Hi~ I am new to ducks. Got my 1st 3 on May 24 2013. they were suppose to be " crested Indian runners" oh cream & white. They were tiny yellow fuzzy things with a puff on their head. I joined an FB Runner duck page. I can't say when I started to suspect they were not what I ordered. Well they are not. Long story short. The owner of the local Agway made a mistake, he ordered white crested ducks. so that's what I have . White crested ducks. Of course I love them anyway. I wanted the runners as my 1st for 2 reasons. 1, they didn't require the water as reg. ducks do & 2. they are great forigers , I read even better than chickens. But, so bit it. My neighbors took 3 & I took 3. they had one die with in days. I had 1 die after about 4 wks. I love the ducks. they are just so fun to watch. After my little 1 died I called the store & he had 2 unclaimed ducks there. 1 Pekin & 1 Rouen. so I took them. I have 4 ducks now. I am sure I have 1 Drake. My female crested is so loud. When I go out I call " duck-do" where are you & she starts quaking up a storm. & the 2 newbies I am sure R females. The Rouen I am sure is a female , she's just brown no coloring like the male. & the Pekin is not peeping, it's quaking. I am happy for just 1 drake. May I ask what do you all feed your ducks beside the grain & cracked corn ? I have given them lettuce, spinach , peas, bread...
Thank you
That stinks that you had such a rough introduction to ducks. I'm not a big fan of buying chicks/ducklings/goslings from a feedstore. If you get them from the feedstore they've already endured two moves at a very young age - from the hatchery to the feedstore and then from the feedstore to your home. Add to that the fact that a lot of feedstore employees have no clue what they are doing with fowl and your birds have less chance of getting the intense care they need the first couple days of their life.
My runners are great foragers, but they do love their pools as much as any of my other waterfowl, especially during the heat of the day.
What I didn't anticipate was what great egglayers they are! My five runner hens are now 17 months old and rarely does a day go by that I don't get five eggs.
I feed all my waterfowl a 7 grain feed (actually it's intended as a game bird conditioner) that has very little corn in it. Corn is fattening and not all that nutritious. My ducks aren't crazy about romaine lettuce, but my geese adore it. I give them all peas several times a week to meet their niacin requirements, but since they graze at least 10 hours a day that's not really a problem anyhow. The one thing I
don't give them is bread. Bread is very unhealthy for ducks and shouldn't be feed to them at all. Yeah, you see people feeding wild ducks bread at parks and lakes all the time, but they aren't doing those birds any favors.
When it comes to food likes and dislikes birds are just like us humans, they are individuals and each has their own preferences. As I said, some of my ducks like lettuce, others won't touch it. Our fig trees are full right now; my geese and chickens adore figs, but the ducks aren't interested. Some of my ducks and a few of the geese like watermelon, others ignore it. Every single duck and goose I have loves, loves, loves peas. If I try to feed peas to my chickens I get stink eye.
Back the original post. I may have mentioned somewhere along the line that my goose went broody? My pair are American buffs. Only one is tufted (the gander) so I didn't concern myself with allowing them to hatch. Since she was only a year old when she went broody "everyone" told me to allow my goose to keep all the eggs in her clutch; that there was
no way that all would hatch, if any hatched at all. And that is how I went from being the proud owner of two geese to being the shocked owner of TWELVE geese.
She actually had 11 eggs and hatched every single one of them, but one poor baby got crushed to death in the overfull nest. Seven of the goslings are tufted, 4 are not. All are the spitting image of the gander and all are very healthy.
