The ducklings are very active and getting up to all sorts of hijinx :) They're keeping me very busy but it's a lot of fun to watch them run around and be silly.
The Khaki Campbell's are considerably more high strung than the Muscovy. But that's not a stretch since I think that those Muscovy ducks are just about the calmest baby animal I've ever encountered!
The different ducks and the baby chicks all live separately since it would be unsafe for 3 little ducklings to live with 15 giant ducklings, and ducks are too wet and sloppy for good chicken health. But this weekend I put the KC's outside in an enclosure so they could get used to being outdoors and give them some fresh air but they just wouldn't come out of their shelter. So I picked out my two smallest and sweetest Muscovy girls to school the KC's in the zen of calm. It worked like a charm! Soon they were all splashing around and talking to each other, then later I saw they'd all snuggled up together. A couple of days ago I tried putting all the Muscovy outside together but I had to carry them in batches of 5 and the more of them that disappeared from the others the more terrified the remaining group became. So I decided that it was just too stressful for them. Next weekend they should have enough feathers to safely move into their permanent outdoor duck enclosure and maybe a week or so later they can start running free all over the yard.
Moose-dog Cooper must have missed her calling as a mom... she has certainly taken on the responsibility for watching over the ducks and gets very concerned when I do something that gets them all in a peeping panic - like carry them outside. At night I have the mooses sleep in the barn just to make sure I provide no opportunities to predators and now when I open the barn door in the morning I find the Muscovy out of their brooder and sleeping on the bed with the dogs! Guess that was a good idea too since it's important that they form a strong relationship :)
The Khaki Campbell's are considerably more high strung than the Muscovy. But that's not a stretch since I think that those Muscovy ducks are just about the calmest baby animal I've ever encountered!
The different ducks and the baby chicks all live separately since it would be unsafe for 3 little ducklings to live with 15 giant ducklings, and ducks are too wet and sloppy for good chicken health. But this weekend I put the KC's outside in an enclosure so they could get used to being outdoors and give them some fresh air but they just wouldn't come out of their shelter. So I picked out my two smallest and sweetest Muscovy girls to school the KC's in the zen of calm. It worked like a charm! Soon they were all splashing around and talking to each other, then later I saw they'd all snuggled up together. A couple of days ago I tried putting all the Muscovy outside together but I had to carry them in batches of 5 and the more of them that disappeared from the others the more terrified the remaining group became. So I decided that it was just too stressful for them. Next weekend they should have enough feathers to safely move into their permanent outdoor duck enclosure and maybe a week or so later they can start running free all over the yard.
Moose-dog Cooper must have missed her calling as a mom... she has certainly taken on the responsibility for watching over the ducks and gets very concerned when I do something that gets them all in a peeping panic - like carry them outside. At night I have the mooses sleep in the barn just to make sure I provide no opportunities to predators and now when I open the barn door in the morning I find the Muscovy out of their brooder and sleeping on the bed with the dogs! Guess that was a good idea too since it's important that they form a strong relationship :)
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