Pond Safety For Ducks

Welcome to Episode 8 of the Duck Ladies Pondcast with Host Krissy from @DunkinDucks and Emily from ​@CheeseandQuackersHomestead ! In episode 8 we discuss water/pond safety and some recent homestead stories. 

Table Of Contents: 
00:00 Intro
00:41 Cannoli & Ravioli Pond Emergency & Water/Pond Safety
44:05 Chicken Coop Signs
45:56 Krissy's Duckling Update
46:40 Metzer Farms
53:11 Krissy's Ducks Break Into The Sugar Shack
56:31 Closing

Check out our sponsors:
Metzer Farms; A family owned waterfowl hatchery with 32 breeds of ducks and 13 breeds of geese: https://www.metzerfarms.com

ChickenCoopSigns; custom signs for your coop, farm, or garden! Use code "DUCKLADIES" to save $  https://chickencoopsigns.com?bg_ref=EIUVZkrGxR

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everyone and welcome to the Duck Ladies Podcast episode 8. I'm your host, Chrissy from Dunkin' Ducks here with Lee from Cheese and Quackers Homestead. And today we are doing another discussion about things that have been happening on the homesteads recently.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

My homestead, I can't. This actually, like the minute that me and Chrissy got done with our debriefing, I think this other emergency happened. Like I genuinely think it was that dramatic of my birds to do that to me. And I was like, okay, I decompressed, like, I'm good. And then this all happened, and I'm calling Chrissy back not even 15 minutes later. So this was an intense situation.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

This was bad. So I think we should just get right into it and you can talk about waste no time. What happened?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

So this was honestly, I feel like both me and Chrissy are probably traumatized because Chrissy also witnessed this whole thing. Like I basically forced her into this. And one thing I know, Chrissy is like me. And when you love these animals so much, like seeing anybody's birds in the state that my birds were in is incredibly difficult. So sorry, but you were you were going through that with me. I was not going through that. Somebody had to be there. Yes. So basically, the other day, and I get to tell the long story because we're on the pond. So the other day, we were going outside to do some work on our ponds. We were draining and filling the pond, which we do all the time, and we've always let our ducks play in the mucky water on the bottom of the pond. And I am so paranoid about my ducks being able to get in and out of water. And like that kind of frames out what we figured we'd talk about on this episode today is just general water safety for adult ducks. So if you have ducks that have access to, especially like one of the kiddie pool or like tote style ponds, those don't have a gradual slope. So what you need to make sure you're doing is adding for an easy access way for them to get out of the pond. This was in my bantam enclosure. So those birds are flighted. They're a little bit better at getting out of steep ponds than my other birds. So I usually watch to either make sure that they're easily flying out or easily climbing out. So I was watching them and everybody was getting in and out and playing in the bottom okay. And so I said, okay, either way, I'm still paranoid. So I said, I'm gonna come back. I'm gonna walk away. I'm gonna come back in 20 minutes because 20 minutes is not a long enough period of time for an adult duck to waterlog. So I said, I'll come back in 20 minutes, make sure everybody's still good because I was actually not even worried about my adults because they were all flying and getting out and having no problem. I was worried about my juveniles who were unflighted. So I was paranoid that they would get stuck, even though for reference, there was a way out. We have like stacked bricks to let them get out. And they were utilizing that, but it's only like when the pond level's low, it's only one small way to walk out. It's not like when the pond level's high and all of the birds can just like coast out where they can get out from like a variety of points. So when I went back 20 minutes later, literally, honestly, 20 minutes is me being like generous. Like I think it was the last time, which is crazy. Because we literally went to go do the door and our sazza was dead, and so we couldn't do it. So we got over there, started to try to cut the door, realized the sazol was dead, and then I went back. So, like, I'm saying 20 minutes, but realistically, it could have been like 10 to 15. Like, I don't remember. So I go back in there, can only, and by the way, just so everybody knows, I'm gonna tell this story in a very lighthearted way. It's not because it wasn't extremely traumatizing, it's because I've told this story so many times at this point that I'm one used to it, and two, I also know these birds are okay. So I'm able to like get through it now.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

In the moment, this was terrifying. Horrible. I've never seen you in this level of panic.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

No. I don't think I was telling my husband in all of my career in EMS, I have never been like that. Like I've worked on people dying, I've worked on people in the same situation, and I have never been chaotic like that. Because what I found when I got out there was cannoli was fully unresponsive. I thought she was dead when I pulled her out of the pond. Ravioli was head above water, but very bad, very neurologically compromised, completely stiff to the touch, in a severe state of hypothermia. Both of them were in a severe state of hypothermia. I immediately, when I saw them, jumped in the pond, grabbed both of them out, and Didi had left for the store. So I, since nobody else was home, I didn't have anybody to watch over the pond. And I was worried that if I went to go treat them right away, more ducks would get it. This is where my emergency medicine came in because my brain immediately went like triage. And like I couldn't go treat these birds because other birds could have gotten hurt while I was gone. And I had to make sure that I didn't all of a sudden start having a bunch of birds dying. So I'm standing in the pond with these two ducks under my shirt, like fully curled up as much as I can, holding them at my stomach. This was the most chaotic part, which I actually think this was when I started to crash out. Didn't even know about this. But so I had my phone in my hand and I had jumped into phone into the pond with my phone. And so my phone was soaking wet. And you know how your screen doesn't work when it's soaking wet? Yeah. So I'm trying to do this with one hand, soaking wet in the pond, and my phone won't work. And I'm trying to call DD, like chaotically, like get home, because I didn't want him to make it to the store because he didn't have signal. And I think it was that part where I started to crash out because I was like, oh my god, like nothing is working, and like this is so bad. Finally, I finally took my phone and I wiped it on the one part of my shirt that was dry, and I got it dry, and I called DD and I told him to call back, and then I called Chrissy. I think I called you as I was sprinting into my house with the ducks, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Is that what you remember? If I'll ever be able to get the sound of your screams out of my head, like I can literally replay exactly what happened when I answered that phone call. I don't remember this at all. My immediate thought was obviously a predator got in and there is mash casualties, mash injuries, and I was like, okay, Emily, talk to me. Like, tell me what's going on. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on. Like, I was in that moment, I was ready to be like, okay, this is how we're gonna triage them. Like, this is how we're gonna be like, okay, these ones are saveable. Like, I was ready to go through that. And then I think you like hung up on me and then FaceTimed me back. Yeah, maybe then you showed me the ducks, and I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Also, by the time I was calling Chrissy, I was also so out of breath because I was sprinting around. Because I sprinted, Didi got home, Didi was very calm, which was pissing me off because Didi doesn't understand medicine, and I understood that these ducks were seconds from dying and I needed to work incredibly fast. And he kept on asking me questions. And one thing about me is when I'm in like these ducks have seconds to live, and I was this way in first response too. If you worked with me in first response, I'm so sorry that I was like this. I cannot stand when people are asking me dumb questions. Like, I need you to think independently. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. So Didi was like, well, what would you like me to do? Would you like me to drain the pond? And I was like, I don't care. Make it safe. I'm dealing with this. And so, like, I was so overwhelmed by like multiple things because I was like, Didi, you need to think for yourself in this moment. Like, I cannot help you. I cannot talk you through every little thing. Do whatever needs to be done to make it safe. I was like numbed out.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

