Harteman Wildfowl Aviaries

Baer's pochards are active diving ducks that spend most of the day on the water. There is no aggression towards other ducks or other birds, and also rarely towards conspecifics, not even before and during the breeding season. There are several advantages to keeping Baer's pochards in groups: animals incite each other during the pre-breeding season, so there is always activity to be seen on the pond. In addition, it stimulates the animals to reproduce, also because they can choose their own partner to some extent - which is impossible anyway if we put one drake and one female together. If ducks can choose their own partner, with all the associated behaviors, this increases their welfare.

 

I have always kept Baer's pochards flying in closed aviaries. Although they do not fly much in the aviaries, I regularly see them flying from one pond to another. Even when there is unrest, they prefer to fly to the safe pond, rather than walking the same distance.

I feed the ducks most of the year pressed maintenance pellets and floating food from Kasper Faunafood, with a handful of whole grain mix as a daily treat. Very rarely do I see the ducks eat grass or herbs, but when duckweed is offered in the summer they are the first to go.

 

Housing

The aviary in which I currently keep a group of 4 couples measures approximately 12 by 15 metres and is 2.5 on the sides, up to 4 metres high in the middle. There are three ponds in the aviary, in total the ducks have 60 m2 of water at their disposal. Two foil ponds are not planted, the middle pond has a natural (clay) bottom and is generously planted with marsh plants such as yellow iris and small bulrush. The aviary is also generously planted with grasses, shrubs, herbs and other vegetation. Initially, marsh plants in the ponds were protected with a piece of wire mesh, not least because of the destruction by other species. But when the plants grow rapidly in spring and summer, the protection is no longer necessary. In the meantime, a number of ponds contain marsh plants that have formed abundant clumps despite the fact that they are occasionally nibbled on. In the same aviary live a few pairs of Madagascar teal, white-winged wood ducks, black-bellied whistling ducks, South Georgia pintails and a few female Meller's ducks.

 

Baer's pochards are winter-hardy, they can be kept outside all year round without any problems as long as the pond remains free of ice and there is shelter. On cold days they seek shelter in evergreen shrubs (conifers) or grasses, so that they can sit out of the wind.

Above: cover page of article as published in Aviornis International magazine (October 2024). 

Above: adult male Baer's pochard

The breeding season
Baer’s pochards can be kept in pairs or in groups, but as mentioned before, they do best in a larger pond in a group. Since I have had Baer’s pochards, I keep them in groups of 2 to 5 couples. Especially in the winter and spring, you will be treated to hot, yet elegant courtship displays. The group of males and females remain in each other’s vicinity until the formed couples separate in the spring to each find a suitable place to nest. In recent years, the different females in the same aviary started laying in the same week. The animals usually start laying in the middle of April.

In order to be able to distinguish between ducks of the same sex within a group, all birds have a colour ring in addition to the closed leg ring. In this way, I have also been able to determine that my Baer’s ferruginous ducks have so far entered into a strictly monogamous seasonal marriage. Every year, the drakes ‘fight’ for the favour of being allowed to enter a female.

Baer’s pochards are typical ground breeders, who prefer to lay their eggs in dense vegetation. In our country, they usually use a concealed milk can or nest box on the ground that is provided with a layer of soil with straw on top. Baer’s pochards lay eggs from the age of two, but a single female already lays fertilised eggs at the age of one. The first eggs can be expected in mid-April. The clutches usually consist of 6 to 10 eggs, sometimes even 11 or 12 eggs. Five freshly laid eggs in 2022 weighed between 46.8 and 48.8 grams. The incubation period is approximately 27 days.

The ducks are monogamous and I have not yet been able to catch any birds cheating in groups. The drakes seem quite loyal and accompany their females to the nest when they return to breed.

Baer's females are very good breeders, but are quite easily disturbed when you get close to the nest. Sometimes they leave the nest in panic and soil the eggs with feces. Therefore, pass a nest carefully. If eggs do indeed become soiled with feces, I carefully remove the coarse (wet) dirt from the eggs and put them back in the nest. In general, this does not cause any problems for further development of the embryo. I consider whether to let the ducks brood and raise the young themselves, depending on the situation.

 

Natural breeding and natural rearing
I prefer to let the ducks raise their own young, although it is not always practical. The challenges that one encounters mainly relate to the dangers to the chicks, for example other bird species present or possible predators. Our climate is favorable and should hardly play a negative role in natural breeding.

