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It’s time! My Muscovy girl lost her sister last fall, and I’ve been thinking of adding to the small flock of 3 since then. Sooo, I waited and waited. Finally, my remaining Muscovy girl started laying again, and in true Muscovy style dove into broodyness with great enthusiasm. After looking...

Hello all! It’s been a while! I hope that everyone had a decent and safe winter. All is well with my remaining ducks, Remi (Rouen), Matilda (Rouen), and Goon 1(Muscovy). 2023 was a rough year for the crew, with the loss of the matriarch, Daphne, in spring, and the loss of my pied Muscovy, Goon...

After sadly losing my sweet pied Muscovy last month due to EYP, I’m back down to a flock of 3, 2 Rouens (4 and 5 years old), and one Muscovy (5 years old). Usually, my rule is that a bad day for one animal should be a good day for another, and I add a new family member as soon as I’m...

Good morning, everyone! Something’s up with Goon 2, my pied Muscovy, and I need some brainstorming help to figure out what. There are no exotic/avian vets available until next week, and I don’t even have my work schedule for next week, so I have do what I can for now. The good news is that she...

It’s been a long week without Daphne. The Muscovies have been kind to Matilda, but she’s definitely missing Daphne and sad that she doesn’t have someone that speaks her language. Now, Remi’s on her way. I’ve got a spot set up for her in the barn where everyone can see her but not touch her, and...

She was my first duck, an introduction to the crazy and wonderful world of duck ownership. She taught me so much. She survived a fisher attack that took out the rest of her family 5 years ago before coming into my life. She survived so many crises. She was a lover of mealworms, and an adoptive...

The worst of the cold weather has passed. The weather varies from snowy to rainy, then back again. The snow pack is melting. The dirt roads are horrible and are moving quickly towards virtually impassable. It’s mud season, and there’s one animal that’s happier than all of the others combined -...

I hope that everyone is having a safe and enjoyable last day of 2022! We‘ve had a thaw, and the almost 10 inches of snow we had prior to Christmas have almost entirely melted. The ducks are full of energy, chasing each other around, squealing and quacking. The Muscovies, in particular, are...

We, like so many others, got our power knocked out by this recent storm. It’s been a day and 1/2, and there’s no estimate for when it will return. Just using a bit of cell phone battery before turning in for the night (at 5 pm!). We have a wood stove, so we won’t freeze, but that’s all we’ve...

Hi everyone! As the days get shorter and colder and darker, I increasingly long to get into bed and not get out until spring! Now, that’s a waste of 6 months, and I’d like to do better this year. I’m looking for ideas for hobbies to get through the winter in a more positive fashion this year...

Do you ever feel like your birds are surrounded and under constant attack from wildlife? Kind of feeling that way right now. We have our usual suspects: the countless raccoons (who all reproduced in spring, one with 4 fat babies), the resident bobcat (who has killed before), foxes, coyotes...

Ok, so it actually turned out ok, but my hubby accidentally closed the ducks up last night during a downpour, not realizing a skunk had gotten in to seek shelter from the storm. This AM, he found an attempt at an escape from within the barn, only to then realize that a half a bale of clean straw...

So, my pied Muscovy has had laying issues for the first time this year at the age of 4. She’s responded to the “Daphne Treatment” of calcium + soaks so far, but she had been perfect until this year, so I’m worried about her future. Anyways, being a self-respecting Muscovy girl, she’s been...

4 years (+ a couple of days) ago, my husband and I drove deep into the woods to meet a man about some ducks. He had two survivors from an absolutely horrific Fisher attack that had killed all of his chickens and almost all of his ducks. Broken-hearted, he handed them over with some grain and a...

Urgent help needed! My 4 ducks live in my big barn. They've lived there for years. No predator issues (when inside). Just now, I went to feed and water for the morning, and there was a short tailed (I think) weasel inside! Everyone’s ok for now. What do I do? Hubby’s thought is to move the two...

This is not a serious post, more a contemplative one. When we first got ducks, we had just 2, Daphne, my Rouen, and Margie, my Pekin. Daphne was the loud and obnoxious one. After Margie passed from an unknown illness, we got Daphne 2 Muscovy sisters. Daphne remained the loud and obnoxious one...

Hi all! I’m just making this thread as a way to track Daphne’s reproductive issues as we approach her least favorite season of all, molting season/autumn. For those who don’t know, Daphne is a 5 yr. old Rouen. She has chronic reproductive issues (soft shelled eggs, salphingitis, egg-binding)...

I’m not even a week out from my first fatal predator attack (bobcat during the day, one duck killed), and I have a few questions. 1) How do I make life in lockdown, or “modified lockdown” better? My ducks have mostly now gotten to the point where they are emotionally over the trauma (except for...

After 3 and 1/2 years it finally happened. We had a predator attack. I was at work, and my husband was loosely watching the ducks while they free-ranged. At 5:30 pm, he heard quacking and ran out. Puddleduck, who often runs off, was gone. There was no trace. There was a horrible storm soon...

The outside spigot is frozen. The pool is frozen because someone that is not me didn’t dump it the other night. There’s more snow on the ground, covering a sheet of ice, which is covering more snow. And yet, it’s March. The battle for spring shall begin soon, even if we don’t see the ground...