Pekin Duck Club!

[countrygirl74]

I am new to BYC and fairly new to owning Ducks we have 3 Pekins and as of now have no idea the sex of them, We suspect the oldest one is a female from what we have read but have no idea of the two others. All our babies have just gotten big enough to have a permanent home outside. We started out with 2 Pekin ducks and they were definitely bonded to us and were our babies. We lost one of them due to an attack by the neighbors dog and our neighbor showed up one day with two 2 day old ducks.Feisty is definitely my baby but since the smaller ducks came along she would rather be with them than around us. The two younger ones Yogi & Boo Boo have not bonded with us at all! Yogi does ok if you separate him from the other ducks eventually calms down after a while. Boo Boo acts scared to death and goes into defense mode if you come near him without food, if you try to pet him or pick him up he bites.

I would love for them to be more bonded to us like the first one is or use to be but at this point i am not sure if there is any hope of that.

My babies love Peas for sure and the big one loves grapes & bananas, I haven't found anything else they really like as of yet but definitely open to suggestions.

We let them free range when we are home and we put them in a pen when we are gone and at night they have their coop. it is all still a construction site but liveable with all the rain we have been having work has pretty much stopped the past week. On the coop we still have the shingle the roof and add all the trim work and my I think we are going to add a couple small vents for better ventilation and some painting to finish up. I am going to take out the dog house now that the coop is done and they have access to it. We plan to cage in the bottom area underneath the coop so they can have shade without having to go into the coop. We plan to deck in their small pool and add drainage pipe to it. We are also trying to decide on if we should add a top to the cage. And the biggest question of all what to do on the ground because it is turning into a mud hole and they love to play in the mud.

These pictures are a little older but it is all I have on the PC so far.

This is my baby Feisty she is about 10 weeks old

Welcome! Your setup looks nice! Ducks can sometimes go through stages where they are more friendly and not - just be patient. Lots of treats and just sitting down and letting them come to you will help a lot. As for the ground, have you looked into doing the deep litter method?

 

[Jharper]

Actually, female ducks are called ducks.  Male ducks are drakes.

I've looked in books and they say drakes and hens.

 

[chickery-do]

Country girl 74 what is the deep litter method? Right now their cage has 1x1 inch hardware cloth and Ive been putting hay down. Any other options?
IT'S BEEN NOTHING BUT RAIN AN SNOW, CAN'T SPEND TIME WITH THEM!
Thanks

 

[countrygirl74]

Country girl 74 what is the deep litter method? Right now their cage has 1x1 inch hardware cloth and Ive been putting hay down. Any other options?
IT'S BEEN NOTHING BUT RAIN AN SNOW, CAN'T SPEND TIME WITH THEM!
Thanks

Check this out. Hope it helps! I love the deep litter - I clean it out maybe twice a year and use it as a mulch for my gardening - no mud, just stir it up once every few days. It might be harder if you have hardware cloth on the floor of your run - I just have dirt. I never have to stir for the chickens - they do it for me - but I do have to stir it up for the ducks - they seem to pack it down. Another thing you can do in the rainy season is place a tarp over a section of the run - then there's a place that stays pretty dry for them besides their little shelter...

 

[DenverDucky]

Hello Everyone! I hope you are having a great Memorial Day! I want to welcome all our new members
I'm working on the new Members List and I will have it up shortly! Thanks

 

[Green Liver]

Wow! It's been a while since I've been on here, just got done catching up on 165 posts. I have a question about adding one to the 'flock'. Quack-Quack is an imprinted duck, almost 3 months old and he is an only duckie and only pet. I would like to add a sibling for him and do not want another male but also do NOT want mating going on. I'm thinking about a female goose. Is this a good friend match or not? I'm not sure that a duck and a goose will get along and I'm not sure they won't mate. They won't will they? I also don't know when to introduce them to each other.

I also am wondering about mating season next year. What is a drake like that has no mate? Should I be trying to find duck farms in my area to see about a hook-up?
I have met someone who also has a pet Runner, a hen, and he would like the 2 to meet but I don't know how we should go about doing that. Any help for any of my questions would be greatly received. It also seems to be that once Quack-Quack reached his 'teen-age' months he now prefers my fiancee, is this normal? Is it a male thing? Personality?

 

[P-Funk]

The new coop. It's 2 days in the making now. Questions. It's framed (so far) to accommodate 10 hens and a roo. Before I go any further with this is there something special I need to do for the 2 Pekins? The left side (of this pic) will be completely enclosed with nesting boxes, windows, etc... with the run on the right. So far it's 15' long X 11' wide. The ducks have completely different personalities than the chooks, but they all get along swimmingly. They love hanging out in the barn so should I just leave 'em there? Help!!! I know nothing about ducks!!!

 

[AmberRex]

The new coop. It's 2 days in the making now. Questions. It's framed (so far) to accommodate 10 hens and a roo. Before I go any further with this is there something special I need to do for the 2 Pekins? The left side (of this pic) will be completely enclosed with nesting boxes, windows, etc... with the run on the right. So far it's 15' long X 11' wide. The ducks have completely different personalities than the chooks, but they all get along swimmingly. They love hanging out in the barn so should I just leave 'em there? Help!!! I know nothing about ducks!!!

Well our chicken shed is made of stone and split into four compartments, one for feed one for chickens, a nursery run and a duck compartment but we most of the time the ducks just go into the same compartment as the chickens and they all live together just fine...i wouldn't do anything really special for the ducks other than make sure that they can A get out and B have access to plenty of water... Nice coop there by the way!

 

[AmberRex]

Oh yeah and I created a different thread but only got one response I really should have posted here for the Duck info. I have a runner duck trio and the about 24 Pekins. I want to breed from Harvey and the girls again this year because some of the ducks are for the freezer

but I haven't a clue how long they should be separated for from the runner drake to ensure purebreds cause I don't think that the two would make a good mix. The runner drake (Billy) is separated off at the moment but how long will it be before we can harvest the Girls' eggs for incubation? Any ideas?? Thanks!

 

[chickery-do]

Wow, nice and big! We hated to make a separate home for our ducks but we're 80% sure their boys. Soft voice almost a whistle. Ane we could see a penis on one so! If there good together now then I don't wee a problem except should their be a boy!

The new coop. It's 2 days in the making now. Questions. It's framed (so far) to accommodate 10 hens and a roo. Before I go any further with this is there something special I need to do for the 2 Pekins? The left side (of this pic) will be completely enclosed with nesting boxes, windows, etc... with the run on the right. So far it's 15' long X 11' wide. The ducks have completely different personalities than the chooks, but they all get along swimmingly. They love hanging out in the barn so should I just leave 'em there? Help!!! I know nothing about ducks!!!