The ducks are really growing! (pics)

[hippywife]

This is when we first got them. Not sure how old they are because they came from a woman whose husband and kids thought it would be fun to have them...for awhile, anyway.




Just a couple of weeks ago. They now completely take up the entire pool:


And today:


We'll be getting a baby pool for them this weekend. The neighbor across the road has one his kids have outgrown and said we could have it. I'm getting a little weary of scooping the water out every couple of days and changing it. Any ideas for easier, totally natural ways, to prevent the algae and pond scum? Husband says he can set up a hose to siphon the water out when it needs to be changed but I'm thinking of a pump/filter/recirculation set up, if it can be done cheaply enough.

:hi:

[TomInTib]

1. You are headed down a hard road...

They are ducks, after all.

But there are some serious filtration systems available.

If you have any Koi dealers in the area, contact them.

But it ain't gonna be cheap.

If not, PM me and I can put you in touch with someone who can help.

[hippywife]

4. There is a koi pond

dealer a few miles from here and we also have koi in an indoor pond at work so I do have access.

And I do know that are ducks and poop alot. I just want to supply them with cleaner water all the time in a way that is easier for us and them.

[Historic NY]

2. Maybe one of those cheap fish tank pumps..........

they sell them at the big box stores for a lot less than the home center pond ones which are similar. You can circulate the water and use a bubbler stone to aerate it. I think maybe around 20 bucks or so. They can't stay in the pool for long.

[hippywife]

5. I'm not sure how heavy duty

some of those can be but I'll check into it. Thanx! :hi:

[msedano]

3. sump pump, plastic milk crate

my fish pond is 13" deep. i recycled a compartmented milk crate by using silicone sealant to glue window screen on the sides and bottom. use more window screen to wrap around nylon pillow stuffing. i then heavily perforated a black plastic pot from the nursery. insert the sump pump into the pot. set this on the pillow. run the sump pump several hours a day, with a hose pumping the water back into the fish pond (i have a bird bath). this system draws the muck from the bottom of the pond up through the pillow, keeping the water clear and sweet for my goldfish. every couple months (with ducks i'd figure monthly at longest)wash the filter medium under the fruit trees for a rich treat to their roots. during summer gotta run the pump a full day or two, or as long as i want the ambience of splashing water. the sump pump burns out every six to 9 months or so; $75-80 bucks to replace. for your sake i hope both ducks are female.

[hippywife]

6. That might work.

Gotta run it by the chief engineer here. LOL Do you have a pic of your set up? I also want to build them a tractor similar to the one the chickens have, so they can forage around a bit, too.

I'm hoping they're both female, too. I'm hoping to have unfertilized eggs. :hi:

[msedano]

9. no photo

it's a filter medium packed into a confined space lined with a screening system to keep large chunks of detritus out of the guts of the spinning pump. the pump-in-a-pot keeps the pump from pulling the filter fibers into the pump's innards. i buried a sprinkler valve housing near the pond, ran a 2" plastic pipe underground to the housing. I ran the electricity through the pipe to the housing. plug the sump pump into the power at the valve housing. keep your electricity grounded and dry.

i let my hens have the run of the garden, once the plants are well established.

[DCKit]

7. They don't *need* water to splash around in, only to drink.

As much as they (and you) like it, ducks will not die if they don't get to swim every day.

I'd haul the pool out once a week for a treat and a bath and only fill it to about 3".

But that's me.

[hippywife]

10. While that's true

I want them to be happy in their time here, not just as egg machines, if we should be so lucky that they turn out to be females. I initially took them in because they were unwanted and we had the space to take them in and care for them. :hi:

[Beregond2]

8. I love ducks, but they are problematic pets.

I had some as a kid, and the neighbors finally complained so much about the noise I had to get rid of them. Luckily, my home town has a lake in the middle with lots of ducks, and they lived happily ever after there.

[hippywife]

11. Luckily, we live out in

a very rural area and the neighbor factor won't come into play. :hi:

[Beregond2]

12. One great thing about them:

they eat slugs!

[sazemisery]

13. That's what I love about country living, the sounds of nature

How can people gripe about the sounds of nature? I would much rather put up with howling wolves, yipping coyotes, honking geese and barking dogs than horn honks, traffic noise and all the rest of the urban noises.

