A little nest

The song birds built a nest in a container under the roof of the duck house - so sweet

~GrMaDuck~
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Kouta # 1 duckie

Kouta

digging for bugs

on his "throne"

Kouta is King of our tiny flock.

The older he gets (he is not yet two years old) the bossier he gets. I guess when you are at the top of the pecking order you have to work to stay there.

General he is a calm sweet boy.  He loves peas for treats but not as much as Missy.

He is a very large male (drake) Pekin. 

There is something endearing about Pekin personalities.  They can be quite expressive with head tilts and body posture.

~GrMaDuck~
sent from my iPhone
Kouta is our good King (even though he is bossy and competitive).

Queenie

Queenie is in the background
(that is Darrick in the front)

Queenie our female (hen) Cayuga is hard to get a good picture of.

She is by far our smartest duck. She is very calm and sweet but does NOT put up with being picked on. She deals with this by out smarting her temporary bully.

She is a great forager and her absolute favorite snack is a bug she has caught herself.


~GrMaDuck~
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Missy - white - Pekin

sweet Missy

leaves hanging off of her bill from digging in the mud

Our lovable spaz of duck hen. Missy is our cute Pekin female with a freckled bill. She LOUD - doesn't matter if she is happy or spazzing you WILL hear her.

Missy LOVES peas especially half frozen ones on a hot day.  She is our lover of all things food and she has a loud yummy quack to let us know that she likes her treats and food.


~GrMaDuck~
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Darrick

striking a pose

love his iridescent coloring

Darrick is our Cayuga drake.

He is a beautiful regal looking sweet boy.

As a hatchling and tiny duckling he had the hardest time but now is a strong healthy drake.

Darrick is a bit of an awkward dork when it comes to mating rituals. 

One of his favorite thing to do is run and chase Beau.  Darrick is our little duckie track star!



~GrMaDuck~
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Beau - still a very beautiful boy

the most beautiful plumage
right now with this dark tail
and white underbelly

Beau has the curliest tale of our drakes.
What a cutie!

A couple of good pictures of our Welsh Harlequin drake.

He had such beautiful plumage which is constantly varying.

He is a bossy drake now that he is no longer at the bottom of the pecking order.

He loves to chase and catch bugs and grasses are one of his favorite snacks.



~GrMaDuck~
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#1 and #2 ... pecking order

Kouta (Pekin drake (white) ) remains #1

Beau (welsh harelquin drake) - has fought his way to #2


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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~GrMaDuck~

One of the many worries

One of the many things a pet duck care taker / human flock member worries about.
Is when one of our duckies separates from the rest of the flock. 


Missy had become "the prize" focal point of competition for the drakes.  And she is a bit worn out from being bossed around, chased, and treated aggressively when mated.

:-(

We want peace for them



Missy is to the far right tucked next to the bucket and back fence while all the rest hang out around the big pool and eat.


This too shall pass and we will keep a close watch over them.


Always so much to worry over.



~GrMaDuck~

duckie drama

There is always a bit of duckie drama when the boys are feeling competitive.

We separate the girls from time to time to give them a rest from the aggressive drakes.

During one of these times the girlie duckies were in the R&R pen and a big storm came through. The shade tarp stretched and filled with water and then crushed the R&R pen. The girlie duckies escaped unharmed physically but they were freaked out. The humans were upset and worried for them but a cooler calmer morning inside the aviary seemed to cure it all.

There are ups and downs of keeping watch and care over pet duckies.


This morning GrMaDuck hung out with the duckies during and after saturday morning girlie time. GrMaDuck and the duckies both needed this time together.

Even though competitive duckie drama continues.  Boys will be boys and drakes are boys :-)   and we love our silly competitive drakes very much!

Darrick in front - Kouta in back left

Beau in the front



girlies in the pool

every duckie hanging out at the "big" pool