These are two Mandarin duck males (drakes) that were bred and raised by Jan Peterka in Texas. I was able to purchase one of them, and he arrived May 23, 2001. He is absolutely beautiful. Mandarins are bantam ducks that are native to China. One does not need a permit to keep or sell them in the USA since they are not a native bird.

Duk-duk, for lack of a better name, went into his eclipse phase, which completed in July. This means that he has molted out his beautiful plumage shown in the pic above and now resembles what a Mandarin hen looks like. Duk will regain his gorgeous plumage again next year in time for the breeding season.

Duk is a pinioned drake. That means the tip of his one wing, the left one to be exact, was removed to make him unbalanced enough to prevent full flight. Mandarins are perching ducks and will naturally roost. If they are to be kept in an open (uncovered) pen, pinioning or clipping is a must to prevent them from escaping. Pinioning is a permanent procedure, while with clipping, the wing feathers will grow back at the next molt. Duk was already pinioned when I bought him.

Feeding consists of giving Duk equal parts of 16% protein chicken layer pellets, 21% protein gamebird/turkey grower crumbles, and scratch (which is half cracked corn and half wheat). I cannot get duck rations at my feed store and according to several sources, feeding Duk this way is just fine. He is kept in a grassy pen outdoors so he also has access to whatever bugs and slugs come his way.

Duk-duk got his water from a drinking bowl and a "pool," of sorts, to swim in. His drinking bowl is about 5 inches deep, enough so that he can get his head dunked. This water is changed at least once a day (twice, if it gets real dirty). The bowl is washed daily with regular dish detergent since Duk gets it pretty dirty! The "pool" is a former dish-washing basin. It's a small rectangular container about 8 in. deep and the water gets changed every 2 days. It, too, gets dirty quickly. I swab it out good each time I change the water, and scrub it good with a bleach solution every week or two, more often in hot, humid weather. I have a round kiddie pool that I will soon give to Duk-duk to swim in. This way his future lady-friend will have room to swim too.


A Mandarin drake swimming. A gamebird.com photo.

Some sad news: The night of 8/18/01, poor Duk-duk met his end. Something, I think a possum, came in the night, got into his pen, and attacked him. I found Duk later that night while taking my dog out for his late-night walk. Poor Duk will be terribly missed.

Soon after Duk's folly, the Mandy hen arrived. She was beautiful and I took her to the farm where I kept my birds. I had moved Duk's pen up there to prepare for her arrival, so I just released her into the pen. I sadly discovered she wasn't clipped or pinioned. I should have noted that before releasing her. As I was coming back to the pen to give her food and water, she became frantic and squeezed through the bars, which, at the corners, were 2" apart. She half flew, half ran out the stall door. I tried to capture her, but she was able to evade my efforts. I tried to herd her away from the big barn doors, but she discovered the gaps in them (it was an old barn) and got free. She took off for the brush and was never seen again. I hope she was able to enjoy life as a free duck instead of becoming a predator's meal. I think if I had had a net I would have been able to catch her.

Hopefully I'll be able to have Mandarins again someday. They are such a beautiful breed of duck. And I'll be sure to have smaller mesh fencing for their pen!

The following three farms used to have sites, but no longer exist at the URLs I had for them. Hopefully with some searching, I'll find them located elsewhere, so they are still listed here so I know what to search for.