Knight Bundty and Lady Lemon remain without what is called an Official Vet with the relevant sub qualifications to certify their health before departing for Europe, though we have now got three different groups prepared to assist us, and we need to work through who can achieve what when and how. Hopefully, we will know more about timelines and who can assist with what tomorrow.

The rules in the EU are that no matter how much you may love your duckies, they can’t be treated as pets for import purposes; they are poultry.

You cannot simply pop them in the backseat, drive your car onto the fast train from England to France, and hope for the best.

There are a lot of certificates, lots of testing and rules around all sorts of other things before they get into a truck, and after they reach the border control point. The additional problem is that most people who have this expertise are involved in commercial transport for businesses acting as exporters, and the destination of the duckies is not someone’s large backyard.

That will only cover the permissions that we need for them to leave the UK and enter the new country, it doesn’t take care of actually getting them there.

Being poultry, the sole land route into Continental Europe requires a ferry crossing on a particular ferry route, and that particular ferry route takes about six hours to get across the water, before customs formalities at the other end, and then, yet more driving. There is only one ferry service left which still allows duckies to be transported.

That invariably means a long queue to be cleared by customs after six hours during on the ferry, which, if one is lucky, one might spend 15 minutes with the whole flock in the hold. That also place them further risk of being exposed to other animals coming from the UK.

The more moving parts in any situation or operation, the more opportunity there is for one particular element to fail, which can only lead to a cascade.

I also need to say that the costs are already going to be comfortably in the four figure range just under the transport element to go by truck. This is not a cheap endeavour.

There are not a lot of ways to get around this without treating the duckies as freight and taking the risks attendant with that. Things happen in transit. Not everyone loves duckies as much as my wife and I and other users of this sub do - just ask for pathetic little old man who decided to shoot our kids for his own notification with an air rifle that wasn’t even powerful enough to give him a clean kill. I will leave that point at that.

And so now… we are looking at a private flight to take the duckies and my wife and I from an airport nearby to an airport in our new home country which has a border control point and which is able to assess poultry on arrival.

Let me clarify my position on the private flight element - I have no interest in taking selfies, I have no interest in taking pictures of duckies on the plane. This is not some sort of an opportunity for my wife or I to bask in the reflected glory of having spent low five figures on a flight if we do so. I have no interest in creating a social media profile for the ducks or profiting from them. We share them with you here for free because maybe for whatever reason you are unable to look after ducks as much as you wish you could yourself. This way you get to enjoy our kids as much as we do, no ulterior motives.

My objective is to convert what would otherwise be a day and a half journey on a good clear run in the cold in a truck, unable to see us, which could any number of points blow out into significantly longer or riskier, into boarding a flight which will take a couple of hours, with them sitting with us in the cabin.

I will also say that it isn’t like I’m going to be swanning around in designer clothes on this trip, once we have the kids safe safely home in their new place, I probably have to go back to the airport that or the next day and fly back (Ryanair, not private plane) and continue coordinating the move. But there is no more precious cargo at all on to my wife and I than these duckies, and we have to get it right. We owe it to them, and we owe it to their flock mates, their parents and siblings, who aren’t here now.

Not everyone takes these matters quite as so gravely as do my wife and I.

On briefing Lady Lemon on today’s developments, she simply dangled her toe daintily and gave me the unimpressed look that you can see in the picture above; gather she expects a jet rather than a turbo prop.

Bundty on the other hand just gave me a look that suggested that he thought I was pulling his leg and then went about his business without further comment or ado.

Also, the answer to the question is generally you can get five duckie on a private plane, and we’ve had some real difficulty finding any flight operator who was prepared to take six, but we have found one provider.

I birthed a mandarins this summer - my first time doing so, they haven’t coloured yet but these are my pairs the babes when they were littles. They bonded with a good I hatched at the same time lol.

Hi all!

I recently posted this photo online, and someone asked a valid question that I don't have the answer to, and I've been wondering myself - what duck species?

I took this photo of a duck last year at my local reservoir, and she's a regular (and easy to identify lol) so we nicknamed her Clover.

But what duck is she? Assuming she's a she. From a Google search I'm leaning towards a mallard hybrid? But I don't know much about ducks, so I thought this might be a good place to ask.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: I live in the UK

There were hundreds covering the entire surface of Diamond Lake, OR.

Earlier this summer we took 3 runner girls from the owners because they didn’t have the time to dedicate to ducks, and they asked if we’d take their geese, as well. We waited until we had the big house done before we picked them up, and I’m really glad we said yes to taking them. They are extremely friendly and social, and just super duper sweet. The ducks seem to be totally fine with them; no drama and it seems they’re happy that to follow their lead.🦆🪿

This Duck is 3,5 Months old. We bought him from the market when he was just one week old.

