Need Advice! I dont want to lose my ducks 😞

[Spotgieter]

Good morning, to my family. The reason that my husband and I, are having to consider, adopting out our ducks and 1 Gander, is because of my health issues. I've had heart problems for a very long time, but always in check, but lately it excelled and I've been diagnosed with heart failure. It's only me and my husband and we'll be traveling back and forth to Atlanta for tests and then surgery. We live 3 hours from Atlanta and have no one that can help with our babies. We just don't know what to do. At the moment, they have a fenced in paddock and a big house, but our 1 issue is our African Gander. He's a special boy, but he wants to hurt people he doesn't know, so it's hard for anyone to help with him.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Oh no I am so very sorry. I feel your pain… I have ducks and geese too. My gander is also a sweetheart to me, but wants to murder everyone else. However, there are people in my area who have experience with ducks and geese that I can hire for $50 a day to come at sunrise and sunset and do all the things that need done. Have you checked on Facebook? If you don’t use Facebook maybe someone you know can post for you. There are many local backyard chicken groups on Facebook with lots of people who do this sort of thing when I posted asking if there were any duck and goose sitters available on mine I got four replies right away. edit to add… What area are you in? What state are you in? You can post on the state thread in backyard chickens asking here too. The backyard chickens groups in my area is a county one, but there are also tri-state ones and things like that.

 

[ruthhope]

However, there are people in my area who have experience with ducks and geese that I can hire for $50 a day to come at sunrise and sunset and do all the things that need done.

Wow Jenbirdee, that is a lot of money. I have not had to pay more than $20 a day and often just $10, particularly if I only need help putting my ducks to bed because I can't get back before dark. I do do things for other people, but there are no duck keepers bear by (there are lots of backyard chicken folks, but they have their own networks of people who cover them when they are on vacation)

One way to reduce the cost of assistance might be to see if there are local high school juniors or seniors who would like to earn community service hours. Older duck keepers and those with disabilities are likely to be looked on more favorably for community service than younger duck keepers. I get help locally as mine are all rescues and I help people with injured ducks that no one else will help with.