will they fly away?

[applebutter14]

they are 2013-14 ducks, she went broody this year and she was sitting on a clutch of eggs but my chickens scattered her eggs all over the place and it happend to go on while i was on vacation so my chicken sitter did not know what to do so she threw them out.

 

[Amykins]

they are 2013-14 ducks, she went broody this year and she was sitting on a clutch of eggs but my chickens scattered her eggs all over the place and it happend to go on while i was on vacation so my chicken sitter did not know what to do so she threw them out.

Wow. I'd have screamed at her until I was blue in the face. How do you NOT know what to do in that situation?? Sorry, sorry, I just...seriously??

 

[Lacrystol]

I vaguely remember something about @Lacrystol losing hers but can't remember the details. I was thinking it was a predator attack or illness or something like that.

And yes, I should have asked the OP about conditions at her place. Sometimes, especially when I'm short of time, I mistakenly assume conditions are the same as ours and that the Calls are out of their pens only when they have at least some amount of supervision. I'd certainly never recommend they be left out while the owners are at work or even at the grocery store for a short time. I don't let ours out during the day even though I work from home because it's far too common for me to get caught up in a crisis at work where I can't at least check on them frequently. Ours are out of their pens on weeknights after the hubby gets home and all day on the weekends and holidays.

NOPE, didn't loose the from disease or illness, NOPE didn't loose them from predator,

Well let me take that back. We did have a Fox issue and the fox would sneak up to them, grab them by the neck and take them away. I remember chasing one of those Butt heads down.

If it wasn't for the ability for them to Fly off, a fox would have gotten a lot more then what they had gotten.

I did have a group fly off, Not sure why, it was a group of 10 call ducks, I was sooo Devasted, Not sure what caused it because in that group was my favorite Chocolate bibbed named Sassy. OH she was sooo talkative..
But the odd part was, I had all the ducks trained, kind of, whenever a predator came into the yard, ALL 27 at that time, would FLY up to the house. Imagine That many calls, with there LOUD VOICES, it was VERY easy to determine what was going on...

But This ONE sneaky fox would sneak up and grab them very quickly and take off, Needless to say, That fox is NO longer an issue. I believe he had something wrong with him because he had missing hair and is no longer with us. THANK GOD, as sad as that may sound. He was also covered with ticks and fleas and VERY VERY skinny even though he had gotten a couple of my ducks in the past.....

Calls do not usually fly off in the winter, Speaking on my EXPERIENCE ONLY, they aren't big fans of the cold. I have noticed when I let mine out they will lay in the snow and not move, Very easy to pick them right up and examine them or just to hold them.. I don't believe they have the skills or capability to fly in harsh weather at least I have never seen mine do it and again I'm speaking of what I have observed... They Usually stay CLOSE to home.

Here's my percentage breakdown of flight reasons:

5% - to fly from one end of the yard to the other

10% to escape from Predators - CATS, FOXs, Raccoons ETC..

85% to escape from a Male.

I have noticed that the Female will Fly First to get away from the Males, but right behind her are the boys. They never go far and will always end up close to a safe and a secure but CHALLENGING spot so that the boys will leave them alone..

If you have a way to secure them GREAT, it's the best thing if your going to let them free Range, in my opinion it's best to leave the wings..

 

[Lacrystol]

Hi JADE!!!!!!!!

the guy who checks and gives out the npip cards told us about the show mans clip. idk if im right i stopped showing my ducks after the avian flu outbreak across the country so i dont know if it is ok. i just thought i would share it I'll have to check with a judge next time i go to a show but he did say it was fine.

AND your so right, you risk them catching anything if you show..

 

[Lacrystol]

LOL. You're too used to clipped house ducks. It wasn't at all stressful. We loved to see it.

I didn't read your post until after I did my own. You weren't wrong. I think it's more about what we mean when we say "fly." Campbells are relatively small ducks and they can fly as far as like, "If I could do that, would I say I could fly?" Absolutely. If it's do they soar high into the air and fly like you see with Mallards or crows or hawks, no, they don't do that. It's not as much their weight as it is their wings relative to their weight.

I'm not surprised you saw a Pekin fly. Most ducks can do what we'd consider flying if we could do it ourselves, and wouldn't that be like the ultimate thing to do. I think so. I've told Scott that I think I'd spend all the time I could in the air if I could fly, but you have to remember that flying is extremely tiring for most ducks. That's why many flying ducks choose to walk around rather than fly around, and most of our Calls walk a lot more than they fly. It's very similar to how humans walk rather than run. (I personally don't run unless I'm being chased.)

