I had a major scare with my ducks today. They have a small coop and run but I let them out in the yard during the day. I have a pretty big yard (for NY) and they always stay really close to home. Outside of my yard is just lots of woods. Well I guess today they got adventurous and got lost in the woods. After a few hours I found all but 1 of them. There's a slope that they got off of to go into the woods but their little legs couldn't get back up (don't ask me why they didn't try flying)!! They followed me all the way back home walking around the slope. I really thought the one that was missing must have been taken by a predator. I kept looking for her for a couple more hours. She's the leader of the pack. I couldn't find her anywhere. I went out one last time, literally minutes before dark and I could just make out a little body walking in the wrong direction in the woods. I ran down and got her!! They are all home safe!! I never thought I would get so attached to these guys. I love my chickens but ducks bond with you on a very different level then chickens do. I'm going to put up that plastic safety fencing all along the back of the property where the woods start. I'm really, really happy they are all safe!