I'm like yelling at you, like, do you have a hairdryer? Do you have a hairdryer? Emily, do you have a hairdryer?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

You know what I was thinking about? The only good thing about the way that like I'm trained and like my what I used to do for work is that I am luckily I was like blacked out because I was so freaked out. Because the other problem with this whole situation is the entire time I was working at Cannolian Ravioli, I did not know if there was more birds in the pond. Because I had sent Dee Dee out there. And so I didn't know if there was ducks dead at the bottom. I didn't really understand what happened. This wasn't a normal amount of time for this to go down. And so I was like just so messed up because of the unknowing. And I had sent Didi to go look for more ducks at the bottom of the pond. And guess what he didn't do successfully? That I had to go back out there. I don't know when I was back out there at what point. I must have put them up here. And I went back out there and I jumped back in the pond because I was like, get in the pond. I think you were on the phone for this. And I yelled, get in there! It checked the bottom. And he like wasn't doing it. So I was like, I threw off my shoes and I'm in there and I'm like sweeping the bottom of the pond because I was like so freaked out. But yeah, when I first brought them upstairs, I don't know what I was thinking. I must have had a thought, and I think I know what I was thinking now, but like, full disclosure, like I live with PTSD, and so when I get into situations like this, like sometimes I black out. And so I don't remember my initial thoughts, but the really good thing about my PTSD, I have very in-action PTSD. Like I am a fully functional person that can move through all of the stages of doing what needs to be done in an emergency while my PTSD is fully firing. So I don't really remember very clearly my thought process, but I know I had good ideas because I've done it.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

I jumped right into action and took the baby ducks out of their brooder and put cannoli and ravioli under the heat lamp in there, which is exactly what you needed to do.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

So my first thought, and I remember doing this very vaguely on FaceTime with you, was I was in the bathroom when I started laying ducks down to show you them. There were two reasons I was in the bathroom that I think my body was doing, but my brain was so checked out. I was one, looking for the hairdryer, because the hairdryer is usually in that bathroom. Two, my initial thought was to put them in warm water to rapidly warm them. Because that is one way that you can rapidly warm animals. I second guessed it because the hardest part, and this is something that I really did. So most of the emergencies, and I was talking to Chrissy about this after, that you deal with are not your seconds from your seconds from a bird dying or living. 99% of the emergencies that you deal with, it's like a slow, like an illness progression, you're kind of dealing with it. You're working through, you have time to research, you have time to contemplate. This was not one of those situations. And so one of the coolest things about Chrissy, and this is why I'm so glad I called her, is without hesitation, when I put those birds down and she saw them, first of all, this is one thing that I will forever love you for. Is I said to you, when I put them down, I said, I need you to be straight with me right now, or they're going to die. And you immediately were straight with me. You said, Connoli looks like she's on her way out. And you said ravioli, like you talked to me through ravioli, might make it. And that for me is like a huge trust thing because nothing bothers me more, because there's two parts of that. And this is why I needed her to be straight with me. I was too emotionally invested to appropriately triage the two on who to prioritize to treat. If you noticed when I was blow drying, I was very upset about cannoli, but I was prioritizing ravioli because I didn't think cannoli was gonna make it. And that's why I needed Chrissy to say exactly that. Because I needed, I only had treating two birds that are critical at once. I had to focus my attention into the one that was likely going to survive.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

And DD was like, you were, you were like, they're dying, they're gonna die, they're dying. And DD was like, you don't know that. And I'm like, be honest. Well, he didn't know that. He no, he doesn't know that, but like I know, I knew what was going on, and I was like, Cannoli looks like she is on the brink of death right now.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

She was. Cannoli really, really was. She was, I think even by the time I got her to use, she was not actually responding. There was no actual circulation going to her brain because she was so severely vasoconstricted by that hypothermia that there was nothing, there was no purposeful movement coming out of cannoli. And so she was like gone. And so I focused on ravioli, but I was able to put them both because I'm in the brooder. It's like a hundred degrees at this point. I had actually sprinted to my neighbors because I didn't have time to kill looking for my blow dryer. And so after Chrissy was like 10 times, she's like, Do you have a blow dryer? And I was like, I'm gonna call my neighbor. I sprinted to my neighbors, and she gave me two blow dryers, and then I'm in the brooder in like a hundred degree heat. And this brings up a second really good point. If you ever find yourself in this situation, hypothermia typically is treated with gradual warming. What me and Chrissy were doing was not gradual warming. We were doing very rapid and aggressive warming. And this is why I love Chrissy because she knew immediately her role when she saw these birds, and she knew that she needed to research and yell things to me, which is exactly what she did the entire time we were on the phone. I did not ask her to do that. I didn't even say many reasonable things other than screaming to my birds to survive. And she immediately was like telling me things she was reading, which I could not do in such a critical state. And I kept on saying to Chrissy, what about the like the I'm worried about the rapidness at which I'm warming them? And Chrissy kept on saying to me, don't worry about it. Like, just do it, just do it. And so I was doing it anyway because my brain was telling me, if I warm them slowly, I'm gonna kill them. They're gonna die. Like I need to get their core temperature off. Cannoli would have died so fast if you didn't. 100%. 100%. If I was gradual with cannoli, she would not have survived. And it's almost like, well, when you d have worked in emergency medicine and you've worked on critical patients like at a high caliber, your body continues on without your mind. It's almost like a sixth sense because you know what dying looks like, so you just know how to throw a Hail Mary, even if your brain the entire time is like, there's something telling me that there's a possible problem with this, but it feels like I need to do it. And so luckily I was doing that, but I also had the reassurance of Chrissy telling me, like, no, you're good, which was making me feel so much better because she was sitting there researching everything we needed to know. Which it was incredible.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Let me tell you, it was not, it's not an easy thing to research when you like don't know the right words because it's like Googling what to do if your duck drowns, and it's like you're getting a lot of baby ducks or yes, dead ducks, and you're just talking about like preventing them from drowning and like bury it. I was like trying to use like different like search root search terms to like get what I was looking for, and I Google kept being like salt toxicity, and I'm like, no, we're not talking about salt toxicity. Where are you getting this from? Like, please.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

