The Old Folks Home

[Ravynscroft]

Bama invited me to come by... and I wanted to find out what happened with the drake/bald eagle...

Wow, Alaskan... I really hope he pulls through... that is one TUFF duck!

 

[bamadude]

@RavynFallen this is where I hide. I love these old timers. They are always welcoming to good people like you.

 

[Amberjem]

 

[Ravynscroft]

@RavynFallen this is where I hide. I love these old timers. They are always welcoming to good people like you.

Ah... so this is where you end up after you pee on the fire and your wife kicks ya out to the coop?

Thanks for the recommendation... am just me, and usually in trouble of some kind...

 

[drumstick diva]

 

[Ravynscroft]

Hi, diva... seen you around quite a bit...

 

[drumstick diva]

Alaskan, I hope he recovers fully, what a wonderful duck. I never knew ducks could inflict wounds with a blunt beak. I know geese can give you a bruise as big as a golf ball, if they decide to clamp their beak on you. Love ducks, geese not so much.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Alaskan,  I hope he recovers fully,  what a wonderful duck.  I never knew ducks could inflict wounds with a blunt beak.   I know geese can give you a bruise as big as a  golf ball, if they decide to clamp their beak on you.  Love ducks,  geese not so much.

They're actually not blunt... the tip has a really sharp hook on the top part and they have wicked serrations on the sides... and their claws are needle sharp, lol...

 

[ronott1]

Such a

Horror in the duck pen.

I have the majority of the muscovy pen covered... But not all of it.

Today a bald eagle dove into the pen, and my young, up and coming, drake fough him off. The two tussuled for about five feet, before the eagle, now with a big bloody wound on his neck, flew off.

By this point the rest of the flock were in the coop, the young drake managed to get in too, and the old drake stood guard at the entrance.

Poor baby drake.

(maybe 9 or 10 months old now)

He is pretty torn up on his front. There is even a bit of a cut in his wing muscle. I tried to take a photo before I started sewing him up... But it didn't come out.

Of course I couldn't find my lovely suture kit that I bought SPECIFICALLY for sewing up wounded poultry.

Also, the last time I did this, it was on a chicken. It was SO MUCH HARDER to find the skin edges to sew together on this drake, because of the mountains of duck down!!

also, his skin kind of blurred together with some of his skin fat... I am not very confident as to my sewing..... There is still some fat exposed... Dunno....

Anyway, he is now in a crate, with food and water, and we shall see.

He is actually pretty peppy, all considering. The chicken I did years back (also from an eagle) looked much droopier, and recovered beautifully. So,

I kept telling the kids... That yes we love him, but we did our best (I needed THREE kids to help, one to hold him in a towel, one to keep his eyes covered but nose free, and one to hold the flashlight), and luckily we still have the old drake, so we can make another baby drake this summer if we need to.

And yes, last spring we decided that we needed a second drake since our old drake is getting older. We picked out three male ducklings to raise as possibles. We watched them all summer, kept studying how they interacted with the old drake and the girls. This past fall we ate the two that didn't make the cut, and kept baby drake, not because he was the most handsome, but because he was the one most protective of the girls, but still nice to old drake.

Anyway....

What a good drake!

Can you use surgical glue on them?

 

[Beer can]

They're actually not blunt... the tip has a really sharp hook on the top part and they have wicked serrations on the sides... and their claws are needle sharp, lol...

never noticed!! Mine were pretty docile, not killer ducks..Lol!