pictures of my 'scovies

[duck walk]

They were chillin' on top of the dog house within which the third fm is nesting...got a shot of the nest when she got up to get a drink...she has a lot of eggs in there!

 

[BeccaOH]

Ahh, I'm loving Muscovies. I got my first pair last fall then added another quad this spring.

LOL

That is a ton of eggs! I had one hen go broody on just 2 eggs.

 

[SaraFL]

So cool! Is that an egg outside of the nest, sort of upper right corner of the pic?

 

[duck walk]

yup...that is another nest back there...the grey and white fm sneaks in there behind the sitter on the big nest and lays her egg...there are six or seven eggs in her nest now...the girls are good buds and are sharing the house...the one topside with the white head, Rose, recently hatched out a clutch of 17...she is taking a break from laying right now...

Rose is a real sweetie...she fans her tail, opens her bill and sort of chortles at me in the morning...asking for her treats, which she eats out of my hand...the grey and white one, Alice, is beginning to copy her and eat from my hand as well...these are so different from my other ducks...I got them as adults and they are friendly...Rose even lets me pick her up and carry her around while I hose off the top of the dog house...the other ducks I have raised from hatching act like I am an ax murderer and are horrified if I try to touch them, tho they do come when called for their treats and such...but eat out of my hand? Touch them? Not in this life!

I did have a drake sneak in to the main yard a few days ago...a Pekin/Ancona...he is pretty large...the dogs went after him as he was in their terrritory...I can't run but I did when the three adult Dobermans had him pinned up side down and were intent on having him for dinner...I grabbed him from the dogs...his heart was going 100 miles and hour...he stretched his wings out like he was trying to give me a big birdy hug, tucked his head under my chin and just sighed...he knew he had spent one of his lives...he was like a little kid...I carried him around for a few minutes and he did not fight me...the other ducks and geese were watching, yelling in horror...they thought he was a goner...when I released him back into the duck yard with the others they all gathered around and had a good talk about what had happened...what a racket! But they were all gathered around the drake just talking up a storm...I think he may have been telling them some tall tale or another about his brush with death and his heroics...I don't think he will do that again...

 

[BeccaOH]

That's a great story with a good ending. I just love waterfowl. They are so expressive.