My Love Affair With Ducks...

[Mimi13]

Hell i did combine hay, straw and pine shavings! The result with, at that time, 19 ducks was a ½ foot thick hardboard that was almost impossible to remove from the duck house with my pitch-fork.

Looks like I’ve got a tough, or at least bumpy, road ahead trying to figure out what I’m gonna do. Just shavings, just straw, shavings/straw combined? Do ducks get any more confusing later on?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I have a bunch of little videos to upload. I’ve gotten behind these past few days. I’ve got too many irons in the fire. But I’ll leave you with this precious picture.
View attachment 2089430

Just look how sweet, all piled up on each other. I completely lowered the heat plate because they no longer went underneath it. They always pile on top.

Look at that pile of ducklings! I always love watching them huddling together to sleep. They do that even when it is warm, they just need that close contact. And look at Petey's little winglet!

 

[duluthralphie]

You have bees!?! - I wanted to start with bees this spring, but missed the local beekeeper-classes. Now everything is cancelled due to that stupid beer and i likely have to wait until next year. I love bees and honey! One of my uncles was a beekeeper and he taught me lot's of things about honey and bees, but that's over 40 years ago… The darker the honey the healthier he said.

My first year with bees... I ain’t takin no stinkin classes.



I gotz YouTube and “beekeeping for dummies”
What more count I need?


here is my adventure with bees..

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-honey-factory.1358454/

 

[Mimi13]

I could not agree more with you! There is a reason why people claim »What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!«. Another thing is the excessive use of disinfectants nowadays (imho!). When i grew up nobody was using a sanitary wipe to disinfect the handle of a shopping cart or basket. There also were just few people with allergies; not sure if there's a connection…

I agree. I think the antibacterial stuff is waaaaaay overused. Our bodies cannot begin to adjust to what’s good and what’s bad in order to know what to fight, so what does it do? Nothing, nothing at all, so we just get sick.

If everyone were like me and eat with the same fingers that just cleaned the coop, we’d all be healthy as a horse. (Side note: I do wash up and change clothes when I come inside to cook and take care of others.)

I think our allergies are mostly environmental, but I also think all allergies (food, enviro, etc.) are genetically passed, meaning that if WE (chicken keepers) were breeding ourselves (allergy sufferers) we would probably cull the ones sneezing and sniffling, the ones passing on the allergy defect. Of course this was meant tongue in cheek, but surely you get my point. I think the human race has continued for long enough now that we are no longer immune to what we once were. We are now able to keep people with the sneezes, coughs, and sniffles alive who used to not live. If man had the brain that lesser animals do, we would all fall under the rule of “survival of the fittest.” That’s just Mother Nature.

*Clarification: I just used sneezing, sniffles, etc. as an example. Those few symptoms weren’t meant as the only ailments we’ve taken on as normal nowadays.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

You have bees!?! - I wanted to start with bees this spring, but missed the local beekeeper-classes. Now everything is cancelled due to that stupid beer and i likely have to wait until next year. I love bees and honey! One of my uncles was a beekeeper and he taught me lot's of things about honey and bees, but that's over 40 years ago… The darker the honey the healthier he said.

What stupid beer? Is it a micro brew. Spell check does the strangest things.

 

[duluthralphie]

I agree. I think the antibacterial stuff is waaaaaay overused. Our bodies cannot begin to adjust to what’s good and what’s bad in order to know what to fight, so what does it do? Nothing, nothing at all, so we just get sick.

If everyone were like me and eat with the same fingers that just cleaned the coop, we’d all be healthy as a horse. (Side note: I do wash up and change clothes when I come inside to cook and take care of others.)

I think our allergies are mostly environmental, but I also think all allergies (food, enviro, etc.) are genetically passed, meaning that if WE (chicken keepers) were breeding ourselves (allergy sufferers) we would probably cull the ones sneezing and sniffling, the ones passing on the allergy defect. Of course this was meant tongue in cheek, but surely you get my point. I think the human race has continued for long enough now that we are no longer immune to what we once were. We are now able to keep people with the sneezes, coughs, and sniffles alive who used to not live. If man had the brain that lesser animals do, we would all fall under the rule of “survival of the fittest.” That’s just Mother Nature.

*Clarification: I just used sneezing, sniffles, etc. as an example. Those few symptoms weren’t meant as the only ailments we’ve taken on as normal nowadays.

I am still going to wear my latex gloves...

let the dog have the potato chip

and not raise a sloppy dux...

I know the dishwasher thing is weird, but we all have quirks..


if you really wanted to see something ugly. You should have been at the wedding when I picked up my beer to take a swig only to discover I picked up another guys bottle that he was dumping butts into..

I almost died when the filter hit my mouth..

I can’t believe I didn’t end up in the ER that day.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

I am still going to wear my latex gloves...

let the dog have the potato chip

and not raise a sloppy dux...

I know the dishwasher thing is weird, but we all have quirks..


if you really wanted to see something ugly. You should have been at the wedding when I picked up my beer to take a swig only to discover I picked up another guys bottle that he was dumping butts into..

I almost died when the filter hit my mouth..

I can’t believe I didn’t end up in the ER that day.

 

[Mimi13]

I don't think so!
As said i have no experience with DE, but my ducks won't stop for nothing if it's between them and something to eat.

This made me remember something. These ducks are making me feel terrible. You would think they are starving. I want to give them something else to eat because of how they’re acting. You know, I feel kind of like the parent of a 40 lb/18 kg, three month old baby boy following the doctors’ instructions on feeding and all the old folks standing around saying feed that boy, he’s starving!

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

I leave food out 24/7 for mine but am in the minority here. I find they eat less if it's always there as they snack around instead of falling on it like a ravaging horde. We save that for peas.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Looks like I’ve got a tough, or at least bumpy, road ahead trying to figure out what I’m gonna do. Just shavings, just straw, shavings/straw combined? Do ducks get any more confusing later on?

If you are confused by personality and intelligence, ducks are not the right choice for you. One thing about straw and ducks nobody has mentioned: If you're interested in duck-eggs but not in an everyday easter-egg hunt, give your duckies straw. They will build at least one nest where they most likely lay their eggs.
You can also train your ducks to obey spoken commands: If you heard them back into their house for the night, you can call out a sentence like "all ducks go to bed!" (search for that on YT, its funny!) and after a while when you say that they will all start to run into their house.
My duckies also understand "Alle Alle" (German for nothing left) and stop begging for treats at the patio - at least sometimes…