helpful duck & duckling care links and information

Here are some helpful duck & duckling care links and information, because it's that time of year.

FYI: Our ducks are PETS, but we are sort of middle of the ground when it comes to protecting animals. As humans and as owners we feel a strong responsibility to do everything in our power to give them the best care and protection. Our ducks are also domestic breeds so we take into consideration their bred in weaknesses. Our love for our ducks as PETS, makes our heart more vulnerable to heartache when it comes to injury and death, than if they were livestock. However, we are not vegans, nor do we feel that animals have more rights than their humans.

As the loving caring humans, and as the people who choose to have pet ducks we want you to be well informed. Ducks are fragile creatures, and the more you know about caring for them the better.  These links are for those who have ALREADY chosen to have ducks either as live stock or pets.

Articles About Waterfowl: Responsible Waterfowl Ownership
http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/articles.htm#artresp

Duck Care
http://duckrescuenetwork.org/duck_care.html

Duckling and Duck Care
http://katihoza.home.comcast.net/~katihoza/

Frequently Asked Questions
http://katihoza.home.comcast.net/~katihoza/faq/index.html

Metzer Farms Daily Feed and Water Consumption and Manure Output of Ducklings
http://www.metzerfarms.com/DailyFeedWaterDucklings.cfm?CustID=2469099

Metzer Farms FAQ
http://www.metzerfarms.com/FAQ.cfm?CustID=2469099

Live Ducks
http://www.liveducks.com/(click on topics in the menu on the left)

Ducking Care Document
http://www.liveducks.com/quickquack.html

Duckling Diary
http://www.liveducks.com/diary/diary1.html 

Poultry Help - Toxic Plants
http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html

We just want to add that we do have ducky friends who we admire and respect that are vegans who bestow on their feather loved ones equal rights (same as they give humans) and even greater accommodations and privileges because our feathered friends are in many ways a fragile species than humans.

a light March snow - a view from the back side of the aviary (duck pen / enclosure)

It was a beautiful morning with the snow and sunshine
This snow will not stick around very long this morning.

Here are a few pictures from the back side of the aviary

Wintery Spring & creative temporary solutions

Snow and bitter cold in the early spring

The boys are being VERY aggressive with  the girls right now.  This really isn't their fault they are driven by their spring time hormones and instincts.

So to keep the peace we have separated the boys until the worst of the aggression passes.  Snow and bitter cold temps have complicated this however.  

When put up at night or after temps fall below 20* we separate them in the heated duck house with a pet gate.  We created a temporary solution for when they are outside in 22-40 degree temps and we expect precipitation.

A temp shelter for the boys.  With plans to build a more permanent one later.

I think we are all ready for warm temps to come and stay a while.

A gift from our duckies to GrMaDuck

This is GrMaDuck ... 

She keeps the duckies warm, and they return the favor.  A feather does a great job as a scarf pin.  

(This feather was  "shed" naturally and picked up while still clean.) 

>(.)

Winter

We are experiencing winter here.  The duckies are not big fans of days and days of temps that freeze their water. 

They will quack and complain to me like I should be able to make it better. LOL!

We do have heat lamps in their house and over their water buckets to help keep the water buckets from freezing over so quickly and to give them a "warm" (really less cold) place to retreat too.

Here they are in the snow 

And here they are warming up in the house.

At the start of winter they all would stay in the warm duck house most of the time on snowy or really cold days.  Now they don't this is mostly because the boy duckies have gone into "season", and our normally sweet boys are rough bossy hormonal boys.  So most of the time they will take turns rotating in and out of the house.  Here I caught them when they were all in the house together warming up. 

For the most part all our duckies. Are doing well. 

Sorry it has been so long without a post. 

come on in the water's warm

Darrick our pet Cayuga drake seems to almost always be the first one in the clean pool almost like a cup bearer to King Kouta our very large Pekin drake who is #1 in pecking order, then most of the others follow.  Missy prefers to pool all to herself and will hang back and preen until most everyone else is finished.  We didn't quite capture it here but Darrick still loves to swim under water. It's so cute!!

flock bond continues to strengthen

This is just a super quick post to say all our duckies are doing well and that their bond into ONE little flock continues to strengthen.  The younger girls are getting more comfortable with the human flock members(s).

