We opened the D.pond today, started up the filter/waterfall. No sooner did
we than 2 ducks flew over head, thus a repeat of an oldy but goldy seemed
in order:

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005, StOrEcRaFt wrote:

I've had ducks for years.
-----
A side note on ducks since there is no ducks news area.
Ducks are fun to have and take care of but can be messy and troublesome.

Up Side: Eats weeds, grubs, and bugs. Very rich manure and dissolves in
seconds with a little water. Free eggs that are really large and taste
great. Fun to watch fly and play with. (they will even cuddle).

Down side: Makes little holes where ever they look for food, Will not
listen to reason when asked to stay off the patio or mess some where else
in the yard.

Hi Storecraft,

Then you'll love this often retold rec.pond duck tale below: ;-) ~ jan

Ian from New Zealand's answer to a ponder's question about ducks in
the pond. Reposted from time to time. We wonder if Ian knows that he is a
rec.pond legend..... Here it is ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have a Peking, it's a beautiful white innocent thing that poops in
unbelievable quantities. Never mind about a bio-filter, you are going to
need a sewerage system suitable for a small town to deal with what this
duck is going to do to your pond.

would they stay or would they leave?

No need to fret on this account - ducks never take the hint. Chuck it in
the air and it'll come right back. Sure it will occasionally wander out
onto the highway, but motorists would rather run off the road and kill all
their passengers than hit a duck that's sitting looking
right at them.

Look closely at the general design of your average duck, notice that the
cranium is small. It is my belief that if you could take all the duck
brains in the world and combine them in a sort of super organic computer
you would basically have a machine with a loose bowel and a vocabulary
limited to: "quack". A duck is a natural born lobotomy.

wondering if the cats if the neighborhood would bother them.

Hell no, the neighborhood cats will not bother your duck, unless it is a
duckling which you have just presented to your young daughter. Actually you
will find the neighborhood cats will avoid close encounters with
anything that looks like a duck. This is partly because cats dislike
stepping in duck doo to get to their prey and partly because the duck
thinks any passing cat must be its mother/sister/brother/mate. Even the
staunchest Tom cat finds it unnerving to have to deal with this sort of
thing and will generally go to extremes to avoid an embarrassing encounter.

Would we need to
put a fence around it?

Sure, fence your duck, but it wont do you any good. You will still hear
screeching tires on the road and the neighbors will still phone you up to
say your duck is harassing their cat again.

If you do get a duck be sure to turn on the lights at night before your
walk across the lawn. One of the most unforgettable experiences you can
have is tripping over a sleeping duck in the dark.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~
~ jan/WA
Zone 7a

~ janj wrote:

Hell no, the neighborhood cats will not bother your duck, unless it is a
duckling which you have just presented to your young daughter. Actually you
will find the neighborhood cats will avoid close encounters with
anything that looks like a duck. This is partly because cats dislike
stepping in duck doo to get to their prey and partly because the duck
thinks any passing cat must be its mother/sister/brother/mate. Even the
staunchest Tom cat finds it unnerving to have to deal with this sort of
thing and will generally go to extremes to avoid an embarrassing encounter.

My cousin has a farm with barn cats, and the birds know exactly how to
handle them. There's nothing quite as funny as watching a cat run in
terror from a duck or goose charging at it, wings spread and hissing.
(Can you gather I don't like cats?)

--
Put the word aquaria in the subject to reply.
Did you read the FAQ? http://faq.thekrib.com

I bought a beautiful pair of Mandarin ducks last November and so far so
good. They don't stray to far from the ponds because of my two 10
month old labs and the labs don't go too close to the ponds anymore
because of the invisible fence around the ponds. The yard is fenced in
so ocassionally the ducks may wander into the grass while keeping an
eye out for any interested puppies. My only worry is to find one of
the ducks missing or finding scattered feathers in the yard from a
visit from an Owl at night or a hawk in the day. But like I said so
far so good. Although there is a little bit more algae build up this
spring over last, I guess from added duck droppings.

"malaklemys" wrote in message
oups.com...
I bought a beautiful pair of Mandarin ducks last November and so far so
good. They don't stray to far from the ponds because of my two 10
month old labs and the labs don't go too close to the ponds anymore
because of the invisible fence around the ponds. The yard is fenced in
so ocassionally the ducks may wander into the grass while keeping an
eye out for any interested puppies. My only worry is to find one of
the ducks missing or finding scattered feathers in the yard from a
visit from an Owl at night or a hawk in the day. But like I said so
far so good. Although there is a little bit more algae build up this
spring over last, I guess from added duck droppings.
============================
You can build them a duck house island in your pond as I see people have
done here. Plant bushes on the island and around the pond they can duck
under when they spot a hawk. A duck house island allows them to nest in
peace and hide from predators.
--
Koi-Lo....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
Aquariums since 1952.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
*Note: There are two *Koi-Lo's* on the Aquaria Groups.*
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

or hawks or coyotes or fox. yep. one reason farmers lock their fowl up at night.
but you can get some protection by putting bird netting high over the pond and around
the sides.

BTW, fowl is a misspelling of foul. Ingrid

"malaklemys" wrote:
I bought a beautiful pair of Mandarin ducks last November and so far so
good.
My only worry is to find one of
the ducks missing or finding scattered feathers in the yard from a
visit from an Owl at night or a hawk in the day. But like I said so
far so good. Although there is a little bit more algae build up this
spring over last, I guess from added duck droppings.



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