Pekin Excavators

[MudHog]

It seems my two females are in the excavating business as they like to dig holes around their little pond and now around the hanging waterer. I've walked up on them only to find their heads and breast feathers covered in mud. For two WHITE ducks, they sure can get dirty.

What causes them to do this? Would something covering the ground help with this?

 

[ZoeS95423]

They are digging for bugs and stuff.
It washes off, trust me, my pekins get terribly messy, but once they have soem time in the pond they clean up pretty good.
There is no need to cover it up.

 

[LemonDoodles]

 

[MudHog]

Quote:
That's clean compared to what my two have looked like. I'll have to take a picture of them next time they get to digging.

 

[gofasterstripe]

Yes you can cover it up...they will only more somewhere and do it. When it rains alot and you have a dip in the ground, they will dig that dip even further down and eventualy you will end up wth craters

 

[LemonDoodles]

The funny thing is that her name is Muddy and has been since she was an egglet.

Mine dig in the hardware cloth holes that make up the floor of their pen. It looks like the back of a lego!

 

[jbrown_14105]

Hello Duck lovers....
My 4 Pekins love the mud, mud puddles, and bit of water, it doesn't have to be a farm pond.....just a mud hole and do they get muddy....but after awhile they find water or if it is dry they go to the pond. Yes all that "driilin" which I think they do out of fun/habit anyway....they seem to make the "happy sounds of ducks" when "drillin"
Yes Huey, Louey, Dewey, & Daisey (the hen) love to get muddy and then clean off in any puddle no matter how small.
I only wish I would see the "Aflac" duck get muddy as much as these four do!
Jim Brown
Lockport NY 14094

 

[gryeyes]

I thought it was funny when the chickens dug their dust-bathing spa holes and then used them, popping their heads up to look around between "treatments" (they look like a game of Whack-A-Mole but without moles or any whacking) but the ducks have them beat with their drilling to China excavations.

I don't know why I think it's adorable.

Luckily, I have Cayugas and black, bibbed call ducks. The mud on their chests, neck and bills isn't so evident as it would be on a Pekin!