Molting Season & Silver Appleyard Ducks | Episode 14

Welcome to Episode 14 of the Duck Ladies Pondcast with Host Krissy from @DunkinDucks   and Emily from ​@CheeseandQuackersHomestead  ! In episode 13 we discuss molting season, feature silver appleyards as our breed of the week, and answer questions sent in by our followers.

00:00 Introduction
00:20 Homestead Updates | Duckling Updates | Butterscotch Call Ducklings | Duckling Teenage Phase 
14:22  Molting Season & Eclipse Plumage
31:54 Breed of the Week: Silver Appleyard
35:49 Metzer Farms 
38:38 Q & A | Early Signs of Egg Binding | Duckling Waterers | How To Keep River Rock Clean | Evil Ducks
55:08 Closing

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Duck Ladies Podcast, episode 14. I'm your host, Chrissy from Duck and Ducks, here with Lee from Cheese Quackers Homestead. And today we have a very exciting day for you. We are gonna be talking about silver apple yard ducks, some homestead updates, and our topic for the day is molting season and eclipse plumage. So before we get into everything today, do you have any updates on your homestead, Emily?

SPEAKER_01 0:21

I do. I actually have updates for both of our homesteads because I'm raising our our little group of babies that Christy picked out at Metzer Farms. Very exciting. If you guys remember, I think we talked about it and showed her on here, right? We showed Chrissy's little black bibbed call duck in the podcast. Not a black bibbed, not a black bibbed at all. I was actually looking at her again this morning, and I had FaceTimed Chrissy the other day, and I was like screaming because if you guys know my dusky call duck, pumpernickel, Chrissy's black bibbed, which Chrissy has wanted a dusky call duck for the longest time. And it's just never, it's just never happened. And Chrissy's black bibbed looks to be feathering out like pumpernickel. She looks to actually have like a dusky feathering to her. I'm not super familiar with the dusky coloration, so I don't know 100% for sure if she'd like technically a true dusky, but if you guys know what I mean, she has that like dark patterning with the very subtle penciling, but it's like very minute and very like darkened, like mahogany colored. Area is still white, which is really cool. Yeah, and I'm really curious how I meant to actually look at her closer today because at this at the point that our ducks are at, now they're feathering out like crazy. And so I looked at blue cheese this morning, even though blue cheese is my duck in my heart. I'm blue cheese is Chrissy's duck, but I'm thinking about just holding it hostage.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

I love blue cheese. Emily has texted me like multiple times and been like, Are you sure you want blue cheese? And I'm like, I already named her. I have to keep her down.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

She's so perfect, and her name is so perfect. Like, especially now because I checked her again this morning because you know how when we were looking at her in FaceTime, the uh her feathers were just barely coming in, so they still looked really dark because the pin, when the pin grows in, it still kind of holds the feather closed, so you can't get the true color out of it. I looked at her this morning and she's blue, blue. Not not like dark blue, like like blue, like a hundred percent. Her tummy has all these beautiful blue feathers on it, her spots are getting much bigger. She's so pretty.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

And I've she's so pretty. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I decided to name her blue cheese, partly after Cheese and Quackers, because I was like, I want to incorporate Cheese and Quackers homestead into her name somehow because that's where she's getting raised. And I mean, she looks like blue cheese.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

So it's she looks like blue cheese. It's the perfect name. She's the perfect little duck. Blue cheese is actually my favorite, uh, personality-wise, out of this group. I do love that you're getting her. I'm mostly kidding that I want to keep her because I do really like that duck. She's really funny, she's really cute, and she's very close with zucchini, which is my Ancona call duckling. And she's very tight with zucchini. And the reality is, I wouldn't give up zucchini for the world. Like, I wouldn't trade in my zucchini for blue cheese at the end of the day because I do love my Ancona that I got. But blue cheese is so pretty. And also, Chrissy, we ended up doing DNA testing on a bunch of butterscotch that I was growing up. And we perfectly got two female butterscotch. So both me and Chrissy got a butterscotch out of that group, and we're so excited about that. But all of the ducklings are doing really well. They've been in my house for a while. I just finally moved them outside today. I was like, everybody's getting kicked out. You guys will be fine. It's like 100 degrees. I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

So excited about getting a butterscotch because it's it's a color I've wanted for a long time. They're harder to find. And the one time I did have an opportunity to buy one, I was at the National Poultry Show in Ohio, and there was one, and it was so cute and tiny and adorable, and I was just like watching it, and like that bird had health problems from being unethically bred. Like she couldn't tuck her neck into or her bill into her wing to sleep, she couldn't reach her preen gland. And trust me, it was tempting, but I was like, I'm not giving money to a breeder. Not another sugar, so unethical, and I don't need another sugar in my life. No. But it was tempting because it was so cute.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

They're beautiful. The ones we got, I sent Chrissy a photo of the parent stock because I got them from a local breeder. So I actually got them from the same local breeder who I got my duck dumpling from. If you guys know dumpling, she's my silver appleyard call duckling. And I had attempted to get Chrissy a silver appleyard call duckling, but that one turned out to be a boy. So neither of us ended up keeping it. We tried. I was so hopeful, though. I was like, that would be so cool because that's a coloration. Silver appleyard coloration in call ducks, especially, is harder to find than butterscotch. So that was one where I was like, Chrissy, if it's a female, I might have to just give it to you because you're never gonna find it again. Like it's crazy. Even the breeder that I get, I got dumpling from doesn't get that coloration very often. I think she only has a male. But when you pair, she has butterscotches, and when you pair butterscotch to apple yard, you get 50% butterscotch, 50% appleyard coloring. So I was also really hoping to boost my butterscotch because I have dumplings. So maybe next year I'll keep myself another butterscotch and another appleyard or something like that to try to boost those umbers because I'm running main pen kind of like a controlled chaos mix pen. Like I'm I'm breeding and I'm I'm actually trying to focus since I am starting over with Drakes. I was like, might as well focus on seeing what I want out of my hatches. And so I'm keeping drakes that give me specifically colorations that I'm looking for in ducklings. And so I was like hoping to keep at least butterscotch this year, so next year, I could potentially get silver apple yard from the butterscotch with dumpling. So the male butterscotch plus dumpling could give me silver apple yard. The butterscotches will give me butterscotch. Pastel X butterscotch will give me sex-linked sex-linked butterscotch babies. Did you know that? Oh, I didn't. I don't know how accurate that is. So if anybody knows anything about it, please feel free to correct me in the comments. I only read like, I mean, one article about this. Because like, I mean, how many articles talk about like breeding butterscotch to pastels? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Genetics genetics are not my expertise. And I find information is hard to find on like doc breeding genetics.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah, the only one is like that that's silver.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

