New Runner Mama...I'm hooked!!!

[Cottage Rose]

My 11 fawn & white Runner ducklings from Holderreads are only 3 weeks old
but I'm enchanted with them already!

They seem quite intelligent and much more calm than my Muscovies ever were as babies.
They're awesome for bugs snatchers...again superior to my Muscovies.
Well I should say they seem to have a stronger drive to forage not necessarily ability to catch bugs.
My Scovies tend to be loafers and prefer to laze around in the shade and wait for their PM feeding
vs. going out and foraging more.
I wish I had gotten Runners sooner.
Oh well...now the fun begins.

Must get more!
Does anybody know what variety that appears to be an all light brown Runner
with dark slate gray or black bill and feet is?
Does anybody here raise or have pics of Fairy Fawn Runners or Bali Ducks?

Here they are with their Sebastopol Goslings buddies looking for bugs n' stuff....

Are we cute or what?!

 

[L0rraine]

What a lovely home they have! It's fun to see them with the geese. Are they about the same age?

 

[Amiga]

Runners have stolen my heart, too!

At about three weeks mine became a little skittery, calming down over the next several weeks. They call for me, they follow me, they play jokes on me, and it is difficult not to smile just thinking of them.

I have five blacks and six chocolates.

 

[crj]

I love my Runner Ducks too. They are just so fasinating and I can get over how fast they grow. BTW, Cotton Rose I love your goose picture. Very cool looking bird. These are my Fawn and White Runners at 5 1/2 weeks old.

Their down is almost gone. The feathers that are coming in are so pretty. Their wings are looking bigger now too......... LOL. I think the size of their wings crack me up the most when I first go them. Loved to watch them stretch and those tiny finger size wing would stick out.

 

[CityChicker]

I really think temperament is genetic. Runners, in general, are known for being skittish. The majority of mine though have come from Holderread's and are extremely calm and laid back. I have several that do not at all mind human interaction. They will literally climb into your lap.

 

[Amiga]

Mine came from Meyer, and they are also very sweet and approachable. Of the eleven, about half a dozen are very personable, and the others are mostly friendly, if a little timid. Having read they are high strung, I have taken pains to overcome that as much as possible.

They did go through an awful period, from three weeks of age to, oh, I forget how many weeks, when they acted as if I were an axe murderer when I came in to do anything in their brooder. We worked it out, though. That was a rough time.

Now, at fifteen - almost sixteen - weeks, they are pretty mellow.

 

[JosieR]

I love my runners too! they are the sweetest. My husband did not like the ducks, wanted nothing to do with them. As predicted my runners are winning him over. I have 2 chocolate runners and 3 cayugas. He's still indifferent to the cayugas but being tall (6'6") he said they were kind of big and goofy, like him and they run funny LOL.

The other day the runners were at the bottom of a tree eating carpenter ants off of it and he was mowing and I caught him saying, in a sing song voice like you'd use for a baby "Hiiii ducks, eat all those ants, earn your keep." He'd give them a "Hiiiii ducks" almost every time he went by!

 

[toadbriar]

Quote:

 

[Bryanccfshr]

My wife has been indiffeferent to the pekin ducklings but she has grown to actually like the two chocolate runners.

 

[Cottage Rose]

Dumb Duck Questions:
~ How do you tell the boys from the girls, aside from waiting for them to lay or not eggs?
~ Is there any type or color difference in Fawn & White Runners?
~ If their quacking different sounding?
~ My ducklings are starting to spar.
Are those little drakes fighting for dominance already!?