Geriatric Mallards

[KsKingBee]

Last spring we were gifted some mallards that a friends mother had in the city. She was given ducklings that someone found in a restaurant parking lot and she took them home and gave them a very pampered life of free-ranging in her backyard, well except for in the winter when they stayed in her garage.... Every August she would trim the flight feathers so they could not fly. Mom passed away and my friend, her daughter, posted on FB wanting to rehome the ducks. I thought that they had to be at least last years hatch but when we went to pick them up we were told that mom has had them since 2006! Thirteen years old!

We brought them to our home in the middle of nowhere and put them on our pond where they are protected by our Great Pyranese. Two days ago one of the hens brought out her brood of ducklings, we never thought they would lay let alone hatch out young. Hopefully, they will stay over on the island and away from our damn cat.

The parent ducks do not have the wing strength to fly but will the young ones leave or stay?

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

hmm they don’t look like full mallards ducklings... can you post close up pics of each duckling? some look like mallards and some don’t.

 

[KsKingBee]

They haven't come up close yet and when I crop the pics too much they are pretty grainy. I'll try to get some better pics today. I have been told they seem to be crosses and a couple of the drakes and ducks do look different.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

they look like they may be part pekin or something else.

 

[KsKingBee]

they look like they may be part pekin or something else.

I have not seen the duckies today yet but here are some of the others. The first pair are our 'land ducks' they don't go to the pond, they just hang around the peapens and with the swans when they come up, and a close up of the hen. I have to be very careful when I am mowing the yard as they won't get out of the way. The third pic is of the other three drakes, the one that sits low in the water is the daddy.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

definitely not full mallards. could you bring the babies inside to socialize them more?

 

[KsKingBee]

definitely not full mallards. could you bring the babies inside to socialize them more?

I doubt it, they are free-ranging on our pond and I haven't been able to get within 75 feet of them.

 

[chickens really]

They look like Mallard Ducks to me. The Drakes are in eclipse so don't have the colours right now. Wild Mallard Ducklings come in both darker and lighter colour pattern. Just Ducklings colours and has nothing to do with actual Mallard colours.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

the mallards look fully mallard but the babies don’t.