Duck tails

I am hoping to chronologically picture all of the drakes progress soon, but right now I had to share the newest thing. The oldest drake (13 weeks) sprouted his 'drake feather' last week. It's so stinking cute. He actually has two and they are on opposite sides of his butt. So, it looks more like horns than anything. He has also stopped trying to quack. (Oh, thank goodness) and sounds raspy like a normal drake should.

The funny thing is that even though the ducks are easily twice the size of my two little hens, the hens really rule the roost around here. 

The ducks even let the hens have first go at their treats. Once the girls get their noses wet a time or two they quickly lose interest in the ducks seeds I give them.

Here he celebrates the small victory.

 Actually managed to lift himself up a good inch or two as well. Silly bird. 

While I've enjoyed having them here and watching them grow I simply can not wait to bring them to their new home. Having this many ducks in such a small area is difficult to keep clean. They are dirty birds. After I finally gave up leaving them free access to the little tot pool here and realized they only need the bucket of water to rinse their nares? So much easier. I dump the pool every 2-3 days now because they are only swimming in it for about 2 hours a night. It also keeps the area they stay in drier over all. That makes it easier to clean.  

They say that ducks poop more than any other fowl - but I'm wondering if that is not the case in particular but more of the fact that they do not scratch and thereby eliminate the evidence of their poop. I'm going to get help with that little problem as well. The drake that will be staying with us will have to be housed in the hen pen in the future. This weekend will be the first I will be trying out the drakes in there. I fell a little bad putting them in with the bullies (hens) but it is necessary. I'm bringing home the babies tonight and I need the 'nursery' space the drakes have been using for them. They will all forage in the yard together in the evenings to make the transition for the ducklings into the flock easier.

That's it for now. If all goes well I'll be back soon with pics of my new babies. Exciting, and daunting at the same time. I really can't keep them all here much longer.

Be back soon!

Barbie~