Animal News: The Chronicles of Newman and other Stories
Duckie Peyton Place
3 June , 2004
Two things have occurred recently which have thrown the duck community here an uproar. (1) Tati the Pekin duck quietly hatched some ducklings. (2) Little Boy Goat made a project of unattaching the bottom of the duck hutch from its frame, thus making one of my flocks (which includes Tati) "homeless".
Last fall I invested in a Very Expensive large steel dog kennel to keep the ducks safe at night. We graded the earth, and put in a drain pipe underground for draining out the pool water. We tied tarps all around to protect them from the wind and made an arched ceiling to protect them from the rain and snow. We put two luxurious doggie houses inside for nesting and sleeping. We put a kiddie swimming pool in there which all enjoyed....
And then The Thugs grew up. The Thugs were two ducklings left at the DC animal shelter last spring, large ducklings by any standard, and indeed they've grown up to be almost goose size. By themselves they show signs of potential nice duckliness, but together they constitute a gang, and they're Big and Bad. They sexually assault everything in sight (male or female), chase, rough up, bite, pull feathers. They don't let anyone else in the swimming pool, and they chase the others off from the food bowl. They're a menace to the neighborhood. For some reason the Black and Blue swede females have taken a liking to them (there's no figuring out women) so the four constitute one flock. They treat their babes halfway decently, but they can't be allowed anywhere near the other flock (George, Harry, Tati, and now her two babies). Hence the necessity to use the old duck hutch and keep the flocks separate at night. Sigh.
Now with the destruction of the hutch, we've had to improvise, setting up a dog crate inside to keep Tati and her babies safe, and another dog crate to separate the Thugs from everyone else. The Babes are not happy about this, since they are now being housed with George and Harry, and George has decided to try to make a conquest of them - much quacking and flapping of wings. Because it's a new set up (ducks are quite habit-oriented - they're really for the most part incredibly dumb, but they do learn habits pretty well), getting everyone put in the right spot is a bit nightmarish. It involves much running through mud shouting "duckies, go home" (they know that phrase to mean go to their cage for the night), fighting off nipping puppies and horned beasts who think there might be food in one of these cages, and trying to herd confused winged creatures all over the pasture.\
It's actually a real workout. In the morning when they're all let loose, the Babes immediately run to their guys, and the "nice flock" goes along doing their quiet duck business.
The real question is how Tati's babies are going to fit into this soap opera when they become mature!
Until next time,
Farmer Anne
Star Gazing Farm
http://www.stargazingfarm.org
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