Rural Gardening: First Ducklings of Spring, 1 by DonnaB

DonnaB wrote:
I have never eaten Duck but have eaten Turtle Soup & Puldo Gumbo(Coot) which was great. My Aunt & Uncle are big hunters in Thibodaux. She says I make her feel bad when i send her pics of my pet ducks or Butterflies since they eat her herbs in barrels out at their camp and she kills them

More ducklings hatched Tuesday and were out of the nest Wednesday. I have 6 Mandarins and 1 Chestnut-breasted Teal. great another egg dumper.
More Mandarin due the 20th and the Runner Ducks eggs are due the 17th. I moved them out to the nest when I caught her off Thursday since i can't hand raise them right now. 7 oF 12 Eggs were still good. had 3 quitters and 2 were not developing. Not bad for shipped eggs. New Chiloe Hen started brooding with eggs due to hatch about June 11th.

I released the Cinnamon Teal pr and the 1 surviving duckling back into the open Aviary. I now believe the drake was the reason for the other 7's deaths. I caught him trying to hurt the duckling several times and why I released them. Now it has plenty of places to hiding and get away from the drake. The drake is raping the hen and she is fighting him. I was told by the experts that drake will often kill the ducklings so it can breed again because to have duckling means means breeding is over for him