The other thing is like it is so rare to be so the only reason I actually got them out is because I was already worried about this, and most people, the first time this happens to them, they're not worried about it. It's not something they're conscientiously thinking of. So the only reason that I got to the point that I was at, I feel like 99.9% of cases would have found dead ducks.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

So I think there's not a lot of information on the circumstance that I had because truly it was, I can promise you it was a 30-second window if I didn't pull them out exactly when I did, they were dead.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

And so I think that's part of the reason there's such like such a small frequency of information on the topic is because how many people actually get I got so lucky that I found that at the right time. Like, yeah, that is crazy. If you ever find this, I'm gonna warn you now, it is one of the hard neurological symptoms just in general, whether it be you see it from a situation like this or you see it from a situation like an illness that's now causing neurological symptoms, is one of the hardest things to witness in your animals because it looks awful. And the good news is it's not nearly as awful for them as it is for us. They were not suffering the way I was suffering looking at them like that. Their brains weren't really working. So they probably don't remember much of anything. They they were fine and then they were rough and then they were fine again, and that's what they remember. But when you're looking at your animals like that and they're that compromised, it's just such a they can't they couldn't walk, they couldn't move appropriately. They all of their movements were very disgruntled and like shaky. And when you see two animals that you've like loved and cared for, like acutely like that, and these aren't just animals that like went into that over time, it's like they were fine 10 minutes ago. I was interacting with them 10 minutes ago, and now they are not able to manage themselves whatsoever. It's insanely like there was like a level of shock with that, and it was just excruciating to witness. And so I couldn't separate that in the moment, especially because we just lost popcorn and we had lost dip in that. And I like I remember saying to Chrissy on the phone, actually, I remember saying this to you. I was like, I'm fully officially crashing out because I was like good through popcorn, good through Waffles Predator Attack, and then all of it in that moment, I remember thinking, like, I can't take this anymore. Like I am, I am exhausted and I can't lose these two birds right now because I'm barely getting through popcorn and I'm tired. And it was terrible. But we got them. It was ravioli came back relatively quickly. Yeah. It still took some time, but she started showing indications that she was coming back, which the one big relief with like neurological symptoms with hypothermia is the way that they gradually go away. So you start like if you start to see them gradually going away, you know you're making progress and you know it's gonna be okay. The biggest concern in an event like this, and especially in a bird like cannoli, that could have had possible prolonged periods of time underwater, was hypoxic brain injury. And I was very worried that cannoli had some kind of hypoxic brain injury. For those of you that don't know, that's when your brain is deprived of oxygen for potentially too long, leading to permanent damage. There's nothing that can be done there. And so she was taking a long time to come around. I was starting to get more and more worried about that. Luckily, she did come around, which was incredible. And my favorite thing about cannoli, that little bird, is she's so sassy and spicy. So she comes all the way around. I save her life, and I like bowling over that bird, especially because she has been. You know how Chrissy has sugar? My sugar is cannoli. Like, I have to take such extra special care of that little bird because the the she's so small and she's constantly beaten up on and like always been mistreated a little bit. And so I was like gutted because I usually keep such an eye on her. And when she comes around, she hates me so much that her first instinct was to start attacking me. And I was like, Yes, I'm so happy. And she's like, It's like doing the little like rage shake and attacking me, and it was like the best thing ever. I was like, Yay, I'm so happy. Because the other thing about Cadoli is she hates being in the house, she hates being separated. So she was like so upset, and I was like, Yes, I'm so happy to see it. But it was the craziest thing. The other thing that I think both of us learned this because neither of us have ever really been in probably like an aspiration is almost certain situation.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

No.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

So when we were wrapping this up and we got them both back and everything was finally calming down, Chrissy was bringing up something that she was researching about like aspiration concerns.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

And we got actually called my I was very concerned that these ducks were going to develop pneumonia from aspirating. So I was like, You were like, Do you think they're gonna live? And I was like, Yeah, I think they're gonna live, but also I need to tell you this information that I've been looking up while we were on the phone because this could also happen and you need to be prepared.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

You you literally said to me, just so you know, they might get bad again. And I was like, no! I was like, don't even tell me that right now. Like, I but like, yeah, she was exactly right. Like, there's a high concern of aspiration, especially in like cannoli. Ravioli is not she her head was above water, so I wasn't as concerned that she aspirated, but cannoli, especially considering her condition. So we ended up calling my neighbors a nurse, and I I didn't have a stethoscope. I haven't I haven't been on the road in years, so I don't even know where my stethoscope would be. I asked DD and he was like, I don't know. Like you haven't been you haven't used that thing in years. And also, I think when I worked that job, I lost it about 600 times, so I stopped buying one. Realistically, that sounds like something I would do. So I called my neighbor and she's a nurse. She comes over with this like$500 stethoscope. I could hear the duck's thoughts. I was like, this thing is insane. It was like one of the like electronic ones. And so we were assessing lung sounds and we were all we were all standing there and we were like, I asked Chrissy, I was like, Do you know how to do you know what where to like or where or how to listen to a bird's lungs? And she was like, no, haven't done that before. Uh I for anybody that potentially could try it, I actually did add a stethoscope to my mad kit. First of all, Cannoli's heart rate was like 500. Measurements.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

As you guys were talking about like what their heart rates were, I'm like Googling normal duck heart rate. And like a normal duck heart rate is very high. It's really high. Like I found a lot of different figures. Some were saying like 190, 230, 300. Couldn't tell you which one was the most accurate. It seemed like I would think it would be different for like if you pick up a wild mallard and get its heart rate, it's gonna be stressed and really high. So I'm like, some of these are gonna have different normal heart rates because they're not looking at the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

