All posts by : Laurie

Here are the remainder of our flock, six happy ducks.  I’m not sure if they miss their friends, or wonder where they went.  This morning they were reluctant to come out of the house, then when I tried to walk them out to the big yard they didn’t want to go.  A couple of them ran back into the paddock and I had a hard time herding them out the gate.  Maybe they thought they would never come back.  They’ll get over it.  This afternoon they are sitting peacefully together under a tree.

I cleaned the duck house and pool this morning.  Hopefully we won’t have to do that quite as often with fewer ducks.  They’ve begun their first molt and are already losing the feathers they just got.  Seems unfair in a way.  Today I noticed the feathers that are falling out are getting bigger.  Sad.  But when the new feathers grow, they should be more colorful, so that will be fun.

Today was Drake Day.  Tim and a friend butchered four of the drakes.  I wasn’t watching, so will spare the details unless Tim wants to add a post on that.  All went well for a first time.  Probably we will try one of them for dinner tomorrow after aging overnight.

After all the work, I hope it’s good! They’re awfully small, and the two of us probably won’t get more than one meal out of them.  They were around 4-4.5 lbs alive, and 1.5 lbs cleaned and ready to cook.  A lot of that is bone and back parts that will probably go into soup stock.

The latest morning routine is to come out of the house with wings flapping.  I don’t know if it’s just to stretch and enjoy the fresh air, or to say “good morning” to the day, or to say “I want food.”  It’s cute.  See the video.

Eight Weeks Old and “On The Move”

The ducks are eight weeks old today.  They are still a joy to watch, particularly in the pool or when they are out foraging.  They enjoy being out in the “big yard” with all the weeds and grass they can eat.  They no longer get “lunch” from me, they find it on their own, and are now fed only twice a day.

They’re getting so big!  I enjoy just watching them and seeing how their feathers tuck up so neatly against their bodies and under the lower feathers that come up from their breast/abdomen.  The feathers are so soft, and the speculum feathers are beginning to turn dark blue.  In the morning when they get out of their house, they stand tall, stretch and flap their wings, which gives us a chance to see how much the wing feathers have grown.  Quite an improvement from the little stubs they had when they were little.

Soon we will be downsizing our flock, by learning to butcher and clean the drakes.  It does seem like messy business, but I think it’s right to be more intimately connected to our food sources.  These ducks have been treated respectfully and will be to the end.  I’m still likely to keep Whitey, just because he’s the mellowest and most fun to watch.  We’re also considering keeping one of the WH drakes for breeding purposes, although we need to think more about that.  If we breed, we’d probably attempt to allow one of the hens to set and hatch the eggs rather than bring them indoors to an incubator.  Don’t know.  More research and thinking will be necessary to decide.

Here is a better video showing our new fenced yard for the ducks.  Tim kindly mentioned that the last one was boring, and I agree.  I’ve deleted the previous one.  This one gives a better shot of the ducks at their current size and shows the new yard that they are learning to enjoy.  At 6 1/2 weeks old, they’re getting pretty big.  They now freely walk from their paddock (where the pool is) to the yard as they please during the day while we are home.

Another change!  We’ve fenced in the larger area outside their completely enclosed paddock. This larger area is full of grass and weeds where they can enjoy foraging during the day when we’re home and the cat is in the house.  The fence has an electric wire near the bottom, and another at the top to keep predators out, also to keep the horses from leaning over to eat grass and ruin the fence.

At first the ducks were afraid to be out there, but today is their second day out so herding them out was much easier.  I took their food out there first thing this morning when they were hungry.  (Follow the food…)  They are taking to the foraging idea quite well and seem to enjoy nibbling on the grass.  Everywhere they go, they still go as a pack.  Ten ducks all together with one large white one taller than the rest is pretty darn cute.

More changes.  We’ve switched from the small pool to a larger, deeper one.  Tim put a drain in this one so it will be easier to empty & clean.  Nice.  Unfortunately, it’s downhill from the garden, so it will be difficult to get that nice, duck-poopy water into the garden, but perhaps we’ll figure something out.

10 ducks in the small pool were getting pretty crowded!

At first the ducks were afraid of the new pool and wouldn’t go near it.  I put the nice ramp up, but they haven’t quite figured that out yet.  Sometimes I put some chopped greens on the ramp, and they’ll walk up halfway eating the greens, but not yet into the pool.  Sometimes they’ll get onto the ramp to get out of the pool (there’s a brick step inside the pool leading to the ramp), but they jump off before reaching the bottom.  One of them finally walked down it yesterday, and I got a snapshot.  Perhaps they do it when I’m not looking!  Generally they manage to get from the first (lower) step into the pool, but little by little I’ve seen a couple of them step up to the second step, then into the pool (smart ducks).  We’ll leave the ramp there and see if they get the hang of it.

One comes down the ramp!

They like the bigger pool.  They’ve figured out that they can dive under, swim across, then come up again, and sometimes do summersaults in the water.  It’s a joy to watch them in the pool.  It’s funny, but sometimes some of them seem to prefer drinking up the muddy water beside the pool rather than get in, while the others are in for a swim.  Oh well, to each his own!

There have been lots of changes!  The ducks are six weeks old now, they’re getting bigger and adding more feathers every day.  It’s interesting to watch how the feathers are growing out, particularly on the wings.  When they stand up and stretch out their wings, I get a better idea of where each of the different types of feathers start, and how they fold up neatly when not in use.

Two of the ducks (female), 5 1/2 weeks old

The drakes and ducks are easy to tell apart now.  The drakes have much more color all over. The back area above the tail is darker on the drakes and shows a different pattern.  I don’t know if you can tell in these pictures, but it’s quite obvious.  The ducks are quacking quite loudly now, but the drakes still peep.  It’s a louder peep, but still a peep.  Oh, the “mystery”, Whitey, is quite clearly still peeping and therefore, a drake.

One of the drakes (male), 5 1/2 weeks old

Our plan all along was to butcher the drakes.  At first we thought we’d be brave and adventurous and do it
ourselves.  Then we found out about a poultry processing plant nearby that does them, packages them up and freezes them, and we thought that would save us the effort.  Then we found out that they no longer do ducks.  Now we aren’t so sure we want to go to the effort of learning to do it ourselves, so we’ve put the drakes up for sale on craigslist.  So far, there have been no responses.  From the reading I’ve done, it sounds like the best time for butchering will be in another 2-3 weeks or so.  We’ve been so busy, I don’t know that we need another project, but I guess it’ll have to be done, and we may have to do it.

I was realizing that for centuries, probably the majority of families did this kind of thing themselves all the time.  It was probably only the few wealthiest folks who didn’t.  We’ve gotten so disconnected with our food sources!  I think it’s good to have a better recognition of where our food comes from…the garden, the fowl and animals…and appreciate what our Creator has given us.  Thanking Him for the provision of our food will take on new meaning as we butcher our own.

It’s kind of nice that the drakes are just “the drakes” en masse, and I don’t think losing them will be a problem.   …Then there’s Whitey.  I can’t help it.  He is just too cute and too different from the others, I want to keep him.  He’s fatter and slower and easier to catch than the rest.  He sits down a lot, and the others step on him frequently.  I’ve decided to keep him around, at least for a while, so I guess it’ll be “Whitey and the girls”.  I want to see what he’s like as a bigger duck.  I want to keep in mind that he may very well become dinner, and may nickname him “Thanksgiving”, but we’ll see as time goes on.

Whitey (“Thanksgiving”?) – 5 1/2 weeks old