Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Sharing The Bathroom

My latest guests in the bathroom have been 2 rare Appleyard ducklings.
They were the 2 tiniest of a group of 7 ducklings I picked up 2 weeks ago.



They have been cleaner than the chicks were, yet much more demanding to get fed by 6 am.

The Vermont/New Hampshire Appleyard Duck Preservation Project is going well.
 20 new ducklings have been added to the dwindling population and 14 more are in an incubator.

"Agnes and Ruthless" are growing and are getting better socialized.

These 2 beautiful duckings will be my frontline on the war against garden snails.



Last week I got to visit with the other 5 ducklings I had delivered to a friend.

They are much larger than mine, but hatched at the same time.



And one of them is extremely goofy.



I am really enjoying these unsual and vibrant ducklings.

If you live in NH or Vermont, have some experience raising ducks and are interested in joining the Appleyard Preservation Project, let me know.

~

5 comments:

  1. Just darling. Nothing says spring like baby chicks and ducklings. Hugs, Julie.

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  2. Hi! I live in New Hampshire and have a small flock of chickens and ducks (runners and pekins,at the moment). We just lost our runner drake and I have been looking into starting a breeding flock of Silver Appleyards. I was going to order some from Holdereads in the spring, but then I found your post. I would love to be involved in the Appleyard preservation project! I am so happy to have found someone nearby who can help me out with the breeding process, which is all new to me!

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  3. Hi! I'm so glad that I stumbled on this post, because I live in NH and have been thinking about setting up a breeding flock of Silver Appleyards! In fact, I just emailed Holderreads Hatchery asking a question about how to go about it. I currently have a small flock of runners and a couple of pekins. We just lost our runner drake to a coyote this week, which is sad, but opens up an opportunity to a more well thought out flock plan. The runners were my first duck purchase, and a bit impulsive. Now that we have some experience and have done the research, I would rather have a more dual purpose flock, although I do appreciate the eggs! Please let Thanks, Heather

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  4. Have blog bigearskennel.blogspot & email bigearsk@gmail.com . Love my small flock of Welsh Harlequin Ducks but feel a larger duck , such as Silver Appleyard or Pekin might suit my needs better . Any suggestions ?

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  5. I just found you after searching for appleyards in VT. Do you still have a source, or some of your own to sell. I'm in the greater Burlington area and am hoping to find a pair.

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