My New Ducks

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I posted these pictures in another thread but wanted to show them off in their own thread

Note that I have a very crappy camera and that it doesn't do them justice:

Here's Apollo, the new drake with one of his harem and some black silkies (the silky with the white is older):

Here's Apollo with the rest of his harem, along with crackers and molly (f/w runners) some silkies on the left and I think ranaya my chinese goose

I'll go out and get some pictures of the silkies later... maybe I can find a camera to borrow.

I now have 3 drakes, 8 hens, a gander and a goose. I'll be mating each of the silky drakes with a single silky hen, and the black runner drake with two black runner hens. If that's not enough hens for Apollo, I'll put Molly, one of my f/w runners, in with them. The remainder of my hens are for eating eggs.

I'm unsure what to do with the two geese. I may need to make one more pen for them as I hear they can get pretty aggressive during mating season. But I'm not interested in mating them at this time. Maybe in another year or two it would be nice to get a gosling from the two of them. On the other hand, this next spring I'll be able to open up the rest of the back yard with a nice grazing pasture, and it's possible there's enough room that I can keep the pair together with my laying hens. We'll see.

I am so looking forward to hatching my own ducklings in the spring. I've also ordered 10 silky ducklings from Holderreads for spring arrival. I wonder what colors I'll get?

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Wow! I've never seen a runner with that much green sheen, like a Cayuga, really nice!!

 

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I'm going to have to get another camera, because the sheen isn't being done any justice!

Thank you!

 

[Soccer Mom]

They are gorgeous! Is it one of the new ducks that Rommy is being nasty to? Oh, I hope they can move past it. He's lovely and so are the ducks. It would be a pity if you had to breakup such a gorgeous flock!

I admit that I've never been a big runner fan, but yours are gorgeous enough to make me want some.

 

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No, it's the black runner, Jenga, I got from streemers that he's being mean to.

Jenga had been going up to him and doing the squatting thing and wouldn't stop. Today she started doing the same thing to one of the silky drakes and rommy went nuts. The silky, Omar, isn't even interested, he's bonded to a silky female. Jenga wouldn't stop chasing him around, and he was running away from her like she had ducky plague.

Rommy is my heart goose, but he's way too strong to be going after ducks, especially the silkies. I've been crying off and on this morning thinking about having to rehome him. He doesn't try to mate Jenga as far as I can tell, just tries to drown her. He tried to rip the feathers out of Omar, but he's pretty quick.

 

[kcardella]

They are so beautiful!

 

[Goat_Walker]

So pretty

my runner is huge compared to yours

 

[L0rraine]

Wow - he is beautiful! What a cute crew they all are.

I have my Silky drake and an East Indie in a separate pen with a couple of Silkie chickens, because I was worried about them being with the bigger ducks, but maybe I didn't need to be worried. Yours appear to be one big happy family. The little ducks and chickens all seem to do quite well with each other though, even sleeping together (though they have two separate houses), so maybe I won't move them just yet.

 

[MotherMal13]

Oooohh aaaahhh very pretty

 

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Quote:
My silky females rule the roost so to speak.