It's like, yeah, that's easy.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

This one gets really confusing. But from my understanding, the butterscotch drake ex pastel hen will give me butterscotch daughters, but not but butterscotch carrier males. However, here's the pro here's the problem with it is I don't think I can tell butterscotch and pastel apart as babies, so I don't think the sex-linked babies would help me in any way, shape, or form. Because I just don't feel like I don't know what they are. You would know when they start to feather out. So if that's true or not, I'm not 100% sure. I only found one article on it because I was trying to figure out because it made sense to me that Butterscotch X pastel would give me butterscotch, right? Like it's not, it seems right. I don't know. It does seem like that that can happen. So I'm hoping to just basically up my dilutes and get myself more dilute hatches, even if I don't necessarily get a lot of pure butterscotch because I don't have that many butterscotch. Yet I'm trying to get it to the point where the colors I like I have the most of. So that's actually why I kept also a silver from the group that Chrissy gave us or picked out for us. I kept myself a silver from that. Her feathers are so cute. So she looks almost exactly like Chovy. She has the all-way feathers, except she has two little individual silver feathers on her tummy. Oh that's how that's how she will be distinguishable from Chovy. So they're all doing really well. I'm very excited to move birds out of that group because I'm gonna move the two Australian spotteds into the breeding project pen and then move three Australian spotteds out of main pen and move my babies in and then your babies to your house, and I'm gonna feel like everything's finally done.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

I can't wait to finally get them. I'm so excited. Well, I don't I don't even want to say I'm so excited to meet them because like I met them the day they were hatched, but see them again.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

The hardest thing about what Chrissy's meeting them is if you guys, I'm sure a lot of you already know this, but the worst phase of ducks is their teenage years because they hate you. And so Chrissy's gonna get them and she's gonna be all excited because she's finally with them and they they hate me. I mean, it's ridiculous. I see them every day, every day. And then you get to this juvenile phase and they act like you're the worst thing that ever happened to them, and it's just and then they grow out of it. And so it's like, whatever. But yeah, so you're getting them during the teenage years, and I'm so sad because you missed their duck-like hood, which is like the only time that they like love you like nothing, not other. Because even my adults, I always tell people, my adults don't love me. Like people see our fit our videos and they think that our ducks like want to cuddle with us or like you know, like us like a dog. Like they like me, but they like me for food. And they think I have food all the time. And if I died, none of them would be sad. Like, I promise you, like, they'd probably eat my body and move on, or try to eat my body.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Blackberry would miss duck dad. She just doesn't like me the way she likes him. Oatmeal likes. Maybe that's just because he bribes.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yeah, I don't think oatmeal likes DD for some reason. I do I think oatmeal has like a crush on DD. Oatmeal is very weird with Didi. Like, she acts differently than she does with me or any. Interesting. Yeah, she's strange. She likes crawls over to him and like whenever he looks down at her, she like looks up at him. Like, she's trying to kiss his face. So I always make the jokes that she's trying to kiss him because she's really weird with him. So Oatmeal is the only one that I can think of, and I think she does like Didi actually. But yeah, none of my ducks. Peanut, I mean, Peanut maybe likes me. I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think she does. Munchkin liked Munchkin liked you. That's the only duck that I think genuinely like liked their owner. Like, I just think that ducks don't.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yeah, she liked me, I think, more than she liked her flock.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Like that. And she was in love with Maple. Like, don't get me wrong.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yeah, that's like a special connection. Like, Peanut tolerates. I feel like Peanut tolerates me. And that's the best that it is. Like, you know, Peanut, I mean maybe she likes, I don't know. Ducks don't ducks are like dogs and cats.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Yeah. So, like, my not that I pick favorites, but if I did have a favorite, it would be Frosty. And I think Frosty enjoys the extra attention that she gets from being my favorite. She likes, you know, hanging out with me, being held, getting extra treats, getting to go on adventures, whatever. But like, if if I were gone tomorrow, she would just Exactly. Exactly. Just be like, all right, next.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Like they feed me. Yeah, they run over to me and they like come interact with me. And like if if I'm out of town, I don't know if you notice this too. Like, if I'm gone for like some time or like just not around, or like say I'm not home for the entire day, when I come home, they do seem very eager to get to me. Like, they'll like one time I I hadn't gone in there all day because I was working on something else, and they were flying into the fence, like trying to get over to me. But like, I think it's just like she might have peas. Like she might. If she hasn't came in here, so we could check. And like that's what I always think it is. Like, I've never felt like my ducks, like, I don't know. I love them more than anything in the world. It's like, it's like you know, like, it's like having a teenage child. That's exactly what I would imagine it feels like. It's like I love them more than anything else in the world. They tolerate me. But when they're when they're juveniles, they straight up hate me. Like, that's just that's just the game. But a lot of people get really worried when their juveniles don't like them. And it's just like a normal I you know what I think it is? Like, I think it's it's like a reaction of fledging. When they get to the age where they're supposed to fledge, like obviously they can't stay attached to mom because otherwise they would never fledge. Right. And so I don't think, I mean, I think it's more dramatic with people, like they're more dramatic because we're like big, large, and whatever. But I think that there's like an instinctual shift of like, I love you, your mama, to like, I don't need you get away from me. And so I'm independent now. Yeah. I think it's a f it's almost like fledging, and that's kind of how I think of it. And then all of a sudden they grow out of it and they're super friendly again. But like I also, you also, if you think of the fact that in the wild, when they fledge, they're extremely vulnerable. So maybe there's some instinctual shift to teach them to be like astronomically more skittish because they need to be in order to survive that period of time where they're still really young, but also starting to be more independent. That would also make sense. Because it is very interesting how that shift happens. It's seemingly overnight. All of a sudden it they start to be ridiculous again. And then it also is interesting how it tapers off as they start laying eggs and like, or just get like old enough that they are like mature and set in themselves, because it does last throughout.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

