The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Tomorrow morning i will clean out the duck-run - long overdue, its a nice mix of duck-poop and soil by now - and then shovel the wood chips into my wheelbarrow and dump some new floor into the duck-run.
In the evening i will be the perfect ambassador for that you howl company!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

What are you going to do with all the crazy quackers??!!!

I guess i have to expand the duck-house and the duck-run...

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Dux are brutal!

Wait until you peafowl has grown up and they start to slice up kangurus to feed them to their chicks…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I have a dragon duck. She's my only pure bred. A WH. I haven't had a broody in years. She's collected the runner eggs. Not any others or any of her own. Only runner eggs. I only have one runner hen, so she's getting the egg every morning and rolling it in her nest. I'm letting her sit. This is new for me.

As i explain to people: »With us mammals you can only be sure who is the momma of a baby, but ducklings may not even be related to the duck that hatched them.«

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Tweedledee turned out to be a very good duck-momma, like her mom Pinball.
She walked her babies around in the duck-yard, showed them where there's food and water and introduced them to everyducky. And when the babies were exhausted she led them back into the duck-house, huddled them in the nest and let them rest safe and warm under her. Rinse and repeat. Here is aunt Blanca also watching out for the ducklings - in a good way, not as source of calories...

Blanca is the first white duck walking behind the littles. The second white duck is Karen, who wanted to speak with the manager, but was silenced by Blanca with one look:

Blanca dislikes Karen dux...

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

And here is the video from this morning:

 

[Canadian Wind]

I feel ducked!

Rented a trailer from you howl over the weekend, to buy the winter-stash for the dux.

This is what 794Kg (1750 lbs) of duck-food looks like.​

• 10 bags of Layer Pellets
• 10 bags of cracked corn
• 5 bags of yellow corn
• 5 bags of scratch grain
• 3 bags of Wheat for fodder
• 2 bags of crushed oyster shells

Everything can stay in the bags, but the Layer Pellets; those i have to fill into trash-cans so it wouldn't get moldy. All i have to buy now is the cat-food, can't store cat-food for more than a month, it goes rancid.

And now you need a hot bath and a massage for the aching muscles. That's a LOT of feed!!!

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Wait until you peafowl has grown up and they start to slice up kangurus to feed them to their chicks…

We are afew years off that. One swallowed a gazoo so they now make noise. I shall treasure the hilarious gazoo noise while it lasts. I know the noise that is to follow

 

[Canadian Wind]

Oops! Forgot to post the picture of the hen and her adopted chicks!

Hopefully have duckling pictures in two weeks! If Dainty remains on the nest. The other ducklings are old enough now to integrate with the rest of the flock and wander about without me freaking out.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Duckling Emergency‼
While working on the duck-run and the you-howl trailer load of woodchips yesterday i also closely monitored two of Tweedledee's remaining eggs that had pipped externally. Both ducklings seem to be healthy and strong, performing their eating motion to show that they were busy absorbing the yolk into their bellies.
Returned the trailer this morning and when i came back Tweedledee was outside with her six babies, so i decided to quickly peek into her nest. - Fortunately!
I found a full fluffed up yellow duckling that must have hatched this night, just a little bit too tired to run with momma and the siblings and i found an ice cold, barely moving duckling that was stuck in the egg. Not sure if it was shrink-wrapped, misaligned or just too weak.
I warmed up the egg with the duckling inside in my hands and it began to chirp and tried to break free again. I took it inside, bklowing warm air over it and helped it to get out of the shell. The little one was as cold as an ice-cube:


A couple of minutes later and the little one would have died. I'm not sure if Tweedledee rejected this one of if this was just an accident. Right now she is back in the duck-house with her babies, sitting in her nest. So i assume duckling #7 is alive and happy under its mom, playing hide an d peek with the siblings.
For now i'm keeping the little one warm, snug into a cloth, clipped to the inside of my t-shirt. I would love to return it back to momma and siblings, but i am not sure if they will accept it...