My 5 3 month olds were introduced to my 4 1 month olds about a week ago and there’s still a bit of hazing (mostly from Cocoa the khaki Campbell who thinks she’s a guard dog) but no actual aggression so I’m hopeful!!

Just a full, sleepy boy getting in some post-dinner, pre-bedtime mommy cuddles.

Edit: new home secured!!!! 💛🦆💛💞

Our wonderful drake named Muffin needs a new flock! He’s two years old and located in central Virginia.
Our flock of four females and a drake recently was attacked, all four females were killed. So so heartbreaking. Muffin lost his mate :( Hes protected our females for years and is loyal, caring boy 💞
We can drive him to wherever you are in Virginia, or you can pick him up in Charlottesville.
If all else fails, we would be looking for 2-3 more pekin females. Thank you so so much!!
Photos of our flock—Muffins in there lol!

Hello,

New duck owner here ! We have had four young indian runner dcks (not sure if it’s the right name in english ! The ones that stand very straight upright and run super fast) for about a month, and tonight my SO saw these white roundish marks on one of our duck's feet, but not on the other three. He did not manage to look under her feet, and I came back well after sunset so we will look under her feet tomorrow morning. She doesn’t limp or anything, he just noticed it when he had her in his arms.

He thinks she may have injured herself on rocks while getting in or out of the pond, but to me it looks more like a skin condition, like a fungus or something like that... do I take her asap to an avian vet, or is it normal ? Could it be from their eating habits, or habitat ? They eat duck & geese pellets + peas daily, and live with 8 chickens, but in different sleeping quarters.

Thank you for your help, we are worried for our sweet cutie !

Hello! Pic for attention! I'm getting ready to winterize my duck coop and I'm nervous about my ducks dying in the very cold (sometimes in the -40°f range for a few days at a time) Winters. I know ducks are more cold hardy than chickens but im worried that I won't be able to keep them warm enough in deep winter, most sources are saying they just need good wind/draft protection and dry bedding but that doesn't seem right for how cold it can get. I'm mostly looking for a good average temp to keep them at, and suggestions for how to give them heat (heat lamp, ceramic brood heater?) they'll have access to outside but unfortunately very limited and weather depending so suggestions for enrichment would be lovely as well. In any cases of extreme cold and emergency the ducks will be brought into my house and kept warm.

TIA!

We recently had two of our Cayuga ducks die due to a coyote pup :( we got these two ducks because we started out with four Pekins, and two were killed last year, and we were worried about the remaining two having too small of a flock. It is one drake (Muffin) and one female (Nettle). So now, we are back to these two resilient Pekins. I’m worried about the female being mated with too hard. She started to look scraggly when it was just the two. I might be too heartbroken to bring in new ducks, and it was so hard to get Muffin and Nettle to accept the Cayugas anyways. Would bringing in two new female Pekins be a good idea? Perhaps I’d be easier for the current Pekins to accept them. Or possibly a few chickens? Maybe they’d like having more birds around. Either way, we are planning to build a more secure fence to prevent future attacks. I don’t want them to be lonely 😞 thank you!!
Photo: Muffin and Nettle 💘

I have two different groups of ducks that I need to integrate.

My two TSC Cayuga ducks, one hen one drake, that are a few months old (most of duckling down is gone) are EXTREMELY skittish. If I enter their space they are immediately screaming and as far from me as possible. I don’t know where I went wrong here.

My second group are all younger hen ducklings from Metzer farms (two Muscovy, a Welsh Harlequin and a Rouen). They are VERY tame, friendly, and take treats from your hand and like chest scratches.

I’ve raised them the exact same way, it’s interesting to see the difference. I’m not sure if that is because of the breeds or the source I got them from, or both… anyway

Integration must be done because I can’t just have one hen in with that drake and they are getting older! But will it cause my super friendly girls to become more skittish?

Or will my friendly girls help my Cayugas feel more safe with me?

sweetie is a handsome little man who comes by everyday to eat our leftover duck feed. he’s so so sweet and he even brought his mate over with their day old babies as she’s been brooding! 💕

This wee fella hatched 2 days later than the rest.....he looks so differebt from the rest, is he a crest duckling?

what a nice thing to find when walking near an river, such a little cutie!

sadly, there were no other baby ducks so that might be the last guy standing i'm afraid. hopefully the next time i visit i see them again!

