The Duck Thread

[NathanZee]

Hormones. Kaine and Tevye are best of friends for about 3-4 months and the rest of the year Kaine wants Tevye to go find a new flock

For what it's worth Kaine is on day 15 of jail. Saturday we let him out. He got mobbed by about half of the girls for 5-10 minutes, then he decided to attack Greta. Fwoop, back in jail. We will give him another chance this weekend.

He does fine in jail. At least half the day one or more of his fans is near him keeping him company. Funny thing is Greta is actually one of his fans.

But if he gets a chance he attacks her. He got thrown in jail because he bloodied (not actually that bad, but blood none the less) both of her elbows. Tevye doesn't get hurt but he gets chased all over. Last year Kaine pulled all the feathers off the top of Greta's butt. He is so nice with us and the girls really love him so we don't want to get rid of him and from October to the beginning of February, he was a sweet heart. We will build him a semi-permanent jail in the secure area when it is done. It will be like a ducky efficiency apartment.

Do you have a picture of Kaine? What kind of jail is he in? Too bad he doesn't get along with anyducks. Drakes certainly vary in temperament, I have one drake that wants to kill me, but he has only mated twice in his life that I know of, and some of them are very nice to me but try to breed constantly!

 

[Ren2014]

The cams are a must! Whenever we find something amiss, we can travel back in time and see what happened to determine if it needs to be a concern or not. For instance broken eggs: magpie, skunk, stupid duck kicking the egg, something else... Once we saw Entie with a really bad limp. Looked her over - no sign of trauma. We went back in the camera until we figured out when the limp started. Watched that section close and saw Kaine running after Tevye. Tevye fled at high speed. Entie got spooked and stepped right in front of Tevye and got plowed over... Bad move Entie. We reexamined her with that knowledge and still found nothing so decided to wait. The next day she was fine. Must of just gotten a good bruise. But we knew it was an accident and nobody/nothing attacked her.

What type of cams do you use? This is a great idea. I wish we had them. My husband doesn't believe me that the bobcat came into the duck yard and got Boo. He thinks she was on the other side of the fence. If I had a cam there would be no question.

Hormones. Kaine and Tevye are best of friends for about 3-4 months and the rest of the year Kaine wants Tevye to go find a new flock

For what it's worth Kaine is on day 15 of jail. Saturday we let him out. He got mobbed by about half of the girls for 5-10 minutes, then he decided to attack Greta. Fwoop, back in jail. We will give him another chance this weekend.

He does fine in jail. At least half the day one or more of his fans is near him keeping him company. Funny thing is Greta is actually one of his fans.

But if he gets a chance he attacks her. He got thrown in jail because he bloodied (not actually that bad, but blood none the less) both of her elbows. Tevye doesn't get hurt but he gets chased all over. Last year Kaine pulled all the feathers off the top of Greta's butt. He is so nice with us and the girls really love him so we don't want to get rid of him and from October to the beginning of February, he was a sweet heart. We will build him a semi-permanent jail in the secure area when it is done. It will be like a ducky efficiency apartment.

How big is your drake jail? I've never had to put one in for that long. We got rid of our only drake recently so I have no worries right now. One of the fab 5 WH is a drake but thank God he is too young. I think I have 3 drakes from the next batch of eggs and now we have Bugs' 13 babies growing up... I'm afraid I will have a drake or two from them. If they don't sell, I'm going to need a bigger jail, lol.

 

[LudasMummy]

I just realised tonight that Luda is losing a lot of neck feather and it looks patchy and sad! She has been molting a lot which is normal but should her neck be molting like this too? I only went to the vet a couple of weeks ago and he checked for parasites etc. if someone could just let me know if this is normal or not would be appreciated

 

[caesargirl]

I just realised tonight that Luda is losing a lot of neck feather and it looks patchy and sad! She has been molting a lot which is normal but should her neck be molting like this too? I only went to the vet a couple of weeks ago and he checked for parasites etc. if someone could just let me know if this is normal or not would be appreciated

@miss lydia

 

[Miss Lydia]

I just realised tonight that Luda is losing a lot of neck feather and it looks patchy and sad! She has been molting a lot which is normal but should her neck be molting like this too? I only went to the vet a couple of weeks ago and he checked for parasites etc. if someone could just let me know if this is normal or not would be appreciated

@LudasMummy They can look pretty ragged when molting and feel pretty crummy to. Are you giving her any extra protein like dried meal worms etc. I also give vitamins[poulty] when mine are molting just to help them through it. If she has swimming water I doubt she has parasites.

