Hello!
I'm new to Backyard Chickens. I have been prowling around this website for a long time, and I finally decided to join!
So, I don't have chickens...BUT, I used to have them back when I was in high school. It wasn't until 3 college degrees later and starting my own garden that I decided that maybe we should get chickens again. However, the more I researched it, the more I saw people talking about raising ducks. It also didn't help that when Tractor Supply, Co. had their chick days, we saw those little ducky balls of fluff. It was love at first sight and a week later my family and I had purchased 6 little ducklings.
They are now about 8 weeks old, and I am pretty sure about their genders through voice sexing. Their breeds and sexes are: 1 female Pekin, 1 female Mallard, 1 female Blue Swedish, 1 male Blue Swedish, 1 male Black Swedish, and 1 male Indian Runner (white and fawn). I'm hoping to find some more females for our 3 drakes, preferably some Welsh Harlequin ladies. I'm thinking 2-4 would be good without overcrowding the duck house we built for them. I'm hoping our drakes get along. I know they can get aggressive, but they have all been raised together and I'm hoping they continue to get along. So far, only the Blue Swedish drake has been a little pecky with the others, but I assume it's from establishing the pecking order. I will continue to monitor them closely, and worst case scenario, I can split them into pairs until I can figure out what to do.
The scariest part about raising ducks is how vulnerable they are, as they have no real defenses. When we moved the ducks out of the house, we hadn't completed their duck house yet. So we purchased a tent and they were able to stay in there without issue for at least a couple of weeks. However, something got into the tent and attacked out Pekin. Luckily, she was the only one injured, and it was mostly pulled feathers and some small puncture wounds. I took her to the vet where she was checked out, had her wounds flushed, and was prescribed some antibiotics and pain medication. She is still making a full recovery, but is doing great! (And the ducks are now in their duck house, safe and sound and settling in nicely.
).
So, needless to say, I'm new to raising ducks, and I've been learning something new about them every day. They are such a joy to have and are so funny. I'm an avid researcher, so I've learned a LOT about ducks in the past 2 months, a lot of good information comes from this forum. I'm happy to finally be a part of this forum, and I have plenty of questions to post.
I'm new to Backyard Chickens. I have been prowling around this website for a long time, and I finally decided to join!
So, I don't have chickens...BUT, I used to have them back when I was in high school. It wasn't until 3 college degrees later and starting my own garden that I decided that maybe we should get chickens again. However, the more I researched it, the more I saw people talking about raising ducks. It also didn't help that when Tractor Supply, Co. had their chick days, we saw those little ducky balls of fluff. It was love at first sight and a week later my family and I had purchased 6 little ducklings.
They are now about 8 weeks old, and I am pretty sure about their genders through voice sexing. Their breeds and sexes are: 1 female Pekin, 1 female Mallard, 1 female Blue Swedish, 1 male Blue Swedish, 1 male Black Swedish, and 1 male Indian Runner (white and fawn). I'm hoping to find some more females for our 3 drakes, preferably some Welsh Harlequin ladies. I'm thinking 2-4 would be good without overcrowding the duck house we built for them. I'm hoping our drakes get along. I know they can get aggressive, but they have all been raised together and I'm hoping they continue to get along. So far, only the Blue Swedish drake has been a little pecky with the others, but I assume it's from establishing the pecking order. I will continue to monitor them closely, and worst case scenario, I can split them into pairs until I can figure out what to do.
The scariest part about raising ducks is how vulnerable they are, as they have no real defenses. When we moved the ducks out of the house, we hadn't completed their duck house yet. So we purchased a tent and they were able to stay in there without issue for at least a couple of weeks. However, something got into the tent and attacked out Pekin. Luckily, she was the only one injured, and it was mostly pulled feathers and some small puncture wounds. I took her to the vet where she was checked out, had her wounds flushed, and was prescribed some antibiotics and pain medication. She is still making a full recovery, but is doing great! (And the ducks are now in their duck house, safe and sound and settling in nicely.
).So, needless to say, I'm new to raising ducks, and I've been learning something new about them every day. They are such a joy to have and are so funny. I'm an avid researcher, so I've learned a LOT about ducks in the past 2 months, a lot of good information comes from this forum. I'm happy to finally be a part of this forum, and I have plenty of questions to post.