So someone recently asked me if jelly bean was still super attached to me. And the answer is no. Jelly Bean is also in her teenage phase. And for those of you that don't know, Jelly Bean is a duckling that I accidentally hatched as a singleton. So Jelly Bean was extremely, extremely attached to me because he at the time, which we now know is she. I was the only thing that he had. And so I did get more ducklings for him to be friends with, but it still took like, I don't know, a week before I was able to get them. So he was so, so, so attached to me. And now he's a teenager, she's a teenager. I I say he all the time because like me too. He was a he, but now she's a boy. She's a she. In my eyes, Jelly Bean is also still a boy because it's like burned into my brain. Yeah, and you know what's so funny? Jelly Bean is my most dramatic and loud female right now. This is something that I also think with juveniles, they quack the most. Like my juveniles quacks so much, and right now it's just jelly bean. Every time I'm outside, she just like yells at me, or the chickens are doing something, she just yells at them. Or I think honestly, probably for no reason at all, she just yells and she's kind of obnoxious.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

So is uh sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes screams her face off. I think we were trying to do something today, and she was just yelling, and I was like, shut up. Oh my god. But um, yeah, so soon stay tuned because me and Chrissy will be meeting up. We actually found a way to meet up and make it like a duck activity. So we're gonna be meeting up to do a little duck activity and hand off babies. Have to find a date that works for both of us, and then Chrissy will be reunited with her Butzer Farbs babies, and I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Anyways, as far as my homestead updates go, I don't really have too much going on here, but my ducks did start molting, and I just feel bad for them because like some of them are miserable, especially Frosty. She actually molted yesterday, she lost all of her wing feathers in one day, and she like I thought that I was just being paranoid because like I love her so much. And I was like, she's acting weird, she's standing weird. And then when we went to put them to bed last night, Duck Dad was like, Why is Frosty acting like an NPC? And I was like, Okay, so you see it too. Like, she's just standing there all weird, but I think she's just uncomfortable from losing all her feathers at once.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Yeah, and it raises their body temperature. I I always imagine that molting to them feels like what having a fever feels like to us. Um that's what I picture, it makes them feel like just like cruddy. You know, you know how sardine is like the cutest, most beautiful duck in the entire world? Yeah. She molted. It was her first molt because she was a juvenile last year. And so typically, uh another thing that people just don't realize when it comes to molting is if you get juveniles, typically they go through their two molts, they're juvenile to adult. Well, they're down to juvenile, juvenile to adult. It's all very close together. So they're kind of like in this constant state of feathers everywhere. But then sometimes your juveniles will not go through, like depending on the sometimes they will and sometimes they won't go through their first big molt in their first year. Sometimes they hold on to those feathers until the following year. Depends on when they feathered out the first time. Yeah. Sardine did not go through a big molt last year. She only went through one this year because she she was a late summer baby, so she just kept her first set of feathers all the way until this year. So it was her first molt. I've never seen a duck molt so beautifully. Like she didn't have she didn't have the like hundred-year-old look ever. She just like turned over her feathers and like lost her wings. And even like, you know how usually they look like crap when they don't have their wing feathers, like their whole body's like lumpy. She looks like, I'll have to get a picture of her for you. She looks perfect with the exception of not having wings. Like she just doesn't have any wings.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Well, that's incredible. Good for her. I really want an angel. I saw so I saw somebody describe ducks going through molt as looking like ducks that were through a wood chipper. Yes. Yeah, that's that's kind of what mine looked like right now. Oh, bitch. Especially my Australian spot is. Mango? Mine are dead. Mango.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

That's why they haven't molted. Because I was like, mine haven't molted either, and then I remember that they're dead. Dark sense of humor, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Just to clarify, Emily does have Australian spot is they're just not of molting age yet.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yes, yeah. My my dead ones would have molted if they were alive. The ones that I had that were like of age to go through normal molt are not, are no longer with us.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

So yeah. Moving on. Something I noticed this year is that my ducks started molting earlier than usual. Typically, my ducks will start molting like the last week of July, first week of August. And I've known this for so long because they would always molt right before or during my state fair when I was in 4-H, which is like the worst time for their show heard to molt. And so they because they started like at least a week, maybe a week and a half or two weeks ago, which is really early for my flock. I don't know if it was just like because of the weather, we have like a heat wave and then we're like getting rid of these feathers and get a new one. Yeah. I know, but I've heard not just from you, but from other people as well, that their flocks are molting earlier too.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Which scares me. Does that mean we're gonna have like, is it like groundhog day? We're gonna have an early winter. I'll lose my mouth. I hope not. Because I yeah, mine started molting earlier than I'm used to as well, which has actually been nice because another thing that you could kind of expect when molting season starts, like when they start dropping their feathers, is that the hormones all plummet. Egg production plummets, which actually sucks if you're doing any hatching or anything like that. I ended up shutting down my breeding earlier than I expected to because people started molting early and egg production stopped. My white ducks have completely stopped laying eggs. Uh already. They're already done. My main pen is still laying eggs, but it's sparse. It's not nearly like it was. And that's something you can expect when molting starts. And right now, the only ducks that are like truly like in full big molt is sardine and almond. But my mallard, who kind of is like, I I love my mallard because I feel like he like leads the charge of everything. Like he he is already in eclipse plumage, which if anybody doesn't know, eclipse plumage is alternate plumage for your Drake ducks. So if you have any mallard type or any ducks other than like the white, like the white, yeah, then they might have an alternate plumage or like the solid. Like I'm pretty sure I don't own any BBS drakes.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Really, any Drake that has a female that looks different. Like whites, if they're males or females, they look the same. If males or females look different, sexually dimorphic.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Sexually dimorphic is the word for it. So anything that's like not sexually dimorphic is gonna look the same. Anyway, they'll look like the female. And my mallard is always the first one that I noticed because he's out there looking like a little girly. And I love it because he was a big jerk bag, and now he's now his hormones are totally gone. And so he's super chill. Almond started molting. She came around the corner. I didn't even see her start, and then she, I don't know where she was, but she came around the corner. She looked about 700 million years old. She was like all ratty, and her wing feathers were like falling out. I was like, ugh, dang almond. So when they molt, they feel like crap. You can expect them to act like they're dying. They genuinely do. They literally like lay around all day. They don't get up much.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

The process of new feathers growing in has to be so uncomfortable for them. Yeah. Poor ducks.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

The big things that you can do for them is increase their protein, let them have lots of protein because it takes a lot of protein in order for them to regrow those feathers. So lots of high protein treats. We do. I'm switching to more. Actually, peas have a decent amount of protein, so you can still give out your peas. Uh, I'm switching to more over like black soldier fly larva, stuff like that, like promoting like lots of omega fatty acids.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

