"Mean Gals" on Our Little Acre

 These sweet little darlings have been subjected to some "mean gals".  It started with the pullet (female) bitties that they share housing with.  We were given these two little yellow ducklings by a friend.  We needed to figure out housing for them on the spur off the moment.  Originally, they were to have there own cage until we took in a wild rescue bunny the same weekend these little darlings arrived.  The bunny arrived first, so it got the cage.  When these arrived we decided to put them in with our smallest baby chicks.  They were doing well for almost two weeks.  They even seemed to all like one another until this weekend....

Then, the pullet bitties decided to peck out all the little ducklings' tail feathers leaving bloody sores behind.  I think the Buff Orpington bitties are the ones that did the pecking (I saw one of them do it.)  One of the Aracauna chicks has some of the back feathers missing.  We had to do some rearranging to get the ducklings to safety.  We had to resort to dragging out the dog kennel (extra large size), but after one night of mess making ducklings in there I came to the conclusion that neater birds need to house there since I do not have extra time to spray out a dog kennel daily.  Ughh... those "mean gals"!  So now the small chicks (pullet bitties) are in the cage alone.  The ducklings are in the cage beside them.   The larger chicks (which are all feathered out now) are in the dog kennel.  The rest of the birds around here are in the large chicken run (four large ducks and seven laying hens).  Problem solved!  Right???  .....

Well, it seems we have more "mean gals" around here.  Aside from the normal "mean gal" things such as the older hens establishing the "pecking order" and keeping everyone in line it seems that the large female duck is a "mean gal", as well.  While these two sweet little ducklings were trying to innocently splash around in the water puddles we have had lately, our large female duck ran over and jumped on top of the little ducklings pushing them under the water completely.  We had to come to their rescue.  It was so heartbreaking.  I guess I expected a female duck to mother them... not try to drown them!  Ughh! 

These are by far the sweetest birds we have had here.  They run to us for safety and follow us around when we are near them.  And we stay near them to keep them safe for obvious reasons.  They know we are there to protect them.  When we pick them up they are content to be held unlike our other birds.  I dearly hope the are females and they will not turn into "mean gals" themselves.