at them, so thought I'd pop-over here to post!
We live in Maine and this past Autumn we started adding ducks to our little homestead. My husband's boss gave us three Muscovy babies and we fell in love from the get-go. We went with the names our two year old gave two of them: BabyDuck and MamaDuck, and my husband named the third Wade, after the scaredy-duck on the Garfield cartoon.
When we first brought them home... Top to bottom: Wade, MamaDuck, BabyDuck
April 2012... Left to right: MamaDuck, BabyDuck, Wade
As they grew, we realized MamaDuck and Wade were males... not so good odds for poor little girl BabyDuck. So I did some research and found several recommendations (some through here!) for Al's Quackery, which is semi-local to me. In mid-May, we brought home two chocolate Muscovy hens about the same age as our original three and two baby Anconas.
Our chocolate girls shortly after bringing them home, Holly in foreground, Echo in background
Our Anconas, shortly after bringing them home... Patches on the left, Freckles on the right
MamaDuck is our dominate male. He's a bit of a booger, actually. He pretty much 'owns' all the hens and makes sure Wade knows he's supposed to be submissive. Wade is a sweet, shy boy who will occasionally eat from my hand or let me pet him. BabyDuck is the youngest and will eat from my hand, chase me if I'm sharing treats with others, and nibbles on my arm -- it's really sweet in the Winter when she buries her head right up my coat sleeve... it's not so sweet now that she's broody. *shows the bruise on her arm*
We've named the chocolates Holly and Echo. Holly came about because she has a little hole in one of her webs: Holey-Holly. Echo came about because she's the verbal of the two new girls and it took us listening for repeated peeps to realize who was doing the talking.
The Anconas have been named Patches and Freckles, due to the markings on their cheeks. My gosh, they're growing like weeds! We have them separate from the Muscovies for now, while they're smaller -- I don't trust MamaDuck not to hurt them.
They've all got a lovely fenced stretch of grass right now and we're finishing up building a big ol' coop and new run for them. We're hoping to have it done within the next few weeks. BabyDuck's sitting on a nest -- funny story behind that, but I've kinda gone on too long here, I'm sure -- and we want to be able to separate the boys just before the eggs hatch.
So that's our little flock of seven, soon to be more. *chuckle*
We live in Maine and this past Autumn we started adding ducks to our little homestead. My husband's boss gave us three Muscovy babies and we fell in love from the get-go. We went with the names our two year old gave two of them: BabyDuck and MamaDuck, and my husband named the third Wade, after the scaredy-duck on the Garfield cartoon.
When we first brought them home... Top to bottom: Wade, MamaDuck, BabyDuck
April 2012... Left to right: MamaDuck, BabyDuck, Wade
As they grew, we realized MamaDuck and Wade were males... not so good odds for poor little girl BabyDuck. So I did some research and found several recommendations (some through here!) for Al's Quackery, which is semi-local to me. In mid-May, we brought home two chocolate Muscovy hens about the same age as our original three and two baby Anconas.
Our chocolate girls shortly after bringing them home, Holly in foreground, Echo in background
Our Anconas, shortly after bringing them home... Patches on the left, Freckles on the right
MamaDuck is our dominate male. He's a bit of a booger, actually. He pretty much 'owns' all the hens and makes sure Wade knows he's supposed to be submissive. Wade is a sweet, shy boy who will occasionally eat from my hand or let me pet him. BabyDuck is the youngest and will eat from my hand, chase me if I'm sharing treats with others, and nibbles on my arm -- it's really sweet in the Winter when she buries her head right up my coat sleeve... it's not so sweet now that she's broody. *shows the bruise on her arm*
We've named the chocolates Holly and Echo. Holly came about because she has a little hole in one of her webs: Holey-Holly. Echo came about because she's the verbal of the two new girls and it took us listening for repeated peeps to realize who was doing the talking.
The Anconas have been named Patches and Freckles, due to the markings on their cheeks. My gosh, they're growing like weeds! We have them separate from the Muscovies for now, while they're smaller -- I don't trust MamaDuck not to hurt them.
They've all got a lovely fenced stretch of grass right now and we're finishing up building a big ol' coop and new run for them. We're hoping to have it done within the next few weeks. BabyDuck's sitting on a nest -- funny story behind that, but I've kinda gone on too long here, I'm sure -- and we want to be able to separate the boys just before the eggs hatch.
So that's our little flock of seven, soon to be more. *chuckle*
we need pictures when you get the new ones 
