I belong to a lot of
community boards. 2:30 one afternoon I
saw a posting of someone getting ready to leave town and wanting to get rid of
ducks. I didn’t see an amount and said I
would take them if they were free. Not
expecting to get any but it doesn't hurt to ask. At 3: I got a
response saying they were free AND they would bring them to me. YAY So I started figuring out a place to put
them to have them get used to the dogs and us before we let them into the pond
but I didn’t put too much effort into it because I was ½ sure it wasn’t going
to happen.
Ducks and sheep meeting for first time.
The 9 Dutch Harliquine Ducks
arrived at 4: and after we put the ducks in the ½ of the sheep pen we don’t
normally use I showed the ladies who were giving them to us the pond. I think that convinced them they were giving
the ducks to a happy home. Right away
Oakley got protective of the ducks and when one of the ladies went to go into
the duck pen Oakley gave her a low growl.
The man we bought our
pigs from saw the postings on Facebook about the ducks and asked me if we
wanted more. I know nothing about ducks
and asked if they would fight or if the two groups would get along. He thought they would get along as soon as a
pecking order was established. So he
brought his 9 mixed breeds of ducks over 2 days after we got the first batch.
Wild ducks checking out the new ducks.
Every year in the
fall 3 to 10 wild ducks spend winter in the pond. I guess they fly this far south and decide why
go further.
Happy wild ducks.
The wild ducks arrived the
same day as our second set of 9. We went
from no ducks to 21 or more in 2 days.
We kept the ducks in
the enclosure for 10 days. When I
decided to let them into the pond they were not happy to leave the encloseure
and kept running back to it. Finally I
decided to pick one up and put her into the pond and see if the rest would
follow.
Nothing happens without the sheep helping. They did chase a few ducks out of their pen for me.
The first duck that I
dropped into the pond at first acted shocked and started swimming for the bank
but then realized how wonderful swimming was and started splashing in the
water.
I did 4 more and the response was
always the same with each one, a shocked get me out of here followed by woo hoo
how fun!
The ducks left behind were
quacking like crazy but the ducks in the pond were too happy to quack they just
swam and explored the water.
They almost are over the edge.
From here they can see the pond! PLEASE go in!
Please water is just 5 steps away!
See your friends having fun!
I tried
herding the rest into the pond but they kept looping back to the pen so I went
back to picking up each one and dropping it into the water. I did 9 more when Wonderful Teen Son came
home and helped with the rest.
