there go the ducks...

 We just said good-bye to the ducks...

watched them go down the driveway

in their new family's truck. 

It was a tough decision, but after some soul-searching, 

we knew the ducks had to go. 

The chicken-raising-ducks 

adventure / experiment 

was definitely an interesting one 

and we learned a lot along the way. 

I don't regret it at all, 

but the next time we get fertile eggs for a broody chicken to sit on,

they'll be chicken eggs, for sure. 

I only wish that adult ducks could co-exist better with the chickens,

or that we had a bigger property 

where we could fence and shelter the ducks separately.

For months it was great fun...!  

quirky and entertaining...

 

The ducks added some lively excitement 

to our backyard flock.

But this winter with the ducks has been tough.

They reached sexual maturity in late November, and then winter came,

and they've been all cooped up with the hens

except for a few warmer days here and there.

They haven't been good coop-mates for the chickens.

They've been pestering the hens,

and it was the last straw 

when we saw them being mean to Commie, 

their chicken mamma.

 On multiple occasions, 

we saw her trying to get up on the perch

to get away from them.

She's gotten really thin

from not getting enough food

because the ducks bother her so often...!

That just isn't okay.

The ducks are a lot bigger than the chickens.

And they're noisy.

And messy.  

 Super messy.  

So messy

 that the whole inside of the coop 

is basically a frozen mountain of water-infused-bedding

from their continuous splashing and spilling and dribbling.  

All of that bedding gets damp and cold and the hens don't like it

and there's hardly anywhere for them to walk in their coop.

And they don't like the way the boys nibble at their necks 

and you, know...  the other things they try to do. 

For us, it had gotten to be high-maintenance.  

Multiple water changings and bedding additions per day 

(thank you, Boo, who did this far longer than I would have)...

But the real stress was worrying

about the safety of the hens

and their health/happiness 

because of the ducks pushing them around

and making the coop so damp.  

------------

It was going to be a very sad good-bye to the ducks

 and we were feeling so heavy-hearted about it.

(our friend Wendy was going to give them a fast death,

Henry VIIIth style, and then a place in her freezer...)

OY OY OY

it was feeling like too much to bear.

 So I said, UNIVERSE, do your thing.

If there is a way, make it work.

Please.

Please.

Please.

Thanks to the Universe, and Craigslist (!)

and a friendly elderly grape farmer on Seneca Lake --

the ducks have found a new home to live out their days.

Phew!

The ducks have been spared the hatchet,

and we the pain of knowing their fate,

and the mental images of that.

(even though we wouldn't have watched)

Oh no.

Not these girls.

---------------

I can't look at any pictures of the ducks right now

 or it just turns me into a big cry baby...

It feels even sadder than I thought it would

for them to be gone.

And so quiet.

Lizzie, the girl, was the noisiest quacker, 

from before dawn 'til after dusk.

Dash and Virgil, her amorous suitors, 

following her everywhere.

We're hoping that the guy who took them

was really honest with us, and that he'll take good care of them.

He promised that they wouldn't be for eating,

that they will be loved pets.

If it's anything like he says it is, they'll love their new life!

  On the farm they went to, 

I guess there are about 100 free range birds...

many types of ducks and geese. 
(they'll get to be with their own kind... not just crazy chickens!)

And a pond.

Come grape harvesting time, 

they get to eat loads and loads of grapes, which they ADORE. 

Not to mention that they'll get to roam a bunch of fenced in acres. 

But even if that's not the real story

just about any life would have been better than 

the big freeze in our friend Wendy's Frigidaire.

As long as the ducks have each other,

and food, and water, and shelter

they should be 

happy as ducks.

--------------

I'll really miss them

even though they've been a real pain

the last few months.

I'll miss watching them do their splash dancing in the pond,

and the way they nibbled with their bills at the earth for bugs and things.

I'll miss their synchronized curiosity...

the way they all turned their heads in the same direction at once

with the cutest look.

------------

Good luck, dear duckies!  

Many blessings to you,
our little quacky friends.

May you live long and prosper.
May you be safe and loved.