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TexasMadness Profile
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DUCKS!


Yeah! We have new pets! The farm has about 30 ducks, 5 of which were male. The boys were starting to act up and harass the girls a bit much so my mom decided she needed to get rid of them. I did some research and found that male ducks can be kept together in a group and will get along - unlike male chickens! So four of the guys came to our house yesterday.

We put them in the old chicken coop and run. It's not the ideal home for them but it's fully predator proof so they can adjust to their surroundings for a week or two before being let out into bigger parts of the yard. I hope to make a little duck house for them too. I really wanted females for the eggs but the boys are nice and quiet (they really are the opposite of chicken gender qualities). We hope to have them hand tame soon!

Image

So far no names - hubby really wants Willa to name them but so far she hasn't gotten into giving things names. All of her stuffed animals are just "lion" or "bear" or whatever. We'll see! She does love them - she asked to go see them first thing this morning!
4/20/2012, 4:16 pm Link to this post Send Email to TexasMadness   Send PM to TexasMadness
 
Saijen SilverWolf1 Profile
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Re: DUCKS!


Nice looking group of batchelors there!!!

I see at least 2 Mallards. What are the other 2?
I SO miss my ducks! My ex and I had about 14 Mallards, and I loved watching them, and watching the Mommas coming out of the weeds behind the house with a whole string of babies behind them. We kept a small kid's pool of water in the enclosure for them, but they mostly just ran free. We did lock them up at night, if we could find them all, to keep the wild dogs and such from attacking them since we didn't have a fenced yard.

In the fall, when other ducks were migrating, ours would call to them, and we'd end up with as high as 50-60 ducks sometimes, over late fall through winter, then we'd go back down to about 14-20. some would stay (hey..they knew a good thing when they had it! lol), and some of ours would wander off, never to return, so we generally kept about 14-15 on a regular basis.
They would come running when it was time to feed, and some would eat right from our hands. Yours will get to that point, too. Takes patience, but it'll happen. Do watch fingers, though. Ducks DO hurt if they miss and bite a finger, or pinch on accident.
Enjoy your new 'pets'....I'm jealous!!!!!

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TexasMadness Profile
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Re: DUCKS!


The dark head/ dark bill ducks are actually khaki Campbells (mallards are part of their genetics though obviously!). The females lay more eggs than most chicken breeds. They are a bit bigger than mallards too. The lighter ones are fawn Indian Runners. We think they are actually mixed with campbells though as they don't stand quite as upright as the batch we got from an actual hatchery (these were part of a group from the feed store).

Willa spends.a lot of time in the run with them. She asks to go in and then it gives hubby and I a chance to do some yard work without really having to watch her! She played in there for almost 30 minutes today! Now I'm thinking we need to get a small pen of bantam chickens or something out by the garden to keep her occupied!
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Saijen SilverWolf1 Profile
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Re: DUCKS!


A word of caution about Bantams....they can be extremely aggressive and downright MEAN!
We also raised Bantams,and had a rooster that was the meanest little chit. My girls could go outside, and he'd attack them. My ex kept the spurs cut so he'd not be able to hurt the girls, but he'd fly at them, attack, peck, and try to hurt them. they were older than Willa is now. My youngest finally had enough one day..she was about 5-6 yrs old, and she drop kicked that rooster clear across the yard. After he got his breath back, he went right back after her again. We finally had to get rid of them. The hens would try to peck at the girls, but nothing as bad as that rooster. so....do be careful. Everyone I've ever talked to that has, or has had Bantams has a horror story about their temperment. Just be careful.

And thanks for the ID on the ducks. Yeah, I can see that those that look like Mallards actually look like a Mallard hen rather than drake.

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4/23/2012, 12:40 am Link to this post Send Email to Saijen SilverWolf1   Send PM to Saijen SilverWolf1 Yahoo
 
TexasMadness Profile
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Re: DUCKS!


