As you will recall I, at one time, had a flock of 37 ducks and 15 geese here on South Road. I can only thank God Kenny did not live to see that fiasco. In that flock there were 4 Muscovy ducks. All the others were just plain ducks. By that I mean they were plain little Polander which is a domesticated Mallard that can not fly, or a mix of breeds that were like the United Nations of Duckdom. I did have one that walked upright. That one was white. There was also one that was a cross which walked about half upright. When Mr. Fox finished visiting, I had 2 ducks left, a Polander and the white upright. A friend took them to the pond in Pueblo West and to the best of my knowledge they are still living happily ever after. Below is a picture of the flock about half way through the fox episode.
The point of this entry is to discuss the nastiness of the 4 Muscovy ducks. To the best of my knowledge, the Muscovy is the only ones that can fly, and fly they did very well. Let me go back a little further to the house on Strong Street in Nickerson, Kansas. You recall it was built in the shotgun design which meant you entered the front and if an intruder was in the back you could fire a shell in your 10 gauge and the shot would travel through the house and hit the bad man without touching anything else. On the back wall was the sink and pump with a drain pipe from the sink that went through a hole in the back wall and water from the dish washing process or whatever else could be disposed of that way without having to carry a bucket outside. It sure made life easier for us lazy little kids.
So now you are probably wondering where the water went after it got outside, aren't you? Well, the end of the pipe was about 15 feet from the house and that is where the water went. Also in the back yard was where the ducks lived. I do not remember how many we had, but I do know they were nasty. They took their little beaks and dug into the standing water looking for God only knows what to eat. Of course anything that went in that beak was going to come out the other end. Needless to say we were not allowed to play in that standing water. Pretty sure that was one rule that we did abide by!
Now, I have got to explain how a Muscovy duck is different than other ducks. Domesticated ducks do not fly. The Muscovy is a whole different story. The neck on the males is very thick. The males are also very aggressive. They did not quack, but rather whispered. And they flew. The would leave the pond and fly into my small back yard and roost on my air conditioner. Now I did not like that. When I tried to shoo them out back the males would ruffle their feathers and scare hell out of me. The females were very docile and about half the size of the drakes. One morning I went to the fowl house and found a dead goose. It's neck had been broken. Since the fowl house was attached to a wire enclosure whatever killed the goose had to be inside that place. I watch my geese fight all through breeding season and never have I seen that kind of violence. It had to be one of the Muscovy drakes. So I called the guy over on County Farm Road and he came and was in agreement with my findings. He then loaded all 4 Muscovy's into his truck and off the to the sale they went. I never tried Muscovy's again.
The point of this entry is to discuss the nastiness of the 4 Muscovy ducks. To the best of my knowledge, the Muscovy is the only ones that can fly, and fly they did very well. Let me go back a little further to the house on Strong Street in Nickerson, Kansas. You recall it was built in the shotgun design which meant you entered the front and if an intruder was in the back you could fire a shell in your 10 gauge and the shot would travel through the house and hit the bad man without touching anything else. On the back wall was the sink and pump with a drain pipe from the sink that went through a hole in the back wall and water from the dish washing process or whatever else could be disposed of that way without having to carry a bucket outside. It sure made life easier for us lazy little kids.
So now you are probably wondering where the water went after it got outside, aren't you? Well, the end of the pipe was about 15 feet from the house and that is where the water went. Also in the back yard was where the ducks lived. I do not remember how many we had, but I do know they were nasty. They took their little beaks and dug into the standing water looking for God only knows what to eat. Of course anything that went in that beak was going to come out the other end. Needless to say we were not allowed to play in that standing water. Pretty sure that was one rule that we did abide by!
Now, I have got to explain how a Muscovy duck is different than other ducks. Domesticated ducks do not fly. The Muscovy is a whole different story. The neck on the males is very thick. The males are also very aggressive. They did not quack, but rather whispered. And they flew. The would leave the pond and fly into my small back yard and roost on my air conditioner. Now I did not like that. When I tried to shoo them out back the males would ruffle their feathers and scare hell out of me. The females were very docile and about half the size of the drakes. One morning I went to the fowl house and found a dead goose. It's neck had been broken. Since the fowl house was attached to a wire enclosure whatever killed the goose had to be inside that place. I watch my geese fight all through breeding season and never have I seen that kind of violence. It had to be one of the Muscovy drakes. So I called the guy over on County Farm Road and he came and was in agreement with my findings. He then loaded all 4 Muscovy's into his truck and off the to the sale they went. I never tried Muscovy's again.
Above is what I have left of my flock. Actually I have all 4 of the African Grays, which are the dark ones. One of them is a hen. I lost 2 of the white ones, leaving me with 2 male Emidens and 1 male and 1 female Chinese. The two hens lay in the Spring and I practice birth control via noodle making. Snakes are rampant in the goose house since they like eggs so as long as I keep the eggs picked up, the snakes are forced to find me some other way. I am going to get someone out here to go in the neighbors yard and move that pile of tires because I think the snakes live in there.
Or under my deck!
Well, that is it for today. Spring is here. The ducks are all gone and the weeds are coming up in the fence line so I better get on the stick.
Time and tide wait for no man...or woman!
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