And if you're in medicine and you're listening to this, you're definitely gonna understand, but there comes like a point where you felt so many heart rates because you have no choice because you do it every day, that you can like feel a heart rate, and it instead of counting a heart rate, you know the rhythm. Like, so you could like be like, oh, that's like 90 or whatever. Um, and that becomes kind of how you measure a heart rate. You could kind of gauge it. And every time I pick up a duck, it's about 200. Like I know the rhythm of a 200 heart rate, and that's what they're at. But Cannolis was maybe like 300, 350. It was like there was no I can't even replicate the rhythm that it was, but there was no pausing at all whatsoever between beats. It was just going. I was like, oh my gosh, it's crazy. But their lungs sound the same as human lungs. So I like listened because I wasn't sure if it would sound different because of the way that they breathe.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Um very interesting respiratory.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yeah, and I didn't necessarily it wasn't the same rhythm, if that makes sense. Like their breathing wasn't the same rhythm as a human's would be. But as far as like what I was listening for, like the clarity, or like I was listening for like fluid in the lungs, like they were clear. Like I could hear them breathing in, and I could hear that it was. Clear, so I was like, good enough for me. One thing that Chrissy was concerned about, and my neighbor was concerned about, there was still fluid in the lungs despite not being able to hear the fluid. And my vet said, Yeah, I don't hear anything either, I wouldn't start the antibiotics right away. I'm gonna say this though: go to the vet, either way.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Because if you got in the car and drove 30 minutes to the vet as soon as you pulled those ducks from the pond, Cannoli would not have made it. No. You needed to step into action at home, which is why we're both very pro-vet. We take our ducks to the vet when necessary. We don't take our ducks to the vet for everything, because there's things that we're like, oh, I can handle this at home, right? But like pneumonia, pneumonia can have such subtle symptoms. And I had a duck um, unfortunately, get pneumonia. It was loaf. Loaf was fine the day before. I literally have videos of loaf like swimming and splashing in the pond the day before. I open the duck door one morning and she doesn't come out, and I walk in there and she's just sitting there. So I like kind of nudged her. She walked outside and all the other ducks like started attacking her because she was like so weak, and I was like, what do I do? I wanna immediately get on the phone with the vet, and they just so happened to like have an appointment like half an hour later. So I just like got her, got in the car, and left to go to the vet. We get there, they take x-rays, they're like, Yeah, she has pneumonia, like we need to get her, we need to start treatment like now. And then she died in in the vet's hands. It's like as they were telling me that. It was so fast, and like I had to go home and like process it by like looking at all the videos, because I take videos of my whole flock every single day. I record them coming out of the coop every single morning and post it on Snapchat. So like I am going back day by day and being like, is there any symptoms that I missed in this duck? Like, how could she go from swimming and looking perfectly fine to dead the next day of pneumonia? I couldn't find anything. I c I could not find any evidence that she had symptoms, which sucks.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

The pneumonia in general in birds, like birds' respiratory systems are so fragile that like pneumonia is like a death sentence. Like, I if either of these birds had aspirated, like if we could start the antibiotics right away, which is like the intention of going to the vet and get ahead of the game, maybe they would have survived it. And even then, if they had aspirated and developed pneumonia, I would not have been out of the woods for a hot minute while I worked on that. So a hundred percent, and they go down so quick from illness that it's like once you're at the point of symptomatic pneumonia, like Chrissy was seeing, your bird's in a decline, it's in a collapse, and you're probably not gonna like it. It's it's such a awful thing that like the first presentation of symptoms is usually like she was probably there was no helping her by the time you got her.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

She had, I think for me, I can almost tell if if my ducks are attacking another duck because it is so weak, that's like a sign for me that like this is really bad because they don't just like attack another duck who's like mildly ill, has an eye infection, yeah, egg bound. Like they don't just attack each other for no reason. I think because I think I've only ever seen that happen twice, and it was with Loaf and with Brownie, and both died very quickly thereafter.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

They know what's uh they know, they know what's going on. They definitely know. And like Chrissy was saying, like when you need to triage at home, like in I think both of our brains were working this way. A lot of people think emergency vet immediately. You need to get comfortable with the concept that you are the first line of defense, defense, and putting a critical animal in a car is gonna get you nowhere. I'm gonna be so honest with you. It's going to make the situation usually astronomically worse. You can't properly support the bird in the car, you can't properly assist the bird in the directions that it could potentially need. Its environment isn't controlled. Often, if shocks involved, especially in like severe injuries, and the bird needs to be warm and you're jumping into the car, the stress of the car, everything like that, it's always stabilize. And if you can mobilize after you stabilize, then you mobilize to the vet. But you always have to think of it in the sense, let me get this bird stable enough that I can get it to a vet, you know? And that's one of the things that I always when I first started thinking of things in the aspect of farm medicine is very similar to emergency pre-hospital medicine, which is what I did for a living, because I could that's essentially what I did, you know? If I showed up to a call and somebody was critical, I would stabilize and then move. Get comfortable with the fact that you need to understand a basic, comprehensive understanding of first aid. Know your big ones, like your really critical stuff, which ironically is unfortunately the stuff you're gonna be stabilizing at home, is the really critical stuff, like severe hypothermia. Like that is something that I could not have put those birds in the car if I had done that and tried to make it to the vet, they would have died for sure. I had to do the first bit of legwork so that they were stable enough for me to move them to the vet. And so it's tough. And it's I really that's why we always talk about having duck friends, so that you know that you have somebody that you can call that can help you think clearly, especially if you stop thinking clearly, because when it's your animals, it's really hard. If Christy called me and it was her birds, I would have been able to do the same thing she was able to do, which is like you're able to be the, you know, the do the research, do the con thing. Right. But when you're in it and it's a it's shocking and you didn't expect it, and it's your birds that you've loved and cared for and raised from babies, and you're seeing them just suddenly crashing, it's really hard. Find somebody, you whether it be another duck person you meet online or another duck person or farmer even that just has livestock in general, never bash a farmer, they know medicine. I've called a handful of different farmers for help in situations that I needed, and they know an incredible amount of medicine. So, you know, count on your resources and count on your community in those situations because it's freaking tough, man. Call a call a nurse that you know. Cause when you get down to that critical of situations, the treatment is largely the same.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Yeah. And you know what? Worst case, you gotta know when to call, call your mom. Yeah, not my mom though. Don't call my mom. Oh my god, it would have been awful. Just because like parents in general have like gone through emergencies with their children, so I feel like you know how to react in a situation.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

So babies, if they if you've had a baby, I guarantee you that babies scared the crap out of you. Babies love to just like stop breathing, like they love to just be sitting there and like tilt their head the wrong way and go blue and scare the crap out of parents. And then my parents, like I used to go to those all the time. Uh the parents would be freaking like, what happened? And I'm like, Yeah, just do that. Like, you turn it on, turn it back off, or whatever. You gotta do reboot it. It'll be okay. So babies have stressed out parents, or like just parents learn a lot about airway positioning because of babies and stuff like that. Like, call somebody who you feel like, even if they could just calm you down.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah, I feel like the calming aspects and also the someone else telling you whether or not you need to work on this at home or head to an ER vet. Like, yeah, sometimes you just needed a person that can think clearly and isn't as emotionally attached as you are a percent.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