I believe amino acids are also really important for feather growth.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Yeah, and poor ducks. No, it takes it takes a long time for them to get fully back to themselves, but not as long as you might expect. It actually turns over pretty quick.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Something else that I feel like we should mention is that this molt in the fall, I mean, technically it's not even fall. We'll call it the late summer molt, isn't actually the only molt that ducks go through. This is like their big molt where they lose their wing feathers, but during other times of the year, they will lose different parts, different types of feathers. So, like earlier in the year, they they lost and replaced their uh contours. Contour feathers, they're like smaller little feathers all around their body. But what ducks do is they don't just like drop all of their feathers at once and do a sequential molt like chickens do. Where chickens will literally be bare, like have bare patches of feathers as they go through a molt. But ducks seem to spread out their molt more over time and do different types of feathers at different times. And it makes sense to do the wing feathers before late summer because then they will grow back so that the ducks can then have nice new strong feathers when they migrate, if they were wild.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Wanna know what's so weird that I've never seen before, but this can happen. I'm super interested. Is so I thought that the big molt was always late summer. Like that was the only time that it ever happened. In my standard flock, four to five birds underwent a large molt pre spring. So this year, post like they made it through all of last year, apparently kept their wing feathers, dropped their wing feathers in like February. Interesting. I've never I never actually knew that was possible and then I ended up looking into it and yeah, like I guess that is a thing that they can do.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

So yeah, I think there's just like variations, and I think like something else that I've kind of noticed just from like knowing you so well is that like what timing happens does depend partially on where you live and your climate. And like we'll notice that like since you're just like a little bit in a cooler region than I am, like either I'll have something happen and then like a week or two later you have it happen, or vice versa. And it's it's kind of interesting because like people in the south probably wouldn't have a molt in July. I'd I'd assume that theirs would wait till August. I I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

It's interesting though. I didn't realize that it I thought it was always like a fall, like I thought it I thought it had to do with light kind of like egg production, but I always called it the fall molt, but really it is the late summer molt. Yep. It is the biggest molt that they go through. And yeah, like Chrissy was saying, they have to molt differently than chickens do because they have to maintain their ability to be waterproof. So they have to maintain some degree of body feathers so that they can actually float and insulate in water appropriately. Big important thing to remember, like extra insanely important, is that if you have flighted birds or any bird or any duck, I mean, during a molt, make sure they have a good way out of their pond that is super, super easy because even the roots that you have to get out of your pond when they have some wing function, because they use their wings to balance. So, say if you watch your ducks get out of your pond and they flap their wings to get up your ramp, you need to adjust your ramp because they won't be able to do that. They won't be able to get that extra lift. I mean, they can vary this like during their molts, more than anything, they're very susceptible to waterlogging. They might have some degree of wet feather just because they have like less feathers overall. So their waterproofing is at some degree compromised. They are very prone to getting stuck in things. So it's huge that you make sure that you have a really solid way for them to get out of the pond. I went through that, remember? I had installed a new pond and then marshmallow molted and it completely slipped my mind. They had a way out, but it wasn't a way out that really a molting duck would be able to utilize to the degree of my flighted birds. They just had like a little rock that didn't actually get them up the full lift. It had made it so that they could fly out, but it didn't make it so that they could gradually walk out. And so marshmallow actually got waterlogged in our pond last year. Not bad, not like we went through this year. She was just a little wet and a little tired when I got to her, but so important. That is like something that I really get worried about. I've been worried about Sardina. I've been watching Sardina actually to make sure make sure she's having no issues getting in and out of either pond that they have in their enclosure, just because that's like a big, it's a big concern.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Yeah, that's definitely a really good thing to mention. And honestly, I think when you're just like building your ponds in general, or even if it's just a kitty pool, like just like from the beginning, if you don't have ducks, build it so they can get in and out super easy. If it's an in-ground pond, I definitely recommend doing some sort of like a slope. I have my new Aquascape ecosystem pond has like a beach area, so it really is like a gradual slope for them, and then it like cuts off and then it's like deeper water. And my original in-ground pond has like this area that's only like an inch deep, which I like made for sugar, and then that's like gradual out. So I wish I had yeah, and I wish I had your ponds that were that your ponds that are easy to clean.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

They are it is a trade-off, but they don't. I wish they had better options for customizable hard liner ponds, because the hard liner ponds are fantastic because like the big perk of it is it's so easy to clean. I can install a drain in it so easily. It's a drink. But the hardest part is establishing a good way out, which the thing that I actually did most recently, where I put the plastic, I took a dog ramp and I took it into two pieces, and then I took the plastic ramp and I attached bags of rocks to the bottom and I sunk that and that works perfectly. And it also works perfectly, like no matter what the water level is at, because the ramp extends the full distance of the entire pond. And I was all worried that they would get stuck under this was like a fear I had for the longest time that they would get stuck under it. And then I was thinking, ducks can see underwater. Like if you have something underwater, they don't just run it. Like I always forget that because like when we open our eyes underwater, it's like blurry. So like a duck can comprehend that there's something there, it's not just gonna like go. That's why they have three eyelids.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Because the one is like clear and they can still technically close their eye or their eyelid, but it's just a clear protective.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

So them getting stuck under it has not been an issue at all. And it's safer. So I'm like, I'm glad I just ended up doing that because for the longest time I like was always paranoid about getting them getting stuck under stuff in the water. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Fair. If you're watching this video on YouTube, just so you know, we did have to stop recording yesterday and start recording again today. So if you're wondering why we're in different clothes, we had some recording issues, but we're back to get this episode finished. We we were talking about molting season when we last finished off. So, do you want to talk about pin feathers?

