We have acquired DUCKS!

[luzula]

Here they are in their enclosure (which is hopefully fox-proof), near their little house which they don't seem very interested in. They are keeping their distance. They do not trust us. This is understandable given that we bundled them squawking into cardboard boxes and abducted them from their previous home. However, they seem to be reasonably happy with their enclosure. They are runner ducks, which move quite fast and upright, but do not fly, and look kind of like deformed mallards.

They do seem to accept the house as a place for laying eggs in! We found these two in the morning. According to the previous owners the females (of which we have two) lay an egg a day. \o/ We scrambled the eggs and had them with lunch. They are bigger than hen eggs and were delicious. I am however a little worried about how we will know how much to feed them--it must be an effort for them to lay that much!

I have the impression that they think their enclosure is fine, but they love the big enclosure with the vegetable beds, where we herded them this morning! The previous owners said they were great slug eaters, which is good, because Sweden has an invasive slug problem (the slugs want to eat the vegetables you grow). A few days before the ducks came, housemate went out with a scissors in the morning and cut 450 slugs. /o\ /o\ Hopefully the ducks will help with this.

The ducks are just instant joy! You look at them and go "awwww, how are they so cute and ridiculous?" and "yay, eating slugs now!". Soon: DUCKLINGS. A friend of ours is incubating some eggs for us so we can eventually have more ducks!

Comments

[badly_knitted]

Yay ducks! Goodbye slugs!

[luzula]

Hopefully so!

[sovay]

The ducks are just instant joy! You look at them and go "awwww, how are they so cute and ridiculous?" and "yay, eating slugs now!". Soon: DUCKLINGS. A friend of ours is incubating some eggs for us so we can eventually have more ducks!

Hooray for ducks!

We had ducklings for a couple of years when I was a child; I have intensely fond memories.

[luzula]

Hooray indeed!

I have children coming here to visit soon, and I think they will enjoy the ducks.

DUCKS!

[jesse_the_k]

They are very tall! May they provide you with an endless supply of eggs while snacking on every slug in sight.

(By the way, this is also the title of one of my favorite graphic novels).

Re: DUCKS!

[luzula]

The tallness is because they are the runner breed! They are elongated and the wings are placed wrong for their center of gravity, which is why they can't fly. And thank you. : )

(I have read and appreciated it!)

[nineveh_uk]

Ducks! May they destroy the slugs and porvide many delicious eggs.

[luzula]

Indeed! I do hope so.

[sanguinity]

Yay, ducks!

We had geese growing up, and they were great fun to watch, too.

The eggs were HUGE. We built an incubator, but alas, we were never able to get the thermostat to hold a steady temperature. But we might have been doomed before we began. Even our best run -- a couple weeks -- didn't seem to result in a developing embyro, now matter how we candled them.

[luzula]

I suppose geese are great if one has abundant grass that one wants eaten! I have also heard that geese provide more Drama than ducks?

Hmm. I suppose there's also the difficulty of knowing whether there was a male goose involved in the egg production or not...

[osprey_archer]

Ducks!!! So excited to hear about your culinary adventures with duck eggs.

[luzula]

It will be great to be self-sufficient on eggs! Well, we do buy their feed (what they need beyond eating slugs and other critters), but perhaps in the future we can grow more of that.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>We Have Acquired DUCKS!<<

Ducks are awesome. :D

>> We scrambled the eggs and had them with lunch. They are bigger than hen eggs and were delicious.<<

Duck eggs make a marvelous quiche, especially with duck bacon. We find it here occasionally.

>>According to the previous owners the females (of which we have two) lay an egg a day. <<

Ducks tend to lay in spring, and some breeds do produce a fair amount of eggs, but don't expect them to lay as much or as long as hens.

>> I am however a little worried about how we will know how much to feed them--it must be an effort for them to lay that much!<<

Generally offer free-choice food, and try to feed enough that they will clean it out before you add more.

>>The previous owners said they were great slug eaters<<

You can lay out a tarp, big piece of cardboard, plywood, etc. on the ground. Slugs, worms, crickets, and other invertebrates will collect under it. Aim your duck at this area and then lift the cover, allowing them to forage the exposed pests. You may need to wait until your ducks get used to you, but this form of baiting can be a very effective way to remove pests. Also works with chickens or other poultry.

>>Soon: DUCKLINGS. A friend of ours is incubating some eggs for us so we can eventually have more ducks!<<

If you spend time with your new ducklings, they will tend to imprint on you and follow you around. They will expect you as "Mama Duck" to show them where food is. So the tarp trap method should work very well with ducklings, once they get big enough to move around and eat larger food. Maybe 1-2 weeks old?

First week they won't want to leave a warm brooder anyhow, except for a brief swim in a bathtub or plastic tub.

