The Duck Chronicles Episode Thirty Eight – The Ducks Have Moved Across the Gate
We had a few weeks of no episodes but we have been busy. The big move has come the ducks are now in a bigger house, with power and have a much larger holding area.
Barbie the adopted duckling now is roaming the grounds free range with he fellow ducklings and the three turkey polts. They have been interacting with the mother ducks and new hatched ducklings with no drama.
Of course that means mother ducks have started hatching babies, we have a ton of them with more yet to hatch. They just hatched what appears to be the first muscovy duckling, right at 35 days as projected.
The babies are venturing out already with the various “mothers” but almost all seem to be mostly bonded with the one muscovy girl you see them with in this video.
The girls and the other adults are loving the new paddock especially the wet weather pond, where they have spent most of their time since the move. Moving them wasn’t easy, they were terrified to go though the gate because they never had done so before, so we pushed them though the much lager double gate on the north end and herded them around.
The new poop free waterer has been improved using an 80 cent rubber stopper from Walmart, I drilled a hole with a hole saw and it works great.
Thanks for the update. I was beginning to experience “quack” withdrawal.
Jack,
You now have multiple females all with eggs hatching at different times and ducks in different stages of growth.
You said you were feeding the girls and the ducklings the same thing but how do you know how much to feed them ?? 3 Females, X number of ducklings, X, Y, and Z ages…..
Steve
Growing birds and their moms are simply given food at all times and can eat as much as they choose.
As to the multiple ages it isn’t the issue many think as you noticed the two Swedish gals came in after the eggs were in excess and sort of became adopted mommies. They take turns and the eggs being incubated are rabidly declining in number. In about one more week we have to make the hard choice to start removing them.
That duck house stinks and needs a good cleaning out! Too much rain lately.
With all those ducks gleying up your “pond”, it would be interesting to see how much longer it holds water.
It won’t make much difference, way too much rock. You’d have to fence them into the area to get much of an effect.