I've never heard anyone complain about their bantams! In fact, I've known 2 people that have had them as "house pets". Hmmm...they were both Silkie breeds. I wonder if that one in particular is just really nice? I'll have to look into this! But they would probably be penned anyway since I don't want them rummaging too much in the garden.

The ducks are happier today! While getting some baby items, we picked up a kiddie pool. The ducks normally won't get within 10 feet of me but they were jumping in the water while I was still holding the hose to fill it! They had a big pan that they could at least play in before, but this is luxury for them!

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Our neighbors (with 8 year old twins) came over to see them for the first time and said they had an old bigger kiddie pool they want to donate! We said that in return the twins could name 2 of the ducks. Only the girl was over and she got a very serious look on her face. She choose the one she would name and then went home for an hour or two. She came back later with a list of 20 names! We all had a big meeting and settled on one of them.

The light colored duck biting the back of the other ducks head (yes...he's the bully!) is now named Gary! It fits him so perfectly. Her twin brother will be over later this week to name another. Hubby and I are hoping to get Willa to come up with a name still for the others!
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Saijen SilverWolf1 Profile
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Re: DUCKS!


Ducks do love their water! And, how nice that the neighbor wants to give them a bigger pool! If you have the room, leave the smaller one there as well..and have 2 pools for them. They will LOVE you for it.
LOVE the idea of letting the twins name 2 of the ducks.....too cute!

So, so far, you have a Gary, and 3 no-names.
Have you coaxed Willa by asking..."Willa, should we name this one Mojo?" or something like that...to get her naming juices going? If she says 'NO', then ask "Ok, what name do YOU like?" and see if you can get her going.

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TexasMadness Profile
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Re: DUCKS!


We will certainly keep both pools! This one will stay in their run and the other one will travel around to wherever we are letting them free range for the day.

And that's just the sort of thing we are trying with Willa. We've been trying to get her to name her stuffed animals for awhile now doing just that. I think she's close to the age where she should start thinking of names for things - I know her cousin one year older LOVES to name everything right now. So we might just have to have at least one no-name until she is old enough to do it! Might let her cousin name the other one then...
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Saijen SilverWolf1 Profile
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Who knows....Willa may come up with some off the wall thing for a name, that's a perfect name for a duck! Kids have the weirdest way about them LOL

I think you need a Leon in there somewhere LOL

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Queenyforever Profile
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Re: DUCKS!


Totally cool ducks! I think it's great that you and your neighbor gave them a pool and you let their kids name two of them...very sweet. emoticon

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“Freedom and democracy are dreams you never give up.”

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TexasMadness Profile
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Re: DUCKS!


Well, we had a bit of a naming fiasco recently! The twins came over and the girl couldn't remember which one she had named. I had specifically commented it was the bully, so I remembered, as did her mom. But she insisted it was a different one. After a few minutes of both me and her mom trying to set her straight, we kinda looked at each other with the expression "why are we bothering...does this seriously matter?!?" So Gary is no longer Gary.

The boy twin was also over. He thought for about 15 seconds (quite a different personality than his sister!)and declared that his ducks name was Nicodemus, or Nick for short.

Of course, this made both hubby and I laugh. We kinda chose the name Gary because hubby has an uncle named Gary. Well, hubby has another uncle named Nick! There are four boys in that family and we seriously considered naming the other two ducks Wayne and Clayton to stick with the theme. But the twins didn't approve of the names. emoticon

When I had told my mom that we had named the bully Gary, she had commented we should have named him Lance or something. Oddly enough, Lance was one of the 20 proposed names. I thought that was rather funny and odd for such a coincidence! So The-Duck-Formerly-Known-As-Gary is now Lance.

So, looking at the pool picture, we have from left to right Nicodemus, no name, Lance and poor Gary getting dunked. "Gary" went from top dog to low man on the totem pole!

When we feed them, they get about 2 feet from us. Getting tamer!
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