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Old Duck, New Duck

1/2/2013

3 Comments

 
When I ordered my ducks two years ago, I chose to get five Khaki Campbells and five Indian Runners.  I decided on four females of each breed, along with one male of each breed, all day old ducklings.  As they grew, it became apparent that someone had made a pretty big mistake; I had five females and FIVE males!  Not a good ratio.

Having too many drakes was really taking a toll on my females, so I separated them and began searching for new homes for the males.  Three males went to my friend Sue's, and the other two went to her neighbor down the road.  Sue then found another friend who was interested in taking the Indian Runner drake she had, so at that point Sue just had the two Khaki Campbell drakes for bug control.  Those two drakes kept each other company just fine, wandering about like a couple of bachelors without a care in the world.

Over the past month, some kind of predator has zeroed in on Sue's place.  The first to disappear was her new little banty rooster, Randy.  Then one of the yearling hens was reduced to a pile of feathers.  A couple of days ago, Sue found one duck hiding under a deck, with the other nowhere to be found.  The remaining drake didn't really fit in with the chicken flock,  so didn't know what to do with himself, and Sue felt bad for the poor guy.  When I went out to visit yesterday and heard the news, of course I figured the best solution was to bring the last male duck back home.

And so, my female ducks now have a drake again, and a well-travelled one at that.  I suppose I'll have some ducklings in the spring, which is just fine with me!  Welcome home, sir
Picture
3 Comments
sue
1/2/2013 09:27:01 am

Hey Tina, so how's he doing?

Reply
harvester link
1/3/2013 04:59:59 am

I haven't had ducks before, but am hoping to have some in the future. Do you have a body of water close for them?

Reply
Tina
1/4/2013 01:14:13 am

harvester, for the moment my ducks have a baby pool as their water source. The ducks I have are not the flying kind (they do their best to flutter around, but can't flyfly), and our ponds are too far away for them to waddle to. Once I have the ducks in the areas of my gardens (I got them for bug control, as well as eggs), I will dig a little rock lined pond for them. I also don't want them in my big ponds; the turtles would eat the ducklings!! My ducks are my favorite birds by far.

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  Raising sheep, goats, chickens, guineas, ducks, dogs, cats, and gardens since 2010.  Oh, and not eating anything but plants and fish.  Welcome!

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