If you missed Raising Ducks Part 1, 2 or 3, make sure to check them out. In this post I wanted to give an update on all of the things we’ve learned since the last post.

Male vs. Female
You can now really tell the male from female ducks. The males turned completely gray, have green heads with a white stripe around their neck along with completely unique tail feathers. However, they both still have the same blue accent on their wings.

Here is a little comparison to a few weeks ago:

We ended up with three males and four females, which seems like a good ratio. Maybe someday I will ask for one more male but we will see how things go next spring. These ducks only lay eggs in the spring.

Water
We were filling up pans with water every morning until we realized that they were drinking the pond water over the pan water. We stopped providing additional water and the ducks seem just as happy. It really cuts down on chores in the morning and cuts down on the mess.

Feeder
Ryan made this new feeder that you can fill with enough food to last for weeks. We’ve been feeding them the same food as our chickens. The feeder has two tubes that we can cap off at night. They love their new feeder and figured it out right away.

They are really enjoying the weather today as it is around 70 degrees out. Once things start freezing we will need to provide additional water again. Let’s hope for a mild winter! Have a great weekend.

This photo was from a few weeks ago during our first snow.