# Ducks in the family!



## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Ha! I am so excited! Apparently some of my relatives outside of TO are getting into ducks!

Made me wonder if any of you guys keep them, or any other farm type animals?

I have no idea what type at all but I'll post pics when I can  My daughter is going to be so excited! (of freaked... she has yet to meet a duck lol)


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## Kerohime (Jan 10, 2011)

My cousins kept a pair of ducks... 
The ducklings are extremely cute, but they are really really messy if you keep them indoors or if you dont have a pond. They just kept the ducks in the back yard and reared the ducklings indoors with soggy dog chow (Dont know what is the conventional method, but that seemed to work).


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

oohh these guys will def be outside.  Turns out my brother n law will be getting chickens as well! Meat birds and egg layers.... UBER excited!


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## MsGardeness (Apr 12, 2010)

Do you know when they will be getting the ducks or what kind of ducks? I think it's neat!


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## arapaimag (Dec 6, 2007)

I've owned call ducks and black swans (no special permit needed for black swans) up till about 7 years ago outside March till November. 

A friend then overwintered them for me on his farm and they did not make it one year so I have never replaced them.

Still do keep pheasants (outside all year) and cage birds (outside in warm months).


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## Sameer (Sep 30, 2007)

Will the ducks be sharing the aquarium as well?


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

MsGardeness said:


> Do you know when they will be getting the ducks or what kind of ducks? I think it's neat!


Ohh pretty sure its two Pekings, as far as the chickens I am not too sure. I am sooo excited, and very much so for my 2 year old. She's terribly fond of our cranky parrot and helps care for the finches. So baby ducks and chickens should be a real hoot for her. 



arapaimag said:


> I've owned call ducks and black swans (no special permit needed for black swans) up till about 7 years ago outside March till November.
> 
> A friend then overwintered them for me on his farm and they did not make it one year so I have never replaced them.
> 
> Still do keep pheasants (outside all year) and cage birds (outside in warm months).


Pheasants? That is very awesome! Someone else mentioned call ducks as well, I'll have to bring that up to my niece and see what she thinks



Sameer said:


> Will the ducks be sharing the aquarium as well?


LOL! I think they will be getting their own pool. From what I was reading the baby ducks need to be supervised when swimming since they can get waterlogged. I had no idea about that


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Duck eggs are really tasty. Some types will lay 200 eggs a year. Hard to beat a goose egg though. We had a female wild mallard overwinter one year. We had some Kahki Campbells, which look like mallards. She would follow the male into the barn every night.


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

My parents thought it was a good idea to buy a baby duck for me when i was 4 yrs old. Unfortunately ducks carry a ton of diseases and almost got me killed. Seriously, I was in hospital for 2 weeks. And they smell really bad and poop everywhere my parents said.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

well my niece is 19, so I am sure she will be careful not to get poop in her mouth.

My daughter is two, but just as with our turtles...we take great care when handling the animals.

OOhh cool bill! I have never had duck eggs or duck in my life..  Pretty excited actually


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## arapaimag (Dec 6, 2007)

Lets see the ducks................


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## arapaimag (Dec 6, 2007)

Here are Ronald, Donald and Daffy.

I got these from another hobbyist 7 weeks ago. After training them in a small yard and aviary for a few weeks I took them down a trail/boardwalk to a couple of larger ponds. Here they are on the walkway which goes through a small treed area.


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## arapaimag (Dec 6, 2007)

Here are a couple in one of the ponds


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

oohh thats awesome, I don't know if quackers and cheese would ever come back if we let them into a big pond. LOL We are pretty new to the idea of training..

Those ducks are very cool, I do love the black.
So here are some of the chickens!! i do have baby pics which I will also upload..

I brought worms, we are now the favorites with the birds. <3 My daughter esp, the egg layers have been very shy but after some fun with the worms the chicks run to her. LOL

Some pics!

First these are the food birds, I care very much for these birds but I know to keep my distance. I am amazed at the growth this breed of bird put on. I can see why large mass breeders don't let them wander around. My brother n law had tried to get them out into the run so he could fix the flooring and two birds died that night, heart attacks or something but they stress so easily and don't move much at all.

They still have a full run so hopefully they do okay. Really sweet birds..


















Some of the egg layers! If you guys know the names feel free to share 


































This bird is my fav, or at least one of them LOL She is lucky, they thought she was one of the food birds but I noticed that black on her back. I thought, ohh gee... now I can point you out. I don't want to get attached. So I sorta ignored her a bit. Turns out she wasnt a food breed! LOL Very pleased about that. She has beautiful eyes..


























These three are all over us now when they figured out that we give treats. LOL They just adore my daughter.









































and the ducks! Quakers and Cheese 









thx for looking!~


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## arapaimag (Dec 6, 2007)

Thanks for the pics. Seems like quite a few birds.


Does your daughter enjoy visiting the animals?


Mine are Call ducks.

If they are trained in a pen to know thats where they are fed they will return each night before dark to the pen on their own.

Although I did train mine to return they were denied entry one evening when a gate had closed in a wind storm. So they now stay in the back area with 2 ponds to roam around for food.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

oohh she does enjoy them a lot. She likes the idea of taking care of them as well and is always there to help


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## arapaimag (Dec 6, 2007)

This is my ducks larger pond.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I am trying to push a large pond build into my brothers head.  Right now they only have a kiddy pool, but it would be so nice to build them something like that.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Been a while since I have been around chickens, but the meat birds look like they are probably White Rocks which get quite large and also lay a lot of eggs, the red ones, Rhode Island Reds, and the dark ones, I'm not sure of.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Should be cool to see how much they change as more feathers come in. 

Man, I'll google those white rocks. I didnt even realize how fragile these birds are. I do love them, I am not supposed too, but I do. lol

This little quote sure does explain exactly how I feel at times with them that is for sure.


> At this point, it's safe to say that I'm no fan of White Rock Cornish X chickens. Without a doubt, they convert feed to meat incredibly&#8230;efficiently-compare the lone Frey's Special Dual Purpose at the top center of the pic, surrounded by hulking, waddling White Rocks two and three times its size.
> 
> What they gain in meat, they lose in basic chicken-ness&#8230; This first flock of mine are lumbering birds, with no taste for the outdoors, no built-in scratching skills, they're definitely not up for dust baths or foraging through tall grass.
> 
> They sit around, eat like crazy, drink, and, here and there, just kinda spontaneously DIE. I've learned a lot from this first go-round with meat birds, and I haven't entirely rejected the White Rocks-I'm saving my final&#8230;evaluation for after they're off to the slaughter in 2-3 weeks. More to follow&#8230;


http://tinyfarmblog.com/freys-vs-white-rock/


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