Just missing 2 they’re in the yard sleeping

So I have three fairly new ducks we've had for about two months. Very delicate looking ladies who I have been building solid trust with over that time. Up to the point they would check on me and follow me to their coop when it came to lock-up and food time. However one of them had a limp going on so I went to catch her and while I did it was not a good experience for them. As I am a solo owner, it was just me doing the work. Nothing wrong with her feet though that I could check, I spoke to her gently, made the operation as quick as possible and set them back into their pen. However I have lost allot of trust with them, moreso now that when I tried to get them back into their Enclosure today, they distinctly avoided it as I could normally walk them in or bring food and they follow. Now they are skittish and wary.

Today I had to get them in there and as I got them close I had to run to cut them off from going off under the property and that terrified them. One is in the enclosure, the other two are hiding. What can I do to build up trust with them again and encourage them back into the enclosure? It''s an open air enclosure, we have nothing where I live that threatens the trio and has their pond, food, some tall grass to hide in and two spots they dig around with their bills in plus shelter and soon it'll have two proper boxes for them.

Any advice?

Our two Muscovy's were homed to a friend of a friend who lost their drake.

Great new signs are popping up in Australia. Some include QR codes that link to websites that have information about all the different species that can be found in the relevant region.

They also include more up to date information about the impacts of feeding ANY kind of food: lack of nutrients from not eating a natural diet, overcrowding, encouraging domestic duck dumping, attracting rodents and introduced birds (like starlings) and most importantly, supporting introduced domestic ducks which are threatening native ducks through crossbreeding. Feeding attracts wild, native ducks to hang around these areas and spend more time with mallards than they normally would.

The whole “don’t feed ducks bread, feed them oats, seeds, grapes etc” message is outdated, has done nothing to stop the above issues and it may even have made things worse in some cases. The impacts of bread has been exaggerated in some areas. It’s been incorrectly attributed to botulism outbreaks and the cases of Angel Wing are possibly exaggerated. 15 years in wildlife rescue and native duck rehabilitation and I’ve never seen it.

Feeding also tames ducks. It makes them more likely to hang around for food, and their chances of being attacked by dogs or hit by cars increase. The most common reasons for ducks to be found injured where I am is from dog and car related injuries and they are almost always dumped domestic ducks in feeding areas.

It’s really best to enjoy ducks by simply watching their antics and natural behaviours. It’s just as fun to spot different species and to learn about them. It’s better for them and their habitats also.

This little girl is tiny at 2 weeks but the other 5 are growing great.

Anything I can do to help out? I see her eating, very active, and I drop mealworms in front of her every day and she’ll eat them.

I tried to isolate her and try new foods or just the organic duckling starter food but she’s too distressed away from her siblings.

Cleared Charlie's bumble on Thanksgiving. The swelling has reduced significantly and the wound has completely scabbed over.

The silver coloring is an aerosol bandage product called AluShield.

We got our first duck egg today!!!!!! 🥚 I was so surprised it was so green but I guess that is common with runners! Just wanted to share my happy news :)

This one took a while to remove. Pepper's toe has been swollen for some time and the other day a scab formed.

Had to soak her foot for about 30 minutes before things began to loosen, even then I had to take my time slowly removing this sucker to Pepper's much-vocalized discomfort.

After it was removed she stopped squirming and calmed down. I can only imagine the relief she felt.

Can ducks brood on wet/moist surfaces? My ducks have been laying on a moist surface and I am not sure of the eggs will hatch. Moreover, it rained yesterday and all the eggs were exposed to water, some socked in mud. I secured the eggs. I have not washed them though. Should I relocate the ducks and allow them brood?

What I resorted to after an Amazon incubator failed at 2am. I have duck eggs incubating with a hatch date of 12/06 and I lost temperature two hours ago. The incubator alarm woke my spouse up at 2am and the temp was about 2°F lower than the setting. All eggs were good prior and are mostly too solid to see through. I did manage to find veining on the first one. The second egg I checked was internally pipped... I saw movement. For background info, I woke and ran like hell when my husband asked if the incubator beeped when something was wrong. I saw two degrees lower and disconnected, waited for the backup battery to kick in and hoped it would reset and the temp would start to rise. It didn't, so I put on a kettle to get 100°F water, grabbed a portable ice chest, heated a clay-based hot pack, heated up the chest and took the eggs all out and into a foam carton. I heated the clay pack, placed it with the egg carton in the chest, and started adding water bottles with 100°F water. While the eggs sat in a hopefully warm enough place, I dumped water from the incubator, placed it into a foam casing it came with to use as needed, and filled the reservoir with the 100°F water. It did reach temp, so after an hour, I put the eggs back in. One I noticed was internally pipped. There may be others, but I was trying my utmost to get them back into temperature range. This is my first incubation batch.. I'm scared pissless. I started three more since then and I've lost three eggs altogether from just the original 15 duck eggs I started, if you don't count the unfertilized-looking one. I can't get this close to hatch day and lose all 8 of my first batch. Batch2 in Bator2 only has four 😭

This is my first winter with ducks. Where I live the lowest it gets can be 0F sometimes so I worry about them getting to cold. My ducks have their own decks so they are not on the cold ground with a large coop built over top of the deck. Inside each coop I keep a kiddie pool. Should they have access to the pool when it gets this cold? If so how do you guys keep it from freezing over? I have read that some people put heaters in the water but I haven’t found any. If anyone has suggestions or links to good heater I would appreciate it!