M R Ducks
Mar 1st, 2009 | By Fritz Nordengren | Category: Two Mile Ranch
Black Cayuga Ducklings
It was really simple enough.
I was just going to the feed store to get cracked corn for the pheasants and some starter feed to stock up for this year’s new pheasant arrivals in a few months.
While I was there, I got to talking with the owner and he asked,
“You wouldn’t want 4 Black Cayuga ducklings would you?”
Keeping in mind the forecast for the weekend was 8 degrees and snow, and without heat in the barn, there is really no good place to keep ducks at the cabin, so I said no, but looked at them anyway. What he really wanted to do was get rid of the largest of the ducklings. I told him I needed to think about what they would need and I could get back to him on Monday.
“No”, he said, if no one took them today, he would get rid of them.
Hmmm.
So I figured the worst that happens is they don’t survive, and since I have two ponds of natural duck habitat, they would have a nice place to live once spring came…so I took them.
For now, they live in a rabbit cage in the little cabin. In a few weeks, I’ll move them to a pen in the barn, and then in a few more weeks, out to the pond.
So far, the suggested names include:
- Duck Vadar
- Bat Duck
- The 4 Tops
- Mocha
- Black Coffee
- Gilbert
- Indiana Quackers
- and finally Gladys Knight and the Pips
Black Cuyugas are good egg layers and good meat ducks — but rather than go to the trouble, I’ll put them to work eating the algae out of the little pond. We’ll see….
There is an old visual joke that is often attributed to the Iowa test of Basic Skills, however, it is usually used to refer to anyone you want to teasingly make fun of. The test reads like this:
M R ducks
M R not
O S A R
C M wangs?
L I B! M R ducks
The “key” or translation is
Them are ducks
Them are not
Oh yes they are
See them wings?
Well I’ll be! Them are ducks
How about the name Albert?
Cute little things, aren’t they??
[...] first thought the ducks, once grown, would live on the pond. My concern abou possible preators and the ducks becoming [...]
Nice looking Cayugas! We had two and named them Barack and Michelle Oducka. : )
Thanks for stopping by our blog. I wish I’d had better advice about the pond. Maybe if you start yours young enough they’ll follow you home better than ours did. Unfortunately, ours are completely pond ducks now. We only see them when they want crumbles and corn …
Oh, and the Cayugas are GREAT egg layers!
[...] 4 black cayuga ducks of Two Mile Ranch can get on and off the little pond by themselves. Getting to the pond, has [...]
[...] From the beginning, the ducks were a surprise addition to Two Mile Ranch. And while the drake “Gilbert” always regarded me with a compelling stare, “Mocha” was different, and special, from the get go. When they were just a few weeks old, as they grew in the tiny cage in the cabin, Mocha tended to lie down more than the others ducks, but Mocha also tolerated being held more, too. [...]