My Love Affair With Ducks...

[Mimi13]

if i fill up the duck pool with fresh, cold water i have duck-burgers, duck-pyramids, duck-stew, duck…

Way too funny!

 

[Mimi13]

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.

Well I’ve only had ducks for a few months, but I already understand why Bandit is all alone in the pool.

 

[Mimi13]

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…

I didn’t LOVE this post because of the coon, that would have been the mad face. I loved it because of the last thing you said, “Fawn & White Runners. I will have to say, they probably are my favorite. Their expressions are precious and priceless. I do love the Welsh Harlequins too, but my Quinny doesn’t let me do much with her.

But TWELVE? <faints>

 

[Mimi13]

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

Now your talking my language (luck). When having children, my DH and I wanted boys, and we were fortunate enough to have two precious boys. But I didn’t know the luck of the draw would have me being in the “boy business” in the chicken rearing business!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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!

Please do not put any duck into a wire-bottomed cage! It will be very painful for her soft feet! - Except the grid is ½" x ½". You just evict the duck from the nest and take the eggs on a daily base. Most ducks will give up after a week. I doubt that cooling the underside of a duck will change anything with her hormones - remember they sit in the water for hours. Most ducks won't go really broody, they have a phase but are easily broken by just removing the eggs. But if you have a duck that goes broody 100% you will have a challenge at hand: Those girls won't shy away from anything, really a n y t h i n g !
That sweetest noise is nothing to what she did when i wanted to break her: She flattened out over her nest and cried so loud that my wife heart her in the basement and came up looking for »the child that had fallen and was crying«. Then she (Pinball the duck) twisted her head upside down as if she was saying "Kill me! I don't want to live without those eggs!" And when i touched her she went entirely limp, playing dead…
I. Just. could. not. do. it! - And now i have way too many drakes here and need to "upduck".
And Pinball was very, very dedicated: She was sitting on the nest for three days straight, i was feeding her meal-worms and gave her water because i too was afraid she would die on the nest. She just dropped the ball three days after the ducklings hatched and thought she was done.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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

Last year four girls and three boys.
This year one girl and three boys.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Oh Lordy, not really. No New Ducks!

It won't happen this year, it may not happen at all: I have 18 ducks and only two went ever broody. Last year Katharina was serious, this year Pinball. Katharina started too this year, but was easily distracted and is back to normal by now. But if you have a duck, running around like an angry boxer, head retracted to the shoulders, quacking loud and pushing everybody (that includes you!) around like a bag of rice, she means it! Seriously!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I didn’t LOVE this post because of the coon, that would have been the mad face. I loved it because of the last thing you said, “Fawn & White Runners. I will have to say, they probably are my favorite. Their expressions are precious and priceless. I do love the Welsh Harlequins too, but my Quinny doesn’t let me do much with her.

But TWELVE? <faints>

Last spring i had fifteen ducklings in a kiddy pool in my office!
Those twelve will be in a kiddy pool on the porch for 1-2 weeks and will then go into the duck-vacation home where they can grow up being separated from the rest of the flock by a chicken wire fence. Once they have outgrown that little house (1-1½ months) the can join the flock in the big house. - You know these comparisons:

Those new duckies will be my fourth group! - I'm relaxed! - Until i discover they are not all girls an i have six new drakes.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Now your talking my language (luck). When having children, my DH and I wanted boys, and we were fortunate enough to have two precious boys. But I didn’t know the luck of the draw would have me being in the “boy business” in the chicken rearing business!

You won't know before you try…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

OMG! - I just laughed myself hoarse, that web-search is a goldmine:

First vs. second child