It's so much easier when you're not emotionally attached. Yeah, when you're emotionally attached, it's just tough. Oh my gosh. But we actually figured out because one of the things I was telling Christy when I was treating, I was like, they have a bunch of Drake damage, and neither of these birds have any Drake damage prior to this event. So I was like, what the heck is this? And what we figured out basically by just like trying to understand, and like Chrissy was talking about earlier how birds could pick on weak birds, in the same circumstance, drakes can opportunistically breed weaker birds. And so what was happening, likely to Cannoli and Ravioli was that they were stuck in the pond. The Drakes, which are drakes, drakes, drakes are gonna Drake, saw that they were stuck, jumped in, took advantage of the fact that they were stuck, probably kept them stuck because there was only the one small access point. So they they were able to just basically block that and keep the birds in there, which is why these girls were getting so hurt. And then when a Drake sees a weakened hen, that's free mating. And so what they did is they jumped on and they did not stop. And the reason that I was able to really know that this is what happened is because when we arrived at the vet, Cannoli, when we flipped cannoli over, which oddly I did rectal temps on them, and her vent, because I I kind of forgot about this aspect of like injury, it takes a little bit for like injuries to like show up. So her vet wasn't swollen when I did her rectal, and then 20 minutes later we show up at the vent, the vet, and her vent was completely swollen. So I was like, oh my god, what the heck? And that's that's my Drakes. My Drake's did that, and that really kind of sealed the deal for me. And so what I was so confused about earlier, which is how how it's possible that these ducks went from fine to waterlogged in 20 minutes and like hypoxic and drowning in 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

Just being stuck in the pond shouldn't put them into that position. Like, no, no, not that short of time. They're mostly waterproof. Okay, they might have been they might have not been able to get out, but like they're ducks, they float, they have waterproof feathers.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

If they had been stuck as so, like, say like there was no drakes at play, maybe an hour of being on the water. You think about the fact that ducks sleep on the pond overnight. So, like sometimes if it's been like an hour and they're molting, you might see them starting to lose their repellency and starting to tire. But 20 to 30 minutes is not nearly enough time. And an hour, honestly, I'd say it's probably much longer. I don't know the exact time frame for a normal healthy adult duck, but I know it's not that short. And so, yeah, there's it was crazy that that happened that fast. And the only thing that makes it make sense is so we were talking about swimming and printing here on the podcast. And the funniest part of this is I started asking Chrissy a bunch of questions about like how this could happen and like what I'm like.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

Why why are you asking me this? Like, you have done extensive research on this topic, and I've heard a lot about it, but I can confidently say you know more than me.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

She was like, these sounds like questions I would ask you, Apple. So what I like what makes sense about it is so the repeated submersion, because you know how when Drake's and so okay, important element of this the reason that I know they did not die by like drowning in the typical sense that we think of when we think of Drake ducks drowning hence is because if they were held under and drowned, they would not be waterlogged. That doesn't that's not how that works. You would have a dry floating bird. Does that make sense? Whereas they were waterlogged. So I knew that their drowning was secondary to them waterlogging because they were drowning by the waterlogging. And also, like not for nothing, being held under, they wouldn't survive to the point of becoming waterlogged. They would have been very much dead. So I knew it was the waterlogging that was drowning them, not the drakes drowning them intentionally, like as sometimes drakes can do during mating. So when the drakes are mating and they're repeatedly submerging the hen, it causes water to permeate deeper into the feather structure. So if you ever notice, after the hens get mated, they get up and they shake off and they kind of like readjust all their feathers. That's so that that doesn't happen. In the environment that was occurring where the drakes were like not stopping, the hens weren't getting the opportunity to get a break, reset their feathers, shake off, adjust their feathers, pre themselves as they typically do in a normal mating setting. And then that repeated submerging was causing the water to be able to permeate deeper into the feathers because it was undoing the interlocking and then the pressure of them being pushed down makes it so that the water saturates deeper in, chilling them faster, therefore making them weaker, therefore making the drakes go harder, and the cycle continues. And so that is something that I never knew to even think of a concern of. I never thought, I always knew of Drake's drowning. I never thought of Drake pressure increasing the possibility of waterlogging like being rapidly accelerated the way that I saw it the other day. And I was like, that is I that is so important to know. Yeah, I it makes complete sense, but we just never thought of it. And I don't want to say I'm glad this happened to me. I'm not. That was awful. But I think a lot of the drownings that we see and adult female ducks in a Drake situation could have been a similar situation to that. And people always automatically assume that it was an isolated incident of drowning.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Where it was just the Drake was on top, mating too hard, pushed her underwater, held her underwater, and she died that way. I think it's actually it's really hard. And nobody should blame themselves if they didn't catch that the way that I did. That was a freak situation. Does that make sense? Like it was it was crazy that I was on it. It was crazy that I found them just in time. It was a bunch of weird circumstances that lined up perfectly. But I do think that this is possibly like say you have a situation where you're really, really confused because your Drake's never shown this behavior before. It could have been something similar to this. It could have been that they waterlogged and that they were stuck in the pond for various reasons. Always make sure your birds have a way out. I'm now gonna make sure my birds have multiple ways out, and I'm never allowing them access to low water levels ever again, period.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Totally understandable. I think when we're talking about water safety, there's two things that I think people really need to keep in mind. One, any age of life, the ducks need to be able to get out of the water on their own. I think oftentimes if people have just like a kiddie pool, which is totally fine, they don't put like a brick in it or something for them to be able to get out. And you're thinking, well, it's just a kiddie pool, it's not that deep, they're not gonna drown. But also keep in mind deeper water is safer for ducks, especially when you have a drake around. Because if the drake is on top of the hen, normally things go fine and no one's gonna drown. But if the hen was really fed up with it, she could dive underwater to get away from the drake. If you're in a kiddie pool and you have two standard sized ducks and the hen is pressed flat against the bottom of the pool, she has no chance of getting away, which is why deeper water is safer. So that's also something to keep in mind. Now that we know that this can happen, don't let your kiddie pool not be full because if he's pressing her into the bottom, that that also creates a dangerous situation.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Also, just so people are aware, dry the whole drowning concept is something that people have like a ton of anxiety about.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Ravioli and cannoli were neurologically compromised. Ducks can hold their breath underwater for a very, very long time. A shockingly long time. So when you see normal duck mating in water, I don't want you to feel alarmed. A lot of people jump and think that the Drake is trying to drown the hen just because they're doing normal duck mating. You know what I mean? So I don't want you guys to like freak out about that. I do want to ease your mind about that. Rabioli and Kanoi, like, they were drowning so quickly because once they became neurologically compromised due to temperature loss, they were not able to hold their breath underwater. Does that make sense? Their body doesn't remember to do that. It's kicked into a very much a shunting and survival instinct, so that's why their drowning was so severe. Right. Whereas like a normal duck honestly would have been able to tolerate even the probably like Ravioli was still holding her head above water, but like Yeah. A normal duck knows to hold its breath, basically.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

