FishinDucko
In the Brooder
- Sep 3, 2018
- 13
- 31
- 34
Hi, after 4 months of reading and using the Duck forum for countless ideas and advice I decided I should register an account!
I live in PA and sort of gotten into the hobby by happenchance, never intended on having ducks and it was spontaneous. I fish a lot and I had a day where a mother mallard led her very very young ducklings over a large river spillway. The whole brood fell over the 20ft intense spillway, about 8 or 9 ducklings. The mother hopelessly was trying to call her babies back up top but they were far too young to fly. 5 of them drowned trying to swim back up the turbulent water. You could see them tiring after 10 minutes and slowly one by one they would go under and not come back up. The other few remaining were being eaten by smallmouth bass, I saw them take them right off the surface - i was in my boat in close proximity to see it happen. The last duckling was sucked down by a bass but a moment later the bass spit the duckling out and it floated unconscious to the surface. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but the current made hin float towards the boat and I scooped him up and placed him on the floor of the boat - to my surprise he started breathing and it took over an hour for him to just stand/sit instead of being on his side. He would have certainly died, his mom left, and all his siblings died. I took him home, fed him watermelon and water and put him in a small dog crate with a oil heater next to the crate. The following day I did some research and got feed, supplement, and supplies to set him up nicely. I also got two more ducklings because I read they were social and needed buddies to be happy.
And here I am 4 months later with maturing ducks in a custom built coop/run/pool area in my fenced in backyard. I've learned a lot from this page and I've had ups and downs but the joy me and my girlfriend get from caring for the ducks has been wonderful. I've made many mistakes just yesterday we lost a duck, the favorite of the bunch, to the biggest coopers hawk I've ever seen. It was very, very disheartening. Adjustments have been made and it surely won't happen again. We have two more ducks being shipped in a couple weeks to even out our male/female ratio. I'll have 5 ducks total - a mallard drake, 1 khaki drake, 1 khaki duck, a buff duckling, and a cayuga duckling. Ducklings will be kept separate yet in the presence of the older ones until the little guys are large enough to introduce and not be stepped on or overly bullied. I may have to rehome one of the males if they can't get along in the spring...but as of now they are getting along just fine. Just wanted to share my story and introduce myself specifically to the duck section here for I rarely look at the chicken section. See yins around!
I live in PA and sort of gotten into the hobby by happenchance, never intended on having ducks and it was spontaneous. I fish a lot and I had a day where a mother mallard led her very very young ducklings over a large river spillway. The whole brood fell over the 20ft intense spillway, about 8 or 9 ducklings. The mother hopelessly was trying to call her babies back up top but they were far too young to fly. 5 of them drowned trying to swim back up the turbulent water. You could see them tiring after 10 minutes and slowly one by one they would go under and not come back up. The other few remaining were being eaten by smallmouth bass, I saw them take them right off the surface - i was in my boat in close proximity to see it happen. The last duckling was sucked down by a bass but a moment later the bass spit the duckling out and it floated unconscious to the surface. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but the current made hin float towards the boat and I scooped him up and placed him on the floor of the boat - to my surprise he started breathing and it took over an hour for him to just stand/sit instead of being on his side. He would have certainly died, his mom left, and all his siblings died. I took him home, fed him watermelon and water and put him in a small dog crate with a oil heater next to the crate. The following day I did some research and got feed, supplement, and supplies to set him up nicely. I also got two more ducklings because I read they were social and needed buddies to be happy.
And here I am 4 months later with maturing ducks in a custom built coop/run/pool area in my fenced in backyard. I've learned a lot from this page and I've had ups and downs but the joy me and my girlfriend get from caring for the ducks has been wonderful. I've made many mistakes just yesterday we lost a duck, the favorite of the bunch, to the biggest coopers hawk I've ever seen. It was very, very disheartening. Adjustments have been made and it surely won't happen again. We have two more ducks being shipped in a couple weeks to even out our male/female ratio. I'll have 5 ducks total - a mallard drake, 1 khaki drake, 1 khaki duck, a buff duckling, and a cayuga duckling. Ducklings will be kept separate yet in the presence of the older ones until the little guys are large enough to introduce and not be stepped on or overly bullied. I may have to rehome one of the males if they can't get along in the spring...but as of now they are getting along just fine. Just wanted to share my story and introduce myself specifically to the duck section here for I rarely look at the chicken section. See yins around!
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sorry about your Buff - air predators are my worst fear...
