Plucky Pekin Pals - a place to gush over these wonderful white birds

[DonaldFan]

My first bird is a Pekin duck that I kinda ended up with. I was going to try to rehome him but my family got rather attached. At the time my son had been bugging me for a bird (and I was thinking parakeet). I told him that if we kept the duck that would be his bird. So that is the abbreviated version of how we got Donald Duck. Yesterday we took in another Pekin named Ducker (name will be changed out of tradition). He has obviously had some hard times but is already rather comfortable with our flock.

We also have a Cayuga female that has a love/hate relationship with Donald depending on her hormones. And 8 chickens.

My Pekins live in the coop w/the chickens and our coop is an converted horse stall so it has plenty of room for them all. Donald makes sure all of his "girls" (the hens) are in at night or when someone is walking their dogs off leash. Since we let the birds (except the Cayuga) free-range during the day we have learned to appreciate Donald's protective stance on his flock.

Jenn

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Thats sweet how Donald takes care of everyone, I hope him and Ducker become good friends. and

 

[DonaldFan]

So far they are fine together until one of us go out there. Then Donald gets all jealous and keeps Ducker away from us. This weekend we dealt with his attitude by one of us drawing him away and the other spending time with Ducker. Tomorrow hubby goes back to work and kid goes back to school so we'll see how much time I'll get to spend with the new kid.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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If they like peas maybe that would be mutual ground, both getting snackie together.

 

[DonaldFan]

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Good idea! Will give it a try

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Good idea! Will give it a try

Let us know how it goes..

 

[DonaldFan]

So our newest addition, Ducker, has settled in nicely. He is always going to have some issues because of being attacked before. His first reaction if he feels threatened is to attack back or even attack first. I have to sternly (but gently) keep him away and he's learning...but he has some work, yet. He and Donald have bonded nicely - the two of them are always together.

Sadly, my Cayugan, Abby, passed away a couple of days ago. Instead of having to face her empty cage I revamped it into the Bachelor Pad. Ducker and Donald spent the night in it last night and loved it. No chickens to contend with for food, plenty of water just for them, and even a hot tub! (Ok, ok, not a hot-tub but their own little tub for when it's hot - they like it ;p ) They still free-range during the day w/the chickens so seemed to really like having their own place. The chickens certainly didn't mind having them out of the coop, either.

Oh, and Donald has a new prank. My hair has gotten longer and I keep forgetting to put it up. So he likes to be close when I'm bending over so he can tug on it. He's very gentle about it so far but still catches me off guard - the stinker!

Jenn

 

[Miss Lydia]

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So sorry to hear about your Cayuga, Abby, it's very hard to lose one especially when they are such a part of our family

, but on a happier note, very glad to hear the Donald and Ducker have become good friends and now have their on digs..!

 

[DonaldFan]

Thank you. I'm broken-hearted about Abby but I took her in already knowing she suffered from lead-poisoning. We treated every day like it was her last just in case since we knew she would should not have lived as long as she did. She really was happy here and that is what pushed her on. Now I can put more attention to Ducker and see if I can get him to trust people a bit...a big challenge but hey, I like a challenge ;p

 

[Miss Lydia]

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I hope it works with ducker sounds like your up for it, can i ask how Abby got lead poisoning?