We have chooks but have never had ducks. About 3 or 4 months ago a wild Muscovy started visiting our place. At first the duck would fly in every morning, from the direction of a nearby river where I believe the duck lives, and then hang around most of the day before flying off in the direction of the river again each dusk. During the day the duck typically did various things, including resting under a hedge we have around our pool, swimming in a small creek/gully we have at our place, sitting under a bamboo plant we have near the creek and hanging around the back door crapping all over the pavers of our entertainment area.
I know unwise, but we took to giving the duck a handfull of chook pellets each moring when we fed the chooks. A couple of months back the Muscovy began bringing another duck with it each day. I have no idea what the breed was. It was quite a bit smaller and brown in colour with some white on its neck. It too was wild, but did not appear to be a wild breed. At the time I had done no research and thought that the Muscovy was a male and the other a female. I now know the Muscovy is a female, not only because it has laid eggs, but because of the fact that it flies (very well).
Anyway - the brown duck only visited for about 2 weeks and then stopped. I thought it might be sitting on eggs somewhere. The Muscovy then stopped coming also for a couple of weeks. This was after some good rian, so I figured that maybe its favourite spot had water in it again, meaning it didn't need to come to our place anymore. The Muscovy then started coming again, but not every day. There was no pattern, it would come for several days straight and then not come for a couple, however over the last couple of weeks has been here quite a lot.
Last week we went away on holidays and resolved that due to the mess being made by the duck on our pavers, we would not feed it any more upon our return. THis resolution didn't work out so well as when we returned home yesterday we found that the duck (which I had thought was a drake until then) was under our pool deck sitting on a clutch of eggs. Not quite sure how many as I didn't want to be too intrusive even when the duck was off the eggs and also there is a lot of down around the nest obstructing the view, but there are at least a half dozen. Needless to say the duck was quite happy to see us and came out looking for some food from us. Natrually given the situation we could not resist and gave the duck some chook pellets and also put out a container of water which the duck readilly drank from.
Today I've not seen the duck come out to eat or drink, but I guess she will when she needs to. My questions for all you duck experts are:
- is it appropriate for us to provide food and water for the duck over this period? Although it is wild, it is a domestic breed and seems to want our help, so I see no issue here.
- I should now look at getting some proper duck food at least for the time the duck is sitting, as I know chook food will not meet her nutritional requirements. Do I just get normal duck food?
- is there anything else I should be provideing the duck at this point?
- what should I do if/when the eggs hatch? Do I just leave this duck to its own devices - I don't know what the chances are of survival of the ducklings in those circumstances. Our yard is not fenced sufficiently to stop wild dogs getting in or the ducklings getting out.
- lastly, is this a strange situation to have or does this sort of thing happen commonly?
Just found a photo (pretty crap as taken on phone) that I took of the two ducks together when the second was also visiting. I don't know if this is the one that the Muscovy has mated with, but all the same can somebody let me know what type it is out of interest. Thanks.
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