gotta love them

Those Damn Ducks!!!

mama ducks daughter nesting now.

      My old Mama duck has disappeared. I would like to hope she is out there somewhere sitting on a nest, much the same as she has done at this time of year before. Most of the time to no avail as something would come in and clean the nest out eating the eggs, and destroying her hard work, that of her sitting for endless hours on her nest brooding and incubating the eggs so the new ducklings have a chance to live. Even if they do make it out of the shell alive, she has lost whole flocks to predators. It is amazing that she was able to raise a flock and carry on the original ducks I received from my sister’s friend.

       She was the last of 6 ducks I had that over the years that have tried to perpetuate the line. I picked up Greenie after Mama Duck lost her mate, and then this spring Greenie disappeared with no trace what so ever as is usually the case. I have only fond one carcass of one of my Mama Duck’s babies from last year, where it appeared as though a coon, from what I have read, took its life. Usually they are carried off. I like to think they flew off to duck heaven. Ducks are strange animals as they don’t take to well to domestication as they don’t seem to follow any rules and make the rules up as they go.

    I had to chase Mama Duck down in the snow in order to get her in shelter due to losing her mate and being the only duck left in sub-freezing weather where she only had a little two foot hole to paddle around in as the rest of the pond was frozen. I could just imagine her being carried off as it would be easy to grab her also, or just being frozen in that hole, so I intervened and chased her through knee deep snow till I was finally able to grab her and carry her to the greenhouse. So every day for a couple months after that I would carry a five gallon bucket of water, morning and night to the greenhouse as the water was turned off up there due to the cold, and I would pour this water into a large tub and Mama Duck would jump in the water and splash around happier than anything, till the water was dirty, and then she would hop out and eat her grain. It was a riot watching her go through this ritual daily. I added Greenie and he joined in with her and soon the two of them were frolicking together.

mama duck in greenhouse 

    I had to kick them out of the greenhouse eventually, they were reluctant to leave , but spring had returned and the ponds were clear of ice an soon she took to nesting and lost her first batch of eggs to whatever and so for the second batch she decided to set up camp by my door. She built a nest right beside my entrance door, under a work table I had there at the time. She was so close that when I would walk in I would hear her hiss at me as if I was going to destroy her nest. For almost a month she sat on that nest and eventually she was able to hatch them all out. I think initially there was 6 , again something has come in and attacked them till there is only the goose , one brother of the one I have sitting on a nest outside my door now, an a white male  duck I acquired from the sale of a bale of hay. I had 3 females and 3 males when this season started and now I am down to one female and 2 males and one goose. The goose is another story altogether.

greenie and mama duck in greenhouse 

    Well Mama Duck after she lost her nest earlier, was going around with her daughter looking for new nesting areas, and she was at my back door showing her where she had her nest before. Since then I have replaced the table with a teepee for Babe my dog so that she would have some place to stay in, in the winter when she wants to just stay outside. She hasn’t been in it since spring and so Mama duck and her daughter were checking it out one day when I was exiting the house and the next thing I know Mama duck’s daughter set up, and is nesting on a batch of eggs outside my door again in Babe’s teepee, not more than 6 inches from my door. Although I can’t see the duck I can look inside the teepee and view here and took some pics of her. I will; also include some pics of Mama Duck also. I will miss Mama Duck and Greenie and all of them I have lost before them as ducks are a strange animals , quite animated and funny to watch and have been a great source of entertainment for me.

     Anyhow I hope this new Mama Duck can finally hatch out her brood and be able to carry on the line with the addition of more females to keep things going. We will see.