You don't need to panic just because your Drake is holding a hen's head underwater. Because that's normal. And not only is it normal, it's safer for them to mate on water versus mating on land, which I think a lot of people don't realize and they immediately think, my Drake is trying to drown my hens, and it's like, no, they're they're just mating, that's how ducks mate. And is there a risk of drowning? Yes. There there's always a I don't want to say there's but there's always a risk of drowning when we're talking about water. You know? But nine times out of ten, you just have mating. It might last for a minute or two, and then your hen will be fine and continue on with her life.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Yeah, I think a lot of people get really panicked just when they see normal duck mating. If you're getting into ducks for the first time, make sure you familiarize yourself with what that looks like because it is the safest way. One thing that I've always wondered about shallow pools, is it really any safer on their legs and their back than the ground? You know, that's why I don't like them. That's a great point. I don't know if the water actually does help because it takes some of the pressure off. I don't know. I've never actually researched it, but maybe it's something I'll look into more.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Yeah, I've always just been concerned with the ability of the hens to dive to get away, but I never thought of that.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

We're gonna have to look into that. Yeah, we'll have to look into it because I've always kind of just it's been in the back of my mind since I very first got ducks. But moral of the story, ravioli and cannoli are fine, by the way. I'm trying to decide what I'm gonna do with cannoli. So when I cannoli, for those of you that don't know, cannoli's always been my my one that's been the problem when it comes to drakes. Like drakes tend to pick on her. And so when I did all of the adjustments that I made earlier this year, I actually did them in line with protecting cannoli. So I actually brought the two drakes that don't take interest in cannoli, and I put those two in main pen. And then I re-homed Cashew and I moved Omelette into a breeding pen because Omelette is particularly awful to cannoli. Like he is the one that is the worst of the worst. And the problem with Omelette is he's super large.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

So I was like, I I he's like really bad for her because she's really tiny, and then he's really large. So when he like chases her around to trap her, like he can hurt her really bad. Um, he's the one that ripped her eyelid last season. So I didn't want them living together, period. When this first happened, I was so angry. And I was like, I don't think I'm ever gonna let Cannoli live with these Drakes ever again. But the weird part of the circumstance in general was that it also happened to Ravioli. And Cannoli had not been getting picked on, and Ravioli's never picked on. And so since I've been starting to come down from this entire event, I've been saying to myself, it also happened to Ravioli. It could have not had to do with the cannoli being a favorite because cannoli has not been a favorite this season, she's been fine, yeah. But I'm watching her, like I'm keeping an eye on her. She's reintegrating right now. I was gonna keep her in cannoli jail, but I hate putting her in cannoli jail because she doesn't like it. Yeah. And she was having such a good year before this, and like being like enjoying time with her bonded pair pistachio, because she's very close with pistachio, and like I was like, I just want her like to be able to be free and like enjoy things. So today I started reintegrating her, and it seemed like there's no issue. Like it the Drakes have not been going for her or anything like that. Like they've been back to their normal self. I think cannoli was just in the she was just in the pond. Yeah, she was just one of the ducks that was in the pond that they were a that when they happened to do this, just the same way that Ravioli was. I don't think it was a cannoli issue. Yeah. I think it was just uh she was in there and she's a smaller duck and she's much weaker. So I don't think she was able to fight off the Drakes like Ravioli probably was able to. So I'm seeing what I'm gonna do, but I have a plan. I have multiple plans in play for cannoli, like multiple cannoli routes. One option is this is very unfortunate, and I really don't want to do this, is that I move cannoli to my friend's house to see if she's okay there, just to get her away from my boys. The option that I like more because I don't want to lose cannoli is I'm planning on doing a silver breeding project. And so I was gonna actually put her in my silver breeding project pen because like it's not ideal for my breeding project, but it's also not detrimental. Like I would just get some blue bibbed out of it, and that's fine. Because if you put a silver Drake, which hopefully I get if I can learn how to hatch some dang ducks, I'm gonna put a silver Drake in there. And so she would only ever be with one Drake, which if you only have one Drake in the flock, like that, Drake is an angel. So my issue with it though is she would live with Omelette in the winter, which is fine, but I would have to be very on top of making sure that the minute mating season starts, everybody's separated. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

Because I'm paranoid about her being with Omelette. And that's why I have to ponder. I have like several various ideas. The other thing is I'm just gonna watch her, and if she genuinely does, fine, since also Ravioli was in-if Ravioli wasn't in that circumstance, I don't think I would be saying this to myself that like maybe it's okay. I would have been like way more wigged out, and I even first was when this all started. But if like I move her back and she seems to be completely fine, I would rather keep her in there with pistachio. Yeah. Since pistachio is the only duck she's really like attached to. And I'm not moving pistachio over because pistachio would not thrive in a breeding pen, period. She's just not the type of duck too. She loves she's got so many friends. It's kind of like they're besties, and Cannoli's a little bit she's not friends with everybody, but pistachio's friends with everybody. So I don't think pistachio would very much like like leaving everybody. I don't think Cannoli would care, but I'm gonna see. It's a whole thing when you understand your ducks to the level that you really understand their like social dynamic, yeah, it gets so hard to move them because you always want to move certain birds together. Yep. And so it gets it gets awful. So, to wrap up our swimming discussion and the lessons to be learned from the emergency that I went through on my homestead, if you have drakes, genuinely, I would also be very careful when your pond or water levels are low, when you're cleaning out your ponds. Any situation where your hen could be trapped, also, like even though this is safer because it's dry, be very careful of your drakes trapped in your coop overnight. Because if a hen gets injured, they could also do a very similar thing. I've I've resorted to keeping my drakes completely separate overnight. Um, and also obviously, I will never let my drakes around my hens, especially in low water levels during mating season. Also, always be cognizant of low water levels in general. Make sure your ducks have a way out. Keep be mindful of the fact that even adult ducks can drown if the circumstances allow it. So if you could find yourself in that situation, do some research now on how to handle hypothermia emergencies and stuff like that so that you know what to do if the situation comes up. And I think that covers it. Do you have anything to add, Chrissy? I think we got it all. What a nightmare.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

Yeah. Before we wrap up today's episode, I have something to show you that we both received recently from our sponsor of today's episode, Chicken Coop Signs. Can't believe that we ended up picking the same ones because I didn't tell Emily what sign I was picking and she didn't tell me what sign she was picking. But these are custom signs that you can get for your chicken coop, your duck coop, your garden, your farmhouse. They come in five different color options, four different sizes. Emily says Emily's Quack House and Lucky Ducks. Mine says Dunkin' Ducks Quack House, established 2017. I'll hold it up and show you on the wall so you can see it better. But I love that these come in so many different colors because you can get it to coordinate with the color of your own coop. I actually have one of these on my chicken coop as well. And I loved it so much I was like, yeah, I definitely need to get one for the duck coop too.

