The khaki-Campbell duck Thread !!!!!!!!

[Carcajou]

@walker1229 you know about how important it is to protect your female, right? If she is one, and the rest are drakes, her health and her life could be at risk. I am not overstating this. She depends on you for safety.

I echo Amiga. 1 drake to 3-4 females is max. I had to get rid of a whole bunch of drakes with my first batch of ducks - a straight run batch from a local feed store.

 

[walker1229]

I thought she would be ok until they hit puberty is that right? We actually plan on making dinner of all the drakes but one...but if I notice issues before puberty I will be more than happy to separate them until culling time

 

[Carcajou]

I thought she would be ok until they hit puberty is that right? We actually plan on making dinner of all the drakes but one...but if I notice issues before puberty I will be more than happy to separate them until culling time

When the drakes start showing interest in her it is time to make a quick decision.

 

[lgcatwoman19]

Hi Carcajou.
Well, my Mudpies are gone now. AT least I know they are in a good home with a little pond of their own (sort of a large home made mudpuddle from what I gather) and the man is building them all a coop. He had two ducks of his own and after a fox got one he is keeping them in a dog kennel like I did at night. From what I heard word of mouth my three boys were in the pool splashing around with the other two ducks the first hour. I guess they hadn't yet realized that I wasn't moving there as well! lol.
It is so lonely here now. I haven't yet taken down their kiddie pool or their enclosure because I have been hiding in the trailer all week in a state of depression. My babies weren't hurting a thing by being here. In fact ducks are good for the environment eating mosquitoes and ticks and all. I was told that I could visit them any time but I am waiting until I know that I won't try to take them back. Either that or cry all the way home. They are better off if the choices were the pond with no coop at night or the place they are now. In fact I was lucky to find Wilbur on 3 days notice.
I still have my three cats to love and play with if that Nazi doesn't try to make me give them up too. He is saying now that I am only supposed to have 2, and they have to stay in and not roam. Geez what is up with that guy? He doesn't even life in the park. He works two days a week for an out of town owner. As far as I know nobody has complained but most of the tenants here have small dogs but there is one fairly new guy who came with 3 cats. I came w/2 and adopted one born in the park. I wish I could have taken all of the kittens. I fed them and the Mom but trusted the Moms owner to take the kittens to a reputable rescue and as it turns out she dumped them in the woods along with Mom and Dad. Horrible. But this is a duck thread, not an animal rescue thread so...
I have a question about little Buffy. What does her molting have to do with the winter? Do ducks get a winter coat like dogs and cats?

 

[Carcajou]

Hi Carcajou.
Well, my Mudpies are gone now. AT least I know they are in a good home with a little pond of their own (sort of a large home made mudpuddle from what I gather) and the man is building them all a coop. He had two ducks of his own and after a fox got one he is keeping them in a dog kennel like I did at night. From what I heard word of mouth my three boys were in the pool splashing around with the other two ducks the first hour. I guess they hadn't yet realized that I wasn't moving there as well! lol.
It is so lonely here now. I haven't yet taken down their kiddie pool or their enclosure because I have been hiding in the trailer all week in a state of depression. My babies weren't hurting a thing by being here. In fact ducks are good for the environment eating mosquitoes and ticks and all. I was told that I could visit them any time but I am waiting until I know that I won't try to take them back. Either that or cry all the way home. They are better off if the choices were the pond with no coop at night or the place they are now. In fact I was lucky to find Wilbur on 3 days notice.
I still have my three cats to love and play with if that Nazi doesn't try to make me give them up too. He is saying now that I am only supposed to have 2, and they have to stay in and not roam. Geez what is up with that guy? He doesn't even life in the park. He works two days a week for an out of town owner. As far as I know nobody has complained but most of the tenants here have small dogs but there is one fairly new guy who came with 3 cats. I came w/2 and adopted one born in the park. I wish I could have taken all of the kittens. I fed them and the Mom but trusted the Moms owner to take the kittens to a reputable rescue and as it turns out she dumped them in the woods along with Mom and Dad. Horrible. But this is a duck thread, not an animal rescue thread so...
I have a question about little Buffy. What does her molting have to do with the winter? Do ducks get a winter coat like dogs and cats?

Hi lgcatwoman19. It is very difficult to give up our ducks, they are so endearing and a joy to have around not only for the insect/grub control and eggs, but just to enjoy. Perhaps someday you will be able to start anew.

As for our little Buffy, birds molt once per year, getting a new set of feathers in the process. If Buffy doesn't molt properly she may not have enough down feathers under her outer layer to keep her warm enough in winter and she is underweight as it is. So I hope she gets through it and gets her "winter coat" with enough down. Today, she seems to be properly shedding old feathers so time will tell. Thank you for asking.

Blessings to you!