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Yeah, so what we were talking about where we left off um was molting season and some common issues. There's common things you might notice with your ducks. And one thing that I had actually said yesterday that didn't end up making it into the video because of our technical issues is I was talking about how pin feathers and when ducks drop all of their wing feathers, they have a lot of pins, like big pins right there. And one issue that can happen with those pins is a lot of bleeding because at the time all of the quills contain blood, so all of the pins, you'll notice they're like blue. That's because there's high blood flow to that area. So if one of those gets broken, it's usually a pretty significant bleed that you're typically gonna have to actually address. One of the ways you can attempt to stop it is with this product right here. It's called quick stop. If you don't have this, cornstarch also works. And if you cannot get the bleeding controlled using this and some pressure, you're gonna have to pull the quill. And how we do that is we just take a pair of forceps and you give it one hard tug. You don't want to hesitate, you don't want to pull gently because it's gonna cause more pain. Pull harder than you expect to need to, get that thing out, and then continue with your quick stop and your pressure until the bleeding has fully resolved.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah, I think I heard like a good metaphor or like explanation of this once, and it was like a blood feather, if it breaks, is literally just like an open valve or like a hose that's turned on. They're just gonna keep bleeding out of it.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

If you stick an IV catheter into somebody and you take off the wiring and you just leave the catheter right in, and the catheter will just pour blood. That's what it reminds me of, and you have to remove it and make a clot. So that's one thing to look out for.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

One other thing that I just want to briefly mention is that you might notice that your ducks are uncomfortable during this time because those feathers are so sensitive. The process of the new feathers growing in and the old feathers falling out isn't super comfortable. So I prefer to limit handling of the ducks during this time. I notice that my ducks get super grumpy, and just like picking them up the way that I normally would, like putting my thumbs over their wings, holding them like a little hamburger, that would be really uncomfortable for them. So if you do have to pick them up, I'd recommend like just holding them from their belly or letting them put their feet on your hand, but just be extra, extra careful because this is an uncomfortable time for them.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Yeah, I'm excited for molting season to end, so all of my birds look beautiful again. But it is always nice. And you know what? I always find molting season kind of exciting because a lot of ducks do look different with each molt. So, one thing like if you have any black bibbed ducks or black Swedish ducks, they'll start to get more white feathers, especially if you have Kiyuka ducks, they tend to get more white feathers after each molt. And so, espresso right now, she's starting her molt and she's starting to get all of these little white feathers in, and I just love it. I think it's so exciting. Gingerbread looks like Mr. Clean all of a sudden. Did you see her? Oh my god, she looks ridiculous. It lost all of her head color and it just looks so wrong because I'm used to her having a ton of head color. Snowies and Welsh Harlequins are two breeds that I find change a lot. Well, snowy call ducks and well charloquins change a lot with each mole. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

People sometimes think that coconut is like a completely different duck because they go from like having a tan head to having the white head to having the sort of gray head. It's it's crazy how much they can change. But what I do love the most is my East Indie Raven. When I first got her, she was completely black, and then she develops like one white wing feather, and she's just getting more white every year, which reminds me of her mother, Oreo, who was like super white when I got her, she was like pretty old. And I just love to see her, you know, grow up.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Peanut changes a lot too. Peanut is like a darker snowby. She has like a lot of dark coloring and she changes a lot when she molts. She hasn't started quite yet, but it is. I I love seeing them with their new clean feathers. If there was any feather damage, so like one of the things that molting helps a lot with is like if you had a duck that had feather damage, for example, I had cannoli, which you should see cannoli now. Looks so good. Finally, she's like finally recovering because the molts, sometimes it takes a good molt to replace all of those broken feathers, especially if the feathers weren't completely taken off. If they were just broken, a full mult will replace all those and all of your ducks will look fresh and brand new. It's like getting a whole new group of ducks. So I always love I love molting season a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

One other coloration that we have to talk about is not just snowy and how they look so different, but snowy drakes. We don't even, I don't even fully know what maple is. Some people say he's a a spot, some people say he's a snowy, maybe he's just a mutt. I don't know. But he has snowy-ish coloring.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

He looks horrific when he molds. Horrible. He's the worst-looking molting duck I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Yeah, he looks ancient. He just like turns gray and he's so patchy, and he kind of looks like an old man that like shaved but like missed a couple spots. Like, he's he probably gets real embarrassed when he molts.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

You had told me how bad Maple looks when he molts before. And I was like, oh yeah, all ducks look bad. And then I remember I was like scrolling on TikTok one day, and Maple came up while molting, and I was like, he looks horrible.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

So moving into our next segment, we are gonna be featuring the silver apple yard as our breed of the week. And I'm really excited about this because they are one of my personal favorite standard heavy sized ducks. And I actually have owned them before a long time ago, back when I had Khaki Campbell's, and I just think they're gorgeous. But Emily's gonna be telling us about them because she has a lot more experience with them than I do. I don't even think I do.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

I only have one, but I do love her, and she is one of Didi's favorite ducks we've ever had. She's very sweet, very personable. One thing that I noticed about the silver appleyard duck is it's a it's a big duck, it's a heavy duck. I want to say, well, actually, so the Saxony is the second largest standard domestic duck breed. I have a Saxony and an apple yard, and for some reason, I don't know. My apple yard just seems bigger. I don't know if it's how she carries herself, but maybe she's not.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

I think I've actually read that they're like the two biggest, and I think it would make sense for some fluctuation there.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Solar Appleyards are big girls, but very sweet girls. I do love them. They are a multi-purpose breed, so they are good egg layers. They lay about 120 to 175 large eggs per year. So these are the kinds of ducks you want. I I don't know. I like the bantam duck eggs that are more chicken egg size, but some people really like the super large duck egg with a really large, rich yolk. And they are a good dual-purpose breed because you can use this breed for meat very effectively. You're gonna get a good meat yield out of them as well. So they are a really good farm bird. And uh they were actually bred to be the perfect farm bird. And you also get the ornamental aspects of the silver appleyard, which they are genuinely gorgeous. So I love our silver apple yard. We got her at Matzer. She has a great personality. Um, we added her last year. There's actually another interesting fact about silver apple yard ducks, is there is two variations of ducklings that they can produce. So there's some that look like they have a little black spot on their head and a yellow body. It was like, I think it's like a black stripe down the back, if I'm remembering correctly. And then there is also a mallard-type looking duckling. Uh, so I actually kind of experienced this in both senses when it comes to ducklings because my silver applyyard that's up in my large duck flock, like my true silver appleyard duck, um, she was a duckling with a black spot on her head and a striped down her back. My silver appleyard call duck, which is different because it's just the coloration, it's not actually the breed. Um, but she was mallard, a mallard type looking duckling. So she had the eye stripe and the four spots on her back. Total weight, for anybody that's curious, is between seven and nine pounds. So the drakes are gonna be on the nine-pound side. This is going off of Metzser's weights. This is not obviously going to apply to exhibition because exhibition weights are very different. So Metzer Farms is silver apple yard ducks, which is, I mean, I we're speaking for the community of people that are looking for egg layers in their backyard. Um, me, neither me or Chrissy are big exhibition people, so don't come after us for that. Don't come after us for that side of things. But theirs are typically about seven to nine pounds.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Yeah, and I will say, my silver apple yarns that I had, they were really good egg layers.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Yeah, they're also, I want to say, you know what? I'm gonna eat my words. I want to say that they're decent mothers, but I don't think I've ever seen mine broody. Mine went broody. Yours? Yours dead? I don't think mine's ever gone broody. She's too busy eating frogs in my pond. She always eats the frogs. She's the frog eater. And you know how usually they try to eat the frog and they don't get the full thing down.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