Yesterday afternoon I went for a walk in the park, and was surprised to see the amount of ducks resting on the lawn.

I’m walking at my normal pond in Southeast Michigan, and noticed these cuties. Can someone ID these for me, I’ve never seen ducks like this here before, at least that I’ve noticed, and I’m always watching for feathered friend. Sorry for not the best quality video, had to zoom all the way in so I wouldn’t scare them. Thanks!

Never had a duck this close to me before. I was with my boyfriend and really we did nothing to get his attention, just sat on a bench and this cutie pie approached! I guess he's still young, his head is not fully green yet.

!!THIS IS NOT MY DUCK!!

I went to an Amish farm today (chose this place based off of there amazing reviews) to purchase a few more Buff Orpington ducks to even out my drake-to-hen ratio, and I have to say, I left pretty heartbroken.
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have a ton of experience raising ducks, but what I saw really upset me. They kept bringing out ducks that were absolutely filthy, which honestly wasn’t even my biggest concern. Almost all of them had extremely puffy, crusty eyes that looked irritated and possibly infected. On top of that, these poor ducks were absolutely PETRIFIED.

I asked why their eyes were in such bad condition, and their explanation was, “We need to fill the water trough up today, and we haven’t yet.”
But to me, this looked like something that had been building up for much longer than a single day without fresh water. I ended up handing this poor duck back because I can’t afford to take home an animal in that condition. They eventually brought me two that appeared healthy, but I would honestly say 8 out of 10 ducks I saw had eyes like this.

What shocked me even more was that this farm has such good reviews. People getting these ducks as pets and I’m getting them for egg production

I completely understand that livestock is livestock. I’m not against raising ducks for meat, eggs, or breeding. But surely being livestock doesn’t mean they don’t deserve basic care, clean water, and humane living conditions?

Ducks need access to water deep enough to properly clean their eyes and nostrils. Seeing so many in this condition was genuinely upsetting. I’m so confused because the reviews were amazing, people talking about how friendly the ducks are, how clean and taken care of.

Am I overreacting, or would this concern other duck owners too? Has anyone seen ducks develop eyes like this simply from not having their water refilled for a day? This is just a rant I guess.

Those following Knight Bundty’s and Lady Lemon’s day to day trials and tribulations will know that they have a new home to move to abroad soon. They are so excited that they were partying from 3 until 5 this morning, and when I finally go some sleep, Bundty flew up to the couch, did a small poo, and promptly left again. Lovely to wake up to and clean up.

Their (and our) lovely new landlady has already arranged for someone to lend us their old duck house while look at other options for the longer term.

Part of relocating these two, and perhaps their siblings, involves a lot of bureaucratic wrangling, vet visits, and health sign offs, not to mention registration of the receiving address and someone to act as the importer, and a particular kind of vet to approve the whole box and dice 24 hours before we all hop in a truck.

We had been told the importation permission in our new home was likely to take 6 or so weeks and we got on with that last week as soon as we knew our new address… instead, I opened my inbox this morning to discover my permit has been granted already. So far, so good.

We still have to wait for the domestic registration of the new house to be transposed into the import registry, but things are happening and we may be on our way sooner rather than later.

I updated each of these two lovely babies on today’s developments, both were much too busy napping to give me or these developments much attention.

Volume up for cuteness overload. My babies are playing in their first fall leaves.

Found this duck on the sidewalk while walking today. I don't know ducks well, but it seemed unusual. Might this be an abandoned pet duck, or is it likely wild?

Edit: Thank you for the quick responses! I am hoping it belonged to a house nearby where I saw it. I went back and did not see it, nor did I see anything in the road. Hopefully it found its way back home.

I’m currently in the design phase, no ducks yet but i’m planning on a small flock of four. I hear mixed opinions on whether a heater or lamp is necessary if you have a well-insulated coop. I was planning on putting a thermometer in the coop when it’s done and monitoring to see if they’ll need supplemental heating.

Any advice or knowledge on keeping ducks warm in a Massachusetts winter?

I moved into my house a year and a half ago and have had my 4 ducks in their current run for about a year. I'm hoping to put in a fence soon and want to section off a bigger area for the ducks to roam (green box). In their current run size, they trampled the grass in like a week so now it's all pine shavings. The question is though, will they trample the grass in this big of an area? If so, I need to figure out a grass alternative if one exists for ducks.

I breed muscovy ducks and I am looking for a safe way to band ducklings. I want to hold some back for breeders, but I need to mark them based on parentage so no inbreeding occurs. Thanks in advance! Video included of this year's flock for the duck tax :)