Well, it finally happened. It's that time of year where the hose finally froze. No longer will it be easy to fill the duck pools. Buckets will have to be lugged from house to duck pen twice a day. (insert muttering here) Most of us go through it, so I'm trying not to be too
over it... but it still sucks.
Anyway... we pulled the two pools from the pen this morning and brought out a big bucket o' water. The ducks chowed down their grain... scouted about for their morning veggies... then went to drink from their pools, only to find them not there. I tried showing them the new set-up, even picked one of the more trusting girls up and dipped the tip of her bill into the water to show her it was there (hoping she'd spread the word)... then left them alone, hoping they'd figure it out themselves.
Nope.
When we went out to feed them tonight, we found they'd dug a few holes into the pond pebble ground, looking for water.
So tonight I tried again... splashed my hand in the fuh-reeeezing cold water. That got their attention, but they wouldn't get more than a foot close to the bucket. In went my hand again, to scoop out water and BabyDuck drank from my palm a few times, but none of the others would. I backed off, hoping they'd explore now that they knew WATER WAS THERE... but all they did was dig their bills into the ground around the bucket.
Dumb dumbs.
I ended up putting the small pool (smaller than a kiddie pool) back into the pen and dumped the bucket water into it, just because I couldn't stand the thought of them going without water all day long. I set the bucket next to the pool in the hopes they'll get used to it being there this evening and I'll have to work baby steps to get them used to the switch. Tomorrow I'll have both filled, with the bucket sitting inside the pool, perhaps.
Whatever happened to the phrase, "Like a duck to water...?"
Anyway... we pulled the two pools from the pen this morning and brought out a big bucket o' water. The ducks chowed down their grain... scouted about for their morning veggies... then went to drink from their pools, only to find them not there. I tried showing them the new set-up, even picked one of the more trusting girls up and dipped the tip of her bill into the water to show her it was there (hoping she'd spread the word)... then left them alone, hoping they'd figure it out themselves.
Nope.
When we went out to feed them tonight, we found they'd dug a few holes into the pond pebble ground, looking for water.
So tonight I tried again... splashed my hand in the fuh-reeeezing cold water. That got their attention, but they wouldn't get more than a foot close to the bucket. In went my hand again, to scoop out water and BabyDuck drank from my palm a few times, but none of the others would. I backed off, hoping they'd explore now that they knew WATER WAS THERE... but all they did was dig their bills into the ground around the bucket.
Dumb dumbs.
I ended up putting the small pool (smaller than a kiddie pool) back into the pen and dumped the bucket water into it, just because I couldn't stand the thought of them going without water all day long. I set the bucket next to the pool in the hopes they'll get used to it being there this evening and I'll have to work baby steps to get them used to the switch. Tomorrow I'll have both filled, with the bucket sitting inside the pool, perhaps.
Whatever happened to the phrase, "Like a duck to water...?"
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