Support Group for Abused Duck Keepers

[Canadian Wind]

How are the mosquitoes there with all the damp weather ?

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Well that saying ducks leave the eggs after 48 hours if they don’t hatch is not the case for Diamond
She hatched first baby on august 13
We are now at 7 babies with one egg left.
August 13–1
August 14-1
August 20-2
August 23-2
August 24-1
That’s 11 days
She stole eggs from another broody mom and got herself a staggered hatch
I was prepared to get the incubator in case she left the eggs but she never did
First time mom
I have 2 inside with me as second baby on the 20th was late at night
Was fully dark in the coop
She has been sitting full body and when they try to zip and push out the egg ends up squished and they can’t get out
So I pull the shell off and show mom baby
All while she is attacking me
She accepts babies and I leave her be
That night it was dark in there and she was biting me hard
I set baby under her and left
In the morning I went to see what colour we had
It was under mom beside the other one that hatched before it that day
Both peeking the head out
I went to pick it up and noticed it’s back had been bit
Dang ( my fault ) I should have had a light on so she knew it was a baby and not me
I had to bring her in and start cleaning the wounds
If she wanted to kill the baby she would have and she didn’t
She was mothering it so I truly think she was biting thinking it was me or the egg goo was on its back and she was eating it
Either way baby is doing great
Couldn’t use that leg at first and is now cruising around
I stole one that hatched yesterday for her to
have a buddy as I can’t be with her 24/7
Come on last baby I need this stress to be over
My hands chewed up from bugging her
It does have external pip so tomorrow sometime is my guess

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Last baby hatched around 7pm
It was still wet so I’m not sure the colouring but I think it’s a blue Swedish

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Last baby hatched around 7pm
It was still wet so I’m not sure the colouring but I think it’s a blue Swedish

Baby looks good this morning and is a silver Swedish
My camera makes the colour look much darker then it is
So out of the 7 live babies and 4 we lost only 2 were her true eggs
2 were from the other pen ( no idea how she stole those eggs
Must have ran around after all birds were out and snuck a few
Thankfully my hands can now heal and mom can get up
She is very protective as you see in the picture

 

[Canadian Wind]

Baby looks good this morning and is a silver Swedish
My camera makes the colour look much darker then it is
So out of the 7 live babies and 4 we lost only 2 were her true eggs
2 were from the other pen ( no idea how she stole those eggs
Must have ran around after all birds were out and snuck a few
Thankfully my hands can now heal and mom can get up
She is very protective as you see in the picture

Grats on all the babies and good job taking the abuse to insure they're okay!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Grats on all the babies and good job taking the abuse to insure they're okay!

Thank you
Now moms are training the young to think I’m this big bad monster
Can’t wait to watch these new abusers grow up
Minus the 2 I have in the house. They will never abuse me ( haha )

 

[BelovedBirds]

I've just suffered great abuse from Miss Sprightly!

She not only laughed at me (some might think I'm paranoid, but I do speak some Quack quite fluently and I know it's laughter) basically all evening.
She was playing on my phone when Dougie exclaimed "Ew PHONE" and ran in terror. Sprightly also ran in terror.
I asked why she spooked just because Dougie spooked- If Dougie jumped off a cliff, would she do it too?
Well she just laughed at this and ran towards me to carry on playing with my phone.

After which she tried to jump on my back about 3 times, and tried to eat my hair.

I mean what am I? A source of entertainment? Where is the respect??

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I've just suffered great abuse from Miss Sprightly!

She not only laughed at me (some might think I'm paranoid, but I do speak some Quack quite fluently and I know it's laughter) basically all evening.
She was playing on my phone when Dougie exclaimed "Ew PHONE" and ran in terror. Sprightly also ran in terror.
I asked why she spooked just because Dougie spooked- If Dougie jumped off a cliff, would she do it too?
Well she just laughed at this and ran towards me to carry on playing with my phone.

After which she tried to jump on my back about 3 times, and tried to eat my hair.

