6 weeks old and Awesome!

Wow do they change in a week. What a week it has been. Onyx, our Ancona Drake that we assumed was the standard black and white has been changing every day. First came this beautiful rust/copper color on his breast area and this week, a beautiful teal color is appearing on his face, head and back end. So...it looks like Onyx will be a tri-color which is thrilling as he is going to be paired up with my silver ancona duck, Sasha.

He will be paired up with Sasha. She is what i believe to be a silver ancona. Yay.

Then my three chocolate anconas will become a trio.

There is Mounds, a female

Hershey, also a female

KitKat, the drake

I will have a trio of Golden Welsh Harlequins, Draccus, the Drake

A female, Nibblets

The second female, Lilly

I also have three Golden Welsh Harlequin drakes that will be in a bachelor pad until I find them good homes or until I get more females.


Their favorite green is Spinach Leaves....oh my they go nuts for it.

So, the adventure continues. I am building the duck house and have a smaller coop coming for the bachelors so I will post pics of that as I go too.

They are 5 weeks old + and amazing

There is never a dull moment around here with the duck crew of 11. As you can see above, Onyx was having fun playing in the pool. They are a hoot! Each one has a different personality and is unique in his/her own way.

So far it looks like we have 6 drakes and 5 females. Well 5 are clearly quacking and 6 are not. My Golden Welsh Harlequins have very distinct looks too. The two that are quacking are a rusty beautiful brown breast area, the other 4 are splotchy and have dark heads and are not quacking. So time will tell for sure but I love em all anyway.

Here are some pics of my favorite harlequin drake...he loves the hose and being nosey. He has to check out everything I am doing or have.

All 11 of them in their play pool. They have a much larger one which they are sleeping in at night in the garage while their duck house is being built.

Kitkat refusing to use the steps, silly duck

Sasha being too lazy to get out of the pool

Nibblets

Hershey

Mounds

Sasha and Onyx headless

Water Play

Then of course we must groom afterwards

It looks like I will be looking for females for my 3 extra drake harlequins because I just do not have the heart to butcher the extras. I bought them as pets and love them as pets...so pets they will stay. If I need to rehome them I will do that or make them a bachelor pad of their own, which is the current plan.

More updates on the crew later because something is always happening with these guys.

They are 4 weeks old

They are growing and providing many more moments of fun and antics. It is amazing how quickly they grow. They are growing more beautiful each day.

There were also moments of near heart failure for me...such as when I was taking pictures and one of the ducks was missing its head! Silly duckie had his/her head bent backwards grooming and fell asleep. I nearly went into cardiac arrest.

They absolutely love the water hose being sprayed at them.

And when I stop spraying...everyone tries to get in the tub at once.

This weekend they should have their own house done. right now it is weather dependent. We have been getting rain which they love but it hampers any building of the duck house. So, for now, they walk to their tractor outside each morning and then back to the garage brooder area each evening. They are very smart and learn things so quickly.

Here is a video of them being herded. They do not like the roomie very much and he was filming...so they sounded like their lives were in immediate danger. hahahahaha

They know where their brooder is now...

They have found new things to eat that they love. I had cooked a big pot of green beans and hubby gave the ducklings one...they went nuts for it. So, I let them have a few when I was getting ready to put them up for the night.

They spend their days in the chicken tractor with their small pool to play in and they get supervised swims in their kiddie pool. In the evenings when I lift the tractor up for them to come out for some free ranging, they play and explore for a few minutes and then head to the garage. They are so cute doing it.

They make their way into the garage and over to the hot tub frame and wait to be lifted into it. They are just adborable and very smart. They pick up on routine really fast.

Every day is a new adventure with them because they have visibly grown when you wake up, they are changing in personality and their wants/needs change too. They have tossed away the idea of lettuce and now only want baby spinach leaves chopped up and put in their water for them. They have actually turned their beaks up to lettuce. spoiled already and not even 3 weeks old.

And they love to stand and play in the spray from the water hose. They are just the cutest little things in the world.

So, we will see what today's duckie antics provide in the way of chuckles.