What’s your favorite duck breed? Why?

[ruthhope]

I think you have Honey Boo Boo's twin. It's crazy how much it sounds like you're describing her I say they're like retirees but honestly, a better description would be "retired retirees". Every night I fish minnows from the pond. This is the part of the day that Honey BooBoo and Tom (my Buff Duck with a masculine name ) live for. Sadly Tom doesn't get many chances with Miss Piggy (aka Honey BooBoo) around. She's like a brand new duck with lightning speed plowing around She can also be a bit aggressive with sweet little Tom. She gets sooo angry if Tom gets a minnow and she will chase her around trying to steal it from her and bite her for daring to eat *A* minnow compared to her 10, all the while there are other minnows swimming around in the bowl So she actually goes from retired retiree to a stingy toddler throwing a temper tantrum because she HAD to share Life with ducks is so much fun! This is just about the Pekins

Our Pekins are not like that! Sure they like to preen and sleep, but they also run around and forage. My son's laying females have taken to hanging out with a feral rooster who is very good at kicking the sandy soil and exposing bugs. He is quite a gentleman when foraging as he stands back and lets the girls in first. But they also forage for weeds. The laying girls eat 1 cup each duck pellets morning and evening with mealie worms on top. There are never any pellets left to make mash.

My drakes are even more active. They have competitions running up and down the patio in a line with flapping wings. All the drakes -- pekins and muscovy -- like charging round on the garden that is mulched with dried leaves. I think that must disturb the bugs because the drakes settle down and start foraging after running up and down like dervishes a few times.

My drakes eat only half the amount of the laying females-- 1 cup of pellets each topped with mealworms each evening. There is often food left in the morning which I make into mash if it is damp or leave out during the day. However, I am sure these boys are not going hungry! The foraging is just good in my yard as I have a septic system and a surfeit of cockroaches [know euphemistically as Palmetto Bug in Florida] in the soil around the septic system.

 

[ruthhope]

Our Pekins are not like that! Sure they like to preen and sleep, but they also run around and forage. My son's laying females have taken to hanging out with a feral rooster who is very good at kicking the sandy soil and exposing bugs. He is quite a gentleman when foraging as he stands back and lets the girls in first. But they also forage for weeds. The laying girls eat 1 cup each duck pellets morning and evening with mealie worms on top. There are never any pellets left to make mash.

My drakes are even more active. They have competitions running up and down the patio in a line with flapping wings. All the drakes -- pekins and muscovy -- like charging round on the garden that is mulched with dried leaves. I think that must disturb the bugs because the drakes settle down and start foraging after running up and down like dervishes a few times.

My drakes eat only half the amount of the laying females-- 1 cup of pellets each topped with mealworms each evening. There is often food left in the morning which I make into mash if it is damp or leave out during the day. However, I am sure these boys are not going hungry! The foraging is just good in my yard as I have a septic system and a surfeit of cockroaches [know euphemistically as Palmetto Bug in Florida] in the soil around the septic system.

I should add that the laying female pekins also fly -- not up into the air, but expedient flying at low altitude across the yard. Big Girl is more than a year old but she frequently flies out of the coop [it has a lid that opens] and across the yard when I am getting their food ration from the screen porch. Mop Head doesn't even need food as a motive. If the ducks are in their wading pool or at the far end of the garden, Mop Head flies over the heads of the other girls to get to me first, when I go in the gate. The new juvenile pekin drake also flies to get out of the coop but he is a youngster!!

 

[Quatie]

I think you have Honey Boo Boo's twin. It's crazy how much it sounds like you're describing her I say they're like retirees but honestly, a better description would be "retired retirees". Every night I fish minnows from the pond. This is the part of the day that Honey BooBoo and Tom (my Buff Duck with a masculine name ) live for. Sadly Tom doesn't get many chances with Miss Piggy (aka Honey BooBoo) around. She's like a brand new duck with lightning speed plowing around She can also be a bit aggressive with sweet little Tom. She gets sooo angry if Tom gets a minnow and she will chase her around trying to steal it from her and bite her for daring to eat *A* minnow compared to her 10, all the while there are other minnows swimming around in the bowl So she actually goes from retired retiree to a stingy toddler throwing a temper tantrum because she HAD to share Life with ducks is so much fun! This is just about the Pekins

They definitely sound like twins. I can so see my June acting the same way . We spray our ducks when the weather is especially hot. June loves it. I sprayed her than our drake. She walked in front of him to take his turn. He got so crest fallen, but let her have the water. Ducks are soo amusing!