Preparing to set call and pekin duck eggs! Hatch day should be March 4, 2021 if all goes well!

[WVduckchick]

Up to 3 now. Black bibbed, blue something, and possibly white!

 

[FunnyfarmMidwest]

Up to 3 now. Black bibbed, blue something, and possibly white!
View attachment 2748399

They are adorable!!

Glad to hear that sweet Gharth is doing well too!

 

[WVduckchick]

7 visible, she had 8 eggs, so might be one to go, or one still hidden under her. And an assortment of colors!

 

[HeatherKellyB]

7 visible, she had 8 eggs, so might be one to go, or one still hidden under her. And an assortment of colors!
View attachment 2749086View attachment 2749087

Congratulations! Your flock has done so well and I'm sure you're so proud of them. In spite of the heartbreaks, this is the part that makes us all a squishy mess.

Do you free range during the day or just whenever you're supervising? My little sweeties are discovering their wonderful abilities to fly and it seems like they're able to go further each day. I worry that only having 4, they'll be more likely to take off as a small group and become a predators dream or even discover one of the huge lakes in the gated community on the other side of the road. We've got a pond here, but I haven't let them swim in it yet. My big ducks don't swim there unless we're able to supervise. I know we have a mama fox and her two babies, which are adults now, that frequent the area. I see the two younger foxes travel along the back wall of the pond often and just about a week ago, whenever I went to check my big ducks "dining room" (a small area at the front of their duck house that I have a play yard attached to for them to eat and drink right before lock up) and found a fox in there eating their food! I knew there was a reason that I always went to check their area before walking them down. We also have neighbors with dogs that roam, mostly throughout the night because one of them got my jumbo Pekin Drake over a year ago. So, I'm not sure what to do. Oh yes, there are also a lot of thick briars around our pond and that's certainly a problem for ducks. I'm trying to figure out something to kill the briars that won't hurt the fish, but right now, it's a problem. I'm on the fence about cutting their wing feathers. I watched a few videos about how to do this safely but I'm just not sure. I hate to do that because I'm sure they love to fly, but want to keep them safe. I need to just build them a nice covered run but I've been back and forth about moving and would really like to move. Any advice from anyone in what I should do right now? I have 9 other bantam ducks that I plan to integrate with Lylah's flock, but the Aztec's are still not feathered and the other Calls and Aussie are only a few weeks old. I could go on and on and on. My apologies

Edited to add: I haven't even tried introducing the Calls to my big ducks. I worry they're too big plus the ratio is way off (2 ducks & 2 drakes) and I feel like the big drakes might get aggressive with the littles. The big drakes will fight a little bit during Spring but they're not too nasty. The 4 of them have been together their entire lives. I feel certain the Calls would be able to escape the big ducks chain link roof less run anyway.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

The little white Calls are so precious! They're one of my favorites. I hope to add at least one to my flock someday

 

[Painted Calls]

Everyone here is doing great. Click's wing is now fixed (this was taken 2 days ago). I have 4 for sure girls - Butter, Roxy, Rosie, and little Puddle. Flip and Click haven't found their big duck voices yet.

Not sure what color Flip is.

Please ignore the tiny human goober in the video. She doesn't get outside human interaction much.
https://youtube.com/shorts/uxtHjC8WfLI?feature=share

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Maybe I should just purchase one of those prefab runs like they have at TSC. I believe they come in panels, so I could easily move it when the time comes. How big do y'all suggest for 13 bantam ducks? I guess I could go a little bit smaller for right now since they're not so big and that will make it easier to move whenever the time comes. Thoughts? Suggestions? I can't really afford that right now as I'm trying hard to save money for this anticipated move, but I believe it's necessary and I'll need it to be large enough to section it in half while Lylah's flock integrates with the Aztec's.

Side note-I believe I have at least 2 ducks in the Aztec's. One Porcelain and the blue Pearl so far are quacking

 

[Painted Calls]

Maybe I should just purchase one of those prefab runs like they have at TSC. I believe they come in panels, so I could easily move it when the time comes. How big do y'all suggest for 13 bantam ducks? I guess I could go a little bit smaller for right now since they're not so big and that will make it easier to move whenever the time comes. Thoughts? Suggestions? I can't really afford that right now as I'm trying hard to save money for this anticipated move, but I believe it's necessary and I'll need it to be large enough to section it in half while Lylah's flock integrates with the Aztec's.

Side note-I believe I have at least 2 ducks in the Aztec's. One Porcelain and the blue Pearl so far are quacking

I think it would be more affordable to build a temp hoop coop/PVC run.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Everyone here is doing great. Click's wing is now fixed (this was taken 2 days ago). I have 4 for sure girls - Butter, Roxy, Rosie, and little Puddle. Flip and Click haven't found their big duck voices yet.
View attachment 2749179View attachment 2749178

Not sure what color Flip is.
View attachment 2749185

Please ignore the tiny human goober in the video. She doesn't get outside human interaction much.
https://youtube.com/shorts/uxtHjC8WfLI?feature=share

Look at all of your white Calls! I love your flock so much! Yay for Roxy being a girl! I definitely thought girl, but that's only because of my 2 drakes. Gah, they're so adorable!!!

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I think it would be more affordable to build a temp hoop coop/PVC run.

I didn't even think about that, but yeah, definitely more affordable. The runs I was looking at were at least $500 bucks and they weren't even that big. I could make 2 of these and place them side by side so they could get familiar with each other. Thank you