duckling dilemas
What news from the farm in the hills!
We have been on duckling watch recently, both wild and domesticated.
We had Runner Duck eggs and Turkey eggs in the incubator, the Runner Duck mamma wasn't for sitting on a nest. However some time later she laid more eggs and has been nesting. We left the first batch in the incubator, so we had two chances of ducklings.
Runner ducks are hilarious creatures, they quack and run about the farm. We lost one white one to the fox, and then most recently a week ago, the male brown duck.
The ones in the incubator began hatching two days ago, and we went on a hunt for a Heat Lamp bulb as after rummaging to find the lamp in a shed, the bulb didn't work.
Meanwhile, on returning home to the two ducklings in the incubator yesterday, we came back to a power cut. No heat from the incubator, no power for the heat lamp, our chicks would surely perish!
We boiled water on our gas hob for hot water bottles wrapped in fluffy white socks, which the two ducklings went to straight away.
With no sign of the power coming back on, we were about to light the stove, when we wondered about putting the ducklings in with mamma duck, her eggs were due any day. Thinking about it, eggs can be left for a while before being put in an incubator, so its possible that had we left these ones in the coop, they would have hatched naturally, but at the time we weren't to know she was going to start sitting.
In they went, along with a third egg which was on its way to hatching. Mamma duck looked somewhat suprised.
And this morning, on checking, there were three little ducklings hiding under her wing, two brown ones and a yellow one. We have a further yellow one just hatched in the incubator, and two moving, cheeping eggs which will go in with her too. We debated whether to put them in the incubator, but being a new mum myself, seeing those little ducklings trying to find comfort on the hot water bottle, I want them to have a mummy if they can.
Meanwhile, we have been busy setting up a campsite on the farm, check out my blog article about setting up Rue du Chateau campsite here. I had to give up my job and we are looking at ways of bringing in more income streams to help. As we were working at the weekend, we saw a lone duckling on the pond.
poor wee guy, swimming about the pond all on his own. Should we try to help him? Or was he doing a better job on his own than we could offer him? We decided to leave him be, and as we left the pond, a buzzard flew over and settled on a tree branch. Poor little duckling.
Three days later, I took the dogs around the pond and thought I saw swim/paddle trails through the algae weed, so went round to investigate and see if the wee guy was still alive. Out shot six baby ducklings one way, and a mamma duck going the other. She looked like she had a damaged wing so immediately I was relieved to see them, that the wee guy wasn't alone, but then worried as their mum was injured.
I decided to leave them in peace and walk elsewhere, mamma duck flew up, badly, landing in the field, quaking mournfully. As I walked towards the house I saw mamma fly up and do a circle round the house and land back on the pond, having made a miraculous recovery.
When I got home, some distant memory from watching Chris Packham and David Attenborourgh in my childhood resurfaced. I realised that the wild mamma duck thought I was a proper predator, not just a nosy human, and was pretending to be injured to save her chicks. How brave and valiant of her, prepared to risk sacrificing herself to save her ducklings.
Here's hoping as many of the farm ducklings as possible make it as far as they can through their gauntlet of life.
And as for the Turkey eggs ... can I handle the stress and drama of a duckling mamma adopting turkey chicks (turklings?) and taking them to the river for their first swim?
We have been on duckling watch recently, both wild and domesticated.
We had Runner Duck eggs and Turkey eggs in the incubator, the Runner Duck mamma wasn't for sitting on a nest. However some time later she laid more eggs and has been nesting. We left the first batch in the incubator, so we had two chances of ducklings.
Runner ducks are hilarious creatures, they quack and run about the farm. We lost one white one to the fox, and then most recently a week ago, the male brown duck.
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| I have a range of runner duck items here |
The ones in the incubator began hatching two days ago, and we went on a hunt for a Heat Lamp bulb as after rummaging to find the lamp in a shed, the bulb didn't work.
Meanwhile, on returning home to the two ducklings in the incubator yesterday, we came back to a power cut. No heat from the incubator, no power for the heat lamp, our chicks would surely perish!
We boiled water on our gas hob for hot water bottles wrapped in fluffy white socks, which the two ducklings went to straight away.
With no sign of the power coming back on, we were about to light the stove, when we wondered about putting the ducklings in with mamma duck, her eggs were due any day. Thinking about it, eggs can be left for a while before being put in an incubator, so its possible that had we left these ones in the coop, they would have hatched naturally, but at the time we weren't to know she was going to start sitting.
In they went, along with a third egg which was on its way to hatching. Mamma duck looked somewhat suprised.
And this morning, on checking, there were three little ducklings hiding under her wing, two brown ones and a yellow one. We have a further yellow one just hatched in the incubator, and two moving, cheeping eggs which will go in with her too. We debated whether to put them in the incubator, but being a new mum myself, seeing those little ducklings trying to find comfort on the hot water bottle, I want them to have a mummy if they can.
Meanwhile, we have been busy setting up a campsite on the farm, check out my blog article about setting up Rue du Chateau campsite here. I had to give up my job and we are looking at ways of bringing in more income streams to help. As we were working at the weekend, we saw a lone duckling on the pond.
poor wee guy, swimming about the pond all on his own. Should we try to help him? Or was he doing a better job on his own than we could offer him? We decided to leave him be, and as we left the pond, a buzzard flew over and settled on a tree branch. Poor little duckling.
Three days later, I took the dogs around the pond and thought I saw swim/paddle trails through the algae weed, so went round to investigate and see if the wee guy was still alive. Out shot six baby ducklings one way, and a mamma duck going the other. She looked like she had a damaged wing so immediately I was relieved to see them, that the wee guy wasn't alone, but then worried as their mum was injured.
I decided to leave them in peace and walk elsewhere, mamma duck flew up, badly, landing in the field, quaking mournfully. As I walked towards the house I saw mamma fly up and do a circle round the house and land back on the pond, having made a miraculous recovery.
When I got home, some distant memory from watching Chris Packham and David Attenborourgh in my childhood resurfaced. I realised that the wild mamma duck thought I was a proper predator, not just a nosy human, and was pretending to be injured to save her chicks. How brave and valiant of her, prepared to risk sacrificing herself to save her ducklings.
Here's hoping as many of the farm ducklings as possible make it as far as they can through their gauntlet of life.
And as for the Turkey eggs ... can I handle the stress and drama of a duckling mamma adopting turkey chicks (turklings?) and taking them to the river for their first swim?
 |
| I leave you with this image of the latest two runner ducklings hatched today, that makes five in total so far. |
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