Stories from the Farm

This last week my son and I traveled North to pick up some more Call Ducks. 

We now have a trio of Whites and a pair of Grays.

The little gray drake is his favorite and he named him ‘Snook’.

The little gray female is my favorite, but I haven’t come up with a name yet – any suggestions?

I love these little ducks and how entertaining they can be.  They are quite talkative and flirty with each other.  They are small enough that a 4-year-old can handle them easily.  A couple of the new ducks have been shown and I am hoping to show them next year and have show quality babies in the Spring.

After putting the new ducks in there pens, the little gray drake jumped up and flew off a short distance.  We looked at each other stunned.  My son jumped out of the pen to go catch him 🙂  Luckily he was easy to catch and didn’t go too far.  We didn’t want to lose any so we locked them in the covered pens until we could clip wings, something that has been on my list to do.  Which leads me to Maisie…

This is Maisie with her babies from earlier this year.  Isn’t she cute 🙂  I decided to clip wings today and the Snowy call ducks really needed to be done because they are the most adventuresome of the ducks here.  Maisie is the mom to one of the little vanishing females that Tammy has at Wren Song Farm.  I put them in the enclosed pen and I ‘thought’ I shut the door.  I clipped the wings on the drake and one hen and then went to catch Maisie, she pushed the door open and was in the outside pen – not a big deal…or so I thought.  She then very quickly jumped up and flew off, and boy did she FLY!!!  I saw her disappear to around the front of the house and start to turn.  I ran to the front with my husband and saw the cat chasing something in the front yard, but I didn’t see Maisie.  We have a hedge in front of the house along the road and my husband thought he heard her in there.  But we couldn’t see her anywhere.  We decided to let her be for awhile and see if she came out on her own.  She found a good spot and was not going to budge, so we continued looking for her.  Finally a couple hours later he spotted a couple tail feathers.  He went to the front, while I stayed at the back and he climbed in the holly.  Luckily she was really wedged under a branch and he was able to grab her – YAY!!!  I very promptly grabbed the scissors and clipped her wing.  Next year I will clip wings a little earlier 🙂