In 2021, 2022 and 2023 I let some females raise their own young. In 2021, a duck laid 6 eggs, 4 of which hatched and two chicks reared; here, Chilean wigeons were the reason that two day-old chicks did not get the chance to follow their mother. More success with natural breeding in 2022.

In 2022, another duck laid 7 eggs that hatched on July 9. This was her second clutch, after I collected her first clutch in April (10 eggs) from the nest to hatch them in the incubator. I chose to remove her first clutch, because at that time the white-winged wood ducks and Madagascan teals were also nesting in the same aviary. I expected problems if multiple pairs of ducks with chicks would emerge. The second clutch that was to be laid had an expected hatching date at a time when there would be no other (young) chicks in the aviary, which would make natural breeding and natural rearing more possible.

During the natural breeding (outcome July 9, 2022), the duck swam with all 7 chicks on one of the ponds. There are three round ponds in this aviary, of which the middle one (diameter approximately 4 meters) is rough with marsh plants. The Baer's pochard chose this marsh pond to stay there with her chicks, almost the entire time until the chicks came into their feathers. The family was not accompanied by the drake, he was in eclipse moult on another pond together with the two other drakes.
The young family only got out of the water a few times a day, to preen or sleep. At night they also spent on land to sleep there, to spend the day in the marsh pond again.
Due to the rough vegetation and natural soil, this pond is a major source of insects such as larvae. A large amount of fresh duckweed was offered daily in the three ponds, so that all ducks can eat it. The chicks eat this duckweed from the first day and then also get a floating micro pellet to eat in the water.

Two chicks died within the first week after they probably could not get out of the pond properly at night. When the five remaining chicks are about two weeks old, I sometimes see them walking with the mother duck to the feeding bowls in which duck pellets are offered.
Of the 7 chicks, 5 eventually grew up without any problems, and the chicks were never bothered significantly by other residents in the same aviary; including white-winged wood ducks, black-bellied whistling ducks and Madagascar teal.
In 2023, the same mother even raised 9 of the 11 hatched chicks in the mixed aviary.

 

Artificial rearing
When the eggs hatch in the incubator, the chicks are placed in a dry rearing area for the first two days. When the chicks eat and drink well, they are transferred to a polyester rearing box with a pool in it for swimming. This so-called rearing method is my preference for ducks, so that the chicks start preening their down from day one and quickly stimulate the functioning of their preen gland. Because the preen gland does not yet work in the first few days and the mother duck is not present, the chicks do get wet when they swim and come out of the water. It is therefore extra important that they can get out of the water well and can warm up and dry under a heat lamp. I always use a porcelain dark radiator, so that the animals develop a normal day and night rhythm. I have the rearing boxes outside in the fresh air, under a roof. The heat from the heat radiator remains in the box, while fresh air can reach the rearing box well.
As food, I offer unlimited micro floating pellets in the rearing box and a handful of duckweed every day, until the moment the chicks get feathers. From that moment on, I slowly switch to feeding rearing pellets. Once the ducklings have reached the size where they would no longer crawl under the mother duck to warm up, I stop offering them a heat source.

The most striking thing during the artificial rearing of the Baer's ducklings is that they are much more shy than other ducklings. I have no real explanation for this. These chicks, just like the other ducklings, are removed from the incubator within 24 hours to be placed in the rearing box. While Madagascar teals and whistling ducks, for example, are very tame during the entire artificial rearing period, Baer's pochards are shy. This should be taken into account when moving and feeding the ducklings, or cleaning the rearing boxes, to prevent stress as much as possible. When cleaning the rearing tub, I remove the ducklings from the tub daily and place them in a box or crate (dark) for a few minutes until the rearing box is ready. When returning the ducklings, I have now experienced twice that the ducklings ended up on their backs due to stress and did not recover from this ‘attack’. I do not know whether there is another underlying cause. The other ducklings, despite their shyness, simply grew up. After the ducklings were in a larger rearing enclosure and later swam on the large pond, they became just as familiar with me as the other ducks. Baer’s pochards are, once adult, not necessarily more shy than other duck species.

In 2022, eighteen Baer’s pochards hatched from the egg, three died during the rearing period and fifteen have grown to adulthood, which at the time of writing have already moved to new accommodations. Now, a year later, only one of the four females present has started breeding. 11 eggs were laid, all of which were fertilized and hatched without any problems. Two ducklings died on the first day, the remaining 9 hatched without any problems.