Rural Gardening: Help! Ducks have invaded!!, 0 by sillenye

sillenye wrote:
I feed baby ducks the crumble nonmedicated food till about 3 weeks, then mix in the grower pellets which don't have extra calcium. the females get layer pellets once they start laying or you can give them grower pellets with extra calcium in oystershell. males aren't supposed to get the extra calcium. babies like tender dandelion leaves and lettuce and some new grass and small slugs, but supposedly spinach is not good for them and not rhubarb. they do love watermelon, I gave them a whole watermelon the other day- gone in minutes. supposedly they love borage though havn't tried that. tansy and foxglove -- poisonous. the more things they try when young the more adventurous they will be.

I keep ducks locked in a coop overnight. once they learn over a few months gets easier to herd them in. A few weeks ago my female toulouse goose left out overnight was killed by a barred owl. I heard the owl killing her at 3 in the morning (who cooks for you calling over and over) but didn't go to investigate. didn't think it was possible for owl to do that. very sad. only head and neck meat eaten. My male goose Pogarty was inconsolable lay on her grave screaming for several weeks. He went to the bottom of the pecking order after that. I had to give him a mirror to look at himself to calm him down at night. He even broke a window pane that used to be his coop door. I bought him a new goose- a buff and white gosling. So he is on the mend now.