Ducks - Weeks 4 & 5

At only about a month old, our mallard ducklings are almost completely feathered out and our beginning to show some of their adult colors. They love being outside, spending their day swimming, foraging in the grass, and grooming themselves.

It takes allot of work for a duck to stay looking good!

In order to keep up, we had to upgrade to yet another even bigger watering can (5 gallons).

This one’s testing out his newfound wings.

It’s truly amazing how acutely aware they are of what’s going on in the sky above them. They react instinctually to the dark silhouette of a big bird or plane flying above. A distinctive cheep from one of them quickly silences them all. Then they all squat down or sometimes run for cover.

They spot danger in the sky; often times before we notice anything flying above!

Run for cover.

Is it safe yet?

Every evening we corral them into the wagon for a short commute back their “duck box”. They squawk the whole way, but once back inside they get settled in for the night.

They are quickly outgrowing the duck box so we’ve began work on a new duck house.

Once we have their new home finished we will be moving them outside full-time. Hopefully we get it done before their ready to fly south for the winter.

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You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

I’ve never had much use for a gun, until early this spring when we had to rid our pond of some pesky varmints.

We first spotted the stout bucktoothed critter swimming along the bank of the pond. After watching it a few days, we determined he was a muskrat living in a burrow along the pond’s edge. Resisting the urge to give him a cute little name like “Bucky” and letting it stay; we thought it would be best to remove the critter before he could do any more damage. After considering the possibility of catching a skunk by mistake, we quickly abandoned our initial plan of using a live trap. We had no luck snaring him with a spring loaded game trap, and he continued to elude us for several days. To make matters worse, we soon noticed it was more than just one muskrat that had taken up residence in the pond.

In the end a .22 rifle with a scope (on loan from a friend) became the weapon of choice. The style of the gun was classic, something more befitting in the hands of a cowboy than a sniper. It had a rich wooden stock with a black steel barrel and trigger. The lever-action added to the old-time western feel of the gun. Most importantly, it was effective. My father-in-law bagged one with his first shot. After that we missed more times than not, but we did manage to hit a couple of the critters. We sent one of the poor devils scrambling through the trees behind the pond, and we haven’t seen any sign of them since.

I have to admit I really got a kick out of shooting the old gun. After returning it, I wanted to get a gun for myself. I considered a few different options, but finally decided on a .22 lever action rifle. It was the same traits that I enjoyed with the borrowed rifle that drew me to getting one of my own. Unfortunately that exact model (a Winchester I believe) is no longer manufactured. What I did find was a comparable version from Henry Repeating Arms. It’s an American made western-style lever action .22 with a walnut stock and blued steel barrel. I just brought it home the other day, and look forward to taking it out to the shooting range.
This just may be the beginning of a newfound favorite pastime.

Ducks - Week 3

It will soon be another week since we started raising our flock of mallard ducks. The changes over the last few days have been dramatic. They continue to grow at a steady rate and have began developing more feathers on their tails and wings. Their distinctive yellow markings have started to fade, giving way to a light brown color. We have also noticed with a few of them that their chirp is sounding more like a faint quack.


We built them an outdoor pen so they can spend their days grazing in the grass (weather permitting). Using zip-ties we secured poultry wire to a frame we made out of PVC tubing. We tried to keep it lightweight enough that we can move it around, that way one spot doesn’t’ get “over fertilized”.

Now that they have started feathering out, we thought it would be okay to let them go for their first swim. We put out a shallow tub of water for them.

Red Truck

Ducks - Week 2

We’ve had our mallard ducklings for a little less than two weeks and they’ve already more than doubled in size. At this rate they will outgrow their brooding box very quickly. It will be several weeks before they are ready to be set loose, so we will need to build a new enclosure soon.

If the top of their box is left open, some of the more courageous ducks will take the opportunity to try and jump out.

Our nephew helped feed the ducklings a special treat of shredded lettuce, which they seemed to enjoy.

Looking closely you can see their tail feathers beginning to grow in.

One of the ducklings is noticeably smaller than the others. Our niece picked the name “Little-Dude”, which fits it’s very well.