My “use to be baby ducks” are now almost full grown.  They are starting to finally get along with the old ducks but the old ducks still put them in their place when they feel it necessary.

I’m very excited about the different breeds and really like the colors.  The bad thing is that there are some that have some pretty messy poop but I can’t tell which ones are which at the moment.  I have been cleaning out the pen every 5-7 days which gets to be a lot more work than I want to invest, but I guess that’s what you get when you have 14 ducks in a pen.  I read in one of my duck books that they need something like 3-4 feet of space per bird.  They’ve got close to that, but if I know if I had more space it wouldn’t get messy so fast. I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.:)

None of them are laying right now which is why I’m complaining about the messiness.  It wouldn’t be so bad if I was earning some money off of them, but for right now, they’re eating plenty of feed (my 30 or so chickens are to blame too.:) ), using lots of bedding and only giving me chores in return.  Ok, so I really enjoy having them too.  I can’t deny that.:)  They do make quite a racket when I’m cleaning, but I love to hear the happy quacking when they get back in their nice, clean, straw filled pen.

The weather has gotten cold here, so I don’t let the older ducks out anymore.  All of my birds are housed in a building that is heated in the winter due to the fact that there are water spigots in the building (we call it the nursery as that is where we raise baby calves when needed).  We keep it about 40 degrees in there in the winter to keep the water from freezing.

I’m very glad we grew plenty of broccoli and cabbage in the garden this year so that I still don’t have to buy any at the store to feed my ducks.  That saves on some cash.  I’m also very fortunate that it’s been a very mild fall here, and I can still keep them in the garden.  I have a feeling I’m going to be buying cabbage like a crazy woman this winter to feed 13 ducks.  They get very angry when they don’t get their cabbages in the morning so I need to make sure I have plenty on hand.  I’ve found that Target has the best deal on cabbage.  They typically sell it for a $1.20 (or something close to that) per head where everyone else tends to sell it by the pound.  That can get VERY spendy!

I took some photos of my ducks and would like to share them with you now.  I tried to get a good one of each individual breed. They are about 4 months old in these photos.  Enjoy!

Blue Swedish

Black Swedish

Fawn and White Runner

Cayuga

Khaki Cambell

Buff

Pekin