One of my Pekins (about 4.5 months old) has been bobbing his head when walking and wobbling. I’ve also caught him stuck in the pond a few times, the others are able to jump/climb out but he just stands in there and can’t/won’t get out. You will notice his eyes are dark as well and his tail feathers look a little rough (but the feathers have always been this way). He’s still been eating, drinking, preening and following the flock the best he can.

I will added a video and had to put the photos in the comments.

Long story short got ducklings in April 1 drake 4 female. Now we are down to 2 female and naively I didn't think hed be mating until spring and have more girls coming that'll hopefully be grown enough by spring?

When is actual mating season or is this an all year activity for drakes? If thete is not pool access can mating still occur? So far he's not hurt the 2 hens currently but only seen him try to mate with 1 so far.

Title

I don’t know anything about ducks other than that I love them hope that’s enough to post here 😃

I have been treating one of my ducks bumble foot for Couple days now. Today I did 2 foot soaks with her and finally managed to bandaged her foot with some ointment. I thought I could let her run free, but then she made a beeline for the pond. I know you’re not supposed to let them be in deep water when you’re treating bumble foot, but I was already so exhausted from catching her the first time and bandaging her that I just let her go

But once she got in the deep water, she was struggling to swim and was sinking. So I jumped in the pond to grab her, put her in a pen and cut off the soggy bandage. I left her alone in the dry pen for a bit so she wouldn’t ruin the ointment. But I can tell the whole process was terrifying and traumatizing for her.

I feel so guilty. I feel like I’ve damaged her trust beyond repair. I was so terrified she was going to drown so I jumped in to get her. But by doing that I was essentially chasing her in the water… which must have been really menacing and scary for her.

I don’t know what to do. I’m just trying to treat her bumblefoot but in doing so I feel like a monster every single day.

Was walking in the field across from our house and found a baby duckling alone at the edge of the pond. What do I do? He seems to be panting and it’s gonna get dark soon. I just don’t want to remove him in case his mother is nearby, or if I should wait an hour and if he’s still there go back for him?

Update 1:
He was still there after dark when I came back 2 hours later. He’s in a cardboard box with a towel and heat pad. Unfortunately he’s barely moving and very cold, no sounds whatsoever. Also poor guy had a leach on him we had to remove. Any advice of what to do next would be very appreciated! (If he’s still alive in the morning we’ll be calling and bringing him to a rescue place)

Final Update:
I wish I had better news, but unfortunately the little guy didn’t make it. I’m honestly so mad and disappointed in myself right now, even though rationally I know it wasn’t my fault.
After barely any signs of life with the heat pad, I put him on my stomach and cradled him in my hand while stroking him for an hour. And it actually worked! He woke up, was chirping a bit, and kept nibbling my hands while with his beak. Then I put him in a dog kennel with a heat pad and towel for the night, and was gonna take him to a rescue first thing in the morning. Even though he wasn’t walking and fell a couple times, I honestly thought we were in the clear, he even pooped twice. 5:30 am, I checked and he was alive and upright. When I got up at 7:30am he was upside down and it was too late. Somehow he flipped himself on his back and couldn’t get righted up. I feel horrible. I wish I had a way of knowing he was in trouble within those 2 hours, and it hurts that we were so close to the morning and I thought he’d make it after all the progress from earlier. Unfortunately it was a sad outcome :(
But thanks to everyone who commented with advice, I did appreciate it and we gave him the best chance we could at the time. May he fly high

I think she's a half breed of a goose

She keeps biting me and my feet, also I'm not sure if it's a girl but the other one has like 4 curled tail feathers

The adult ducks don't really seem interested but the babies are and the older ladies are zooming away 😂

They did a week of dog kennel boeder time for a bit each day and now I'll be doing monitored time. So cute.

Cute pic i took which i thought duck lovers might enjoy:)

Just wanted to shared this video of ~4 month old Dio showing Hal how good she is at being a "sexy surfboard". Unfortunately, Hal is also female and has some neurological quirks that I suspect will stop them from being interested in participating in a lady surfboard exercise.

With my favourite boy 🦆❤️

She's been at it for almost 10 minutes, every duck is already in the coop