My Love Affair With Ducks...

[WannaBeHillBilly]

So here’s what happened this morning.

I was sitting and watching the ducks after I turned them out. I’m keeping them in their little run because Peaches, yet again, is limping badly...on her left foot this time. (No visible signs of any type wound.) Usually they all hit the water first thing and all the head bobbing and maniacal quacking begins. This morning, though, Peaches and Quinny stayed on the ground looking for ‘land snacks,’ aka poor little frogs. I only saw Petey and Ralphie in the pool so I immediately began looking for Hershey. She was NOWHERE to be found. I looked closer at the ducks in the pool and that’s when I noticed big ol Petey on top of my little bitty Hershey. Petey had Hershey completely hidden and completely submerged...for forever it seemed! I quickly interrupted that little soirée and Hershey quickly jumped out of the pool.

Tol'ya: You don't need to have drakes to experience double and triple duck-burgers!
All my ducks use each other as pool-floats, some ducks (Blanca!) even use the smaller drakes as surfboards. And they all can be submerged for a minute or longer. They are dabbling ducks:

Look how long those ducks stay with their heads under water…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

These ducks are changing everyday. I’m just not used to the way ducks act! One thing is they are constantly trying to, you know! All.the.time. And that chattering noise they make! I can be anywhere in the back yard and when I hear that I know exactly what’s going on.

They have all taken turn about being the one on top, and heaven forbid being the one underneath Petey. She completely sinks their entire body. It worries me.

Here, Petey is the recipient and I’m not sure if Hershey was jealous of her or of Ralphie.

Sorry, have to say that: Their constant change in behavior, their curiosity and willingness to try things different every day is what makes dux so much more interesting than for example xickens…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

One other thing, Ralphie has started a new, very odd behavior. Anytime I am in the yard, he will run up behind me (literally run to catch up with me), run up to the side of me and then dart in front of me. This happens every single time he is anywhere near me. He even caused me to fall and skin my knee Sunday morning, dang duck! Why is he doing this? Does it have something to do with maturity and “possession” of me, kind of like a cockerel circling around me to dominate me? There are so many behavioral things I have no clue about.

The ducks have also begun scoping out every nook and cranny, including the dog house - they love it - and the little prefab coop in my big chicken run. I am guessing this is in preparation of laying eggs. I find it strange though that they began ‘the act’ so much earlier than chickens do. They were 16 weeks old yesterday and they’ve been experimenting for a good month already. (Just a guess, I didn’t go back and look up the first time I mentioned seeing it.) However, yesterday I did see the little, beige corkscrew for sure. If I’m seeing that does it mean that things are actually taking place now?

I will have to take some pictures of them taking over the dog house porch. They have even run the chickens off — the dog house porch used to be the hang out spot for about six or so of my hens...with or without the dog!

If you want eggs right now, feed them dry cat food for some days. The high dose of protein will trigger the egg-laying at their age. Ducks start to lay eggs at an age of 3-4 months, way earlier than chickens.
And Ralphie, well is is doing what drakes are supposed to do: Protecting the ducks from evil! You should see Katharina's three boyz come running, plushing up to twice their real size and rasping at me when she yells »axe murderer« - because i've thrown her off the nest and collect the eggs. Ralphie is a good drake!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I’m not so sure just yet. He’s acting really weird. It may be normal Ralphie Dux behavior that I’m just not familiar with...yet!

He definitely has personality, and loads of charisma. That’s the only reason he’s still here — the crazy quacker! His little face is precious, but he’d better straighten up and fly right!

And that’s another thing, these ducks CAN too fly! They will ‘take flight’ about 18”-24”off the ground quite often...and not just on the downhill slope. They will also fly back up to their lot. I have also seen them ‘take flight’ straight from the water too! I guess that beats bumbling over the side of the pool.

(I used the term ‘take flight’ cause I didn’t know what else to call it. I don’t mean they actually get airborne like a wild duck.)

That is pretty normal behavior for domestic ducks. I have two parcels of grassweeds and thistles, separated by a 1½' fence with one gate. Recently half of my flock just jumped that fence because on the other side a single duck quacked that »there's something good to eat here« call. Walking 10 feet downhill to the gate was, of course, way to exhausting…
However the older your ducks will become, the less use of their wings they will make. Wing flapping is something for teenagers and young adults, the well behaved mature duck will use her wings only to express sheer panic.

 

[Mimi13]

Tol'ya: You don't need to have drakes to experience double and triple duck-burgers!
All my ducks use each other as pool-floats, some ducks (Blanca!) even use the smaller drakes as surfboards. And they all can be submerged for a minute or longer. They are dabbling ducks:

Look how long those ducks stay with their heads under water…

And I once thought chickens just “did it all the time.” Haha! Definitely not compared to ducks, I’ve found out. It’s good to know that my girls won’t drown. (I have read where some females in the wild do drown due to being raped by many drakes.)

 

[Mimi13]

If you want eggs right now, feed them dry cat food for some days. The high dose of protein will trigger the egg-laying at their age. Ducks start to lay eggs at an age of 3-4 months, way earlier than chickens.
And Ralphie, well is is doing what drakes are supposed to do: Protecting the ducks from evil! You should see Katharina's three boyz come running, plushing up to twice their real size and rasping at me when she yells »axe murderer« - because i've thrown her off the nest and collect the eggs. Ralphie is a good drake!

