Meet Lucky and Gretchen!

[nachoqtpie]

Here are our 2 new ducks.

Back around Labor Day my friend Pam came over and took 6 eggs to put in her bator... she tripped and fell and hit the table and it rocked and killed all but Lucky. Since she was the only one to hatch, my friend Beth said she would give me her "loaner" Muscovy because momma decided she didn't want anything to do with her. (Poor Gretchen!) Lucky is about 4 days old, and Gretchen is not quite 2 weeks. The size difference is HUGE at this point in time, but Lucky will quickly catch up. They're getting along just famously!

 

[Mickey328]

Awwww, how cute!

 

[nachoqtpie]

I guess this means I have to change my signature again, eh? LOL

 

[897tgigvib]

Are you going to breed those 2 when they are old enough?

 

[Mickey328]

LOL...thats what I thought when I saw it...no mention of the 'new kids on the block'

 

[lesa]

If there is anything more adorable than a baby duck, I don't know what it is!

 

[nachoqtpie]

If they are ducks I'll let them stay, if they are drakes, they go to the freezer. I know that if a muscovy and a mallard derived bird breed they will be mules... but should be good meat birds if Gretchen is a duck. We only have Pekin, so when Gretchen starts to go broody I can shove some eggs under her and get some birds for the freezer.

And yes Lesa... I LOVE baby ducks!! One of the cutest babies of the animal kingdom.

 

[bobm]

Years ago I had Pekins... 1 drake and 4 hens. All of the females hatched their own eggs. The next day I would take the ducklings away and the females would again get to work on the next brood then go broody. All in all that fall I had 95 freezer campers.

 

[diggerthechickenman]

" if a muscovy and a mallard derived bird breed they will be mules"

is this meaning for size or they could not reproduce?

 

[bobm]

The muscovey x mallard derived birds would produce males that are larger than the mallard derived, females not as much for size ( female Muscovies are much smaller than the Muscovy males). All of their offspring are sterile. The Pekin x Muscovy is widely practiced in the SE Asian countries for meat market duck.