Wanted:  a duck sitter 

I'm running out of family members to duck sit.  I do have to go out of town sometimes so I need someone to let the chickens and ducks in and out of their coop each day.  This person would also have to give them fresh drinking water and feed.  In addition, the ducks like to go swimming so their pool has to be filled and emptied of water on a daily basis and, of course, the coop has to be cleaned periodically.

Laura was the first to poultry sit and she did a good job and has been asked back since.  Although I do have to point out that when she did this job the first time in December, I ceased getting chicken eggs altogether.

Emily helped out in January but she only had to do the job for two nights.  She was a little over confident and ignored some of my instructions the first night but learned the error of her ways by the second night.  Since no one was laying eggs before or after she 'sat', we don't really know if there was a negative impact from her sitting or not.

The other night, Mike was the duck sitter while I was at an evening meeting at church.  But apparently something happened that night because when I went to the coop the next morning there were no duck eggs.

The ducks have both been laying regularly for two months now.  There are one if not two duck eggs every morning when I go out to open the coop.  This particular morning none.  I even searched the coop in case they laid the eggs in another spot but no sign of any duck eggs.

I think Mike scared my ducks because the day after I took back over the poultry duties we had record duck egg production.  My two ducks laid three eggs.  A never before occurrence.  And all three hens laid eggs which resulted in total egg production of 6 eggs in one day!  The most I have ever gotten is 5 eggs a day - one per each chicken and duck.

I am going out of town next week for just a few days.  I am going to have to leave Mike in charge of the poultry again.  I'm just hoping the ducks learn to like him.

Maybe this is how the ducks perceive Mike when he comes to put clean water in their duck pond?
A big predator?