The way they are all acting now I swear they are scoping out a nesting site. They LOVE the dog house I made for our ancient catahoula that’s on his last leg, poor boy. He is about to turn 13 and he’s deaf as a door nail. With all this heat he is usually either in the big coop under the poop board or where the ducks stay...because of the fans I have going. That’s why the ducks are looking for another nesting spot I think. They never know if their spot is gonna be occupied or not. I haven’t done anything about him going in their lot honestly because I didn’t think he’d really be here this long. I’m gonna have to think of something to keep him out, but I don’t know what.

My plans are to move the dog house up the hill (currently on my back deck) once Tuff dies. I built it for him so I could provide a heated space for him during the cold. But I obviously built it with something else in mind since I put hinges on one side of the roof so I could raise it. And I put a front porch on it. It really looks like something ducks would live in. I still have not made final plans for the duck area, but I think I’m gonna make something on the hill next to where they are currently located. Right now they are insisting they are hanging out on my deck as evidenced by this picture I just took.

They are mucking up the dog water, eating my flowers, and pulling up my lily bulbs and decimating the entire stalk. My poor old girls (chickens) no longer can hang out on the porch. The ducks have definitely taken over.

ETA: I also meant to mention that the feed they’re on is 20%, but I can give them a little cat food too. Their recent behavior prompted me to look up when Ducks begin laying. Most everything I read had a timeline similar to chickens so I thought I had a little bit of time since they are almost 17 weeks old now. I guess I need to go ahead and give them access to oyster shell.

Bwahahaha! They are now out there rattling against my back glass door. (I have a reflective film on the door to help keep the sun and heat out of the house.) When they stand at the door all they can see is themselves and the out of doors.

 

[Mimi13]

That is pretty normal behavior for domestic ducks. I have two parcels of grassweeds and thistles, separated by a 1½' fence with one gate. Recently half of my flock just jumped that fence because on the other side a single duck quacked that »there's something good to eat here« call. Walking 10 feet downhill to the gate was, of course, way to exhausting…
However the older your ducks will become, the less use of their wings they will make. Wing flapping is something for teenagers and young adults, the well behaved mature duck will use her wings only to express sheer panic.

Two things learned here:

1) I’m amazed that ducks will eat thistle. Thistle?!? With all the needle-like leaves? I have tons of it in the pastures. I am constantly digging up the plants trying to eradicate the hateful stuff. Maybe I can feed them some. (We have thistle and what I call ‘bull nettle’ here.) That’s what my granddaddy always called it, bull nettle. I need to look it up and see if that’s its real name.

2) The wing activity. That is amazing that it seems to be a ‘younger duck’ activity. I actually like to see it - the whole group semi-flying up the hill, around the yard, just on a whim’s notice. How do they do that? They must have little non-audible cues that they all know, “We’re gonna take flight now and head over to the other goodie patch in the yard!”

 

[duluthralphie]

If you want eggs right now, feed them dry cat food for some days. The high dose of protein will trigger the egg-laying at their age. Ducks start to lay eggs at an age of 3-4 months, way earlier than chickens.
And Ralphie, well is is doing what drakes are supposed to do: Protecting the ducks from evil! You should see Katharina's three boyz come running, plushing up to twice their real size and rasping at me when she yells »axe murderer« - because i've thrown her off the nest and collect the eggs. Ralphie is a good drake!

Ralphie dux protect people from the evil. They counter the indoctrination other dux go through in dux school.

Ralphie Dux are the only good dux.

 

[Sapphire Sebright]

Ralphie dux protect people from the evil. They counter the indoctrination other dux go through in dux school.

Ralphie Dux are the only good dux.

So, you do like ducks!
Well, some ducks, at least.

 

[duluthralphie]

The way they are all acting now I swear they are scoping out a nesting site. They LOVE the dog house I made for our ancient catahoula that’s on his last leg, poor boy. He is about to turn 13 and he’s deaf as a door nail. With all this heat he is usually either in the big coop under the poop board or where the ducks stay...because of the fans I have going. That’s why the ducks are looking for another nesting spot I think. They never know if their spot is gonna be occupied or not. I haven’t done anything about him going in their lot honestly because I didn’t think he’d really be here this long. I’m gonna have to think of something to keep him out, but I don’t know what.

My plans are to move the dog house up the hill (currently on my back deck) once Tuff dies. I built it for him so I could provide a heated space for him during the cold. But I obviously built it with something else in mind since I put hinges on one side of the roof so I could raise it. And I put a front porch on it. It really looks like something ducks would live in. I still have not made final plans for the duck area, but I think I’m gonna make something on the hill next to where they are currently located. Right now they are insisting they are hanging out on my deck as evidenced by this picture I just took. View attachment 2259737
They are mucking up the dog water, eating my flowers, and pulling up my lily bulbs and decimating the entire stalk. My poor old girls (chickens) no longer can hang out on the porch. The ducks have definitely taken over.

ETA: I also meant to mention that the feed they’re on is 20%, but I can give them a little cat food too. Their recent behavior prompted me to look up when Ducks begin laying. Most everything I read had a timeline similar to chickens so I thought I had a little bit of time since they are almost 17 weeks old now. I guess I need to go ahead and give them access to oyster shell.

Bwahahaha! They are now out there rattling against my back glass door. (I have a reflective film on the door to help keep the sun and heat out of the house.) When they stand at the door all they can see is themselves and the out of doors.

If they do start laying and you foolishly decide to allow them to reproduce, I suggest you leave the child rearing to Ralphie Dux, he will teach them to be a boon to mankind.