Junior was joined into the flock this morning after having spent a second night in a crate inside the duck house. I figured that in the morning the smell and the memory of belonging together would be the strongest.
It went very well. Only every so often the most assertive veteran duck would peck at her and then I yell and everybody freezes for a couple of minutes. But it's nothing compared to the frontal attack staged on the first day.
We're thinking that she should still be in the crate overnight for the next let's say 3 nights or so just to be extra safe. It will be easy to catch and place her in the evening because she runs so poorly
Runs for a short while, then just plops down. But when she does run the legs seem straight and well placed. I'm giving extra niacin (in all the water basins).My current worry is that Junior is eating and drinking very little. I talked to the breeder that I received the first batch of ducks from and she told me that their mother also came from that several-hundred-ducks farm. Like our 3 newcomers she also did not really understand water and forage very well for a long while, having had only very little of both available where she grew up.
Junior second from the left. Most ducks managed to fit into the photo.
I mean, at the too-many-ducks farm where she grew up, it's all on the hillside and the ducks keep going up- and downhill. Whereas we're 100% in the plains.
