20 weeks of Buff Orpington ducks

Tiny quackers!

(5 days old)

Don't stay tiny

(17 days)

Very long!

(8 weeks)

 



Buff Orpington ducks are described as active, dual purpose, flightless layers of large tinted white eggs and are apparently a rare and rather hard to find breed. I can tell you, they are crazy (not so) little characters! full of personality. Friendly? well I suppose it depends on your definition of friendly... ours will eat out of your hand but they aren't lap ducks, although Stevie will settle for head rubs if he's in the mood. Then he relaxes and squinches up his eyes it's adorable

Our 4 little peepers charged around the brooder, murdering mint and discovering an undying love of peas. No duckling is waterproof, usually mama duck covers her babies with oil from her oil gland but with an absent mama duck we had to be careful that they had water to clean their eyes and nostrils at all times, but nothing they can swim in so they don't get waterlogged and drown or cold and sick.
The cheap paint tray I had purchased for duckies first supervised swim was waaaay too small, so a few days after arriving they were carried to the bath tub.



 

That's broccoli in the water, and probably poop

 

They loved paddling around in the luke warm water. You can also sort of see, there are 2 slightly smaller darker ducklings and 2 larger yellower babies, one baby (Stevie) has a yellow beak, while all the others had purple-y brown beaks. Neither of these things indicate sex in a Buff duck if you are wondering (at least in none of the 6 ducks we've had so far).

3 of the little fluffy butts above are boys, and only one was a girl - the noisy little siren and watch duck, the first to find her voice. The one who sounded like a dog toy while being dried with a towel after ducky swim time and the scratchiest least co-operative of all. Whitney.
She's the little darker baby top left, her brooder brother Frankie top right, and brooder brother Nigella bottom left.

By about 3 weeks of age they already had stripes of light brown feathers poking though baby fluff

Ah I miss post bath duck cuddles!

and by 4 weeks there was smatterings of brown feathers on the wings, lower back and all across their tummies, their downy baby fluff quickly making way for juvenile white fluff. One thing I was less excited to see was their tiny wing tips starting to poke out and away from their bodies! Cue the constant googling, was it angel wing or normal wing development? new blood feathers growing in can be heavy for tiny nub wings and they can hold them funny until the muscles develop, but I didn't like the idea of doing nothing and disfiguring my jerks if it were actually angel wing caused by a protein heavy diet. I was convinced to leave them be for now, surely they would grow out of it?

 

In mid November the southern hemisphere late spring weather brought warmer days. Early morning meant rounding up the 5 week old ducks before work and herding them across a stretch of concrete to the backyard run complete with plastic shell pool and wire fencing.

Herding was interesting, near impossible at first with ducks running in circles screaming, they soon figured out where to go (Hey, ducks like a consistent routine) that still doesn't mean it was easy.
Stevie stomps when he walks - still does - his legs and feet are fine, it's just Stevie. But he was slower than the others, Nigella, Frankie and Whitney would charge off ahead. Stevie would bring up the rear, stomping along until the others were too far away, then sit down and cry until his friends rushed back to him... needless to say it was often easier to carry him.
The ducks have always been a strong unit, as a unified group (and being considerably larger than their brooder chick friends) they rule the pecking order no question, with Whitney as head bird.

No duck is left behind.

 

 

 

By 6 weeks old all ducks had their right wing laying against their backs like they should. Nigella and Frankie had tucked their left wing in too, but Whitney and Stevie still hadn't figured it out. Compounded by fears that a blood feather injury suffered earlier on that wing would mean my boy at least would never tuck it in, I discovered a post on backyard chickens about using vetwrap and a stocking to correct it's direction. This as with so many things, is so much easier than it sounds...

In Whitney's case I would imagine gift wrapping a rabid hedgehog would be easier.

Ow my precious arm skin!

the second she touched the ground she houdini'd herself out of it. The stocking was just as bad. Head holes and leg holes were cut in the stocking, then the tube was stretched across her. She promptly flicked her legs through the holes and clawed her way out in a matter of seconds. It was as impressive as it was frustrating. It took a few attempts before we realised this was not going to happen.

Stevie at least made things easier. Sort of. Indifferent to the tape and wrap he plonked down in the brooder, managing several times to get one leg in the stocking but no further meant we would find him worm crawling around in the wood shavings. Of course we kept a close eye on things and only left the stocking on for a few hours. Miraculously all ducks tuck their wings in like normal with no extra treatment. Did the wrapping help? maybe? I can't say for sure. but in Stevie's case he figured it out by the time the stocking came off.

Every week we added more room to the brooder box, in the last few days of November I was rushing to finish the roosting bars in the coop. Our buddies grew so fast, they needed more room!

 

7 week buff ducks enjoying their new home

 

They spent the first week indoors to associate the coop with their home, a safe place. The ducks of course claimed the area directly under the chicken's roosting bars to sleep. Which was okay, the chickens chose to make an peeping chick pile in the corner every night anyway.

I was worried for a while, would they free range and return at night? for a short while during their first week in the coop, the ducks went into a run attached to the coop so they could swim. I had thought the chickens and ducks were simply co existing, but they hated to be separated! oh how they complained! the chicks would sit by the door separating them until they were reunited, and the ducks would call to them.
At last we cautiously let them all out together, free of fencing. Whitney would keep an eye out for danger (including rogue hedgehogs) and call everyone in at night.
Things were going well, for a while. The birds discovered their favourite place was under my cherry tree and climbed into the netting to get at the fruit of the one plant I didn't want them eating. At first seeing a blur of feathers rush past with a beak full of fruit was entertaining, finding Stevie sitting in the netting like it were his own personal hammock was adorable. Even after they stripped every last fruit from the trees braches they still sat under it as their favourite place.

Together the chickens and ducks explored the yard and gathered in the coop for night time food treats

12 week ducks searching for bugs

Tomorrow, Buff ducks from 12 to 20 weeks