Hissing Rouen?

[CarolinaGirl]

My 4 day old Rouen duckling is apparently a little hisser. My Pekins don't hiss at all but this little one hisses if I so much as stick my hand in the brooder. I didn't know they did this? Granted, I've never had a rouen but I was curious if this was the "norm" for them?

 

[DuckLady]

That's normal. It is warning you off with the Scary Duck Face. I find it adorable.

 

[pookiethebear]

My rouen hissed at our chickens when we moved everyone into the new brooder for the first day. I was surprised at it, and figured out that it was Gary (the rouen) hissing at the chicks. He does not do it now, they all get along.

 

[GoodEgg]

Quote:
LOL, that is hilarious. I would LOVE to get some Roens some day ... they are at the top of my duckie list along with calls.

You guys shouldn't say things like this that tempt me so much. I'm gonna have to move further into the country to get even MORE space.

(someday, someday ... dreaming!)

trish

 

[CarolinaGirl]

Thanks, I was starting to wonder if these people gave me a Muscovy

But yes, it really is adorable! He really acts fierce sometimes... in his opinion

 

[pookiethebear]

Gary, my rouen, will zip around the brooder like his tail is on fire. He is so funny. The Pekins will mother him and herd him to safety and will try to keep up with him, but can't, so they just start squaking. Goofy birds.

I also have a milk jug waterer for the ducks since they seem to spalsh everything else around...well Gary decided to jump into the hole to go for a swim. I did not think he would fit...note to self, make a new waterer, cutting a smaller hole in it..... Goofy duck jumped right into the jug and went nuts....water everywhere.

 

[GoodEgg]

Hehe, That's funny.

(If you see "The Water Horse" ... that part where he pours water into the can over the baby water horse and it dives and splashes everywhere ... I think they modeled that after a duckling!)

I remember when my ducks were babies. I first tried a chicken waterer ... the kind with the round red plastic screw-on base and a big white jug on top. It was only an inch or so wide at the bottom, so I thought it would be safe.

One of my ducklings immediately stepped into the water (one foot was all he could get in) and started running in splashy circles round and round the waterer, throwing as much water as he possibly could.

I eventually had to use galvanized chick feeders with little holes for the water, so they could only get their faces in there. Still, they were messy no matter what I did.

Gotta love those goofy (messy!) duckies!

trish

 

[wendy]

hi, i just found this post, i know it is from may, sorry!! but we have 3 rouen's that we have had for two to three weeks now. we have read that they are slow growing, a hatchery catalog says this plus my husband found that info online. ours are not slow growing, they are growing fast!!! have yall found this to be the case with your rouen's? because ours have not hissed at us either, i hope we did not get some mislabeled ducks and something else instead. they look just like the pictures of young rouens!

wendy

 

[CarolinaGirl]

I only have the one Rouen and he's my first... I wouldn't worry about the not hissing at all. My friend has a few and they've never hissed. This guy wasn't handled much early on and came from a questionable breeder so I think he felt he had to "defend" himself more.

As for the growth, he's now about a month old and still smaller than his Pekin mate. He also seems to be getting his feathers/down a lot slower than her.

They're definitely not on the same growth marks at all and at this point, I wonder if he's going to be smaller than the Pekin his whole life!

 

[wendy]

ours are growing really fast! that is so wild, i wonder what the deal is? they have almost doubled in size in three weeks! unless they will start slowing down?! wendy