- Male ducks do not quack. They in fact sound a lot like Donald Duck, only quieter. Somebody on the Disney staff actually knew a thing or two about ducks.
- Female ducks make up for the lack of quacking from their boyfriends... especially laying breeds. High strung ducks = LOTS AND LOTS OF QUACKING.
- Ducklings, no matter how often or how gently they are handled, seem to go through a crazy panic bird phase starting when they are about two or three weeks old. This is about a week before a lot of mama ducks give their babies the boot in nature, apparently, so it makes sense. It is still obnoxious.
- When the panic bird phase ends depends on the breed. Meat breeds settle down right around when they start laying... when they are 20 weeks old. I'm still waiting for the laying breeds to settle down.
- Domestic ducks (except for Muscovies, which I'll get to later, and Mallards, which I don't ever want to own) do not fly. They also have stupid flat feet and look a lot like a wind up bath toy when they run. They are still faster than you.
- Muscovies fly. I mean they really fly, like "oh hi I'm a duck and I want to roost on top of your house" level of flying. I keep having this idea that I can leave their wings unclipped and it will be fine. I don't know why I keep having this idea.
- While ducks are extremely stupid, they are creatures of habit, and if you can make them do something for about three days (say, go into the coop at sundown), they will do it basically on their own ever after. This is wonderful most of the time, but terrible if you need to get them to do something else instead (like sleep in the other coop). Because they will do everything in their power to make everything exactly the same always forever and ever, including running you over with those stupid flat feet, which isn't as funny as it sounds like it should be.
- There is a saying, "being nibbled to death by ducks." I will tell you, I have been bitten by ducks (broody mommy ducks are full of rage), and it is actually quite painful. Especially when it is done over and over at high speed and accompanied by valiant attempts to beat you to death with her wings. Just don't mess with broody Muscovies. It's almost always a mistake, and very rarely worth it.
- Mother ducks are extremely protective of their babies. The problem with this is when the hen across the way also hatched out some very nice babies, and she decides that those must be her babies, too, and OMG THAT EVIL MONSTER HEN IS STEALING MAH BABIES!!!1 When hens fight over the ducklings, the ducklings always loose. I have ended up with more brooder ducklings this way than any other issue with the hatching process.
- Speaking of ducks hatching eggs... sometimes, when the eggs are hatching, the mother ducks will push pipping eggs and wet ducklings out of the nest. They can't get back in on their own, obviously, and the mother ducks either can't or won't help (although they will call to them - the mother ducks may just be stupid). When you try to put them back you will get bitten. A lot. I like to just put them in my incubator and avoid that whole mess. This is the second biggest reason I end up with brooder ducklings.
- Do not gauge a duck hen's ability to hatch eggs by the first nest she sits. There will be quite a lot of rotters and dead ducklings the first go around, and you may panic and think that you will never have enough ducklings to raise for the freezer. Her second nest she will probably hatch twice as many ducklings as you thought she had eggs under there, and you will suddenly have an army of ducklings breaking into the feed corn like they own the place.
All in all, I wonder why I keep ducks about four times a year. But then there are the times when I sit on my front porch and watch peaceful roving packs of ducklings grazing in my front yard, keeping the place free of basically all bugs in the process. Plus roast duck for dinner and poached duck eggs? Yeah, they'll be staying.
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