the six-pack :: 2016-2019
Our “Six-Pack” of ducklings arrived in early August 2016. Many mail-order companies require a minimum of ten ducklings, but we didn’t want that many. We wanted only layers and no extra drakes we would have to butcher. We found that Metzer Farms will send a smaller order of ducklings (for an extra charge we were willing to pay).
These six were a beautiful selection of ducks. Although we rarely knew which ducks were producing which eggs, we usually had 4-6 eggs per day during the first two lay seasons. One duck never molted the first year and laid continuously through the fall. Coco, our Chocolate Runner, laid green eggs, so we always knew which one was hers. Blackie, the Cayuga, laid black eggs at the beginning of the season, but within a week they became white like all the others. The egg production the first two years was as expected, and we generally enjoyed having these ducks.
WHITEY :: WHITE LAYER
Whitey was perhaps our best duck. I believe she may have been the duck that never molted the first year, although I am unsure. She was generally calm and I could give her a pet when she came to the food trough.
BLACKIE :: CAYUGA
Blackie was a beautiful black duck with greenish highlights in the sunshine. She laid black eggs at the beginning of each season, which later turned to white. I had a hunch she was not one of our best layers, but couldn’t say for sure. She was a noisy duck and seemed to be the ring-leader of the others, inciting more quacking from everyone else. After she was culled they all seemed a bit calmer, for a while anyway.
HARLEY & QUINN :: WELSH HARLEQUIN DUCKS
I had a hard time telling these apart, but one had a slightly darker head than the other. I believe they were consistent layers until the last year. One of them (Quinn) seemed to stop laying eggs early in the last season. We separated her for a while to be sure, and culled her from the flock. I just didn’t want to be feeding 5 ducks only to get 3 eggs. Late in the last season we were only getting 2 eggs out of the four remaining ducks and determined that Harley was either egg-bound or having some respiratory difficulty. She constantly heaved and never laid
another egg. After soaking her in warm water and massaging her vent with oil, it seemed there was no egg within. We put her out of her misery.
FAWN :: FAWN & WHITE RUNNER
Fawn was a fun girl who also allowed me to pet her at mealtime. She had the most endearing personality. I enjoyed watching both runners run—very cute. During most of their last season, she seemed to only lay soft-shell eggs, and they came rarely. She would often lay later in the day, finding a nest spot somewhere outside of the paddock. It was like an Easter egg hunt to find her soft eggs. We retired her near the end of the last season, after we determined for sure she was only laying soft shells.
COCO :: CHOCOLATE RUNNER
As mentioned elsewhere, Coco became a noisy, crabby duck in the end. Prior to that, she was a good layer, and her green eggs always allowed us to know which were hers. The first couple of years she had an even temperament and was a fun duck to watch, running along with Fawn.
GOLDEN GAITS GARDEN POSTS
When we first got the Six-Pack ducklings we were still recording events on our old blogs, “Golden Gaits Garden” and “Mountain Gaitway.” Below are posts from those blogs, which may be redundant, but show our enthusiasm for these new ducklings.
NEW DUCKLINGS COMING
It’s been a long time since the last duck update. We now have just two of the Golden Cascades, Gertrude and Spot. After dealing with the prolapsed oviduct issues with Bess, then with Gertrude and Ellie May, we decided to remove Wily, our drake, from the flock in April. We
BIG DUCKS, LITTLE DUCKS
The baby ducks have been moved out to the Duckagon with the big ducks. They are separated from the big ducks for a bit until they get a little bigger. After putting them into the Duckagon, Laurie had to “encourage” them to come out and explore. The big ducks and
“SIX-PACK” GROWS UP
The “baby” ducklings are now 9 weeks old, and all grown up! Nine Weeks Old We just have the six ducks now. We gave away the two remaining Golden Cascades. It just seemed easier to deal with feeding and caring for the six young’uns. When we took the six-pack out
WINTER DUCKS
Our ducks fare well even in the winters here at 9,000 feet. Our temperatures can range from roughly +60F to -20F. The other day it literally started out at -5F and reached +60F in the afternoon! Most often the sun is out at least a portion of the day, occasionally not.
THE 2016 SIX-PACK HAS RETIRED
Our “Six-Pack” of ducks from 2016 is no longer with us. For various reasons, we have culled the flock one by one. Most of them were removed because they had stopped laying eggs, or laid only soft-shell eggs. We began raising our small, 2019 flock of ducklings while we still