 

[Julie Birb]

Hormones. Kaine and Tevye are best of friends for about 3-4 months and the rest of the year Kaine wants Tevye to go find a new flock

For what it's worth Kaine is on day 15 of jail. Saturday we let him out. He got mobbed by about half of the girls for 5-10 minutes, then he decided to attack Greta. Fwoop, back in jail. We will give him another chance this weekend.

He does fine in jail. At least half the day one or more of his fans is near him keeping him company. Funny thing is Greta is actually one of his fans.

But if he gets a chance he attacks her. He got thrown in jail because he bloodied (not actually that bad, but blood none the less) both of her elbows. Tevye doesn't get hurt but he gets chased all over. Last year Kaine pulled all the feathers off the top of Greta's butt. He is so nice with us and the girls really love him so we don't want to get rid of him and from October to the beginning of February, he was a sweet heart. We will build him a semi-permanent jail in the secure area when it is done. It will be like a ducky efficiency apartment.

Ugh to hormones. So powerful it's not funny but they keep all species alive. Poor sweet Greta. I am so glad he's in your jail rather than re-homed. I wonder why he is so antagonistic towards her only. What triggers it I wonder. What else I find fascinating are all the female fans he had despite his aggressive behavior. Could it be that the girls are powerfully attracted to him because he's the super good looking alpha and strong flock leader and they want his genes?

But Tevye is so adorable and sweet but obviously the girl birds don't see him that way as we humans do.

 

[Julie Birb]

I just realised tonight that Luda is losing a lot of neck feather and it looks patchy and sad! She has been molting a lot which is normal but should her neck be molting like this too? I only went to the vet a couple of weeks ago and he checked for parasites etc. if someone could just let me know if this is normal or not would be appreciated

She's adorable. Look at that sweet face and side glance.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Do you have a picture of Kaine? What kind of jail is he in? Too bad he doesn't get along with anyducks. Drakes certainly vary in temperament, I have one drake that wants to kill me, but he has only mated twice in his life that I know of, and some of them are very nice to me but try to breed constantly!

Here's a picture of both my boys. Tevye to the Left and Kaine to the right.



He really is a handsome boy and a good flock leader - He herds the other ducks into their house at night and inventories them about every 15 minutes. He puts himself between the flock and all perceived danger. He barks out commands and the whole flock moves to a different part of the yard. He runs a tight ship and takes his job very seriously. (all this is even when the hormones are low.) If he would just leave Tevye and Greta alone he would be the perfect Alpha-drake. And he is sweet to us. Last summer he would make attack runs at us when we weren't looking, and as soon as we turned around he would act all innocent, but he doesn't even do that any more. He is sweet as can be with us. He is a frequent mater, but by duck standards he isn't too violent (several of my girls are more violent when they play mating games with each other.)

His jail is currently 2 - 7' dog gazebos linked together (about 86sq ft. total) he has a dog crate with straw for shelter, a concrete mixing pan for swimming and his own food and drinking water. When the other ducks get treats some are reserved for him and we go in the jail and hand feed them to him so he knows he is loved. He can see the other ducks and they visit him most of the day so he isn't too miserable, but he can't attack Greta or Tevye. He actually gets along with the other 9 ducks fine, he just attacks Greta constantly and chases Tevye. I don't really mind him chasing Tevye as much since he doesn't hurt him and other than that one time where Tevye plowed over Entie, no ducks were hurt from that, but his attacks on Greta are detrimental to her welfare so he gets jail until he shapes up (this year we are prepared to accept that might not be until October

). We will probably give him supervised parole each weekend and put him back in jail the second he violates it. I don't know if he will figure out why he is in jail or not. Maybe if he does he can resist his hormones and leave Greta alone. When we finish the "secure run", we will build him a jail inside it so we can use the gazebos when it is time to introduce the ducklings to the flock.