SPEAKER_00 44:57

They're also huge.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

They're so nice. And they're very good quality. So you can get these in sizes from 12 inches to 36 inches. So you can really customize them to make sure you get one that fits on your coupe. So essentially, going through the process, you can pick your color, you can pick the size, add custom text, and create a sign that's unique to your coupe. These really bring charm and personality to your coop, and we absolutely love them. If you would like to get yourself a custom coupe sign, check out the link below for chickencoop science.com and use code duckladies to save 20%. I don't know where I'm gonna hang it though.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

I haven't decided yet which coop I want to put it on. That's I'm gonna hold it up in various spots and see which one I like the best, but I don't know yet. I'm so excited about it. It's a gorgeous sign.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

Yeah, I I just love the one on my chicken coop already. I put it right in the center of the door. I'm like, the ducks had to get one too. They just had to. Not about that. So if you listen to last week's episode, you know that I hatched a single duckling and it was an incredibly stressful situation, both for the duckling and for me, because ducks are flock animals and they really do need to grow up in a flock for their mental and physical health. So I have very good news. I did receive my order from Metzer Farms. I got three blue-bibbed call ducklings. So because I didn't actually intend on keeping any eggs right now, I'm just going to be keeping one of them. I'm going to send out DNA tests for all of them. And once I know who's male and who's female, I'll decide who I'm going to keep. And I'll probably keep two of them. And then I actually have a friend. I actually have a lot of friends with call ducks, so I know I won't have a hard time finding a home for the other two. But let me just say that Metzer Farms really saved my life with this one because it was so stressful having just one single duckling because it wanted to be with me 24-7. And I felt horrible like stressing this duckling out by like going to the bathroom or going outside to let the ducks out. But if it was like cold outside, I couldn't bring it with me because it was just a little itty bitty baby. So it was a stressful week, but let me just say Metzer Farms saved my life. So thank you so incredibly much to Metzer Farms. They are also a sponsor of today's episode. Did you save your box? Yeah, I did. It's actually still sitting next to the brooder because I'll also use the boxes if I'm like, if I have to like move the ducklings somewhere, like if I need to clean out the brooder, I'll just like pop them in the box. I do the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 47:32

I also have a Metzer Farms order coming this week. I'm an addict. I can't stop. You can't be told. I literally cannot stop getting birds this season. I think it's because of the way that this season is playing out. Like there's a lot of opportunity because I'm doing so much moving that like there's like actually for the first time, I like I feel like I need birds. Yeah. Because I need birds for my breeding project. So I recently ordered in a bunch of white Calducts for my breeding project. They are darling and I love them. There's one in there that the only one has a name because I can't really tell them apart yet. Yeah. And the one that has a name is Eggs Benedict. Um, but the white Calducts we got from them are absolutely gorgeous. I I love their white Calducks.

SPEAKER_01 48:12

I'm so jealous because I was like, I should get another white. I've actually, I don't know if I told you this last time, but I've never raised a white duckling at from a baby. You did.

SPEAKER_00 48:21

Yeah, you need one. I'll get you one one day. But um, I so I ordered in from them, and I've had such a great experience every single time I order from Metzer Farms. I also got their Cayuga, their blue Swedish, and another one of their runner ducks. I'm a huge fan of their silver runners, and we got another silver runner. That's so excited about that. So we have lemon as one of our silver runners from Metzer, and then we got another one, we're naming it Lyme. So it's lemon and lime. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

It's so cute. How fast did yours arrive? Less than 24 hours every single time. That's amazing. Mine were here in like 36 hours. I was like, so fast. They're so fast. They always come so fast. And I forgot to mention this earlier, but this was incredible. So, like, I opened the Mezzo Farms box to like transfer the ducklings out of the box into the brooder. And as soon as I opened the lid, they started hopping out of the box. Like they were so energetic, they were not lethargic. They had their grow gel and their heat packs in with them. Like they were doing good. You would you would have no idea that these ducklings had been shipped through the mail. Like they were lively and active and healthy, and they're all still doing great.

SPEAKER_00 49:26

And I just I really appreciate Metzer Farms. The only reason I really feel confident ship like shipping poultry is because of them. And like I I've had I've ordered through multiple hatcheries in the past. And once I ordered for the first time from Metzer Farms, it was the only place I will ever go for waterfowl. I trust their shipping process, I trust their customer service. I know that they actually care. I love them so much. They're so good.

SPEAKER_01 49:49

Metzer Farms is the place to go when it comes to needing to get ducks shipped in. If you want to be, if you're super selective about what breeds you're gonna get, if you want to know how many males and females you're gonna get, Metzer Farms is the place to go.

SPEAKER_00 50:01

Do you have goose availability, like additional goose availability right now? Just so you guys know, your goose window of opportunity is short. Geese have a very short actual like breeding season. So you gotta get your geese. If you've been sitting on the couch and you've been thinking to yourself, like, maybe I'll get geese this season. No, you gotta you gotta figure that out. Aerial predator situation. We wanted more geese so that we can because when we put our geese on pasture to graze and stuff, we have to separate them from the ducks, and then that entire time I'm like really stressed out because I trust them to like alert to the ducks. Granted, they're right next door because that's where their grazing area is. So I know they can keep an eye on the ducks. I will have a goose order coming in. I don't know how to do it.

SPEAKER_01 50:43

Super exciting.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

I think maybe it's shipping tonight. I don't know. Oh wow. I've been I got the peep peep quack quack email. You know that email? Yeah. That means your birds are coming. Your birds are coming all the way. Whenever, whenever I get it, I always yell to DD. I go cheep cheep quack quack. So he knows that the birds will be coming. So I'm expecting them sometime this week as long as like everything goes right with Hatch. I'm so excited. I can't wait to have it.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

I also I have to add in one more thing about Metzer Farms. Receiving a box of dufflings in the mail can be very stressful, right? Like the post office calls you early in the morning, you have to go pick them up. You just want to make sure that they're all happy and healthy. So, generally speaking, when I get a box of birds in the mail, I like wake up so early because I can't sleep well and I'm like nervous, right? With this batch of dufflings from Metzger Farms, I'm so confident in them that I slept like a baby, and then the sound of my phone ringing from the post office calling like was starting to incorporate in my dream, and I was like, that's weird. And it like was almost to like the last ring, and I realized, oh man, the post office is calling me. I gotta get up, I gotta go get the ducks. So I like ran out of the house, like threw clothes on, right to the post office, and then I have this beautiful lively batch of baby ducks. Like, honestly, Metzer Farms has like cured my bird shipping anxiety.

