- Apr 22, 2014
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We just brooded 11 ducklings early this spring. They are currently transitioning out of their teen feathers into their adult feathers and will be 11 weeks old Monday. That is all but two, Ebony and Belle - our black and blue runners. We lost them learning how efficient raccoons are. Since then we have improved the ducks' night housing significantly. No more ducks have been lost and to date 3 raccoons have been dispatched.
Our plan (those silly things we make until life convinces us otherwise) was that we would get a blue and black runner next spring after we proved to ourselves that we could keep our flock safe. The cosmos convinced us otherwise.
Thursday we were sitting in the living room not doing much of anything and there was a ring at the door. Now we live just far enough off the beaten path, that we don't get too many unplanned visitations. In the 5 years we have lived in this house we had 2 Jehovah's Witness parties, a guy taking pictures for the insurance company, and the county sheriff asking permission to poke around in our swamp just in case someone who had gone missing might turn up there. This time, it was a young couple. They knew one of our neighbors half a mile down our road and that neighbor told them we had ducks. They had brought an abandoned mallard duckling they had found by itself in the fairgrounds wandering around in the parking lot. They said they didn't know anything about ducks and asked if we would take care of it.
This duckling was half the size of the two day old ducklings we had gotten in the mail. I don't know if that was because it was a mallard (although I would think a mallard duckling would be as big as a runner duckling) or because it was less than two days old. We knew there was no alternative plan and this little duckling had no chance if we didn't take it, so we said we would.
We threw together the brooder, waterer and heat lamp. Made sure it knew where the water was and made it take a sip. It seemed very alert and lively. We gave it a small stuffed penguin so it wouldn't be lonely and it cuddled up to it right away. We then headed out to the feed store to get some chick food since we had thrown the last of ours out when the ducklings started eating the all flock food with our adults. (Again the plan was not to get any other ducklings until next spring.) We just made it before they closed. We figured we would check with Fish and Game in the morning, but with the duckling being so young and that being a Friday, there was a good chance that they might just tell us to snip the right rear claw and keep it. On the way to the store we decided we would call it Lucky. If it joined the wild mallards in our swamp once it could fly, great and if not it would be welcome to stay.
We do both have to work during the day, so we were concerned that a single duck might be lonely. We both decided in an instant that we could get the two runners we were planning on for next year now so they could be brooder mates. According to Metzer Farms' site, the next ship wouldn't be until June 9, but we figured we would get the order in and give them a call in the morning. They are real friendly there and we thought if they had the birds available, we might be able to get a ship the next Monday so those ducklings would only be a few days younger than Lucky. I put the order in from my cell phone on the ride back. I also sent a text to my sister and we put naming them up to my nieces. This entire trip to get the food took about a half hour.
We got home and filled up the feeder with chick food. Put Lucky in front of the feeder and he ate 1 crumble. He seemed to be acting normal. He had a couple drinks but didn't eat anything more. About 15 minutes after we got home, he started convulsing, and within 5 minutes he was gone.
It is amazing how quickly you can attach yourself to an animal. He had been with us a total of about an hour (half of the time was grabbing his food and ordering his companions). But the loss was still very real.
So the end result was some joy, some sorrow and we ordered our two runner girls. Our nieces got back to us with some names and we decided on Mystique for the blue runner (from X-men) and Noir for the black runner. We had no reason to call and try to change the ship date, so they should arrive on June 11th. Guess we weren't very good at waiting until next spring...
Our plan (those silly things we make until life convinces us otherwise) was that we would get a blue and black runner next spring after we proved to ourselves that we could keep our flock safe. The cosmos convinced us otherwise.
Thursday we were sitting in the living room not doing much of anything and there was a ring at the door. Now we live just far enough off the beaten path, that we don't get too many unplanned visitations. In the 5 years we have lived in this house we had 2 Jehovah's Witness parties, a guy taking pictures for the insurance company, and the county sheriff asking permission to poke around in our swamp just in case someone who had gone missing might turn up there. This time, it was a young couple. They knew one of our neighbors half a mile down our road and that neighbor told them we had ducks. They had brought an abandoned mallard duckling they had found by itself in the fairgrounds wandering around in the parking lot. They said they didn't know anything about ducks and asked if we would take care of it.
This duckling was half the size of the two day old ducklings we had gotten in the mail. I don't know if that was because it was a mallard (although I would think a mallard duckling would be as big as a runner duckling) or because it was less than two days old. We knew there was no alternative plan and this little duckling had no chance if we didn't take it, so we said we would.
We threw together the brooder, waterer and heat lamp. Made sure it knew where the water was and made it take a sip. It seemed very alert and lively. We gave it a small stuffed penguin so it wouldn't be lonely and it cuddled up to it right away. We then headed out to the feed store to get some chick food since we had thrown the last of ours out when the ducklings started eating the all flock food with our adults. (Again the plan was not to get any other ducklings until next spring.) We just made it before they closed. We figured we would check with Fish and Game in the morning, but with the duckling being so young and that being a Friday, there was a good chance that they might just tell us to snip the right rear claw and keep it. On the way to the store we decided we would call it Lucky. If it joined the wild mallards in our swamp once it could fly, great and if not it would be welcome to stay.
We do both have to work during the day, so we were concerned that a single duck might be lonely. We both decided in an instant that we could get the two runners we were planning on for next year now so they could be brooder mates. According to Metzer Farms' site, the next ship wouldn't be until June 9, but we figured we would get the order in and give them a call in the morning. They are real friendly there and we thought if they had the birds available, we might be able to get a ship the next Monday so those ducklings would only be a few days younger than Lucky. I put the order in from my cell phone on the ride back. I also sent a text to my sister and we put naming them up to my nieces. This entire trip to get the food took about a half hour.
We got home and filled up the feeder with chick food. Put Lucky in front of the feeder and he ate 1 crumble. He seemed to be acting normal. He had a couple drinks but didn't eat anything more. About 15 minutes after we got home, he started convulsing, and within 5 minutes he was gone.
So the end result was some joy, some sorrow and we ordered our two runner girls. Our nieces got back to us with some names and we decided on Mystique for the blue runner (from X-men) and Noir for the black runner. We had no reason to call and try to change the ship date, so they should arrive on June 11th. Guess we weren't very good at waiting until next spring...