I hope that he can decide to live with the terms of his parole. In the mean time, both the girls (yes even Greta) and we love this bad boy.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

What type of cams do you use? This is a great idea. I wish we had them. My husband doesn't believe me that the bobcat came into the duck yard and got Boo. He thinks she was on the other side of the fence. If I had a cam there would be no question.

How big is your drake jail? I've never had to put one in for that long. We got rid of our only drake recently so I have no worries right now. One of the fab 5 WH is a drake but thank God he is too young. I think I have 3 drakes from the next batch of eggs and now we have Bugs' 13 babies growing up... I'm afraid I will have a drake or two from them. If they don't sell, I'm going to need a bigger jail, lol.

I use this camera (3 of them cover the entire duck yard from different angles - I also have more covering the rest of the property for non-duck reasons

). Mine are tied into a computer server that is running all the time (and has many additional jobs). I use them for security and monitoring also. If you just want a "what happened" camera, you might want a stand alone camera that can record to an SD card or a WiFi camera that is easy to move around. Even an IR triggered game camera might do the trick if you are just covering access to the duck yard. It all depends on what you want to do, your set up and budget.

The current drake jail is about 86 sq. ft but that is just because it is what was available. Several places on the forum I have seen say 4sq ft inside and 10sq ft outside as a requirement for chickens. I would guess a duck needs about the same to 1.5 times that. I am guessing the one we build in the secure area will be 20 - 50 sq ft (10' x 2-5' depending on how it works with doors and storage, etc.).

 

[NathanZee]

Here's a picture of both my boys. Tevye to the Left and Kaine to the right.



He really is a handsome boy and a good flock leader - He herds the other ducks into their house at night and inventories them about every 15 minutes. He puts himself between the flock and all perceived danger. He barks out commands and the whole flock moves to a different part of the yard. He runs a tight ship and takes his job very seriously. (all this is even when the hormones are low.) If he would just leave Tevye and Greta alone he would be the perfect Alpha-drake. And he is sweet to us. Last summer he would make attack runs at us when we weren't looking, and as soon as we turned around he would act all innocent, but he doesn't even do that any more. He is sweet as can be with us. He is a frequent mater, but by duck standards he isn't too violent (several of my girls are more violent when they play mating games with each other.)

His jail is currently 2 - 7' dog gazebos linked together (about 86sq ft. total) he has a dog crate with straw for shelter, a concrete mixing pan for swimming and his own food and drinking water. When the other ducks get treats some are reserved for him and we go in the jail and hand feed them to him so he knows he is loved. He can see the other ducks and they visit him most of the day so he isn't too miserable, but he can't attack Greta or Tevye. He actually gets along with the other 9 ducks fine, he just attacks Greta constantly and chases Tevye. I don't really mind him chasing Tevye as much since he doesn't hurt him and other than that one time where Tevye plowed over Entie, no ducks were hurt from that, but his attacks on Greta are detrimental to her welfare so he gets jail until he shapes up (this year we are prepared to accept that might not be until October

). We will probably give him supervised parole each weekend and put him back in jail the second he violates it. I don't know if he will figure out why he is in jail or not. Maybe if he does he can resist his hormones and leave Greta alone. When we finish the "secure run", we will build him a jail inside it so we can use the gazebos when it is time to introduce the ducklings to the flock.

I hope that he can decide to live with the terms of his parole. In the mean time, both the girls (yes even Greta) and we love this bad boy.

He is really pretty! Too bad he doesn't get along with Greta. Maybe if you made sure that he didn't see Greta for a month or so he would forget her and they could restart their relationship?