Re: Thoughts

[luzula]

Thanks for the advice! I have never had hens, so I have no comparison to be disappointed by. But runner ducks do seem to be the best egg-layers among the ducks, or so I have read.

We did lay out pieces of cardboard yesterday! So hopefully they will have trapped some slugs.

I look forward to being Mama Duck! : D

[seascribble]

omg ducks!!! eggs!!!! You are truly living the dream (except for the slugs, 450???? holy cow)

[luzula]

I am totally living the dream! I haven't gone out yet, but it will be interesting to see if they laid any eggs tonight.

[china_shop]

Awwww! Congratulations!! DUCKS!! (Oh hey, I have exactly the right icon for this. :D)

[luzula]

Thank you! : D

[isis]

Ducks >>>>> slugs. Have fun!

[luzula]

Indeed! We let them go to our pond today, and they loved it.

[sylvanwitch]

Oh, excellent! We kept ducks when I was in my teens and college years. Their eggs were enormous and just fantastic for baking! We often had double and once in a while even triple yolks! Yay for natural slug killers, too! They are adorable!

[luzula]

Double yolks! I have never heard of that, cool. Still enjoying our adorable slug killers--we let them go to our pond today, and they loved it.

[trobadora]

Yay ducks! :D

[luzula]

Indeed! : D

[james]

Ducks!

[luzula]

Quack quack!

[cyphomandra]

Aww they’re so cute!! And yay for slug destroying, gosh I hate slugs. My UK flat had a terrible slug problem and we had to put lines of salt on all the entrances as if we were in some 70s horror film and they got in anyway, obviously we should have got a duck or two.

[luzula]

Your FLAT had a slug problem? Now I have heard that the UK has a lot of bad buildings before, but slugs?!? Was it damp inside the flat?

[lyr]

Ducks! They are awesome and adorable. Thanks for sharing!

[luzula]

They are indeed! <3

[ride_4ever]

I have always been fond of ducks, and even more so since due South.

[luzula]

The perfect icon, of course. : )

[rachelmanija]

450 slugs should be an album title not reality.

I love the ducks! Seen from the front, they look like they ought to have arms.

[luzula]

The slugs are such a pest. : ((

Great icon--that is one scary-looking chicken. And yeah, the ducks do have an odd shape; I suppose they're bred like that so the center of gravity compared to the location of the wings makes them unable to fly.

[nnozomi]

Ducks, yay! You can sing to them "Runner ducky, you're the one, you make slug time so much fun..." (sorry, I grew up on Sesame Street). I love their pompous look, and it's great that they're both eating slugs and providing eggs to eat!

[luzula]

I also like that they don't need much looking after! They just walk around on their own and forage, or settle down and sleep adorably with their heads under their wings. <3

[feroxargentea]

Ooh ducks! And Indian Runners are supposed to be the best breed to let loose in your garden for maximum slug removal and minimum plant damage (I haven't tried it, just repeating conventional wisdom!)

[luzula]

So tonight we looked in the duck enclosure and were like, how did they get there?? We didn't let them out of the big enclosure! Which is obviously not duck-proof, ha ha--there's a place where we haven't made a proper gate yet, but only kind of provisionally attached the fencing. But apparently they knew after only two days that their own enclosure is where they get dinner and spend the night! \o/ I'm impressed.

[cathexys]

OMG how cool!!! I'm vicariously living this amazing country life through you :) Thank you!!!

[luzula]

It's a lot of work, to be honest! But so far I'm enjoying the work a lot.

[the_siobhan]

Oh that's awesome.

I live in one of the neighbourhoods that's allowed to have chickens and I've occasionally been tempted. We aren't allowed roosters though, and I think I'd end up with just feeding chickens to coyotes.

[luzula]

Yeah, the roosters do have an important function in keeping watch, or so I've read. But I suppose you could build something coyote-proof, if you wanted, though it might be a bit of work.

[mific]

Runner ducks are the best! Hopefully they'll get tamer and come running to you.

[luzula]

Hopefully the ducklings will imprint on us and come running! : )

[regshoe]

Huh! There was a famous weird-looking long, tall duck living on the lake at the local university here a while ago; I think he must have been this breed, or a similar one :D

Anyway: they do look cute, and very cool to have your own supply of duck eggs. I've never tried duck eggs, they sound good.

[luzula]

That sounds probable! They are weirdly elongated, especially when they stretch their necks.

I suppose the freshness contributed to the delicious taste, too. I am looking forward to eating these eggs all spring and summer!

[brigantine]

Yay for ducks! Slugs gone, plus yummy duck eggs to eat is an excellent equation!

[luzula]

Indeed! Now we just have to make the big enclosure duck-proof, which we discovered that it is currently not, so we can leave them there when we're gone.

[sage]

awww, that's adorable!

[luzula]

Yes! It makes me happy just to look at them.