Defective Defecators

A customer wanted to return some ducks she bought a couple weeks ago.  I assumed it would be similar to the defective duckling incident.  I could not have been more wrong.  Not in this universe or in any theoretically possible parallel one.

The customer bought some chickens at the same time she bought the ducks and erroneously assumed they would be the same.  She complained about how messy they are saying something to the effect "They shit too much and need to go".  Ha, yeah, ducks are different, and at least she admitted she made a mistake and learned from it.

The Defective Duckling

This sad, little duckling was returned as defective because there was a problem with its neck.  As you can see, the duckling is looking at me, but cannot raise its head which is not normal.  I was able to guilt a customer into taking the defective duckling home to take care of it.  The problem is niacin deficiency.  After giving the duckling brewer's yeast for a bit, the customer reported that it is now in good health.

The only reason I knew about this is because of a problem I had a while ago.  One night I was trying to lock up the ducks and it was taking forever to round them up.  I noticed something strange.  A Rouen seemed to be caught in chicken wire and all the other ducks were standing as far away from it as possible.  I ran over to rescue the duck and then the Exorcist level creepiness began.  The Rouen that I thought trapped was actually having really bad seizures.  It was turning its head around like an owl and somersaulting backwards.  All the other ducks were terrified and quacked in alarm, getting as far away as possible, trampling each other pressing against the opposite side of the chicken wire.  I had never seen such a thing before and out of kindness for the seizing duck and all the other ducks that were freaking out, I chopped it.  Then I started doing some research...  And found that I probably could have cured the duck with niacin.  Maybe it would have worked, maybe not.  Now I'll never know.

Sexing Ducklings

A few years ago someone taught me an interesting way to sex ducklings by sound.  This is not completely accurate, and it can take a little while to learn, but it is worth it.  At ~$5 a duck, and straight run (not sexed) at that, you might as well try to get what you want, especially since I don't see prices going down anytime soon.  Ducks used to be really popular--long story short, they were raised near water and fed fish; customers said "I can already eat fishy meat called fish and it's cheaper"!

Basically, all you do is pick up the duckling and listen to what kind of noise it makes and when it is made.  If you hear an immediate high pitched noise chances are good it's female.  If it makes no noise at all, it's a male.  If it makes a raspy noise it's a male.  If it's quiet for a little bit then makes a high pitched noise, it's possibly a male.  I have been pretty successful with this technique so far.

Another Stuck Duck

Only one stuck duck this winter, except this guy didn't get stuck at the water hole like the others, but in the lilacs.  We kept him inside for a couple days.

Stuck Duck

The past couple days have been very harsh and a new problem has cropped up: stuck ducks.  For the second night in a row an unlucky duck has gotten froze stuck to the ground after an evening swim in the water bucket.  I am surprised I have not had this problem before as the setup has not changed.  One of the reasons I like waterfowl is that they are not afraid to go outside during winter, even heavy snow, as long as it is not Snowpocalypse ridiculous.  Chickens will usually hide inside the coop only quickly running outside for a quick snack.  I do not keep water and food inside the coop because the waterfowl will make a huge mess.