Sunday night came the storm, power off and on, and Monday, power gone for over 24 hours. Gone too is 10 of our ducks. Some hideous monster ripped through the chicken wire that surrounds three sides of the duck pen and killed 10 of the 12 ducks that were tucked safely into bed that night. The fourth side is wooden, it is beside the "new chicken" house.
No idea what this nasty creature was, but it ripped open a hole about 18 inches by 18 inches, came in and killed all but 2 of the ducks. One duck is not there, the others simply dead, one had its head chewed off.
This was a sad day. My Sister had gone to let the ducks and chickens out, to find this bloody mess. Gone is our big Muscovey Drake, Big Boy, he was a beauty, and was raised by my Neice in their home until he was old enough to go outside himself, so he was very friendly. Gone are the Indian Runners and Rouens, and their adult babies, and several other Muscovey hens. Sad, ruthless and needless.
We still have 8 young Muscoveys left. They were incubated by the incubator, so they are very human friendly. There was 2 Muscovey hens left, they will be our breeding stock, but is was a hard blow, it made me cry an awful lot. These were my babies, I loved the Muscovey ducks so much, I will miss their quiet little hissey sounds that they make. I will miss the sound of the male Indian runner, his kind of peeping sound, and I will miss the funny little Rouens that turn their heads sideways, pointing to the ground and make funny sounds as they walk along.
There will be more. We will buy more of the Indian Runners and Rouens, I loved to watch them, and of course more Muscoveys are in the growing stages and are beautiful.
So many lessons learned in our lives. We thought that these birds were safe in their homes, but very obviously, mere chicken wire is nothing compared to the strong claws of an animal that wants to get in and murder. So with each lesson, we become more knowledgeable, and work harder to keep everything safe and sound.
I have no clue what got in, I suspect it was a racoon, they are ferocious, I know that. I have heard them when they fought in the tree in our yard one night years ago. I thought for surely that there was a monster in the trees that morning (hee, hee).
In retrospect, it is too bad a couple of weeks ago that we took 14 mature Moscoveys to the slaughterhouse for our freezer. But......still, that is OK, there is nothing on earth like the Muscovey for the meat duck, drakes average about 5-6 pounds, almost little or no fat when you cook them, and it makes the most beautiful gravy, far better even than the dark meat on turkeys, yeah!!!! Have a wonderful and beautiful day, great health wishes to all. Cindi
This is Big Boy, and the third picture is Big Boy's Girl, he had a favourite hen, she was always hanging out really close to him.
This pictures shows 2 geese and Big Boy's offspring. The death house is at the end of the buildings, you can't see it because it is set back a bit from the front of these structures.