 Here are couple of videos taken with a phone camera






... and two not so great photos

BTW
The little girlie duckies are giving us eggs. 
These are collected daily and cleaned and refrigerated and given away as food.
Thank you little girlies duckies!

Wed Sept 25

Hello and good morning
quack quack quack

delightful pet ducks in the aviary getting morning treats

new duckie video


A three minute unedited video taken with my phone of our delightful pet ducks in the aviary getting morning treats. A nice temperate fall Sept Morning 2013

Eggs eggs eggs

Eggs! Lots of duck eggs!
This is just two days worth.

No we are not going to incubate and hatch. We have our hands full right now with 10 pet duckies. We do however know a lot of people that enjoy eating them. We see these as nutritional gifts of love from our girlie duckies.

Thank you girls! We are so pleased that you are growing up to be such happy healthy girlies.

Sept 4 2013 / a gift

Look what I found in the duck house!
:-)
One of the little girls laid an egg!

duck pool drains & LOTS of duckie pictures

The pool drains are working ... sort of ... They do drain, but being the size of a garden hose and full of dirt and other messy things they drain slowly. Which means a new morning and evening routine, but they are definitely helping reduce the amount of water and soggy mud around the pools and saving our backs.

close up of the drain valve & hose for our above ground pool (open)

We have for several years used a double layer of "kiddie" pools for our duckies.  Using two pools nested together helps prevent holes and cracks.  We replace the kiddie pools maybe once every year to two years.  We used "WaterWeld" a specialized epoxy putty to seal the drain holes inside and outside of the pools.  (In the picture above it is the white stuff around the joint).  This allows us to move the pools to dump out dirt etc with the drain hoses still attached and not have to worry about the integrity of a water tight seal around the joint.

You can see the ground still gets wet when washing the pool
and duckies splashing but this is far less water than before.

The hose filling the pool is in front
The drain hose is toward the back and left.

"sunken" duckie pool - the drain is low and at the very back
the hose you see in front is the drain hose from the above
ground pool.  Both hose drains are buried and run between
skirted hardware fabric to keep predators and snakes out

close up of the sunken pool's drain valve

both pools - here we are filling the sunken pool and you
can see the drain hose from the above ground pool
we have dividing fences with a internal gate for those times
when we need to separate such as when boy duckies
are being seasonally aggressive or if/when a certain
duckie needs R&R time due to injury illness
but is still well enough to be outside.

Due to all the rain and storms we have had this summer our sunken pool fills with dirt and mud much quicker than the above ground pool and it much harder to do the "deep" clean.  We may raise this pool at some later date.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now for lots of pictures of our adorable duckies!

Missy complaining that she doesn't get to forage
(her arthritis/tendonitis has flared up and she is on R&R)

beautiful white ladies

Darrick, drake extraordinaire, loved by the little ladies 

Beau's head feathers are always in varying shades

This little lady says, "you are an okay food and water human,
but I don't know if I trust you all the way yet."

"More pictures?  Sure we will pose for you"

The prettiest boy, needs to work hard to stay pretty.
Preen Preen Preen

Missy chillin out in one of her favorite nap spots under the chair.

It's nap time for the little girls too.

Our Missy's feathers are looking so shiny and white now
that she has 8 more girl friends to share the attention of the boys.

Fluffy bottom (Missy)

10 pet duckies and one human "duckie" bond servant

ONE flock

Yesterday morning GraMaDuck enjoyed hanging out with our duckies.  We are very encouraged to see that they have finally integrated to be ONE flock instead of two mini-flocks.  This is very important for their health because ducks are extremely social and their social condition has significant effect on their physical well being.


GraMaDuck loves our feathered loves so much!  It is a delight to watch these cute funny personalities everyday.  She is also thankful that we built the aviary with a clear view from all of the back windows of our home, so whether we are outside or inside, we can see and talk with our feather loves.

Here are a few pictures taken with the phone camera - all the white feathers can really mess with the light meter :-)

Drains for the pools

We suppose that all pet duck owners (slaves), will at some point succumb to installing drains or pumps for the duckies pools.  Well after a little over 5 years of scooping and dumping we are finally going to try the drains.

This our first attempt.  We are using garden hose connectors and 3/4" nuts.  

We hope this works but we do have some concerns about the narrow internal diameter and all the mess (not just poo, but rocks, and leaves, etc).  But we shall see. 

It got too dark to show it set up outside tonight so we will post again tomorrow to let you know how it goes.