Is this what "shrink-wrapped" looks like?

[carcar80]

Two captions for this one: 1) THANKS, Mom!! And- 2) Holy two-day size difference, Batman!


All seems to be going well. At first I wondered, Solo was pecking/nibbling on the others and at times it seemed borderline aggressive. But now they're doing it back to him, when he turns to preen they grab at his toenails and he'll turn back and "dabble"at their beak.. so it all seems in good fun. I think I can tell who was the last to hatch, bc he is on the other side of the warm area crashed out. He's not up for play yet, he says.

 

[carcar80]

I bet that was tough, how many ducks do ya'll have? Aside from these babies, I have eight. We have 7.5 acres with about a 1.5 acre pond.

and are you keeping them all? Heck No!! LOL. Hubby has put a cap on ducks around here, lol, and I'm in agreeance. These babies are going to a friend who wants ducks for his lake. I am keeping these for him until they are old enough to be outside, and he is going to fix them a set-up there until they are hopefully ready to stay there, or at least return and nest. That is his hope. And that is his perogative, lol. Heck I can't get ducks to LEAVE so I don't see why he'll have much problem. We shall see.

seems I read you have a duck sitting too? Yes. Mama Mallard had OVERFLOWED her first nest this season and was not sitting. That is where these eggs came from. I started with 22 eggs and dwindled down to these seven. Now she has gotten into her groove again and is sitting as of Friday. She can have these. But they will all be eaten. It's just the way it is here. We have GIANT turtles in our pond/lake (in spite of killing what we can find) and her first successful hatch of 14 last year were all gone w/in two weeks. She lost a duckling a day. IF she has better luck this year, that's fine. But I really don't expect it and have no use for hatching any more Mallards right now.

what breeds? Mallards and Pekins. Daddy Mallard belonged to the old owners when we moved here. They left him, of course (everything here is free-range, free-will, survival of the fittest).. Mama Mallard belonged to my Mother-in-Law and when she had to move she brought her here. She adapted from minute one and FLEW right to Daddy Mallard, lol. She had never even seen a body of water before. I was amazed. They are inseparable.

The first two Pekins came from a friend of a friend who had bought them as Easter gifts and, well, they grew up. I told her she was welcome to bring them here. She put them out in the driveway

and they stayed.

Third Pekin came from my friend who had two penned up. Predator got in, killed one and took Betty White's right eye. She asked if "he" (they thought she was a drake) could come live here as her run was irreparable. I said yes. As soon as they let "him" out of his box "he" began QUACKING loudly and heading for water, lol. She is over a year old now and is the one laying eggs for me now.

Whew! That was a lot to type! Probably more info than you bargained for, LOL!

 

[carcar80]

Oh- and the Pekin eggs I'm saving up, those are for my Dad. He wanted some Mallards last year but I just loved those three. Plus they also helped Betty White adapt, she came about the time they feathered out and she took them and taught them how to be ducks. They were thick as thieves. So i just couldn't take them from her.

Now that they're grown she stays to the Pekin drakes.

 

[pogmobum]

7.5 acres your a lucky ducky lol when we had ducks a few years ago they had 11 baby's but we kept losing one a day dint have a clue why as they were fence in and "safe" finally i ended up sitting out there a whole day and still couldn't figure it out. Finally when we were down to like three and they were fairly big at this point we were moving there house and found tunnelling underneath the wooden flooring and saw a dead ducking missing a leg. Dad started digging and at the end there was this absolutely MASSIVE RAT it was either pregnant or just huge! Needles to say the rat got the end of the shovel which it deserved. Ducks are so messy though never got them again except for the two wild ones that i had to rescue and their in the wild now thank god.

 

[carcar80]

Ewwww yuck. Poor babies.. Yes they are very messy. These will be brooding on the back porch by week's end, hopefully. It's supposed to be near 80*F next week!

Next-to-last hatched at 4:40 this morning. Tand I realized at bedtime the last remaining one HAD pipped, just on the underside. Still no hatch but it'll be today. I can't believe it, Friday through Monday! Jeez

 

[Miss Lydia]

Two captions for this one: 1) THANKS, Mom!! And- 2) Holy two-day size difference, Batman!


All seems to be going well. At first I wondered, Solo was pecking/nibbling on the others and at times it seemed borderline aggressive. But now they're doing it back to him, when he turns to preen they grab at his toenails and he'll turn back and "dabble"at their beak.. so it all seems in good fun. I think I can tell who was the last to hatch, bc he is on the other side of the warm area crashed out. He's not up for play yet, he says.

Thats adorable looks like they are one nice lil family.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Ewwww yuck. Poor babies.. Yes they are very messy. These will be brooding on the back porch by week's end, hopefully. It's supposed to be near 80*F next week!

Next-to-last hatched at 4:40 this morning. Tand I realized at bedtime the last remaining one HAD pipped, just on the underside. Still no hatch but it'll be today. I can't believe it, Friday through Monday! Jeez

Well Congratulations on a great hatch and story about how you got your ducks, I enjoyed reading it. We have a very nice river [Mountain] down below our home I wish our ducks could go to daily but I would be so worried about them getting picked off by preds, actually our old drake came from the river but it's been about 8yrs since he's been back

 

[carcar80]

Ooh that sounds beautiful Miss Lydia. I love rivers/mountain/woods. I grew up in forest, there's just something about it. Are you in US? Not sure I've seen or you've said where you live.

We have a unique setup, I think, in that we are kinda plopped down right at the edge of town- literally- and therefore don't have an *abundance* of predators. Not to say there aren't any, we do have a fox now and again an of course coons, hawks, I'm sure owls and stray dogs. But our waterfront is maybe 20ft from the front porch and I think that helps deter a lot of daytime shenanigans as far as the ducks go, and of course they stay on the water at night. My big dog keeps strays at bay for the most part.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Ooh that sounds beautiful Miss Lydia. I love rivers/mountain/woods. I grew up in forest, there's just something about it. Are you in US? Not sure I've seen or you've said where you live.

We have a unique setup, I think, in that we are kinda plopped down right at the edge of town- literally- and therefore don't have an *abundance* of predators. Not to say there aren't any, we do have a fox now and again an of course coons, hawks, I'm sure owls and stray dogs. But our waterfront is maybe 20ft from the front porch and I think that helps deter a lot of daytime shenanigans as far as the ducks go, and of course they stay on the water at night. My big dog keeps strays at bay for the most part.

Yes I'm in NC western part, If our river was that close I would have them on it in a flash, but theres a bit of woods they would have to walk through [not on our property] to get to the river so it's really not an option, but I'm sure they would love it. you must be south GA to be getting 80's already, our DD lives outside of Atlanta.

 

[carcar80]

No! I'm just about an hour fom ATL actually.. We'll supposedly have one more dip into 50's end of this week, and as far as I can see after that highs in the upper 70's, which always means even warmer than that when all is said/done. Of course, the way our forecasters have been missing the mark lately, who knows? It changes several times a day lol.

Oh, I LOVE NC!! Beautiful country up there.