She does. I've seen her swallow it whole. It was freakish. I was like, oh my god. So she's a beast.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

We actually have this read poster. That is so cool. I want that. I know. Okay, so Metzer gave this to me when I went down to visit them. And so I literally just framed it before we started like this episode. But it's so cool because you can see all of the differences. That's so cool. I love it. Where is the silver apple yard? It's over here. I guess that's the best you're gonna get. There is the silver apple yard. I'm gonna hang this like behind this so we can see it. Yeah, that'll look so good. But I think that brings us into our ad for today's episode, because today's episode is sponsored by Metzer Farms. So, as you can see from this poster, if you're watching on YouTube and not um listening to the audio early only version, Metzer Farms has a wide variety of duck and goose breeds as well as a couple turkeys and chicken breeds. They even have their Vitamets waterfowl boost on their poster, which is so cool because if you've ever heard us talk about Vitamets before, you know we are huge fans. And I love the fact that Metzer Farms offers such a wide variety of ducks. Because if you truly want an ornamental pet flock or even an egg layer flock, you can get a bunch of birds that all look different and they're all gonna be gorgeous in their own unique ways.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Having a lot of fun collecting the Metzer Farms goose breeds, like getting different gis. I love the variety that they offer. And I love one of the biggest things about Metzer Farms for me that I love ordering them from them so much for is that they have a waterfowl focus. So waterfowl is at the forefront for them. That is their specialty. So you know you're getting them from the best possible place when you order through Metzer Farms. You're getting the people that know the most about the ducks that they're breeding. And I love that. Most of my birds on my homestead came from Metzer Farms. Like I want to say 99% of them. I obviously, all the call ducks you guys know and love are from Metzer Farms. A big duck flock, I think, I actually think everybody in my big duck flock is a Mexer Farms bird.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

Really?

unknown 37:12

I do.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Like general staff.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

Nope, you're right. My originals are tractor supply birds. You got me. I was gonna, I wasn't thinking of them, but everybody with the exception of my four OG ducks are now Metzer Farms birds because of just when we were cycling birds out of that flock because we do have a more of a farm function with that flock. So the birds that we've moved have actually all not been Metzer Farms birds, which tells you how much we love Metzer Farms birds because we retain them all. They really have awesome temperament in their ducks. I think part of it is genetic and that the parent stock has a good temperament, and then I think the other half of it is how they're raised. And I have always had such great luck getting friendly ducks out of Metzer Farms birds, which means that half of the equation is going really well and they are genuinely breeding truly wonderful ducks with great personalities. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

And I do think starting your flock off with ducklings can also help you a lot when it comes to bonding with your ducks. Not that you can't have a great relationship with adult ducks, but I do think when you start them young and you get them used to handling, you're a lot more likely to have friendly ducks, which is one reason why I prefer to raise up ducklings versus getting adult ducks.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

If you're looking for a wonderful place to get ducks for your own flock, add to your own flock or start your very first flock, Metzer Farms is 100% my top recommendation. I can't recommend them enough. That is who we go to 100% of the time. Um, except for butterscotches, because they don't have it yet. If they had butterscotches, it would have saved my life because I would have loved to just order them through there.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Thank you so much to Metzger Farms for sponsoring today's video and being an amazing supporter of our podcast. You helped make this podcast possible, and we are so grateful for it. So if any of you that are watching are looking for some very fun ducklings of lots of different breeds or geese, make sure to check out MetzurFarms.com, which will be linked in the show notes. First question is from Kelly Sue. She asked, What are the early signs of an eggbound duck? Ooh, I've had tail pumping.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Yeah, so I've had some egg binding recently. Honestly, the early signs are like extremely consistent with just regular egg laying, unfortunately.

unknown 39:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

So there's been a handful of times where I've actually texted Christy and Beb, like, I think she's eggbinding, or she is gonna lay an egg in the next 30 minutes. And then if you look at a duck as it's about to lay an egg, that's what egg binding looks like, except that occurs for a very long time. So it can get a little confusing when you're trying to spot it because you don't know how long they've been like that. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:32

So I always say if you like suspect it in the slightest, leave them alone in the nesting box and come back in like, I don't know, half an hour, an hour and see if they're still trying to lay an egg or if they laid it and everything's actually just Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

So it's it's a tricky thing if um they're really like I have a couple that are more obvious when they're egg binding because they will like posture a lot. So there's like a posture that is associated with egg binding where it looks like a penguin-like stance. Yeah. So I have a couple that are like that. I also have a couple that when they're binding, they put their feet on the ground when they lay, and they're like they have their butt up a little bit. It kind of looks a little bit weird. But those are the big signs. It looks a lot like egg laying, and then obviously, as you get into like the late stages of egg binding, which unfortunately sometimes, especially if you're thought it was just laying earlier, you might find it at the end stages like lethargy, panting, open mouth breathing. Not eating or drinking, not eating or drinking, typical sick symptoms.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

Egg binding is one of those things that actually that's an important one. That's an important one. If you suspect egg binding, see if they're pooping. Because if they're passing poop, normally there's probably not an egg blocking it. Sometimes they can.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

It could be higher up in the reproductive tract.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

Right. Sometimes they can have like little poops, or when Blackberry was eggbound, she was still passing like some clear liquid, but not actual fecal matter. Yeah. Feel for an egg. You have to be gentle, of course, because you don't want to break the egg inside of the bird. Um, but you can feel their abdomen to see if there is an egg right at the about to exit area. Sometimes they can be eggbound further up the reproductive tract.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

The only things that I could think of as far as signs and symptoms. But the other, oh, this is what I was gonna add. The other thing is anytime I have a sick female adult laying duck, egg binding is one of the first things I rule out. It's just immediately that's so if you just have a sick bird, go ahead and run down the egg binding route. If you guys have not seen, I made a YouTube video about how to run through diagnostics, like at-home diagnostics in your head. And it's always to make a list of the five scariest things it could possibly be. Make yourself an informal differential list and then continuously look at the signs and symptoms and rule out various things on your list until you narrow it down. And so every single time, if it's an adult duck that lays eggs, an adult female duck laying eggs, egg binding, and some kind of reproductive complication is on my list, and I slowly continuously try to rule it out. So basically, signs and symptoms that you should have in your mind when it comes to egg binding is just anything weird, any weird behavior. Yeah, and then you could go from there and start to see if the signs and symptoms line up best with reproductive tract, and then you could go further into egg binding. But yeah, it's always something that I have on my mind when somebody's sick.

