We get a lot of emails from new duck owners who are upset when their ducks turn into aggressive biters. Ducks bite. Especially drakes. Hand-raised drake ducks can bite a ton, and it hurts. Muscovy drakes have a ridge on their beak that makes the bites even worse. They bite because they love. This is one reason we never recommend ducks for families with dogs or kids. Even if your dog would never chase your ducks, your duck will chase your dog! Here O’Malley demonstrates his persistence in wanting to bite me. This was one of his calmer moments.
P.S. I love this duck. He is a lovable biter and he’s my good buddy. He just reminds me a little bit of Hannibal Lector.
Olly Astro and Janet are always excited to come out of the aviary when I get home from work, because I have corn treats waiting for them in the yard. O’Malley of course helps me do everything. He thinks he is very helpful.
Flapper had his treats in the pool.
Then I told him a bedtime story and tucked him into his nest.
“Once upon a time there was a sweeeeet duckling named Flapper.”
“From Chicago to Houston to South Portland, Maine, the urban chicken movement has taken hold. More and more city folks are raising the birds right in their own backyards. Some love the idea of fresh eggs; others appreciate the back-to-the-land aspect of tending to a flock.
There are animal rights advocates, however, who worry about the long-term welfare of the feathered fowl. As the number of city dwellers with chickens has risen, so has the number of birds being abused and abandoned. And local animal control departments are finding stray chickens everywhere from neighborhood alleys to downtown parking ramps.” – MRP.org
Meet Mary Britton Clouse, the founder of Chicken Run Rescue.
This is a story well told by Minnesota Public Radio. In our short time of having chickens here at Flapper’s house, we have seen the many problems with urban chickens first hand. People who view chickens as food or egg machines often times view them as disposable, or balk at the idea of taking one to a veterinarian if she gets sick. It’s cheaper to just throw one away and get another one, right?
Chickens are not egg machines. Chickens are not stupid. Chickens need more space and care and consideration than most urban farmers realize (do not follow the guidelines for space requirements set up by factory farms!)
Chickens and ducks deserve to live free from suffering and cruelty, just as every other animal (including humans) does. Just because chickens are cheap and disposable does not make their suffering any less real.
Flapper loves to preen his feathers when his pool is fresh and clean. But he does not like to share his fresh clean pool, and will charge anyone who comes near it… like Olivia the chicken.
Tonight after work we went to pick up Olivia’s new friend at the vet’s office. The vet said that they have received quite a few dumped hens and roosters this year. It’s an unfortunate side effect of the increase in “urban farming.” People get chickens but then aren’t prepared to help them when they get sick and need medical care. Some try to get help for the hens, but just can’t afford long-term care. Others wait too long to get medical treatment for their animals, and then they face a long recovery. That was the black chicken’s problem. She had severe pneumonia but has now recovered, once she was surrendered to the veterinarian for long-term care.
Anyway, we went to pick up the beautiful black chicken named Olly Astro, and this is what we found.
Wait a minute. One… two chickens? It turns out that Olly Astro has a friend. They have spent weeks together and are pretty good buddies.
The friend has recurring prolapse problems, and that’s too much trouble for her other home to deal with. So Olly Astro asked if she could bring her friend with her. It’s not like we’re adopting two chickens. We’re just adopting Olly Astro, and Olly Astro brought a friend with her. Got it?
Olly Astro’s friend was boxed up to go and joined us on the way home. She looks pretty ready to me.
Once home, the beautiful Miss Olly Astro began hunting for bugs and taking dust baths.
Her pretty friend thought that was a great idea, and the two of them enjoyed hours of bug hunting and dust bathing while I got their new aviary space and night pen ready for them.
Olivia voiced her opinion about the new girls while they played in the aviary for a bit. Olivia is not too sure about these new friends yet.
She stood outside their area and gave them the business.
After a while, I decided to just move Olivia’s night pen over by her duck buddies Chewy & Flapper so the new girls could have their own night pen. Olivia seemed to accept those terms… for now. But she reserves the right to protest more in the future.
Olly Astro and her friend settled in to a little more dust bathing and some eating, and then got ready for bed.
Bedtime was hilarious, as Olly Astro and friend were not so sure about their new routine. I tried to get them to settle down and nest, but they wanted to roost. So they flew up to my shoulders and sat on my shoulders and told me to hold still. That wasn’t going to work all night, so I repositioned a perch for them and placed them on it. They reluctantly accepted those terms and are now roosting in their night pen comfortably.
Tomorrow they will have their own section of the aviary and their own breakfast treats of peas and romaine lettuce. We haven’t settled on a forever name for Olly Astro’s friend yet, but as soon as she tells us what she wants to be called, we’ll share it with everyone.
Good night chickens. Good night ducks. Good night moon. Good night people.
Sometimes people we don’t really know, but who follow Flapper’s blog, want to drop by and meet him. This past weekend two nice people came to meet Flapper and they brought him treats. They know the way to his heart. Check out this video of us all just hanging out and talking.
It was private when I posted it before, but I think it’s fixed now.
It was a long weekend in every sense of the word. I graduated, my parents were in town for my graduation, Racquel L’Oreal Chicken passed away, we had some long drives to go whale watching and all in all it was just way too busy for me.
Luckily the cure for a hectic, crazy weekend is very close by.
Thanks for the hugs, Flapper.
By the way, I am wearing my graduation cap and gown all week long, just to get the most out of this new Master of Public Administration degree. Yay for graduation!
Special thanks to everyone for the heartfelt well wishes on the passing of Racquel. It means a lot to me and everyone here at Flapper’s house.
Today we took a break from the ducks to go help out an orca whale. Today was the Worldwide Protest to Save Lolita the orca. The protest took place in over 40+ locations around the globe, in hopes to pressure Miami’s Seaquarium to implement a plan to release Lolita back to the wild. Here are a few photos about today’s protest in downtown Seattle. We’re holding the simple “FREE LOLITA” poster.
Lolita’s mother is still alive and swimming near her original capture site right now. Imagine if Lolita could be returned to her family, after all these years of being forced to do tricks to earn food. Read more about the plan to return Lolita to the wild here: http://www.orcanetwork.org/captivity/culture.html
Lolita cannot speak up for herself, so it’s up to us to speak up for her. Thank you to all of the people worldwide who spoke out for Lolita today. She deserves all the best we can do for her.
Check out what little guy Trevor Metcalf did to help Lolita today…