I mean what am I? A source of entertainment? Where is the respect??

I 100% understand the laughing or talking crap about you
I get it very often
I also have a goose who loves to chew my hair
But I gladly take the abuse just so I can hold and cuddle her

 

[BelovedBirds]

I 100% understand the laughing or talking crap about you
I get it very often
I also have a goose who loves to chew my hair
But I gladly take the abuse just so I can hold and cuddle her

If I told past me that I'd have ducks and that these ducks would laugh at me- I would've been concerned about me losing my mind.
But no genuinely, these birds have an entire language and I've learned some of it!

They can tell me vocally when they want food, when they're happy about receiving food, when they're laughing because they're very excited/amused, feeling flirtatious, feeling concerned, feeling angry....

The other day I was in the garden with my mum after I'd put the ducks in their shed. They started making quiet sounds that my mum had never heard them make before, she looked perplexed. I had to reassure her "no don't worry, they're talking about being hungry and how they want food".
(At bedtime they sometimes get a treat, they never go to bed on an empty stomach, but food is often on their mind)

They're so silly.
They can also show me through body language how they're feeling, Sprightly specifically though. Dougie has never done this, but Spright will gesture "want" if she's wanting me to do or get something. Yesterday she was dipping her head, expressing she wanted something, I held my hands out and asked what she wanted and she walked into my hands, I guess she wanted some love. I made her do a lil dancy dance and she laughed and kept coming back signalling "want" until I did it again.
Strange bird.

 

[BelovedBirds]

I won't just show the good side of my relationships with my ducks here, I'll be honest, Dougie doesn't love me so much anymore.

A while ago I was inconsistent again with collecting eggs, and as Dougie was hiding the eggs in her discrete nest, I didn't realise that there were as many as there was, at least 10.
So when I noticed her go back inside one morning to sit on her nest, I realised immediately she was broody.

I don't like messing up and letting that happen, because obviously her eggs are infertile and she's wasting her energy on them. So I waited for her to leave her nest for food and then removed the eggs and dismantled her nest. She has been broody before so I really didn't think it would be an issue, but boy I was wrong, she was SO distressed that I had done this, she realised her eggs were gone and she was very upset. I'd never seen her look like that before, I felt absolutely evil. Later at their bedtime I gave them an egg, she usually will eat eggs regardless of how broody she feels. This time she was horrified, she picked up bits of shell and then just dropped them back down, and she just about chased Sprightly away when she tried to eat it. I didn't know that sort of thing could even bother them, honestly, it really shocked me, and then I was certain I was evil. In her mind I not only destroyed her family and home, but also served her babies back to her on a dinner plate! That's how her reaction made me feel!

She wanted absolutely nothing to do with me for a couple days and then they both started their moult so she's feeling a bit sensitive and unhappy. I've been upping their protein a bit, mealworms with their breakfast and I crack an egg for them some evenings- Dougie was super into her eggs before she went broody, she was eating every bit including the whites and yolk. And the shells were her favourite treat. She won't touch them now. Doesn't go near them.

It's been a couple weeks now, and she still hasn't forgiven me. She runs from me as if I'll hurt her, obviously I know its just her hormones and perhaps a bit of a grudge, and she is a prey animal and I shouldn't take it personally.

But I wanted to try and mend our bond, so I spent the day with them today, and tried to spend a lot of time with her. I put water in their dirt/grass box to make a nice mud box, and I got stuck in finding them worms. She really enjoyed it, doing the little stompy feets that birds do in rainy weather, and after a LOT of patience and staying still, she took worms from my hands. After a bit more time, she got comfortable nibbling my fingers and visibly relaxed around me.

I won't try handling/cuddling/touching her for a while yet, she isn't going to appreciate it so it will be on her terms.

But there's a bit of our ups and downs, even with ducks as friendly and affectionate as my hand raised girls, they're always going to have ups and downs and sometimes they need space.
I won't let her get broody again, not until she has eggs to hatch, I won't be careless again!