Good-Bye, Friend

Before the title of this post gets anyone in a tizzy, thinking I'm saying good-bye to this here blog, let me quickly say, I'm not. Still here. Not going anywhere.

We're saying, or already said, good-bye to our lovely and lonely duck, Cheese. Or maybe it's Quackers. Never could tell them apart. But the girls have decided it's Cheese, so it's good-bye Cheese.

Sometime last week, while we were all asleep, warm and safe in our beds, something attacked and killed one of the ducks. Andrew woke me early in the morning to deliver the bad news. The kids didn't know yet, so I hurriedly dressed, then slipped out quietly.

Poor Cheese, he was walking around and around Quackers. His body still and white feathers scattered all around him. I gathered his body and as much of his feathers as I could and laid his body to rest in the woods.  Then I went about and did my usual morning things, fed the chickens and the ducks, excuse me, duck, and burst into tears at the sight of just one lonely duck.

And he was definitely lonely. Those two ducks were the best of pals, maybe they were brothers, and you never saw one without the other. They teamed up and chased after the cats, the chickens, the dog. They'd waddle away, quite pleased they succeeded in their chase, quack, quack, quacking loudly. They roamed the homestead together, happily splashing in their little pool and came as fast as their webbed feet could carry them when I came out with food and scraps.

After Quackers was gone, Cheese tried to pair up with one of the cats, but the cat just ran away.

Cheese tried to pair up with the old Rooster, but he ran away, looking back as if to say, go away you pesky thing!

He tried to hang out with the chickens, but they ignored him, merely tolerating his presence, but I'm sure, as soon as Cheese was out of earshot, the hens cackled behind his back.

Poor Cheese. 

We didn't want to get another duck, but we knew poor Cheese needed a buddy. There's a lovely little pond, about 20 miles from us, I spotted it while out yard sale-ing, and I remembered there were a bunch of white ducks there. I had the children with me that day and we stopped to ohh and aw over them. Let's take Cheese there, we all agreed. Sunday took us to the pond, and it was, indeed, a lovely little pond, and there were the ducks, all hanging out in the shade of the trees. Cheese would be happy here, we knew. 

Knocking on the door of the house closest to the pond, Andrew explained to the owner about Cheese and what had happened to Quackers, and wondered if it was possible to bring Cheese here and leave him with the other ducks. "Why of course we could," he said!

The next day, we took our last pictures of Cheese with the children, said our good-byes, then Andrew drove off with Cheese in a cage in the back of the truck. He opened the door near the water and stepped away, Cheese poked his head out and looked around, spotted the water, then spotted the ducks in the water on the other side of the pond and took off like a shot into the water! He swam right over to the ducks, and Andrew caught this last picture of Cheese about to join the other ducks, then once he was with them, he lost track of Cheese, for he blended right in with the other ducks.

I think he'll be happy here, with other ducks, swimming in a real pond. There are even girl ducks! The owner said they had 4 girls and 3 boys, and Cheese makes 4 boys, so he might even get a girlfriend! We'll come and visit now and then, say hello, and maybe, if we're lucky, come Spring, we'll see baby ducks and one of the proud papas will be Cheese! 

Bullies

I think I once heard ducks being called the bullies of the barnyard.

Whether or not that statement is true, it seems to apply to my ducks. Goodness, they chase the chickens, the cats, and poor Maisie the dog. It's gotten to the point where Maisie doesn't like to go  outside anymore, which is a problem when she needs to relieve herself. One of us has to be her bodyguard and shoo the ducks away, but several times this week, we have woken to little accidents on the living room floor (thank goodness for wood floors!). Something must be done about these bullies. Too bad a lecture wouldn't do the trick!

Cheese and Quackers seem to be innocent and sweet, but underneath those lovely white feathers are some pushy ducks! The hubs has started saying, "Never getting ducks again!" and I'm inclined to agree. I think if we were to ever get ducks again, I would make sure we had a pond and that it was sort of far from the house and away from where the chickens are. In the meantime, though, I'm not quite sure what to do with our ducks now. I plan on fencing in the chickens as soon as the ground thaws and I can put posts in the ground, so the chickens won't be terrorized by the ducks once that's done. I originally planned to fence the ducks in with the chickens, but am having second thoughts about that. I hate the idea of putting up a second fence for the ducks, I don't want my homestead to be all about little fenced-in areas, but the way things are going, I may have to.  Any ideas? These ducks are really becoming a problem in keeping the peace among the animals.



"Have you seen a duck?"

Every morning, Andrew lets the ducks out of their hoop house and feeds the cats. Two hours later, when I wake, I let the chickens out. If he lets the chickens out at the same time as the ducks, the chickens all rush over to where the cats are and eat their food up, so this way works well and the cats get to eat in peace.

This morning went as usual, I go out to let the chickens out and behind me is a duck. Wait a minute! A duck??  Where's the other duck? That never happens, seeing one duck without the other nearby. Something had to be wrong!  I walk around looking for signs of a duck or duck feathers. I assume maybe an animal has gotten an early lunch or perhaps a car hit it? Looking up and down the road, no signs of feathers or a dreaded bloody spot. I walked all around the property and nothing. How I wished the one lone duck could talk and tell me where the other one was.

I contemplated going across the street to the neighbors but how weird would that conversation be? "Excuse me, but I've lost a duck. Have you seen it?" Besides, they have two pitbulls that bark really loudly whenever they see me walking around the front yard and I'm not willing to risk my butt being bitten. Andrew isn't home either, so I can't send him over there instead. Better his butt than mine! No, he has a nice butt, I'd have to kiss it and make it better.

