The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I sat crocheting at the river today, and got joined by these ginormous waterfowlView attachment 3913071View attachment 3913070

No salties in your area?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

They are so pretty, are they Blue Heron's? We have quite a few of them around us by any ponds that we see. I used to love them until I read they eat baby ducks. Now they are not so much loved by me.

I don't like to have Blue Heron's around here. They eat everything that fits through their throats and my ducks are even more scared by them than by dogs. In flight they do look like pterosaurus. I have seen them eating Frogs, Toads, Squirrels, Chipmunks, young Turtles and wabbits. I suspect some young ducks that have disappeared also ended up in their bellies.
I harass them away when they show up.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Oh Goodness, thanks. That is something we don't have for sure where I am. I would have never guessed and my eyes couldn't make them out for sure. That's neat that you got to see so many of them!!!

Pelicans eat ducklings too…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

That would surprise me because they are really well fed... A kilo of peas per day has been shared between the 2 flocks (18 ducks) for weeks now to support summer stress and their factory food (half of what they get, the other part is mixed grains) is also reinforced by vitamins and minerals.

In any case, we're glad she's fine. The previous mobile hospital patient a month or so ago was an adult duck with a sudden hole in her flipper. Sprayed with vet spray, given the same vit-min-peas combination as in this round, was also back to regular behavior in the morning.

Was it a particular hot day? - In 2019 Bazilla duck, one of my White Layers, was paralyzed due to overheating, she was panting and could not move her legs forward. I sat her down in a bowl with luke-warm water and added more and more cold water until she was able to use her legs again...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/duck-can’t-walk.1351842/post-22286331

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Call ducks Luv showers. Cayugas, that's a big Nope for them. They become runner dux at the sight of a sprayer.

I assume its a personal preference for each dux. I have two younger Buff Orpingtons, Buffzilla loves showers and comes running towards me when i use the garden-hose. Her sister Buffy runs as if the hose is a huge snake…
This year's duck-house ducklings all love showers but their step-mommas TweedleDee and Laura hate to be sprayed and protest loudly when i apply a shower to "their" "babies" - almost two month old, quacking, rasping and fully feathered, but when i comes to treats they still peep like two day old ducklings…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

my Cayuga doesn’t mind it, and my runners don’t run away either. But, one of my pekins and 2 white layers do!! i also have a cayuga/runner mix duck who loves it! lol it must depend on each ducks personality?

All of my White Layers hate showers! - If i dare to spray Blanca Duck, she does not run away, but glares at me with that »I hope you'll have a heart attack next time on the compost pile« stare.

 

[Supercow]

What is that yellow stuff that you are using for the floor?

Pressure-treated wood boards coated with melamine, used on building sites to create molds for poured concrete - https://www.merkur.si/opazna-plosca-27-mm-1500x500x27-mm-a-klasa-kos-0-75-m2-pal-30-m2/ - very resilient, stiff and easily cleaned.

It seems the correct term is "formwork panels" - https://www.hasslacher.com/shuttering-boards

 

[Supercow]

Was it a particular hot day? - In 2019 Bazilla duck, one of my White Layers, was paralyzed due to overheating, she was panting and could not move her legs forward. I sat her down in a bowl with luke-warm water and added more and more cold water until she was able to use her legs again...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/duck-can’t-walk.1351842/post-22286331

We've seen sunstroke in the past with another duck but this one was sitting in the shadow apparently comfortably, no panting, no visible signs of stress apart from the glaringly obvious fact that she did not join the pea party. That's an obvious "general duck error". We're still going with insect bite as the likely explanation.

 

[igorsMistress]

I don't like to have Blue Heron's around here. They eat everything that fits through their throats and my ducks are even more scared by them than by dogs. In flight they do look like pterosaurus. I have seen them eating Frogs, Toads, Squirrels, Chipmunks, young Turtles and wabbits. I suspect some young ducks that have disappeared also ended up in their bellies.
I harass them away when they show up.

We went to the park yesterday and the pond didn’t have even young ducks that were babies earlier in the year. I suspect the herons got them

 

[Jenbirdee]

We went to the park yesterday and the pond didn’t have even young ducks that were babies earlier in the year. I suspect the herons got them

That’s really sad. There’s a lot of heron here at the Chesapeake Bay. but sometimes I wonder if some of them could also be egrets or even ibises lol
I had one fly overhead and land on my duck house last year, all I could think of to do was scream until it flew away.