Happy 1st Birthday Duck Nuggets!

I am very late in posting this.  I spent a week at home with Covid, not being able to celebrate the 1st birthday of my smelly Duck Nugget trio. We also added 8 chicks to the garage brooder.  Life has been a little busy and crazy.  

I cannot believe it has been one year since I became a duck momma!  And what a fun, hilarious, smelly, crazy, wet, interesting, informative year it has been.  Ducks and chickens are like night and day.  Totally different animals.  But I have enjoyed every minute with them!

After spending some time with the Canadian Goose who took refuge on our farm for a month or so in Winter of 2022, I knew my next adventure had to be waterfowl.  I would drop hints to my hubby here and there hoping it would finally just turn in to a yes. Well one day while joking through text, he finally said 'whatever' so I took that as a yes and ran with it. I promised Lloyd if I could get ducklings, I wouldn't buy any chicks at all in 2023 (and yes I held up on that promise). 

I started my research into raising ducklings and goslings.  And how to care for adult ducks and geese.  Trying to figure out what the best fit would be for us.  With the grow out coop and run we had at the time, I decided it was best to just start with ducks.  Three of course.  I knew exactly what breed I wanted. Welsh Harlequin.  The stunning colors, the personality....they were my dream duck. I put my order in for three ducklings through McMurray to arrive in February of 2023 and started preparing. Put the brooder up, bought special duckling feed, brewer's yeast, peas, puppy pads, a stuffed animal for them to love on. 

The week before the ducklings were supposed to hatch my phone rang. It was McMurray letting me know that they were not going to have the hatch numbers on Welsh Harlequins that they previously thought. They offered to push off my order until April (hello I have no patience, this was only February) or substitute with another breed.  I told her I didn't know much about the other breeds, I had done my research on Welsh.  She was super sweet and talked me through picking a new breed.  She asked what I was hoping for as far as temperament, egg laying, hardiness, etc.  We decided the Khaki Campbell breed was best for what I was wanting.  One week later, I got the notification, my babies were hatched and on a truck headed to their forever home!

As all things on the Heishman Hen Farm go, the day the ducklings arrived in the mail, it was bitterly cold and snowy.  The post office called to let me know my babies were in and to come get them.  I ran and picked them up and was able to keep them in a storage room at work on a heating pad under a blanket until I left at lunch.  I couldn't believe how tiny they were.  I have never seen day old ducklings.  All three could fit in my hand.  

Due to it being so cold and snowy, the ducklings were put in a crate in the spare bedroom for a couple weeks.  It didn't take us long to figure out we had to put sides on the crate because ducks are so very messy.  Water, feed, feces.  You name it, it's everywhere.  

As far as names go, I am not really sure why I picked Stella, Luna, and Orion. I had wrote down a list of ‘trio’ names I liked. These just stuck out the most to me. And of course in my world, everything has a middle name, so we have Stella Rae, Luna Mae, and Orion Mac. We use Mac a lot because it was my daddy’s middle name. They are called the Duck Nuggets because the day I got them, I FaceTimed my niece and she decided instead of chicken nuggets that they looked like duck nuggets. So it stuck. They also go by the quack pack, the dukers, and the pea brats.

So far my favorite part of raising the Duck Nuggets was teaching them to swim. We started with a tiny container and slowly moved up to the bathtub. With ducklings, you have to dry them off very well after swim time because they don’t produce the oils yet to make them waterproof. The first time Orion dove and swam underwater made this duck mama so proud. I literally could have sat and watched them swim all day. When they were little we would cart them around in a long tote from crate to tub, then tub to fireplace then back to crate.  And let me tell you, ducks are very much creatures of habit.  If momma missed bathtime by even a few minutes, I heard all about it.  

Our go to treat since babies has been peas.  The Duck Nuggets are very highly motivated by peas.  They know the word peas, know the sound of the frozen pea bag. Peas are high in niacin which baby ducks need.  They are also just an all around healthy treat.  It's a rule in our house when we go to the store, you buy at least 3-5 bags of frozen peas. The ducks have learned to come to us on command, follow me, go to bed, jump, etc by using peas.  

While not my snuggliest animals on the farm, every once in a while one of the ducks will attempt to get into my lap or arms for what we call 'duck snugs'.  They are usually just content to sit beside me outside on a blanket or in the grass. I am a bit disappointed they aren't as cuddly as my chickens but it's ok.  I am their momma and if I walk away too far they come looking for me, they follow me around, and they aren't scare of me at all. So we will call that a win.

These babies went from tiny ducklings to full grown in a matter of no time.  They were laying by the end of July.  And boy do those girls crank out the eggs.  Almost every day, both girls lay an egg. While I am not a huge fan of the taste of duck eggs, I will bake with them and cook with them.  They are huge!  One duck egg equals 1.5 to 2 chicken eggs. 

Our year together has been relatively uneventful and very healthy.  Stella has had two cases of bumblefoot, which is common in backyard ducks.  It's an easy fix and something I am used to fixing with chickens. The polar vortex got to us a bit and they had to spend some time in the garage but we all got through it.  

We are all anxiously awaiting warmer weather.  We have built a little alcove off of their run to put a pool in full time. We will also put their bigger pool up in the yard.  Primarily because this duck mom loves to sit and watch the ducks dive and play for hours in the pool while I read. 

I could go on and on about these darn ducks but then what would I write about in the future?  So even though I am late....Happy 1st Birthday Stella, Luna, and Orion. And Happy 1st Anniversary of being duck parents Lloyd Jr! Here's to keeping our ducks in a row for a while longer.