We had a wild mother Mallard lay 11 eggs by our pool. They lived in the back yard for a little over 3wks, before we took them to a local pond. They were very cute, but their mess became too much after a while.

We first saw the eggs at the beginning of April, and they hatched 14 days later. Mallards have a 28 day gestation period, so she had been nesting a couple weeks before we saw the eggs.

She took them to the pool right away. They were so tiny. The male Mallard never showed up, and she raised the chicks alone. We never saw the mother feed the chicks, though she would fly off several times a day to feed herself. The chicks would hunt down small flying bugs with great skill. Since they were trapped in our yard, there was little area for them to feed, and would be unable to walk to the pond without crossing a busy street, we decided to feed the babies. After some research, found some unmedicated duck feed, and this worked well. When they were older, we gave them some Cherios for treates. We usually fed them away from the house, and not by hand, but they soon associated us with food.

They were so cute, we wanted to name them, but there was no way to tell one individual from another. We caught and banded one of the babies in the first week with a blue leg band you can see in some of the videos. His name became Blue. After a week, Blue was the runt, and concerned the leg band somehow affected him, we removed it. He remained the runt, and was less than half the size of the largest just before we released them.

Some animal dug a hole under the fence, and the ducks were traveling around the neghborhood visiting our neighbors. They all always managed to come back, even one that was missing over night. A racoon came into the yard in the middle of the night trying to get them once. Neighbor cats, skunks, and huge red tail hawks were frequent concerns. Two fell in an exposed access hole, and would have never gotten out alone. Amazingly, we still had all 11 when we released them in the pond.

Our Parrot Merlin got along with them pretty well, and they all would hang out around the pool together. Our cat was mesmerized by them, but never attacked the mother or babies. Sometimes the mother would let kitty know if she was too close, and in any stand off, kitty was the one to back down. We have a chlorine dispensor shapped like a male Mallard the babies would someties play with. Maybe the reason the mother picked the pool since she was without her mate.

They loved to chase and ride the remote control boat, and play with the cat toy. We occasionally picked some chicks up, though moma duck would not like it if she saw or heard. We had a debate if the mother would notice one of the 11 chicks missing. She really did not notice we were holding/hiding one chick when she returned from a feeding trip, unless the baby started making noise.

After about 10 days, they became more and more messy, and I was cleaning up almost 100 droppings a day around the pool. And pooping in the pool. And after 3 weeks they were often all over you looking for food when you walked around the back yard.

How to catch a wild duck:
We discussed for a long time how to catch the mother. The babies were easy to catch after getting used to feeding. A good technique would have been to put the babies in a box and carry them with the mother following to the pond. Unfortunately they would have to cross a busy road, So how did we do it?
We grabbed one baby, and the mother and others followed into the garage. I tried to just grab the mother when up close, but still couldnt do it. So I held up an old blanket (which I would never have been able to catch her in without the last piece of the puzzle). My wife turned off the garage light for a few seconds, and I tossed the blanket over momma duck. Then put her and the blanked in the neighbors dog kennel. And we drove them all down to the pond.

The trauma of getting captured seemed to have erased their tendancy to approach us or other humans after we released them.

I didnt have the heart to throw the eggs in the garbage when we first discovered them. I wouldnt really recommend keeping wild ducks in the back yard because of the mess. It also might be a death sentance to have wild ducks too tame. But was wonderful for the first week. Seems likely we will get return visits. (less info)