We are very excited to announce four young ducks as the newest additions to the Red Barn herd! The ducks are American Pekins with all-white feathers and light-orange bills and feet. Though they were born this past winter, they are already fully grown. Two of them are female and the other two are males. We haven’t decided on any names yet, mainly because it is difficult to tell them apart individually (I, personally, think it would be neat to get different color anklets so we can distinguish them).
The ducks are living in the same pasture as the goats. During the day, the duck squad will wander around the pasture, playing in any rain puddles or in their plastic baby pool. At night, they go into a cage to help protect them any potential predators. The four ducks always move as a single unit, never straying more than a few feet from one another.
Though they were cautious when they first arrived, the ducks quickly warmed up to both people and the other animals. Originally, we had to herd them into their cage every evening. But after a few weeks, they learned to trust us and now eagerly wait outside their cage come bedtime. The ducks can still be a bit shy when people try to approach them directly. However, a handful of seeds is all that is needed to bridge this barrier. They will eagerly eat out of any hand that offers them food, much to the delight of our students.
While initially distant towards the goats, the ducks now seem to enjoy the company of their four-legged pasture pals and often follow them around. They have even grown to trust Xena whenever she wanders into the pasture to receive her daily tribute.
We’re happy to see the ducks adjust to becoming fun and friendly members of our herd. They did great in groups this past Summer and hopefully they’ll continue to be amazing for all individual lessons this Fall term!
-Connor