 

[lgcatwoman19]

Oh I see Yes indeed I hope she gets her down coat.. (I have duck feathers all over the yard as a reminder of my mudpies. Born in early April they are still changing feathers- two were behind the larger one. I just recently figured out that all three are indeed boys. The two were brown for so long, while Big Boy had a green head and curly tail feather and more two toned colong. But his bill is yellow green while Jake and Jimmy have got more Khaki taupe bills. Hmm. wonder why? That was the main reason I thought they were different sexes after reading about bill color, and even feet color. I also noticed that they all three sounded the same, not sure about raspy vs. quaking. And I was worried about giving them all boys names!
I am hoping to go for a visit this week. I think I am about ready.

 

[Carcajou]

Oh I see Yes indeed I hope she gets her down coat.. (I have duck feathers all over the yard as a reminder of my mudpies. Born in early April they are still changing feathers- two were behind the larger one. I just recently figured out that all three are indeed boys. The two were brown for so long, while Big Boy had a green head and curly tail feather and more two toned colong. But his bill is yellow green while Jake and Jimmy have got more Khaki taupe bills. Hmm. wonder why? That was the main reason I thought they were different sexes after reading about bill color, and even feet color. I also noticed that they all three sounded the same, not sure about raspy vs. quaking. And I was worried about giving them all boys names!
I am hoping to go for a visit this week. I think I am about ready.

The boys will all get orange feet but bill color is not always a good indicator. My drake has a yellow-greenish bill (see my avatar).

My Buffy seems to be in a more normal molt right now so maybe she will get her full change of feathers. Thanks.

 

[lgcatwoman19]

Upon enlarging the photo and looking at it closely, he looks like Big Boy alright. He has a bit more speckles on the body but otherwise they are about identical. awww. Now I am missing him even more because he is my favorite!
I am glad Buffy is doing well today.

 

[Carcajou]

Upon enlarging the photo and looking at it closely, he looks like Big Boy alright. He has a bit more speckles on the body but otherwise they are about identical. awww. Now I am missing him even more because he is my favorite!
I am glad Buffy is doing well today.

Mine is named Flighty and sometimes pain in the neck. Named that because he sometimes flies short distances about 2 feet off the ground. He is the sole survivor from my first attempt at keeping ducks and was alone with me for a little while until I could find him a companion for company and eventually got the girls I have now. When I was culling drakes from my first batch he is not one I wanted to keep but flew right over the 2 foot fence and joined the other 2 I had already saved out. So rather than chase them around and try to catch him I just let it go. He has been a real dominant drake.

 

[spiritbrook]

Well, this year I finally had a good place to get some more Khakis. It has been more than 20 years since the last ones. Those I got from Holdenreeds in Corvallis, Oregon. I got a couple chicks from the Cascade Farm store that the nice lady vent sexed for me. They are from Welp hatchery back east. I suspect they are mutt Campbells but cute anyway. A few weeks later there was a cute little guy all alone in a bunch of Magpies, the rest having been sold already, so I got him. (and, of course it was a "him" - even though I was getting girls for laying) As they grew the one was always just a little ahead of the other so I marked her as 5 days older. The last one was about a week younger. They are now 11-12.5 weeks old. The two oldest are girls (yay!) and sure enough the youngest is a fellow. The other day he started quacking so I looked him over really good. Yup, blue wing bars - he's had those a couple weeks if I remember. Oops, there are some dark feathers showing up just at the base of his tail. And... what is that? Looks like one single dark feather pointing straight up in the middle of those dark ones. Nop, quack or not he isn't a girly duck. Whew, I don't have to change his name. He sure quacks good, and he is nearly half a size bigger than the girls.

The oldest is the smallest, her feet are kinda a green color that almost look khaki brown. Her name is Sarah. She is the prettiest of the set. Her's is a blue leg ring (they looked so close when they were young that I got them leg rings) The next is the middle size, her feet are light orange and she has a speck of white on her chest - about 5 feathers. She is just barely lighter color khaki. She was the one who always led the way everywhere - except the swimming tub. It took weeks for her to decide she could swim. Now she races everyone to the tub when it is filling after being cleaned. They sure love that clean water. Her name is Betsy and she has the red leg ring. Both girls have very dark bills that are a bit lighter on the end but then a black egg tooth kinda spot.

That not so little fellow has the same color feet at Betsy and his bill is a different sort of color. It is black, has the darker front spot, but it has a misty grey shine as if it had been waxed but not polished. I keep thinking I should catch him up and rub it to see if it shines off. And he has had those blue wing bars for a couple weeks. And until now he made laryngitis sounds - but now quacks quite nicely. But the new feathers on his tail end are dark, and there is that misdirected feather. I'm not sure how it will be like trying to have laying ducks with a big ol' drake around. But he is precious. His name is Mikey because he tries to eat everything, but doesn't like much of them. His is a white leg ring.

Get that koi food!​

Three ducks inna tub!​

Bills! Is your bill prettier than mine?


Mikey (top), Betsy (middle), Sarah (front)

Mikey, Sarah (front), Betsy (back)​

Funny bill. Mikey front with his grey-cast bill, Sarah behind with her gorgeous bill.
Betsy is looking around for any left-over Koi food.​