Hello everyone! My husband and I “adopted” two adult ducks in March. We had been planning to get ducks for a while, and were preparing for ducklings. However, we heard of a fellow who needed to re-home his two remaining ducks after his flock was decimated by a fisher cat, and here we are!
They are 2-3 years old. Margery is a Pekin. Daphne is a Rouen. Daphne has the brains, and Margery follows her lead. The girls were initially pretty traumatized, and Margery had minor injuries, but they are coming along well. We live in the hills of Vermont, and only very recently started to have decent weather. For now, D and M live in a horse barn at night (no horses, they have the whole place to themselves), and have a small run during the day when someone is home. We are working on building a bigger outdoor enclosure.
The girls currently have baby pools to swim in, although we are working on a better option there too. At least the baby pools are easy to clean! Kind of...
Anyways, my husband and I are here to learn. We will, no doubt, expand the flock a bit once we get the outdoor enclosure finished.
One question I have currently is about molting. The girls, most notably Daphne, started to molt a couple of weeks after we got them. From what I’ve read to this point, it seems as though Drakes are the only ones who are supposed to molt in early spring? I wondered if the stress of the attack + the move could have triggered the molt? They both look beautiful once again after a month of it, but they haven’t re-started laying eggs yet. We are now giving them plenty of sunlight and what we think is a balanced duck diet. They seem healthy and happy. Just no eggs. *shrugs*
At any rate, we clearly have much to learn
It’s nice to meet you all!
They are 2-3 years old. Margery is a Pekin. Daphne is a Rouen. Daphne has the brains, and Margery follows her lead. The girls were initially pretty traumatized, and Margery had minor injuries, but they are coming along well. We live in the hills of Vermont, and only very recently started to have decent weather. For now, D and M live in a horse barn at night (no horses, they have the whole place to themselves), and have a small run during the day when someone is home. We are working on building a bigger outdoor enclosure.
The girls currently have baby pools to swim in, although we are working on a better option there too. At least the baby pools are easy to clean! Kind of...
Anyways, my husband and I are here to learn. We will, no doubt, expand the flock a bit once we get the outdoor enclosure finished.
One question I have currently is about molting. The girls, most notably Daphne, started to molt a couple of weeks after we got them. From what I’ve read to this point, it seems as though Drakes are the only ones who are supposed to molt in early spring? I wondered if the stress of the attack + the move could have triggered the molt? They both look beautiful once again after a month of it, but they haven’t re-started laying eggs yet. We are now giving them plenty of sunlight and what we think is a balanced duck diet. They seem healthy and happy. Just no eggs. *shrugs*
At any rate, we clearly have much to learn
It’s nice to meet you all!
and welcome to BYC!
We are glad you joined our flock!