SPEAKER_00 52:03

Yeah, me too. It's lively and they're always jumping out of the box, but they're always ready to go. Yeah. So I really love Metzer Farms. They definitely have done the same thing for me. They've definitely healed a lot of my shipping anxiety. And they're here so quick. It's like there's yeah. There's no like, I don't even panic about the whole dehydration, like rehydration thing. Because I'm like, these things are they usually still have a build tooth.

SPEAKER_01 52:26

Yeah, I think some people panic because like the tracking number will say like arriving Saturday when they shipped on Tuesday. But like I don't need to panic because I know they'll be here before that. I'm like, yeah, it's all good. Yeah, they're so fast.

SPEAKER_00 52:39

They're usually here before the post office scans them.

SPEAKER_01 52:41

Yeah, so keep an eye on my socials because I haven't actually announced my baby ducks yet. I just haven't had a chance to make that video because there's just been other things happening in life that I'm like, I don't I don't have time for this.

SPEAKER_00 52:54

And go get your geese now. Go get your geese. That's an order. Go get your geese. Don't overthink it. Get your geese. I'm so excited for mine. Oh my god, I can't wait. I can't I cannot disclose the breed that I got that I'm really excited about just yet. I gotta wait. Which is such a bummer. I can't wait to find out.

SPEAKER_01 53:10

One more story I have to tell before we go. This morning I walked out to let the ducks out, and as I do every morning, I'm like holding my phone up to record the ducks flying out on Snapchat, and ducks start coming out the door. I'm like, good morning, ducks, like always. And then I'm like, wait, where are my ducks? Because like there was a large amount of missing coming out of a coop. So I like walk in the coop and there's a bunch of ducks behind sugar, Mr. Whip, and Bubbles' fence. So Sugar, Mr. Whip, and Bubbles are separated every day and every night because, well, there's a lot of reasons. Sugar doesn't like other ducks, sugar gets bullied by the Drakes, Mr. Whip just wants to meet with Sugar, and Mr. Whip and Bubbles are both half blind, and they're my three smallest ducks, so they actually do a lot better being separated. And I can tell that they are so much happier not having to deal with any other ducks. But this morning, somehow, a bunch of ducks broke into Sugar's area and like half immediate Yeah, like half of my ducks. I was like half. I was like, why, guys? Why? So, of course, they like ate all of Sugar's food because like there's only three of them in there that get like a smaller bowl of food compared to the rest of the ducks who have like a gradual, like filling feeder, so like they had plenty of food. So I'm like, why would they break in unless they just wanted to go in there and like harass them? So I get the ducks all sorted out, and sugar has clearly been overmated, not to a point where it like broke skin or everything, so like, or anything, so like she's fine, but I do, of course, feel really bad that that happened to her because she's like missing some feathers on her neck. And then Mr. Whip, I'm mad at my ducks for this. This was awful. They bit his eye, the one he's blind in. So his eye made me all great this morning. I've s they're my ducks are messed up, they're ableist. They're they are all ducks. Why are they picking on the disabled duck pen? That's really rude of them. And I'm not happy with them for that. So everyone's gonna be fine. Like Mr. Whip, I just like had him swim for a while and clean up his eye. I'm obviously gonna keep an eye on it to make sure that he doesn't get an eye infection, but it looks a lot better after um he got it cleaned up. But sugar and bubbles have both been overmated, and I'm like, Poor baby. I think I need to make a more permanent separation area for them because right now I just use like an X-Pen for dogs, and it's worked fine. I genuinely don't know how they like it. Usually it does work in.

SPEAKER_00 55:34

I use that all the time, and uh, it'll be open top, and my ducks are too stupid to either come in or go out.

SPEAKER_01 55:40

Yeah, and so I I actually don't genuinely don't know how they did it because they didn't fly over it. They literally like pushed one side in. But the weird part is I always set it up so that there's like a two by four, like as part of the shed that's where the gate is. So I don't know how they could push it in, like past the two by four, because there's a two by four. I don't know how they did it, but now I'm like, I think I should just make a more permanent fence and put it in there so I don't have to worry about that happening again because I feel really bad. And it's certainly proof that overmating can happen so fast.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

Yes, it's the I happy mating season is all I have to say. That's all we have to say. One thing about ducks is you always have a story from every mating season. You never make it out scotch-free. Something always goes down, and it's just kind of a part of it. Um, that's very unfortunate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:30

But that's all of our topics for today. I hope you guys liked listening to today's episode of the Duck Ladies Podcast. Please feel free to leave us a review on your favorite place to listen to the podcast. Leave a comment down below letting us know if you have any questions that you want to learn about. I always put out a post on our socials too, asking about if you have any questions for the Duck Ladies Podcast. Hopefully, next episode we won't have anything happening around here. So we will have a normal episode and we can do breed of the week and answering follower questions.

SPEAKER_00 56:59

It's not allowed. Never again.

SPEAKER_01 57:02

But thank you guys for sticking with us and continuing to watch this podcast because we're having a lot of fun filming it.

SPEAKER_00 57:07

Yeah. And I think next week we're gonna talk about incubating call ducks if you're yeah, which a lot of people have been requesting. Yeah, because uh I had a lot to say and I've completely changed my opinions this last half, so that'll be good. That'll be good. Make a liar out of me. But yeah, we have a lot of incubators going. Christy just incubated, and then I'm doing the start of my incubations for the year, so we'll definitely have some things to say. Hopefully, some babies to show.

SPEAKER_01 57:30

Yeah. But yeah, thanks for hanging on us, guys. As always, be sure to check out our merch. I'm wearing the crazy duck lady sweater today. What's this called? Crew neck. I love this. It's so cute. I feel like I'm blending into the wild. I need that one. But this is so cozy. So I need to get sure to check our wearing a hooded.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

I'm wearing a hooded merganters. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 57:50

They're one of my favorite wild duck breeds.

SPEAKER_00 57:52

They're so cool. I love them too. Make sure to check out our merch site and we're gonna wrap this thing up because I'm sure both me and Chrissy have some duck stuff to do before the day ends. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. Bye, guys.