Guineas don't even bother me and they can be annoying. The loudest display of nature is the frogs. We have a one acre pond 150 feet from our house. In the spring when the frogs are feelin' frisky the evening's decibel level is very high. I call it a silly symphony because I have heard turkeys join in on the song. Quite funny.

[hippywife]

14. I love, love, love

the frogs! We have a creek that runs on the east side of our house and you're right! It can get amazingly loud. So loud people would really have to hear it to believe it. And I love hearing the coyotes, too.

The only sound of the spring and summer I don't like, besides the howling wind when it's really, really strong, are the redneck bubbas up the road running their ATV's back and forth up and down the road. Noisy little bastids! That's not legal, is it?

[hippywife]

15. New Pic

and I think I've figured out that the Pekin is a female and the white-crested is male. No drake feather yet, but the Pekin quacks pretty loudly and the white-crested still just kinda peeps.



We'll be moving them out into the yard in their tractor during the day this weekend for the first time. They've been getting used to going in and out through joining gates with their pen so far. They really love getting out in the grass and rooting around.

[hippywife]

16. The ducks are dead.

We came home from work yesterday evening to find that dogs or something had gotten into their pen and totally terrorized them. They were terribly injured, walking around in shock without uttering a sound, like zombies. It was gruesome and horrible. My husband had to put them out of their misery, and thank goodness for him, because I don't think I could have done it...I was too devastated. I had gotten attached to these ducks like I never had or never will the chickens.

I've been walking around worn and sad all day. :cry: :cry: :cry:

[catgirl]

17. I'm so sorry about your ducks

I read your thread just now. Ducks are very special and that must have been hard. You
did a great thing taking them in.

[hippywife]

18. Hi, catgirl.

Thanx. It was pretty terrible but we're considering getting a few more this spring maybe. Their eggs are wonderful, too!

We're down to eight chickens, having lost some to either owls or dogs over the holidays so they're back to be confined to the garden and are none too happy about it. And boy have we been hearing about it! They love to range and climb down to the creek but it just isn't fair to set them up to be snatched like that. They had been roaming around for a couple of months or so with no mishaps and we hadn't seen the dog across the road much in that time, until over the holidays. Not a coincidence I don't think and we saw her running by the house one morning with something in her mouth so, who knows!

It's really funny that our dog runs from them. She can't stand being around them, especially the RIR cross that seems to like to follow her around. Almost everyone who lives on our road, including us, lets their dogs run free since we're not in the city or a suburb, so I really can't get after anyone to pen their dogs, ya know?

Hope things are going well your way.

:hi:

[Grinchie]

19. Yep, thats typical.

Hate to say it, but if I see dogs harming our livestock, they don't last long and are buried on the spot. I learned this from my old time neighbor who raised cattle, and it was a given. He had plenty of dogs, but they were trained and cared for and never harmed any animal. It was only the roamers that would maim and kill for sport.

I remember we had some laborers working on the filter system for the orchard, and I pointed out the Swains Hawk with a 6 foot rattlesnake flying to the next in the Cottonwood up canyon.

I mentioned that they took a chicken anf he said that I should shoot it.

I told him that I can buy a chicken for .25 cents, but I doubt if I could replace the Hawk that feasted on rattlesnakes every season as easily, he thought about it for a minute and went back to work, shocked that a wild creature had more weight than a chicken.

Dogs, in my mind are the same way. We give them a life that torments them with lack of exercise, and feed them food that gods only know what has in it. At the say time we feed a huge industry that supplies to whatever cockamamie idea we dream up for their comfort. It's the Disney-fication of animals, without regard as to how they were meant to live.

Hundreds of animals roaming free "Because "They're Ugly" and dumped on the side of the road, because they do not fit the capitalist model.

I used to love cats, and grew up with them, but I don't trust the Pet Food Industry at all, especially since the pet food technology is worming it's way into Human food production.

Raising pets is just another expense as far as I'm concerned, especially if they produce nothing. The best pets I have are the wild animals that acknowledge my presence, either positive or negative, and then watching the behavior change over time to more positive. This cannot be done with a pack of dogs at your heels.