On 14 Mar 2004 21:50:43 -0800, (Mark) wrote:

...that's all baby ducks do. That, and they spend inordinate amounts
of time being cute as can be.

I got 4 White Pekin ducklings yesterday. They're in a big box in the
kitchen, and in 24 hours, they basically saturated their bedding with
dribbled water (from their feeder) and duck poop. The upside is that
they're generating lots of "organic material" for my compost bin.

We built an enclosed pen off the side of the garden shed for them once
the weather warms a bit and they're big enough to stay outside.
Eventually, I'm going to enclose the garden and let the little rascals
gorge to their hearts content on June bugs and slugs.

Just thought I'd share.

Mark

watch out for the run off from the roof if that's a side of your shed
with run off. I put some baby ducks that were just getting too big to
be in the house, but not fledged, and it rained one day when I was
gone to work, and even though I'd put plastic over the box.. and
weighted it etc.. it got into the box and that equaled dead ducks..
muscovy ducks.. which aren't *really* ducks, they're a south american
waterfowl which do not have the oil glands that ducks do, so they can
and do drown if they get into water and can't get out easily. They
are funny so ugly they're cute and the don't quack!! So you can keep
them without the entire neighborhood knowing they're there. They're
prodigious producers of big eggs that aren't as pasty as duck eggs,
the whites are more like chicken egg whites, and overall they're
better than ducks. If you don't take them away from them, they will
(provided there is a drake available) hatch out 10 to 15 eggs, as many
as they can cover. If you're inclined to see them as livestock, not
just pets, they're quite tasty.. tastes like beef!

Otherwise if you gotta have ducks, india runner ducks or indian..
stand bolt upright like a surprised regular duck. They look like
animated bowling pins. ;-)

Janice