SPEAKER_00 42:17

Yeah. Jersey Asville asked, What is the easiest way to keep water in a brooder with ducklings? I think we actually generally tend to do the same method there. So I'm assuming you mean a water bowl for drinking water for swimming. Okay, because you do not need to have swimming water in a brooder with ducklings. I find that the way to keep it the cleanest is to have their waterer that they cannot physically get into, and then put that over a paint tray with a grid or a cooking tray with a grid over top. Um if you if your grid is like kind of sharp, you can lay down a layer of stuff you put in the cabinet's cabinet liner, like on top of it, um just so it's softer for them, and then anything that they do spill will fall into the tray to get caught, and it'll keep your brooder a lot cleaner. If you have like an open style bowl, you can like makeshift rubber bandit or something to keep so they can't get into it um and like splash all the water out. But that's pretty much what you do, right?

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Yeah, so that's what I used to do. So to be honest, I'm home 24-7 and I do my ducks for a full-time job. So nowadays I just let them I let them let the brooder, I let it get wet. You know, I put their water in there, it gets wet, I clean it out, I replace the bedding, and so yeah. Totally. But before I was doing this full-time and able to like, like the where the custom the caustic cleanings aren't that annoying to me anymore because this is my job. But before that, I used to do the cookie tray with the grate that would let all the water fall into it, and it did work really well. I don't do it anymore for like not a reason that it wasn't effective. I don't do it anymore because it's genuinely easier for me to clean out the brooder because when I used to dump the tray, I have carpet where my brooders are, and I used to just spill the dang water.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

The paint tray is easier than the baking tray because the paint tray is Like slanted. So it's like all just like it's easier to carry it and move it without spilling it. Cause like a baking tray, you have a thin layer of water, it splashes just a little bit in there. It's coming.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

This is so funny that because I have not thought about this part of my body in years. Like it's just second nature though. So I've had a lot of shoulder surgeries. And one of the deficits of all of the shoulder surgeries that I had is bad proprioception. So that means that if I don't see my hands where they are in the universe is irrelevant to my brain. It's like the nerves are all damaged and it just doesn't like my brain doesn't do it well. So if I look when I'm trying to carry this, like anything that has water in it, I do it every morning with my coffee. If I try to carry something that has water in it, it just spills. Because if I have to look up, you have to in order to not walk into a wall. I look away from the coffee or the water thing and it just I spill it everywhere. And so that's why I don't do it. It's not because it didn't work, it's because it's actually easier for me because my husband still works. And so it's easier for me to clean out the brooder and not have the water get everywhere on the floor than to spill the stupid tray. It was the most annoying thing. But I literally I haven't thought of that in years. Like it's a part of my life that's second nature at this point. I just know that I spill everything all the time. But yeah, uh, it is a it's like an actual phenomenon that happens to people that get a lot of surgeries.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

So if you have had lots of shoulder surgeries or other soldier surgeries, maybe use Emily's method. But if you're just trying to have less mess in your brooder, you could try my method.

SPEAKER_01 45:29

If you have bad proprioception, the uh the water thing might drive you mad, but I don't I don't know how many people actually have that. It might just be a relatively unique thing that I have. Um, okay, but yeah, that's how we do it. We both like to do the dunk cup where we put the bowl with the rubber bands so that they actually have access to deeper water, especially as they grow. Both of us raise a lot of calducks. It's not very frequently that I'm raising standards, maybe like every once in a while. Yeah. But when I raise calducts, the calducts could typically dump dunk their bill just fine in the standard style waterers, but when they do get big enough that they might be having some difficulty dunking, I offer a little bowl of water with rubber bands so that they can dunk their heads.

SPEAKER_00 46:10

Yeah. Perfect. All right, so moving on to our next question. I don't actually know if either of us will have the perfect answer for this. Kristen Rosenbach asks, how do you manage waste waste accumulation in river rock areas? Is hosing it off the only season in wet seasons in the it's not called Poconol Northwest and the Pacific Northwest with saturated ground, this is a challenge. So I will say for me, that is I just hose it off. That's exactly how I manage it. I have not run into an issue here with my soil in my climate. I can't say that that would work in other climates.

SPEAKER_01 46:46

One thing that happens to a lot of people is the thing about drainage rock is you have to add a thick layer or else it will not drain. And so if it's not draining um and it's not filtering through, so it's possible that you might just not have a thick enough layer of rock. I would actually attempt to add more rock. My rock will eventually get compacted into the soil and then not be effective for drainage because it's not thick enough, and then I add some more. So you'll see me add rock periodically into my enclosures in certain areas because only sometimes certain areas get compacted from us walking on it and pushing the rocks into the ground. But I would I just hose mine off.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

I don't think it's I haven't had that much of an issue with like even after it rains, the pen just looks so much clean. Any waste accumulation, it's like cleaned. I don't even hose it off like that often. I hose it off when I have the hose out to drain the pond.

SPEAKER_01 47:38

Yeah. The only thing that I will say is that when my rock layer was really thin, I did notice waste accumulation, and that was then corrected with additional rock that allowed for better filtration. I will say I have had that happen. So, like, there's like a specific area that is in my mind right now of my pen. Also, I discovered something about ducks. Ducks yearn to poop where the water is. They literally love standing around water and drinking and pooping. At the same time, they just drink and poop. And so when I one thing I love about that that keeps my enclosure so dang clean is because I have those pond decks.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 48:18

They poop the crap out of the pond decks, they poop those up like no other. I'm hosing those down like constantly. But because of that, they like never poop on my rock anymore. They only poop on the decks. And so they love to like stand and poop and around water. I don't know why that's their favorite place to poop, but then I noticed the reason I noticed that that's what they're doing, it's not just that I see the waste on the deck, is because when I would give them the little black water bowls in the run or in the rock on the rock area, they would poop it up like crazy, like right in that area.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

Actually, that's really interesting that you mentioned that because my ducks have one of those black feed tray water bowls, which it's so silly because it's completely unnecessary. They don't need it. They have a pond, they have a water pole in their coop. They do not need this, but they love it because I clean it every single day. And I think they just love that it's like the cleanest water. So every morning some of them like swim in it. And I have noticed, I never like made the connection, but I have noticed that there's always poop accumulated around that bowl.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

Yeah. So what I started doing is I started taking their little black water bowl and I put it up on the deck. So now that, like, because I would rather them poop on the deck because I could just hose it out and it doesn't stay in the enclosure like it. I mean, if it does on the rock or if it gets through there, like I would rather stay off the rock. So it like works out perfectly. So like my enclosures are like never poopy, except for when the deck is poopy, which is like 15 minutes after they start their day. So, but that's life, you know. They're birds.

