My Love Affair With Ducks...

[WannaBeHillBilly]

@duluthralphie, I got to thinking (which can be dangerous), but I decided that you need something like Latte that’ll stand up to you! View attachment 2116343

The question is can Ralphie stand up to Latte?
Look how straight that girl is standing! She will be a Prima-Ballerina during the Ice-Skating season! If you sit on the ground, she can look you straight in your eyes, can she?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Well now, mine don’t have the luxury of a wash-down dining room or I might consider a 24/7, neon lite cafe! Until I get all the birds integrated, the ducks only have about a 25 sf space (not including the sleeping area which is another 25 sf) for inside food and water. I will have to deal with the wetness for a few more weeks, but then I think I’ll keep the feed out of the enclosed area. I have been waiting about an hour after sun up to let the ducks out into their pen, only because it isn’t predator proof, and I don’t want to take any chance. But then again, I’ve never seen anything other than a squirrel in the yard that early.

Dear oh dear, such decisions.

You see my damn job! It is almost midnight here and i just got off the phone with a customer in Hawaii. Curse you Covid19! Without you there may had been a good chance to work on-site in Honolulu for three freaking weeks!
It will be 2am before i am able to find sleep and i won't wake up before 10am, so the Duckies will have to make due with their pellets and their waterer inside of the house. Will continue to work on the automatic duck-door over the weekend.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Is this all ducks do all day?

View attachment 2116361

What else should we do? We're too young to lay eggs or be interested in mature duck stuff. We don't know (yet) how to escape our enclosure and explore the woods and that busy road. But there is something else we can do for you all day long:

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I’m giving them their daily serving of B Complex and they are Clambering Out Of The Pool For Food.

I had to stop the video to make sure Latte got out of the pool and then I started it back to catch the ducks showing that Eating Is Better Than Swimming! That is something we both agree on!

Latte: »Oh no! Oh no! My feet are wet and slippery! I can't get out of here!«
She could be Limpy's sister! He also pretends not to be able to get out of the pool at bed-time until i have crawled through ankle deep mud to the kiddie pool to grab him. - Then he jumps out as if its nothing, runs down the hill into the house while i slip and slide back down, fuming… You will experience One of these days… too, followed by Another one of these days…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Several of the ducklings have their wing feathers coming in, but Petey’s are the most prominent! They look ‘ouchy’ to me!View attachment 2116683

They doo look ouchy, don't they?! All my White layers are in the middle of re-growing their "flight" feathers, they look like knitting needles before they open up. They're all bad tempered and have a really short fuse during those times. Today Erpelchen was beaten up by Blanca, Earthquack and Bazilla, he approached Earthquack a little to rough and boy were they biting him!

 

[Mimi13]

The question is can Ralphie stand up to Latte?
Look how straight that girl is standing! She will be a Prima-Ballerina during the Ice-Skating season! If you sit on the ground, she can look you straight in your eyes, can she?

Latte is just a ‘noticeable’ bird’. I can’t remember who said it, but someone said she would be my favorite and I think she’ll wind up with that label...but I won’t let the others know!

I’ll have to sit down and see if we see eye to eye. I just love it when Latte stands tall. Hershey does as well, but with her being so dark she’s not as noticeable.

When any of the ducks stand straight up (I mostly notice this when they’re preening) their knees look like they are hyperextended and about to pop out the front. It’s a bit scary looking.

Believe it or not - no Northern haters now - but my ducks will never see ice. We may see a few icy patches on the roads once or twice a winter, but that would be all.

That reminds me, when we lived in Massachusetts (I was in the 3rd and 4th grades), my dad built me a little skating rink in the back yard. He dug a hole in the snow, lined it with plastic, filled it with water and wah-lah, almost an overnight skating rink. Now those were the days...no worries, all fun! I still have my skates too! They are about 53 years old! Good Lord that’s old! They don’t make stuff like that anymore.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Nice memories too.

 

[Mimi13]

You see my damn job! It is almost midnight here and i just got off the phone with a customer in Hawaii. Curse you Covid19! Without you there may had been a good chance to work on-site in Honolulu for three freaking weeks!
It will be 2am before i am able to find sleep and i won't wake up before 10am, so the Duckies will have to make due with their pellets and their waterer inside of the house. Will continue to work on the automatic duck-door over the weekend.

Now that is a bummer. Everyone should visit Hawaii at least once in their life!

 

[Mimi13]

What else should we do? We're too young to lay eggs or be interested in mature duck stuff. We don't know (yet) how to escape our enclosure and explore the woods and that busy road. But there is something else we can do for you all day long:

Yeah, I think they’ve got that down pat!

 

[Mimi13]

I’ve been trying to get a video capturing the honking and thought I might capture some this morning when I let them out...

Instead, I got a video of a bunch of sweet babies. Good Morning Sugar Creatures!