My Love Affair With Ducks...

[Mimi13]

How dare!? - PINK! - I assume my drakes would refuse to hop into a pink pool!

Pink can be manly too!

 

[Mimi13]

What is that with you and @Texag87 ? - Pink pools are an eyesore and hurt the birds feelings!

But the majority of my ducks are female...even though I’ve witnessed them pretending to be male! And, to top it off, I don’t think any shade of pink will stop the Ralphie Dux from sharing his manliness!

 

[Mimi13]

We once bought a chicken from that asian market, buying our duck eggs. As usual in asian markets the bird was sold plucked and bled out but otherwise complete. Feet, wings, organs and head were there. Its eyes were open, looking sad while it was laying in the kitchen sink. Somehow the chicken soup didn't taste right that evening. I guess that day i finally realized that those tasty chicken fajitas once had heads, legs and feathers… - I'm still a meat-eater, just a bit more conscient.

The first one I processed tasted “weird,” even in a chicken casserole. I think that’s probably normal. Come to think of it, the first few fresh eggs I ate were iffy! That all passed. Now, I couldn’t eat a store bought egg if I had to. I don’t process enough birds to be able to not buy grocery store chicken, but the home grown variety does taste better...now!

 

[Mimi13]

The young flock has a pink pool. The old flock has a purple pool. I still have 2 pinks and one green in reserve

I wish I had bought more than one when I purchased my first pool for them. Dumping the water several times leaves the thin plastic very weak and then it cracks. I swiped the pink pool from my DIL and now it sits inside the failed blue pool. There was nothing I did that fixed the two cracks in the blue pool. These things are much more cheaply made than they were just a few years ago. Same way with everything I suppose!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I was left speechless when you didn’t know what a covey was. I thought you knew everything, I did and more.

I have used that word since I was a young kid, but I grew up with hunters so that could be why.

Here is the definition I found:View attachment 2284619

I have never heard it used to describe 2 birds, or school kids.

But the words to describe multiple birds is confusing.

a flock of dux. A raft of dux when on water..

a murder of crows..


I think it should be a flock of crows and a murder of dux.

Fortunately i do not know everything! Life would be incredibly boring if you know everything! Like: "Hey we just invented the faster than light drive! Great huh?" And you answer: "Yeah great... Could have told you how to a decade ago, but i was just bored."
In fact, what i always tell my younger colleagues is: "Do not be ashamed if you don't know something. Accept the fact that there are more things you don't know than things you do know."

Remember i grew up as a "town boy" in Germany, where you need extensive and expensive trainings to obtain a hunting license and where even air-rifles need a gun(?) license.
So i was not exposed to hunting and fishing (you need a license too!) very much. Add to this the fact that English is my third language and the English language lacks the ability of composition, so there's an additional word for everything…
I've heart that "murder of crows" before, but that seems to be totally wrong, it should be a "flock of crows" and a "murder of seagulls" and in Venice it should be a "murder of pigeons". (Never open a brown paper bag anywhere in Venice!!! You will be coated in pigeon poop in seconds.)
Didn't know that dux on the water are called a raft! Thank you very much, i learned something new.
I did found the group of schoolchildren in a dictionary and was asking myself what the heck @Texag87 was hunting while growing up…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Okay, I’m not gonna lie, I am sitting in “everyone’s favorite room of the house to read” and read your post. I burst out laughing at your descriptions of all your ducks. My time in here this morning was nowhere near serene.

You mentioned one thing about the WH that I had forgotten. Every time I’m outside I always look for every duck, I’m not sure why, but I do. Generally they are all together, but more often than not there are only four, which then leaves me hunting for — you guessed it — Quinny. She is generally off to herself, whether she’s foraging or just asleep somewhere. She is small and can seem to blend in with the surroundings very well. I start calling for her. Now she doesn’t know her name, but she usually responds with a “medium” quack (on a scale of quiet to loud). I’m thankful she does quack because there have been times I don’t think I would have found her. She is safe in my yard, but it still scares me that she is off by herself.

I had also gotten a Saxony, but she must have had shipping stress and died a few days after I received them. She would have been so beautiful. I love the stripes over their eyes! Your description of yours sounds hilarious.

I don’t know if what I do is a good thing or not, but every time Ralphie runs up by me and in front of me, I pick him up. I usually will then sit down with him (with a towel in my lap) and he doesn’t complain at all. I will love on him and give him bunches of kisses. He just settles down in my lap and will sometimes close his eyes while I’m petting him. I love being able to do that, even though it may come back to bite me in the butt when one day out of the blue he attacks me.

I forgot to mention about the eggs. I’m curious about what you said. I can’t figure out who laid what and it’s about to kill me. And, I’ve been leaving them up every morning, and Petey has yet to lay another egg, after her first 4-5, unless hers changed colors and she’s now laying the cream colored ones.

It is entirely possible that Petey has changed her "transponder signal" to creamy white egg! As said, the only green eggs i get here are from the Runners and their descendants. Everybody else is laying white eggs.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

The young flock has a pink pool. The old flock has a purple pool. I still have 2 pinks and one green in reserve

Pink and green? Good grief!

 

[duluthralphie]

Fortunately i do not know everything! Life would be incredibly boring if you know everything! Like: "Hey we just invented the faster than light drive! Great huh?" And you answer: "Yeah great... Could have told you how to a decade ago, but i was just bored."
In fact, what i always tell my younger colleagues is: "Do not be ashamed if you don't know something. Accept the fact that there are more things you don't know than things you do know."

Remember i grew up as a "town boy" in Germany, where you need extensive and expensive trainings to obtain a hunting license and where even air-rifles need a gun(?) license.
So i was not exposed to hunting and fishing (you need a license too!) very much. Add to this the fact that English is my third language and the English language lacks the ability of composition, so there's an additional word for everything…
I've heart that "murder of crows" before, but that seems to be totally wrong, it should be a "flock of crows" and a "murder of seagulls" and in Venice it should be a "murder of pigeons". (Never open a brown paper bag anywhere in Venice!!! You will be coated in pigeon poop in seconds.)
Didn't know that dux on the water are called a raft! Thank you very much, i learned something new.
I did found the group of schoolchildren in a dictionary and was asking myself what the heck @Texag87 was hunting while growing up…

I did not know you grew up in Germany, or that English is your third language. I can barely master one language.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Pink can be manly too!

The weirdest t-shirts i have are neon-orange and neon-yellow. - And my wife always asks me to keep my distance to her when i'm wearing those…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

But the majority of my ducks are female...even though I’ve witnessed them pretending to be male! And, to top it off, I don’t think any shade of pink will stop the Ralphie Dux from sharing his manliness!

Sorry, but pink is the color of my nightmares! - I have an older sister and at some ager her taste was…