One of our Rouens, same weight class as a Pekin, really did the flying thing one time, and only one time. I had a beautiful little buddy I hatched from one of Lacrystol's eggs, and I babied him. I took him outside one day on the opposite side of the yard to let him poke around at things. Galen, the Rouen, who was on the total opposite side of the 1+ acre property happened to spy him with me, took to the air and flew all the way across the property. Only maybe two feet off the ground, but a long distance. He landed right next to Peanut and bit him on the butt before I could even try to intervene. I scooped a terrified Peanut up and took him back in the house, but I was well aware after that that Galen could fly if he chose to.

That's AMAZING because WHEN I had Rouens They could not fly, When I researched them, it appears there body weight is to heavy for them to lift off. LOL.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

That's AMAZING because WHEN I had Rouens They could not fly, When I researched them, it appears there body weight is to heavy for them to lift off. LOL.

That's one thing that startled me so much about it. It was one of those things that happened so fast that it seemed like slow motion, if that makes sense. He had never flown that far before, mostly just off the back hill to the bottom of the yard next to our house. I've always thought what happened that day is that he went into intruder alert mode. He somehow knew there was another drake even though it was on the opposite side of the yard, and he was using the fastest way possible to get to it and let it know it wasn't welcome on his property.

 

[JadeComputerGal]

NOPE, didn't loose the from disease or illness, NOPE didn't loose them from predator,

Well let me take that back. We did have a Fox issue and the fox would sneak up to them, grab them by the neck and take them away. I remember chasing one of those Butt heads down.

If it wasn't for the ability for them to Fly off, a fox would have gotten a lot more then what they had gotten.

I did have a group fly off, Not sure why, it was a group of 10 call ducks, I was sooo Devasted, Not sure what caused it because in that group was my favorite Chocolate bibbed named Sassy. OH she was sooo talkative..
But the odd part was, I had all the ducks trained, kind of, whenever a predator came into the yard, ALL 27 at that time, would FLY up to the house. Imagine That many calls, with there LOUD VOICES, it was VERY easy to determine what was going on...

But This ONE sneaky fox would sneak up and grab them very quickly and take off, Needless to say, That fox is NO longer an issue. I believe he had something wrong with him because he had missing hair and is no longer with us. THANK GOD, as sad as that may sound. He was also covered with ticks and fleas and VERY VERY skinny even though he had gotten a couple of my ducks in the past.....

Calls do not usually fly off in the winter, Speaking on my EXPERIENCE ONLY, they aren't big fans of the cold. I have noticed when I let mine out they will lay in the snow and not move, Very easy to pick them right up and examine them or just to hold them.. I don't believe they have the skills or capability to fly in harsh weather at least I have never seen mine do it and again I'm speaking of what I have observed... They Usually stay CLOSE to home.

Here's my percentage breakdown of flight reasons:

5% - to fly from one end of the yard to the other

10% to escape from Predators - CATS, FOXs, Raccoons ETC..

85% to escape from a Male.

I have noticed that the Female will Fly First to get away from the Males, but right behind her are the boys. They never go far and will always end up close to a safe and a secure but CHALLENGING spot so that the boys will leave them alone..

If you have a way to secure them GREAT, it's the best thing if your going to let them free Range, in my opinion it's best to leave the wings..

Right. We don't let ours do what I'd call free ranging even though we've never so far had problems with duck predators. We let them out in the afternoon after work and all day on weekends as long as we're going to be home, and we leave the dogs out in the back with them if at least one of us isn't in the backyard. That allows me to keep a close eye since the kitchen looks into the backyard, and of course the dogs bark their heads off if they see anything come near the yard.

 

[Lacrystol]

Right. We don't let ours do what I'd call free ranging even though we've never so far had problems with duck predators. We let them out in the afternoon after work and all day on weekends as long as we're going to be home, and we leave the dogs out in the back with them if at least one of us isn't in the backyard. That allows me to keep a close eye since the kitchen looks into the backyard, and of course the dogs bark their heads off if they see anything come near the yard.

Nice, good plan

 

[JadeComputerGal]

Nice, good plan

PS...I'm aboutthisclose to convincing Scott to let me have a couple of Silkies. I saw that you have eggs on eBay. Is that listing still current and you still have eggs available?

 

[Lacrystol]

PS...I'm aboutthisclose to convincing Scott to let me have a couple of Silkies. I saw that you have eggs on eBay. Is that listing still current and you still have eggs available?

LOL, you want eggs, Let me know, I'll send you some, Right now the Showgirl & paints are the only ones laying, the Splashes have taken a break