Support Group for Abused Duck Keepers

[New duck mommy 2021]

We had a tree hit by lightning years ago close to our house and we cut the downed part off and I put pruning paint on the rest of the tree where the bark was exposed. It lived and still grew!!! I wanted to share just in case you wanted to save the rest of that tree. If you don't do that bugs will get into the bark and more than likely kill it. Since you use it for shade for the ducks it would be worth a try I would think.

Thank you
The rest of the tree looks perfectly fine so that would be amazing if we could save it it’s split pretty far down so you think with power lines right behind it that it maybe ti risky to keep ?
The power box , pole and lines are right behind that tree
So glad it fell to the right and not back

 

[Luv Ducks]

Thank you
The rest of the tree looks perfectly fine so that would be amazing if we could save it it’s split pretty far down so you think with power lines right behind it that it maybe ti risky to keep ?
The power box , pole and lines are right behind that tree
So glad it fell to the right and not back

Since it is split so far down and with your power lines I would probably not risk trying. I didn't realize it was that far down. Ours was only a big hole in the tree, pure black from the lightning strike and about a 2 foot area up and down but not as deep and far down as yours. An arborist could give you better advice or maybe google, lol. Good luck with your decision.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Since it is split so far down and with your power lines I would probably not risk trying. I didn't realize it was that far down. Ours was only a big hole in the tree, pure black from the lightning strike and about a 2 foot area up and down but not as deep and far down as yours. An arborist could give you better advice or maybe google, lol. Good luck with your decision.

I’m thinking to be safe I should just take it down
I feel like it’s compromised now And way to close to the power lines

 

[Luv Ducks]

My 5-6 week olds I can tell by voice
Take a video of holding a couple
They will be as loud as they can be fit boys it’s not very loud

I can't do video's and just had to catch them to clip them so they are not happy campers with me right now. When they see the net they go into scared to death mode. I usually use it when someone is going down the road to be rehomed and they think, Am I Next???? lol

 

[ruthhope]

Just had to share. Earlier today we got a storm with heavy rain , lightning and thunder. It wasn’t even calling for a storm so it was a shock when I saw the storm coming
I quickly got mom and babies in the duck house right as it started
All the other ducks took shelter under the deck and bushes
The thunder was so loud I said that’s got to be close
then Tonight at 10:30 pm I was putting ducks to bed and dumping to refill water when I noticed a tree over my neighbours garden
Then I notice it’s my tree
Split in half and one half stands strong the other is over the fence on his garden. They left today for camping and I told them I’ll water the garden when I do my ducks waters
Hubby is leaving at 4am for work for a week so I had to get him to bust the chainsaw out at 11 pm so the garden wasn’t ruined
So glad my ducks are all okay
They are always under those 3 trees laying in the shade

I had the oposite happen with my neighbor's tree back in 2014. It came down over the fence into my garden. It did damage my privacy fence as it is 6ft tall and wood, but didn't damage the 4ft chain link behind it. My neighbor, a woman in her late 60's, was a trouper and was round in my yard for several mornings at first light [I don't get out of bed at that ungodly hour] and cut up all the tree branches in my yard with her reciprocating saw, and dragged them to the kerb for me. We were both lucky. The branches only brushed my roof and I don't have a gutter along there to get damaged. If the tree had split the other way it would have come down on her kitchen.

My big anxiety now is the laurel oak trees in my adjacent neighbor's yard as they, too, are failing and if they come down my way, they will crush my duck house. One came down last year, but my neighbor was amazingly lucky as it fell diagonally across her back garden, away from my garden, and missed her house completely. But it scared us all as it sounded like a gun shot too close for comfort when it happened.

So the neighbor behind no longer has failing laurel oaks along the fenceline with me as I went half and half with her on having them removed. The neighbor next door and her behind neighbor still have their row of failing laurel oaks. I just hope the healthy Carolina laurel cherries in my yard, break the fall of any of those oaks if they fall my way, and protect my poor duckies!

 

[ruthhope]

Update on Pingywingy my crested pekin drake who has "gone off his legs".

He traveled down to Florida with me at the weekend -- in a pet carrier but I had his tote with me so he could sleep in that with more space and headroom if he had chosen to stand up. He didn't stand up!

He is still sitting around and doing nothing. He only stands in deep water in his tote or, now, in the bath. Otherwise he only gets up from his elbows with his fore-legs along the ground. There is nothing wrong with his feet. There is nothing wrong with his joints: not swollen, not red, not hot, and the joints move fully passively and fully in the bath with his weight taken by the water.

I have to go out and move his water pot and food dish to be right in front of him, every couple of hours as he shuffles away from them -- it seems he doesn,t like sitting facing his food/water -- and then he will drink some, but not eat at all.

He swims in the bath morning and evening [although he has low tolerance for being there and tries to get out] He will eat food from his bowl if I hold it in front of him to eat while he is swimming. He ate little yesterday morning and I was worried; he ate 1/3 of a cup last night and I was hopeful; he ate a little more than 1/3 of a cup this morning and I am again optimistic. But he is not doing anything. Even when my son's drake comes round threatening him from outside his pen, PingyWingy sits impassively.

My son's drake and one of his females are hostile to Pingy -- the female stands behind her drake and makes threatening head movements over her drakes shoulder towards Pingy. If Ping's food is next to the pen walls, the drake reaches through and eats Pingy's food even though he has plenty of his own food close by! In contrast, my son's crested female has not made any threatening actions towards Pingy and twice has laid an egg in a "nest" she made between Pingy's pen and the house wall. She normally lays in the duck house in the communal nest.

It seems, I am going to be playing nurse maid to PingyWingy for a while!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I wonder if you tried Cosequin with MSM ? My Muscovy drake limped around for over a year even getting a baby aspirin daily then a friend sent me some consequin with MSM and since he’s taking it he isn’t limping. It’s awfully good for joints . @ruthhope

 

[ruthhope]

I wonder if you tried Cosequin with MSM ? My Muscovy drake limped around for over a year even getting a baby aspirin daily then a friend sent me some consequin with MSM and since he’s taking it he isn’t limping. It’s awfully good for joints . @ruthhope

I haven't tried that but I will, @Miss Lydia. I don't think he has joint problems but at this stage I will give anything a try! Thank you.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Last summer a tree fell on the lady across the streets house. Luckily she was ok and her insurance paid for her house to be fixed. We actually had a huge tree infront of our house the stump is still there. One storm a huge branch fell of and blocked the road. And the lady paid for it to be cut down. We didnt ask her, we were actually going to cut it down the next summer. There is a tree in our backdoor neighbors yard that if it fell it would crush a few things hopefully not landing on the chicken pen. Then another neighbor has a tree that needs to go(its dead and slowly leaning ) and they keep saying they dont want it gone. Then our side neighbor has a tree that we are going to help cut down later this year as it got struck by lighting a few years ago and now it is dead.
Luckily our apple trees arent big

 

[Miss Lydia]

I haven't tried that but I will, @Miss Lydia. I don't think she has joint problems but at this stage I will give anything a try! Thank you.

That’s what I was thinking def worth trying.
Send me your address in PM and I’ll send you some to try that way if it doesn’t help you won’t have had to waste your money. I don’t mind a bit.