07/12/2024
Harley has passed on.
A few days ago, we went to put our ducks in their pen for the night and were missing Harley, one of our boys. We searched the yard and found him off on his own. He let me approach and was not moving much, though still standing and holding up his head. The next day I did my best to treat him for what might be going on, though I didn’t know for sure. That evening, he passed.
We’ve since discovered that it’s likely heat stroke that took him and we’re doing our best to keep our flock cool, though our girl, Flower, is already struggling. Good thoughts and prayers are appreciated for the flock as there will be several more high temp days coming up.
Harley is the second we’ve lost from our original flock of ducklings (his very amorous brother went to freezer camp early on). He was originally named Eah, but I swayed my young son into a more fitting name for our Welsh Harlequin (Harley, get it?). He was a very cute duckling and grew into a very handsome drake. He was quite persistent with our girls and our toddler used to say “Barley, NO!!!” when he’d be chasing a girl down.
There was a point when we separated Harley from his friends (Twoyo and Quackers) in hopes of getting ducklings from him and Daisy. He would mope and fuss next to the fence almost all day. It was so sad and so sweet. Eventually, Daisy became his other main girl and we have one duck, Chocolate, from that pair.
Harley got sweeter and sweeter with age. He looked after his main girls, tended to some stray eggs, and was the easiest to catch when we wanted to give a duck a snuggle. His absence will definitely make things different with our flock. We’re very sad to see him go.
Lots of photos of our guy 😌
