My Rouen ducks can fly!

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

Thank you! They are almost 8 months old and we’re estimating they weigh around 6 lbs. They started flying a couple of months ago - just 3 feet off the ground for 15 feet or so as I walked them from their pen to the lake. Then one day Dally flew right past me! Dilly was a little larger than Dally and couldn’t fly at first but it just took about a week and she was flying too! Then they started flying out over the water before they’d land. Now they fly from one end of our cove to the other. The bad thing is that we can’t make them come in now. The past month they’ve chosen to stay on the water most nights. But today it’s going to storm and I want them to come in but they won’t follow me. They’ll come initially but then they turn around and go back in the water. If we try to corral them, they just fly over us - so frustrating! Hopefully we’ll have more luck shortly.

Are there any treats that they find particularly tasty? Mealworms, perhaps?

 

[Cheese and Quackers Mum]

So about 2 months ago our girls started flying a bit - and now they can fly 30 feet high for 600 feet or more! They love flying over our lake making a turn and skiing on their feet into the water. Now I know everyone is probably thinking we have mallards but the wild mallards are much much smaller than our girls and they have all of the markings of a Rouen. But I wanted to post their pictures and see what y’all think.

I have a Rouen duck named, Cheese & he can fly too. I was told repeatly by the store I bought him that it's not possible...but I see he do it everyday. His partner, Quackers is a Cuyga duck and bigger so he doesn't fly as high or as long. Your ducks are adorable by the way

 

[Sic]

My Rouen drake, about 9lbs could fly very well, his only offspring was a Cayuga cross, she could also fly well, just not as high. I tend to think it's more about wingspan and wing shape than it is about weight.

 

[Jenny Kikia]

Wow that's awesome. I've been worried about my Rouen not being able to fly. April 3rd I found an abandoned or lost female mallard duckling probably hatch that day during the storm. For her mother endlessly and couldn't find her and I tried to turn her in but because they thought she was in Muscovy nobody would take her. Turns out she's a mallard female and after 3 weeks of trying to rehome her or fin her family, I decided to get her a friend from a pet store and raise her myself. When I went to the pet store they had absolutely no idea what type of duck it was, let alone that it even was a duck. The kids working there thought they were turkeys! Well, it looked exactly like a mallard duckling until about 3 weeks later when she started to get a lot bigger than her sister! I'm pretty sure she's a Rouen as my Mallard is already fully feathered and she is small! And speaking with my vet she wondered what I was going to do if the wild Mallard flies away? I didn't want to get her wings clipped and she is a wild bird and that seems cruel even though it's temporary. But I worried about her flying away without her sister. My vet said she might fly away but use her sister as a homing beacon or she might just stay put all together or stranger things have happened and she Rouen might just fly with her sister. As attached as I am to the two, I would be sad if they both flew away, but I would be more sad if her mallard's sister flew away and never came back. They seem to be very bonded and stick together all the time. The younger ruin tends to cry the minute her Mallard older sister leaves her sight and my sweet mallard always comes back to collect her and show her the way to the pond...she seems to forget how to get up it, every day! Anyway, I knew nothing about birds or ducks. I have had a lot of animals and currently I feel like I'm running a petting zoo! They are the neediest animals I've ever owned and they have definitely taken over my life the last 2 months but hopefully things will get easier once the duck run is completed and I don't have to watch them constantly. I have a cat and two Flemish giant rabbits that are 25 lb and a dog and they've all figured out how to use the doggie door and come in and out. The cat is really good with the rabbits and the dog, but I'm not sure what he would do about the ducks. He stalks around and checks them out but I usually have them closed up in a room so that he can see them but not really get to them. I don't know if I trust him... Even though I've seen countless videos of cats on farms with ducks! Haven't figured out how to introduce them. The rabbits were here before the cat and so he was raised with them. I also have a large fish tank full of creatures and 9-year-old son and he recently found a white fancy feeder mouse that somebody released and begged me to keep it. I'm done with the pets! This is it!