My Love Affair With Ducks...

[WannaBeHillBilly]

O

our Hershey has been in that situation. Poor little K/C with a Pekin Duck on her and our version of Ralphie on top of the Pekin.

So the infamous »Triple Duck Burger«!
Did Hershey made it out in one piece?

 

[Texag87]

Yes. It is something that has happened more than once. Funny thing is that Hershey is the top duck of the little flock. She shared that position with Rou while she was alive.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Yes. It is something that has happened more than once. Funny thing is that Hershey is the top duck of the little flock. She shared that position with Rou while she was alive.

Like here with Katharina: She is one of the smallest ducks, but even the largest drake (Brownie for now) bows his head and steps aside.
And yes, if i fill up the duck pool with fresh, cold water i have duck-burgers, duck-pyramids, duck-stew, duck…

 

[Texag87]

That used to happen here a lot. Right now things are kinda screwed up . The Rouen is in a hard molt. The Pekin has not layed an egg in two months , and Hershey is still her sassy self. Bandit gets in the pool and no one wants to join him the last few days. Hershey has been doing her fake broody stuff too.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

That used to happen here a lot. Right now things are kinda screwed up . The Rouen is in a hard molt. The Pekin has not layed an egg in two months , and Hershey is still her sassy self. Bandit gets in the pool and no one wants to join him the last few days. Hershey has been doing her fake broody stuff too.

Its that time of the year - summer is coming to an end and the ducks are molting. My white Layers look more like brown mudders and yes, a lot of hard molting at the moment.
Add a dang raccoon to this that is climbing all over the duck house at night, stealing eggs and pellets… Almost had him today but he moved his head in the moment i pulled the trigger and ran when he heard the pellet hitting the ground. Next time dang 'coon, next time!
I'm in the process of planning/building a run-extension to the duck-house, so that i can use the full house as a sleeping place and have more ducks. Planning on 12 Fawn & White Runners…

 

[Mimi13]

In theory, yes… - I have no experience with broody hens, how much resistance are you facing when you are approaching a broody hen? And if not resistance, how sweet can a broody hen be to convince you not to take away her eggs? - I don't have it on video, but in the video below you can see Pinball Duck asking not to be removed from her nest and trust me that little song is nothing compared to her desperate crying when i approached her for the first time. My attitude melted away like butter in a hot Texas summer day...

I. Just. Could. NOT. DO. IT!!! - So there are now four ducks added to this world, now 2½ months old and sooo sweeet! Especially those young drakes, unfortunately...

That is the sweetest noise I’ve ever heard a duck make. Makes me wanna kiss her little face off.

However... No, no new duckies for a while.........seriously.

Also, I should have expounded on what I was asking. Can you “break” a broody duck like you break a broody chicken? When I see one of my hens piled up in a nest box, I promptly pull her out and place her in a wire bottomed cage lifted off the ground 4”-6” to allow air to circulate underneath her. In a chicken, this air circulating under her will “cool her jets” and help to disturb the hormones driving her to sit. There is no nesting material in the cage, nothing at all, just a roosting bar, food and water! It’s the bare minimum for the incarcerated in the wire cage! Yep, I am mean like that.

I am not sure, but I believe some hens would literally die on the nest before their broodiness broke (or ended).

This is info for another story, but I have had three of the sweetest broodies ever. The one sitting on eggs now, my youngest black Ameraucana-Gabriela, certainly ‘takes the cake’ in the sweetness category!

 

[jaykayhuff]

Weeeelllll now! You don’t say! And I don’t like what I hear, cause it sounds like Ralphie is following your numbered list. Oh.My.Lord! I’m a tad on the worried side now. I’ve been thinking his actions probably weren’t really on the sweet side. I’m just a dumb duck newbie and have been seeing some actions as sweet and not for what they actually are. As a matter of fact, today Ralphie got in several confrontations with the chickens. The majority of them were him chasing the chickens, however, I did catch my Rhode Island Red hen attack him once. He shook his head and went right on about his business, seemingly unaffected. Please keep your fingers crossed that Ralphie Dux stays on the straight and narrow!

Well hopefully since he’s just going through his teenage/first hormonal rage it will pass soon. My two Cayuga drakes only chased my girls for a month trying to mate so I just kept the separated by 3 foot fencing panels but they are already over females now so everyone can hang out now without too much craziness. Last night was their first night left unattended and I still have 9 ducks this morning So hopefully your raging dies out soon!!

 

[jaykayhuff]

Wait, when you try hatching out ducks! - The last two years were the years of the drakes, just ask @Magnolia Ducks and @Texag87 . I was just lucky with Katharina last year, three drakes and four girls. After that

Lmao try 5 drakes 0 girls. It really was the year of drakes

 

[Mimi13]

Prepare for the fact that this will not be your decision!!! - One of your ducks will convince you to let her sit. Or she will find a spot where you cant find/reach her (deep under the porch, for example), collect her eggs there and go u-boat…

Oh Lordy, not really. No New Ducks!

 

[Mimi13]

Waitasec: If Ralphie is already Anti-Antifa, wouldn't that make Petey Anti-Anti-AntiFa? Or Pro-Antifa? - I'm confused now!

You’re confused? I’m really confused, but that shouldn’t be a shocker. It isn’t to my family anyway.