Expensive trip to Tractor Supply

[SweetMissDaisy]

Both of those enclosures will be adequate. The bigger the better, because when you dump the pool you don't want to flood their entire yard.
I have ducks in with my chickens and they get along just fine. Just be sure you have a low nestbox for the ducks.

Here's a video I did last year that show the ducks in their pool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP4uWUPU6KY&list=UUqAEkR2vTkmZDSSnGmBofpg&index=12&feature=plcp

They're in this video from last year, too:
http://youtu.be/RvcwIjTnWGg

 

[nachoqtpie]

They are SO cute!!!!!

We let Phineas and Ferb play around in the bath tub with some water today. They're still pretty skittish and want to stick together which makes me sad. I know they won't be like that forever tho. They did splash and play around for a little bit, but I didn't want them to get too water logged and cold, even tho I used warm water, so when we took them back to their "house" we wrapped them with towels.

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

Yup! We do that too.

 

[nachoqtpie]

How long does it normally take them to "warm up" to you? I sit in the bathroom with them several times a day and just watch them, and call them. I don't chase them around to pick them up or anything, tho I want to! Or should I just pick them up and hold them even tho they're peeping their lil heads off??

 

[vfem]

I had this arguement with my neighbor... NO Mallards they're ROUEN. Of course, he insists the guy who sold them to him said Mallard. I told them they legally can't sell them, not domestic animals. What a pain not listening!

Anyways, they're cute! You'll love 'em. If it makes you feel better, I have 3 ducks and a duck egg sitting under a silkie. Why not?! Totally love having ducks. Mine free range 24/7, I so enjoy having a pond!

Ducks take awhile to get used to you so no worries.... when chicks and ducklings are young, they have a natural 'flight' response because mama usually protects them. By 3 weeks old they'll realize you're the lady with the treats and they want the food, so they'll like you then. Hahahaha

 

[897tgigvib]

22 years ago I worked on a fine beauty ranch for a retired man and woman. They used to have and collect many rare and special ducks and Pheasants. Once he ordered and received some Rouen ducks. As they grew we all observed them feather for feather. Rouens are actually Mallards we unanimously decided, but they have been domesticated for so long that they can and do eat more. The Rouens can eat so much they can't fly and their wings were not clipped. They could make it to the barn roof, but that was about it.

Rouens are fat Mallards we decided. And we decided that they are very beautiful, all those shimmering colors. None escaped. They love their food and know where it comes from.

 

[nachoqtpie]

The other day I got into an argument with one of my old friends. He posted this picture of ducklings swimming in his bathtub and I said "We got Rouens' today too!" and he said "They're Mallards" and I said "No they're not... unless you took them from the wild... and then I'm going to have to call the game warden." So he insisted that the guy he got them from told him they were Mallards, at which point I told him that they can't sell Mallards (after I made my mistake and researched of course... LOL). So he got mad and said that he didn't want any other duck than a Mallard because of how pretty they are. First I made fun of him for calling a duck pretty... and then I told him that his ducks would look like fat Mallards and he got happy again. LOL

But it is strange... why do places state they are selling Mallards if you're not allowed to sell them? (Like McMurray Hatchery)

I remember when I had my duckling last time it didn't seem like it took that long... LOL Weird! Maybe I'm just forgetting... that WAS 9 years ago!

 

[897tgigvib]

Mallard or Rouen

When the game wardens and the swat teams arrive to arrest a person for having Mallards, alls a person would have to say is but officer, I thought they were rouens. They are so identical I wonder if DNA analysis could tell them apart. My guess is that DNA would sort it out. There probably is some difference in a gene or two.

Come the day when folks have DNA machines as easy as mr coffee makers, (lol!), I'd bet that most Rouens would turn out to have at least some recent Mallard ancestors.

Here at the lake, (this lake has a 36 mile perimeter), there has been a lone Wood Duck drake who seems to behave like he wants to be semi tame. The Moorehens all do the water beating simultaneously and go in a pattern at any approach within 200 feet, but this Wood duck, though he does not come ashore, does not make an effort to go away, non chalantly paddling by and close. Orangey red eyes. Real cool. Some folks make fun of the Moorehens calling them mudhens, and call them ugly. Ha. They just have not seen them close. I have. If you go in the lake in your boat in winter, which hardly anyone does, and turn it off to be quiet, sit n read or something, after awhile Moorehens will paddle by. They are many shades of chocolate brown, and are very clean, not at all muddy. Their bill has a small good shape with a small bright white color to most of it. Dark eyes. Moorehens are beautiful, like a kind of tabby. My guess is they evolved to be camouflaged. They also evolved a skittishness. I'd be skittish too if I had a hunting season on me!

Is there a domesticated version of the Wood Duck?

 

[ducks4you]

My chickens are my livestock, and I no longer handle/gentle them. (I also have too much horse-training to give me any time to chicken train, too.) Ducks are just TOOO cute to raise and slaughter--but, if you want them to be friendly, you MUST handle them. Just have pick up and put down sessions, and they're warm up to you.

 

[nachoqtpie]

*giggle*

I agree!! I said I absolutely didn't want any ducks right now, but now that they are peep peeping in my bath tub, I can't help but to sit in there with them. I try to pick them up, but I hate chasing them around the tub! I feel like a big giant bully.

These ones will be pets... but when we get our forever farm... we won't have livestock pets any more. I guess I just did it so the kids would get it out of their system, yano? I kinda hope that we have a drake and a hen and we can have some ducklings for our freezer!