Ahem!!  Anyway!

A couple hours have passed and I've pretty much accepted that Quackers is gone. (the girls have informed me that Cheese is the lone duck and Quackers is the one missing)  We're all eating lunch when there comes a knock at the front door. It's the neighbor.

"Hi! What can I do for ya?" says I.

"We found 2 ducks, are they yours?" he asks.

"I happen to be missing one!"

"I got two of them in our dog kennel right now," he says.

"Well, the other one must have gone missing too! I'll be right over!" I say.

Ain't it the darnedest thing?! The other duck crossed the road to join his buddy! Quackers is hurt-- he has a bloody wing. I don't know if one of his dogs bit him or not, I'm just glad they're OK. He mentioned the ducks charged his dogs and they ran away from them. I know for a fact that the ducks do charge and my own dog stays away from the ducks, so I believe him, but I also know two dogs can certainly tag-team a duck and it's possible one of the dogs got a bite in and he didn't see it or doesn't want to tell me. He said he had 18 chickens once and one of his dogs killed every single one of them one day, so the possibility is there.  Whatever, Cheese and Quackers are home again!

I brought them back home and tried to examine Quacker's wing, but who am I kidding? I don't know what I'm looking for under all those feathers.  All I could see was a spot of blood on his wing and when I tried to look underneath, there was a bald spot, but no wound. I let them loose in the pool and they hurriedly waddled out and into the garden area where they stayed for the rest of the day.

Now I wonder if I need to put up the fencing around the coop and duck house? We bought the materials a few months ago, even cemented in the fence posts for the gate door and pounded in a few t-bars, but that's where I stopped. I hate to fence them in, I love having them free-ranging around the yard. Have the ducks learned their lesson and will they stay in the back from now on? They say ducks are smart, have they learned anything from today's events? Maybe I'll pound in the rest of the t-bars before the ground freezes and then if something else happens that shows me they haven't learned their lesson, I'll put up the fencing.

Cheese and Quackers

Cheese and Quackers have adjusted really well here. They roam all around the property doing their duck thing and have hardly touched the feed I gave them. Their previous home was a small penned in area with nothing but packed dirt, the little pool, and a bowl of feed, so I imagine being set free in our yard is like the Garden of Eden to them. So much to see and do and eat!

 Their first few nights here, we kept them in a large dog carrier we had and parked it in the corner of our patio area.  We had to chase and catch them to lock them up.  After a couple nights of this, they learned to hang around the patio until we put them in the carrier.

I made a little duck house next to the chicken coop for them. I hoped they might go in and share the coop with the chickens, but it didn't happen and I don't want to force things, so a little hoop house next to the coop works just fine.

 As before, we had to train them for a couple nights before they learned to go in their house on their own. Now, they go right on in as it gets dark and all we have to do is slide the board down for the night.

All closed up for the night.

It's been a real joy to watch the ducks waddle around. They have been all the way out back in the garden and I've seen them out front near the driveway. When it rains, they hang out where the water shoots out from the gutters and really have a ball! We're glad we got them!

Rubber Ducky, You're The One..

Ever since we got two new additions to the homestead,

I have Ernie's Rubber Ducky song playing on repeat in my head.

We got ducks!

 They look like White Pekin Ducks.

The people we got them from likely got them for Easter, since in their duckling pictures, their feathers were tinted pink and blue.

 Don't know the sex of them, don't care.

We talked about getting ducks before, so when these ducks showed up on a local exchange site, for free, we couldn't resist! She had no shelter for them and didn't want to build one for the coming winter, so she was giving them away.

 I love the little curls on the tips of their tail feathers!

 These two are tight! They stay together everywhere!

So much fun to watch!

 

 The kids all had fun watching them as we took them out of the cage. I was a little worried we took them out too soon, because one bolted and ran into the woods and the other stayed for a while. I wondered what the roosters would do. The dog? Would the ducks come back? I hadn't made a pen for them yet.

 Turns out, I needn't have worried. These two ducks seem to know this is home already. They hang around, eating grass, leaves, and I assume, bugs in the ground. They wander in the woods, always within sight, then come back to their little wading pool and swim and bathe.

 

 As it got dark, and the chickens put themselves to bed in the coop, the ducks came close to the house, probably looking for a place to settle for the night.  Previous owners only had them in a small fenced in area with no shelter, so I have to think they are not used to sleeping inside of something. I rounded the ducks up and put them in the dog carrier, then put the cage inside the coop for the night.

 I don't know if that's ideal for long-term-- keeping the ducks with the chickens in the chicken coop.  I know of others through blogger that have ducks and chickens, and even one family with one duck that thinks it's a chicken and hangs out with the chickens. In my case, these two ducks have never seen chickens before, and the chickens seem afraid of the ducks. They hide in the coop when the ducks are around it and don't come out until the ducks are out of sight. Curious!

 I have enough lumber scraps to make a largish dog house-style shelter for them. I've been turning over plans in my head ever since we got them home yesterday afternoon. I'll probably place the duck shelter a little bit away from the chicken coop and build a temporary pen until they learn to go in the shelter at night. The little pool will go near it, as well.

 The ducks are fun to watch when they get into the pool.

It's fun to see them dunking themselves and splashing around.

The previous owners gave this to us, but eventually, I'd like to get a little bit bigger one, so they can actually swim around some. It looks like they are standing and not really swimming. The water is only about 6 inches or so deep.

We've named them Cheese and Quackers.

:o)