Tag Archives: ducks

True Grit -and- The World is My Oyster (shell)

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From left to right, the duck egg, last week's pheasant egg, and a store purchased chicken egg

From left to right, the duck egg, last week's pheasant egg, and a store purchased chicken egg

I shared the discovery of the first pheasant egg, and Sunday, I found the first duck egg.  It was broken and was on the wood platform the duck swimming pool rests on.

Whether the duck egg broke on the wood, was stepped on by one of the ducks, or had a soft shell due to it being the first egg and the warm weather?  I don’t know.  But it’s time to think about nutrition. Tuesday night, I found an intact duck egg.  smaller than what they will be in time and with the grey color described in early cayuga ducks.

I’ve been feeding a general flock raiser blended feed that has about 18 percent protein to both the  pheasants and the ducks.   The youngest pheasants are on a 27% protein feed through their 6th week, then tape to the lower protein.

The ducks eat from a dog bowl, and the grit and oyster shell is in the green container

The ducks eat from a dog bowl, and the grit and oyster shell is in the green container

The calcium in this feed is too low for laying birds , Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducks: Breeds, Care, Health suggests 3 – 4 percent, so its time to add calcium to their diet in the form of oyster shell.  At the same time, even though the ducks eat on the pond a lot, I don’t know for sure they are getting enough grit for their gizzards, so I added a container of grit for them to free choice from.

The chickens will also need calcium, they are still on a grower ration of about 20 percent protein and I’ll add calcium to the feeder for them to free choice as well.  The roosters eat the same feed, so the hens can ge the oyster shell as they choose.  I’ll  move the hens to a 16 percent layer ration in a month or when I see the first hen egg, which ever comes first.

I also removed the wood platform from the duck run and spread more wood chips around the pool to reduce the mud and make a softer area in case someone else decided to lay an egg or two there.  And sure enough, that’s where Tuesday’s egg was found.

Duck :30

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The Peabody Hotel in Memphis parades a pair of ducks through the lobby every afternoon.  Every 6 months or so, they get new ducks.  Big whup!

The 4 black cayuga ducks of Two Mile Ranch can get on and off the little pond by themselves.  Getting to the pond, has never been a problem, getting OFF the pond was a curious time.

First, for just a few hours, and they stayed close to the edges.  I could pick them up from the side.

Then, I had to move on to wearing my waterboots, the ducks would slip away and swim to deeper water when I wanted to take them off for the night.

From there, it was a short hop tome wearing full chest waders, herding the ducks, trying to convince them to go in.  Ultimately, I ended up in the small boat Chase and I built, herding them around the pond and then steering them out.  I asked around and unlike chickens, ducks don’t usually put themselves to bed each night.  And then, an amazing thing happened.

The ducks started to get out on their own each day. First it was every other day of me trying to herd them in, then it was pretty regular: when it is duck :30 — a time decided upon by ducks in their own duck fashion, they get out of the pond, walk up the hill to the cabin, and wait for me to heard them back to their pen.

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Gilbert, Indiana Quackers, and Duck Vadar wait at the waters edge while Mocha swims

The drake duck is Gilbert, and he leads Indiana Quackers and Duck Vadar  around the pond most of the time.  Mocha, who has either a vision or neuro problem, doesn’t walk well and is often on her own, but is the on-water leader most of the time.  If there is trouble or concern, the other three usually turn to Mocha for leadership. Often, this means, if Mocha doesn’t want to come off the pond, the others will usually not come off either.

When they do walk back, often Mocha leads, but sometimes the others lead.  Gilbert, the drake, walks and then remembers he’s supposed to establish his dominance, so he nips at my pant leg, left, right,left,right….and then goes back to walking.

This is a video of them on their walk Friday evening at Duck :30. It begins with Mocha in some tall grass. Gilbert, with the  greenest head, charges the camera in the middle, and in the end, he is the last one through the pen gate.

The duck house

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I don’t know where this is going to end up.

"Gilbert" stands next to the duck wading poolI first thought the ducks, once grown, would live on the pond.  My concern about possible predators and the ducks becoming midnight snacks for coyotes had me thinking of a floating duck house.  Then the option of building or perhaps buying a dog house kit — and starting the ducks in the pen, and moving them to the pond.

So in the middle of this thinking, the ducks finally received their official and final names:  The largest duck is Gilbert.  The two middle ducks who tend to stick to gether are Duck Vadar and Indiana Quackers.  Quackers is the nosiest of the group and often runs with his bill open.  The most independent — but also — most human friendly, is Mocha

The duck house idea was easily resolved by my friend, Jerry O’Rourke, and his sons during a recent visit to help me find scraps and boards in the wood piles to build our own:

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The ducks moved into the pheasant pen and into the duck house for a few nights before the tempreatures dropped back into the low 30′s and high 20′s.  They dont have all their feathers yet, so to keep warm, I moved them back into the heated box in the barn.  After this week, they may be able to move back out.

M R Ducks

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Black Cayuga Ducklings

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

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