So, these ducks just showed up...

[cmjust0]

Let me preface this by saying that we have two driveways; one directly in front of the house, and another a few hundred feet up the road that's part of the easement to our farm.

So, yesterday I'm coming home from work and I see my wife standing over the culvert in the easement driveway, flagging me down, looking over the edge.. I stop and pull in there, get out, and she points me to 9 white adult ducks that just...showed up. Out of nowhere..

They were merrily swimming around in the tiny pool on the downstream side of the culvert. She was throwing bread and they were going nuts over it, like tame ducks do. I walked down there and they didn't really freak out...pretty sure they would have eaten from my hand, so I feel pretty confident that these were somebody's ducks at some point.

Again, we have no idea where they came from, nor how they got there.

We have a lot of predators in the area, and my wife was kinda wondering if there's anything we could or should do for them.. There's a pond on vacant land just a few hundred feet from where she found them, and I'm pretty sure we could lead them up there so they'd at least be in bigger water...but, then what?

Can't exactly build them a duck blind on someone else's land, and our pond is way up on the hill at the edge of the woods, so they'd be coyote fodder in no time flat..

Any suggestions?

Also, somebody give me a clue as to how they got there... It's not exactly a navigable stream, so they didn't just float down.. I supposed they could have flown in, but if so, why, and why would they have landed there instead of in the pond? Anybody think it's likely that somebody drove up, stopped, dumped the ducks, and drove off?

 

[Judy]

I'd bet someone dumped them.

 

[Wifezilla]

I think you are right. Some loser dumped them.

Can you get some kind of portable surround? (Like those folding wire dog cages?) Leave it open and fill it with food. Then after a while, just close the gate? Then you can move them to your pond.

 

[cmjust0]

We have two wire cages, so we could probably get them moved, but I'm not sure where to move them... Like I said, if we move them to our pond they'll be dead in no time flat.

If they're still there this evening, I'll try to lure them over to the neighbor's pond. Can't build them a blind or anything, but at least it's bigger than what they're in now. Plus, it's a good distance from woods.

Someone prolly dumped them, huh? Nice...

 

[Dances with Ducks]

How big are they? There are bantam sized white ducks - call ducks, that could fly there. They are really cute with heads a little large in proportion to their bodies and smallish bills. There are also white mucsovy ducks that could fly, they have reddish fleshy stuff around the top of their bills. But if it's not one of those they are probably Pekins, and they don't fly. They either waddled there or were dumped. Can you post a photo?

 

[cmjust0]

After looking around, they're definitely Pekins...which means they were dumped, unless they waddled their way out to the middle of nowhere and decided to set up shop in a mudhole instead of the big pond not more than 100 yards away. I think it's safe to say that's pretty unlikely.

Just talked to my wife, and she said she's at least going to try to lure them over to the neighbor's pond. The pond's on vacant land that's up for sale, and we're the closest house to it. If the owner ever figured out that there were ducks there -- which he probably won't

-- I sincerely don't think he'd care. If asked, I wouldn't hesitate to tell him we lured them there, put it that way.

Not to mention, this is hopefully all temporary until we can get something else figured out. We're just thinking they'll fare better in an actual body of water, rather than a mudhole that's going to be all but dry in a few days....

In the meantime...do we need to feed these things, or will they make due with a pond? I think there are minnows in it, but no "real" fish.. Obviously there are bugs, and probably crawdads too.. Is that enough? What else might they need?

 

[cmjust0]

Just talked to my wife a while ago.. She said the ducks are gone. It's possible that they waddled off somewhere else, or that they were killed and dragged off somewhere else, or maybe they found the neighbor's pond and were hiding in the tall grass. Who knows.

We'll keep an eye out, but for now...no ducks to speak of.

She wants ducks of our own now, though.

 

[Wifezilla]

LOL

You poor guy

Wifey has gone to the duck side

 

[cmjust0]

Our 28 RIR chicks are only 4 weeks old this Monday, and she's flipping through the hatchery catalogs going "Ooooh, look at this one! Wow, look at that one!" Silkies, banties, easter eggers, cresteds, feather-footed...

Now it's ducks too, apparently..

I asked kindly if she'd at least let me get the coop built before she sent me off TO BUILD A POND.

...although, I would like another pond...

 

[debilorrah]

We started with 6 hens and a roo. Now we have 16 laying hens, 1 roo, 19 chicks, two turkey poults and 3 pekin ducklings. GOOD LUCK!!!