SPEAKER_00 49:43

Alright, so you think we should do one more question? Fun question. Okay. Rohan Tonkin asks, What is the most evil plotting duck you have? And list their crimes. She said, or um, they said fun ones, not males during breeding season. We don't like to think about new one.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

I haven't even told you about this. Okay, I'm so ready. Gi. You know how we were just like three episodes talking about how we don't have bully hands and it's never happened to us? Yeah. Gojie is a mean duck. She's mean. And her crimes is biting asses. So she goes up to all of the other ducks, like whenever they're near her, doing absolutely nothing wrong, and she just takes like their butt feathers and she like shakes her head and like tunnels them. Like, not like under the tail, like on the lower back, like on the back.

SPEAKER_00 50:29

And it's like interesting.

SPEAKER_01 50:31

All the other like the ducks obviously dislike it and they like scream and like try to get away. It's very weird.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

I've never actually seen that. I don't know. I'm I'm like, the only duck I've ever had that like holds on other ducks' tail feathers is maple because he's so old and slow and he wants to mate with the females. But he can't reach them fast enough, so the only thing he'll be able to grab is their tail feathers. And they still usually get away from him. But sometimes he does have a lot of feathers. And I'm just telling me he's rude. But my most evil duck is uh sugar, obviously. Yes, sugar. Sugar's whole life is just about being evil. She likes she has her little evil layers where she goes and thinks about her evil thoughts. And I think recently she's uh like hired Mr. Whip to be her like evil servant and do her crimes for her, which has been interesting to say the least. Specific crimes that Sugar has done. I don't remember. Peanuts evil. Peanut's evil too. Yeah, sugar's just like Sugar is the queen of all evil. Yeah. Yeah. Like she doesn't she doesn't get along with the other other docks besides like her click of Mr. Whippin' Bubbles. And now Donut. Fun fact, Donut has joined the Sugar Shack. I do not put her in there, but during the day, Donut goes into the sugar shack every single day. And I thought at first she was just going in there to like lay her eggs because she liked the egg laying accommodations in there better. But even when she doesn't lay eggs, she just goes in there. She spends the whole day in the sugar shack, and then at night I open the gate and she comes out and goes and sleeps with the rest of the duck block. It's very weird. But she's getting along with everyone in the sugar shack, which is odd because the sugar shack doesn't normally like other ducks. So I don't know what's up with that, but it's interesting. But as far as sugar goes, she just doesn't like other ducks. She doesn't like other people. She bites people a lot. She bites other ducks if she gets the opportunity. She's really sassy and she'll like yell at people that don't do what she wants. And I just she just gets has the vibe that she's playing evil things all the time.

SPEAKER_01 52:26

I'm trying to think if I have any other evil, evil ducks. I know I do because I always I can I always say you evil little duck to somebody. And so I know they're doing, I mean, they all have their own little crimes that they commit. Um they're very petty animals, and they really are very um like I guess petty is the best way to describe it. Because like, okay, we were we were literally cleaning out the pond and like adding a filter to it, like doing normal things. Dumplings in the pond, not even near us. She shoots from the corner of the pond and attacked DD, like full head into his arm, and just started attacking him. Like, you know how a duck attacks, it's very pathetic. They just slam their body into you and hope for the best and like shake. But like, so they all have their moments of true evil. Like, I think there's evil in every duck, none of them are pure.

SPEAKER_00 53:12

Sorry, munchkin was pure.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

No, she wasn't like she wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

She always fought bubbles.

SPEAKER_01 53:18

Munchkin and bubbles did not get a little bit of a yeah, they're they're sassy little animals. They are very sassy, they're very, they have a lot of attitude and they like they just have a lot of emotions, you know? Like you can tell that ducks have a lot of feelings and a lot of emotions and a lot of social, social aspect. They certainly have their clicks. Yes, they have clicks, and so yeah, a lot of them have been out. Every single one of my ducks has probably committed a crime or been evil at some point in their life. But Goji's just at the top of my list right now because I've been noticing that she's been particularly evil. But she's young still, so she might grow out of it. Peanut is evil though. Peanut's done some evil things.

SPEAKER_00 53:55

Yeah, like actually, it's interesting that you mentioned like their age because I think some of my most like mischievous ducks, like pumpkin, coconut, well, not coconut, coconut's a good duck. Pumpkin and donut have always been like I would joke that they were like sent here to make my life harder because the other ducks were like m making my life too easy. Um, but now that they're older, they're so chill, they never get into trouble.

SPEAKER_01 54:16

The juveniles love to do ridiculous ducks. I mean, uh my ducks, I I don't know what it is about my ducks versus Chrissy Chrissy's ducks. My ducks are just way crazier than Chrissy's ducks. Like they are. They are spazzes, spazzes, and they are like they, yeah, they're they're so I feel like mine get into more trouble than yours because mine are just psychotic. Like the they're like they have so much energy and they're so psychotic all the time and they're a little overstimulating. So yours are more mellow. I feel like you have a lot of like older, older ducks, and that helps balance things, whereas most of mine are young. At least like I think my oldest one is maybe three or four. So like it's I'm not my big duck flock, they're much more chill, but that might be because we have those dispersed ages. I'm talking about my call flock, they're they're spazzes.

SPEAKER_00 55:01

Yeah, I think the younger ones are always just so much more energetic and getting into things that they shouldn't be. Have your question featured on the next question of the Duck Ladies Podcast. Be sure to keep an eye on all of our social channels that are linked in the show notes below because we put out a post before we film asking for you guys to submit questions for us to answer.

SPEAKER_01 55:18

Don't forget to check out both our Duck Ladies Podcast merch line that is linked in the show notes, as well as our own personal merch lines. We have those linked in the show notes as well as in both of our bios. And that is all we got for this one. Bye, guys.