DuckyFamily
In the Brooder
- Jul 14, 2022
- 6
- 45
- 39
Hi Everyone,
My name is Jennifer, I live in the PNW with my husband and 3 kids and we have recently become a duck family. We homeschool and had a friend offer us some duck eggs to hatch in late February. Google became our best friend as we searched how to DIY Incubators, temps, rotation schedules, candling, you know the drill. Our ducks started hatching on March 30 and it's been an even faster roller coaster ride since then. When we were gifted these eggs, we were also told they could be any number of types of ducks, so it was like an old fashioned grab bag, who knows what's inside. By the end of the hatch, we had 8 adorable ducklings. Since then, it feels like we've had a different theory on our breeds every other week. I feel like I've looked at every duck picture on the internet, lol.
We know we have a Pekin and a Cayuga. We think we have a Silver Appleyard, but it's pretty hard to determine (at least for this newbie) between Mallard, Rouen, Welsh Harlequin, and Silver Appleyard drakes. We have one female with colors similar to a female Mallard, but her head is darker and she didn't look like a Mallard duckling as a baby. The other 4, who knows.
We are having a ton of fun watching our ducks grow and play. They are now about 15 weeks old.
As I mentioned, we are a homeschooling family. We didn't start out there, we started out at public school, but switched to homeschooling for other reasons, just prior to covid. We live on a dirt road in a rural-ish area, but we are still reasonably close to the city. We have the benefit of hopping on a ferry boat and landing in Seattle in a fairly quick trip, so it's pretty nice to get the perks of both the big city and the laid back, dirt road daily life. If I could change one thing about my house/property, I'd make it a larger piece of land for more animals.
We love to travel. We started out our homeschooling adventures in 2019 with a 4 week trip to Washington DC (lucky coincidence we were able to pull it off). We have an RV and enjoy going on long trips as well as short weekend trips to the beach. Now that we have ducks, that'll be a more interesting process. Previously, we had a very senior cat that went on those adventures with us, but he passed away last fall at just under 20 years old. We had held off on any new pets until our duck eggs were suddenly gifted to us.
As for our kids, our oldest has Down syndrome and he is a delight and completely changed our world for the better. I can state for sure, I'm a better human being because of him. Our middle child was recently diagnosed with an anxiety disorder called Selective Mutism, which I had not heard of prior to her diagnosis and we are working through it with her. She has always loved animals, and is amazing with the ducks. Our youngest is a hilarious character. I wouldn't be surprised if we see him going in to acting or something along those lines as an adult because of his hilarious antics.
Well, that's probably already way too much for anyone to read, but thanks for letting us join this community.
Jennifer
My name is Jennifer, I live in the PNW with my husband and 3 kids and we have recently become a duck family. We homeschool and had a friend offer us some duck eggs to hatch in late February. Google became our best friend as we searched how to DIY Incubators, temps, rotation schedules, candling, you know the drill. Our ducks started hatching on March 30 and it's been an even faster roller coaster ride since then. When we were gifted these eggs, we were also told they could be any number of types of ducks, so it was like an old fashioned grab bag, who knows what's inside. By the end of the hatch, we had 8 adorable ducklings. Since then, it feels like we've had a different theory on our breeds every other week. I feel like I've looked at every duck picture on the internet, lol.
We know we have a Pekin and a Cayuga. We think we have a Silver Appleyard, but it's pretty hard to determine (at least for this newbie) between Mallard, Rouen, Welsh Harlequin, and Silver Appleyard drakes. We have one female with colors similar to a female Mallard, but her head is darker and she didn't look like a Mallard duckling as a baby. The other 4, who knows.
We are having a ton of fun watching our ducks grow and play. They are now about 15 weeks old.
As I mentioned, we are a homeschooling family. We didn't start out there, we started out at public school, but switched to homeschooling for other reasons, just prior to covid. We live on a dirt road in a rural-ish area, but we are still reasonably close to the city. We have the benefit of hopping on a ferry boat and landing in Seattle in a fairly quick trip, so it's pretty nice to get the perks of both the big city and the laid back, dirt road daily life. If I could change one thing about my house/property, I'd make it a larger piece of land for more animals.
We love to travel. We started out our homeschooling adventures in 2019 with a 4 week trip to Washington DC (lucky coincidence we were able to pull it off). We have an RV and enjoy going on long trips as well as short weekend trips to the beach. Now that we have ducks, that'll be a more interesting process. Previously, we had a very senior cat that went on those adventures with us, but he passed away last fall at just under 20 years old. We had held off on any new pets until our duck eggs were suddenly gifted to us.
As for our kids, our oldest has Down syndrome and he is a delight and completely changed our world for the better. I can state for sure, I'm a better human being because of him. Our middle child was recently diagnosed with an anxiety disorder called Selective Mutism, which I had not heard of prior to her diagnosis and we are working through it with her. She has always loved animals, and is amazing with the ducks. Our youngest is a hilarious character. I wouldn't be surprised if we see him going in to acting or something along those lines as an adult because of his hilarious antics.
Well, that's probably already way too much for anyone to read, but thanks for letting us join this community.
Jennifer
