I Did a Thing...

[ColtHandorf]

...and they are so cute it hurts!

Welcome Toffee, Truffle, and Bartholomew (Bon Bon for short), my new trio of Butterscotch Call ducks. I seriously cannot get over how adorable they are. Babies may actually kill me.

Excuse the poor photos. I picked them up after dark after seeing a Craigslist ad and will try to get some better ones today or tomorrow.

Hopefully the images work, I’ve been having an issue since the update.

 

[ShrekDawg]

They’re ridiculously cute

 

[SolarDuck]

SO ADORABLE!!

 

[FunnyfarmMidwest]

...and they are so cute it hurts!

Welcome Toffee, Truffle, and Bartholomew (Bon Bon for short), my new trio of Butterscotch Call ducks. I seriously cannot get over how adorable they are. Babies may actually kill me.

Excuse the poor photos. I picked them up after dark after seeing a Craigslist ad and will try to get some better ones today or tomorrow.
View attachment 2516077View attachment 2516078View attachment 2516080View attachment 2516081View attachment 2516082View attachment 2516083View attachment 2516084
Hopefully the images work, I’ve been having an issue since the update.

Congrats! They are darling! I love calls so much! I’m getting call fever over here! I’m getting ready to set a batch of call eggs on Saturday and I’m already thinking about hatch day... I’m an addict...
Your drake looks just like one of my call drakes Munchie. He is the one in the front of this photo.
P.s. love the names! Very creative!

 

[KaleIAm]

Excruciating!

 

[Isaac 0]

Congrats! I think you might have Pastel, not Butter. The reason I say that is the lack of eye stripes in the females, and the brown chest on the drake - in butters the brown coloration tends to wander down the underside, with Pastels there is a strict cut-off.

Either way, they are gorgeous.

 

[casportpony]

Congrats, they are adorable!

 

[ColtHandorf]

Congrats! I think you might have Pastel, not Butter. The reason I say that is the lack of eye stripes in the females, and the brown chest on the drake - in butters the brown coloration wanders down the underside, with Pastels there is a strict cut-off.

Either way, they are gorgeous.

Thank you! Honestly I'm not sure on the mutation. The seller said they were Butterscotch in the Craigslist ad. He was selling them to focus on racing pigeons! I'll try to get some better pictures where an ID can be made more definitively. I honestly couldn't believe I scored the trio for $100 and that they looked so good. Like short proper beaks and generally appear well-bred. They are also very gentle and calm. I literally just ushered them into the dog kennel for the ride home. The hens are a little skittish but I have every intention of spoiling them rotten with little yummies so they like me.

 

[Isaac 0]

So I do have some questions for you Call lovers out there. I've always wanted them, but these are my first, although I've had several breeds of ducks in the past.

1. I'm housing them currently in a large, wire breeding cage. Is that acceptable? I'd wanted them on the ground in a 10x20 dog run that is covered, but after seeing how teeny tiny they are in person, I just couldn't imagine them sharing the pen with my quad of Chocolate English Orpingtons.

Feel, I've no idea. Maybe Isaac would know he has calls. The wire just doesn't seem like it would be very comfortable.

They are often kept on wire, and due to their light-weight they don't tend to develop leg problems easily, but over time you may be dealing with arthritis, or pododermatitis if they're being housed on it for extended periods of time. Looking at it from a welfare perspective, I believe they would rather be housed on grass or other soft bedding.

2. The previous owner was feeding them hen scratch and occasionally offering them gamebird feed. I gave them a tiny dish of scratch so they'd have something familiar but they have a mix of Layer Pellets and Crumble in a feeder, along with grit and oyster shell in separate dishes.

I realized how short they were so there are some bricks to get in and out of their 'pool' and nest boxes. Those are not in the photos as I added them afterward.

Call ducks do well on either a feed formulated for all poultry such as All flock feed, or Purina flock raiser, or a feed formulated specifically for waterfowl such as Mazuri.

3. They are under a year old and should start laying soon. When do your calls usually start laying? I am in Northeast Texas.

Calls start laying in the spring, into early summer, then tend to stop after that. They are not known for their eggs, so only expect about twenty-five/thirty each per bird.

4. I've heard they are hard to hatch. Give me all your tips and tricks. It'll break my heart if they are fertile and their little eggs don't hatch.

I hatch mine at 35% for the first twenty-three days, then up it to around 70% during lockdown. Especially with show-quality calls, they have a hard time pipping out of the shell due to their short beak so you often have to candle quite often during lockdown to track their progress. After the internal pip, if they don't make an external pip after twelve hours, I make a safety hole and guide them out as needed afterward.

5. I've always heard that Calls need to be clipped/pinioned, or housed in a covered pen. I see pictures though where they are clearly out and about enjoying the grass and what not. How do you all keep yours?

Feel free to disclose any other important information I might need to know.

I have never trimmed any of my Calls wings, and they have always stuck near their coop.

 

[EverythingDucks]

Congrats!!!!! I love Call ducks