The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Good News Everyone,

just seven weeks after her being quacknapped, Milka is back to being a beautiful chocolate drink, i mean duck!

She underwent an extra complete molt and if you didn't knew you would never know that she was on the brink of death just seven weeks ago.

I took this picture out of this video:

 

[Luv Ducks]

[Woken up in the middle of the night after falling asleep at 6pm...]

I said i have a lot of news and many questions, so here is one of the questions:
Taking a break from the exhausting potato harvest, i noticed two Mallards walking down from the pond to the house and one of them has a somewhat white belly:

I wonder if that is a natural variation of the Mallards plumage?
@Pyxis

And yes, Duckling #12 still loves to photo/video bomb…

I have Mallards and have never seen a white belly. My Dusky Mallards look different but I have never had a female one so maybe that is what that was. My Male has no white ring around his neck and his belly has some light gray on it along with its back. Beautiful green head though. Maybe it had something mixed with it or it was in a partial molt, I don't know.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Good News Everyone,

just seven weeks after her being quacknapped, Milka is back to being a beautiful chocolate drink, i mean duck!

She underwent an extra complete molt and if you didn't knew you would never know that she was on the brink of death just seven weeks ago.

I took this picture out of this video:

Such Little Beauties!!!!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

As for more questions, the most burning one:

Does anybody have an idea how i can convince my ducks to leave the pond in the evening and come back to their house to sleep in there, protected and warm?
It is not their fault, i was out cold for a couple of days and nobody cared to lock them in over night or gave them their supper bowl, so they secured themselves on a body of water. But now it is getting colder and colder and it is no longer safe to be there over night.
I refuse to give them any food up there and i try to make the nights as inconvenient as possible, but not even the laser-smilie of doom…

... seems to be scary enough. I cannot fence in the pond, first i simply do not have enough fencing material, second the back-side of the pond is steep and unsafe to walk on for humons - not for the ducks though if i would fence in the front of the pond, they would just walk around the fence, through the wooded area and back into the pond. That wooded area is full of predators, i have seen a fox out there already, which took off at super-sonic speed when i pointed a laser at it.
On one hand, i am hoping for the pond to freeze over, on the other hand i don't want to have the duckies being frozen into the pond. Are domestic ducks clever enough not to become frozen in ponds?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I have Mallards and have never seen a white belly. My Dusky Mallards look different but I have never had a female one so maybe that is what that was. My Male has no white ring around his neck and his belly has some light gray on it along with its back. Beautiful green head though. Maybe it had something mixed with it or it was in a partial molt, I don't know.

So, that Mallard girl could have been the result of inter-breeding with domestic ducks? - That would be bad. Really bad...

 

[Miss Lydia]

As for more questions, the most burning one:

Does anybody have an idea how i can convince my ducks to leave the pond in the evening and come back to their house to sleep in there, protected and warm?
It is not their fault, i was out cold for a couple of days and nobody cared to lock them in over night or gave them their supper bowl, so they secured themselves on a body of water. But now it is getting colder and colder and it is no longer safe to be there over night.
I refuse to give them any food up there and i try to make the nights as inconvenient as possible, but not even the laser-smilie of doom…

... seems to be scary enough. I cannot fence in the pond, first i simply do not have enough fencing material, second the back-side of the pond is steep and unsafe to walk on for humons - not for the ducks though if i would fence in the front of the pond, they would just walk around the fence, through the wooded area and back into the pond. That wooded area is full of predators, i have seen a fox out there already, which took off at super-sonic speed when i pointed a laser at it.
On one hand, i am hoping for the pond to freeze over, on the other hand i don't want to have the duckies being frozen into the pond. Are domestic ducks clever enough not to become frozen in ponds?

I doubt it, it happens to their wild cousins they get stuck when the water freezes around them.

 

[Canadian Wind]

As for more questions, the most burning one:

Does anybody have an idea how i can convince my ducks to leave the pond in the evening and come back to their house to sleep in there, protected and warm?

​

Their supper bowl isn't luring them in? That's about the only thing I can think of...

 

[Luv Ducks]

So, that Mallard girl could have been the result of inter-breeding with domestic ducks? - That would be bad. Really bad...

So many people have them on their ponds and the Mallards will join them. There is no stopping inter-breeding unfortunately unless you would have a covered pond and that would be next to impossible.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@New duck mommy 2021 had a mallard drake fly in and breed with one of her females I believe. let's see if she is around.

 

[Luv Ducks]

As for more questions, the most burning one:

Does anybody have an idea how i can convince my ducks to leave the pond in the evening and come back to their house to sleep in there, protected and warm?
It is not their fault, i was out cold for a couple of days and nobody cared to lock them in over night or gave them their supper bowl, so they secured themselves on a body of water. But now it is getting colder and colder and it is no longer safe to be there over night.
I refuse to give them any food up there and i try to make the nights as inconvenient as possible, but not even the laser-smilie of doom…

... seems to be scary enough. I cannot fence in the pond, first i simply do not have enough fencing material, second the back-side of the pond is steep and unsafe to walk on for humons - not for the ducks though if i would fence in the front of the pond, they would just walk around the fence, through the wooded area and back into the pond. That wooded area is full of predators, i have seen a fox out there already, which took off at super-sonic speed when i pointed a laser at it.
On one hand, i am hoping for the pond to freeze over, on the other hand i don't want to have the duckies being frozen into the pond. Are domestic ducks clever enough not to become frozen in ponds?

We had a domestic one get frozen on the pond next to our fire station in our town a few years back and for rescue practices the firemen went out and saved it. I don't know why it stayed out there like that as there were 4 and only one did that. Good luck Frank getting yours to come back to you.