We received the phone call early in the morning, before the office opened, with the instructions to come to the side door to pick up our ducklings. When took the box to the truck, however, the tiny peeps didn't sound right to me. I looked inside, and sure enough we had a box of chicks meant for someone else and our baby ducks were still at the post office. After ringing the doorbell, I made the exchange, and laughed it off. From inside the office I could hear many other chicks and ducklings peeping from various boxes.
We took our new babies home and Little Man placed each duckling in the small plastic pool that was prepared for them as their new home for next several weeks.
As they grew, we gave them outside time to find bugs to eat, and fresh air to breathe.
and eventually gave them water in which they could swim.We couldn't allow them to swim as early as they would do if they were being raised by their mothers. Mamma ducks take oil from their own glands and rub their babies with it, making their feathers water proof. Thus the saying, "let it roll off you like water off a duck's back." It's not until they get older that they produce the oil and are able to do this themselves.
Eventually they got too big for the inside pool home.
We had to take a practice run to the pond to make sure they were ready for the big move to the great outdoors.
So we moved them outside to their new home. It's quite a walk from our house to the duck house; the children- with the help of a church friend and the children's godfather- built it in the back pasture near the pond.
The ducks need to be locked up as soon as the sun goes down, or the raccoons and other duck eating critters will feast. Each morning, one of the children opens the door to the house, and the ducks line up and make their way to the pond.
They do not need to be led; they know the way.
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| bottoms up! |
Each evening, as the sun starts to set, they come off the pond (occasionally they need a little coaxing) and one of the children invites them back to the duck house with duck kibble and fresh water to be locked up safely for the night.
We've had the ducks since May, and are still waiting for the high protein alkaline eggs that we remember from the ducks we had on our old property.
Finally, this week---
Khaki Campbells (the brown ladies) and Harlequins (the one white one) are known to be good non-broody eggs layers. Once they get started, they should be laying everyday, which means with eleven ducks (one drake) we should soon be getting eleven eggs a day year 'round. Typically, they take turns laying in one nest and the eggs will be one place waiting for us in a corner of the house in the morning.
Little man tells me, however, that when he found the one egg, it was in the middle of the duck house floor and the ducks were far from it, quacking hysterically as if in fear. We might just have defective ducks.
Considering our luck with this house, it won't surprise me!
