The End of an Era

                        A few years ago, these were our ducks. A number of them were older than ten years, and continuing to do well.  Ducks are great animals. They need a clean and secure cage, a kids pool that is changed regularly, and drinking water and good quality food.  They also enjoy salad greens periodically.

                        After more than ten or even more years, some of them began to pass quietly, often in their sleep. But as these animals grew and aged, things around this farm changed too.  Back twenty years ago when we first acquired most of this land, the eight hundred acres or so, close to it or around it, was timbered, and then replanted. Many animals relocated following the timbering. However, in Virginia, wood is very much a renewable resource. Often within 15 years the pine forests are completely back, and the oaks take longer.  While my ducks were growing up, and secure in their dog kennel with a canvas roof, with wooden dog houses inside for shelter, the surrounding woods were growing and thickening.  Animals were returning to the forest, and raising families. With the heavy rains of the last couple of years, the number of family members the predators had, increased.  As my ducks aged, and got slower, and perhaps forgot not to stand near the edges of the doors which have a small space animals might use to grab them, the predators were growing in number and training their young.

                     Within the last couple of years all but two of the above ducks either died of natural causes or as meals to creative young predators.  This week, only two of them were left.  Two of the brown Khaki Campbells, Dexter and Millard, were old, but they were surviving.  They also seemed pretty good at remaining within their dog houses, in their pens, at night.  Their pens looked pretty solid to me, although we have learned over the years that as Winter approaches, hungry raccoons, hungry oppossums, can access most any enclosure.  We have also learned that foxes, both grey and red varieties, when training a group of young, can access almost anything and risk almost anything to feed their young.  So this week, Dexter was found first. A predator had grabbed for him through the very narrow frame around the door of the duck pen. The only good thing about this, is that he likely died very suddenly. Often when only one animal is left somewhere, I move them, but I wasn't sure where I could move the remaining duck, Millard, who also had some markings which suggested he was a Khaki Campbell and Mallard mix.  This morning, when we went to check on all the animals, Millard had been caught exactly as his brother had been.  The ducks lived long lives here, but are now gone.

                   We had ducks here because it was an important part of educating our five children, and because Daniel especially loved them, and got them for Easter one year when he was very small. We enjoyed them because we did occasionally make omelets from their big eggs, which are excellent scrambled or in omelets with chopped chives and cheese added to them. They also make wonderful cakes which stand very tall, when used as a substitution for chicken's eggs. When we had many extra eggs, we also cooked them and gave them as an occasional treat to our dogs, many of which are rescues and could use some extra protein periodically.  We also noticed that female ducks tended to pass before male ducks, we think due to their more complex reproductive systems.   This is therefore the end of about a fifteen or so year era of having and enjoying ducks.

                 I will miss Dexter and Millard very much, as I miss the others, but now, with the forest regrown, and the predators ready for a pre-Winter Thanksgiving meal of delicious duck, it seems foolish to have ducks here again.  We no longer have wolves here, but there are plenty of coyotes, a number of which were thinned by hunters last year.  This generally causes their numbers of coyotes at least, to swell again the following year. We also have a bumper crop of gray and of red foxes, the result of a neighbor who was licensed to breed them for hunting, and then during a flood, lost almost all of his breeding stock. We now have rather demanding gray and red fox, who will directly challenge us from time to time. We also once saw a black fox.   Possums and raccoons abound here, and so, our ducks, whether young or old, would be endangered.


                  Perhaps the kindest thing to do is to admit that the farm has changed and that poultry may not be safe here any longer.  We will miss you.