THE TALE OF THE RUNAWAY DUCK!
This is why people trim the wings on their poultry.
Yesterday, @mama-pepper got a text from a neighbor. The neighbor was wondering if we were missing a duck, because an extra one had showed up at her place. We thought it was going to be easy to get it back, but we thought wrong...
FLY AWAY!
So, we didn't exactly keep all of the wings trimmed on our birds. Mostly, we don't mind, because it gives them a chance to get out and explore the world a bit, plus they look so beautiful when they are flying around. Unfortunately though, sometimes people's poultry will fly away and never return, and we certainly want to avoid that. Just one night of not coming back to the shelter could cost them their lives.
When we arrived at the neighbors, one of our female ducks was in her garden. We figured that we would just go pick her up and bring her back home...
The @little-peppers tried to grab her...
And they tried again. Unfortunately, this duck had gotten rather used to flying and wasn't in the mood to get caught.
Maybe she just wanted to hang out with the neighbor's ducks instead. She did do that for a while. Soon, things got even more difficult and the duck started really flying far away from us.
First she flew out in a cattle pasture. Out in the open it is harder to capture an animal like this, which we already knew, but we certainly got a refresher!
Then it flew even further away, and eventually we lost it. We had no idea where it went. We tried looking all over the place, but were not able to find it anywhere. We hoped for the best and gave up for the time being.
A SECOND CHANCE!
Before sundown she showed back up at home. We locked her up with the rest for the night, but we knew what we had to do in the morning. It was time to trim her flight feathers. I know that trimming feather is a lot like a haircut in some ways, except that it also takes away the opportunity for the bird to fly. I've always had a hard time doing this, but I knew that it could help keep her safe and alive.
She was the first to get trimmed, and then we got a few other ones that were in need of a trim. I can't wait to get down on the land and move the rest of our animals there too, but right now it is safest for us to keep them where they are, and part of keeping them where they are is not letting them fly away.
We were so happy that she made it home on her own, and especially that she did so before sunset. If she was out alone at night, she could be potential prey for coyotes, opossums, raccoons, owls or other predators. Now that she can't fly at the moment, she'll be safer and we will be able to keep a better eye on her. Maybe she will even start laying some eggs soon and hatching out her own ducklings! We will see, and we'll let you know if she does!
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-finally-catching-it
Until next time…
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Maybe you should have let her be since she learnt to be safe and even flew back home without much stress on you. She must have gone to see and explore her environment.....#very intelligent bird I must confess..
Yeah, we could have chosen to do that. There's been birds like this in the area that forever left their homes too, so we chose to clip. They'll grow back.
this is a very good way, with like this he will not be able to fly any further.
because I also have a duck that can fly like this, it is very difficult for us to get it when we need it.
because he can sometimes fly like a pigeon bird.
Thanks @papa-pepper, you've given an idea on how to cope with flying duck like this.
Looks so laughy laughing, for me this is a real funny story unintentional. Good work @papa-pepper A post that really inspires me because you write it in full meditation.
Wow nice history
Good job friend
Another story: The next day a duck landed in our driveway, it was FAT (7pounds) but had a gash in the shoulder and couldn't move, looked like the one that you were chasing, ended up keeping it in the coop and giving it some antibiotic gel on the wound after I irrigated it with rubbing alcohol, it liked our swamp that's for sure and sure enough it was the neighbors who had spoted it in our lake.
Maybe the duck was just trying to play with your kids by making himself uncaughtable @papa-pepper
It may have been a fun game, but the duck won!
Yes the duck won
Ta very much. So so so wonderful post I have seen
Too bad about the feather-trimming, but I understand the need. One of those tough things about keeping animals, I suppose.
The duck probably ran away to tell the lion that the sky was falling. Poultry has a history of that kind of behavior. I should know; I actually just posted a re-telling of Chicken Little this morning.
LOL!
Get ready for the sads :D
We lost all our ducks as the flood brought destruction to our 200foot chicken wire fence that rusted from only 3-4 days underwater and the ducks were all over the proprety, soon enough my gutsy hole-in-the-foot went missing, then 2 more and so forth till we had 10 out of 28 that we would keep in the chicken coop but a racoon or something got into there because a lid on one nesting box was ripped off in the flood and I had only stapled it on to the linoneum weatherstripping, this happened Christmas day Sunday :(, 2 days later I found where they were being picked off from, my neighbors cypress trees have a few small ponds around them/puddles more than anything and they would go there to waddle around and sure enough there was probably a racoon that was hunting them. I trimmed their wings but they could still clear the fence even with the flight feathers all the way trimmed :/ btw.
PS.
I loved to call them "Ducks" they would answer from wherever they were and come running to get fed, I think I babied them toooo much, didn't realize that would be a problem.
That is a terrible story! Man....
That is one attractive duck. Good job Peppers.