Alright, instead of a well composed blog, I am going to just throw up pictures with captions... we will add details later =)
This is a picture of our "brooder" the day we got the ducklings. They were 1.4 ounces, and 2-3 days old. Aren't they cute? See how nice and clean everything was? hee hee... that won't last!
We now have a full understanding of the phrase, "like a duck to water"! They love to swim! The light colored one on the right is "Lookie".. the girls named her because she is always looking at everything... we think she will be the leader of the flock... very sweet and friendly duckie =)
Just for scale, here is the group in front of the thermometer.. you will see a chick on it and it in the background of several shots.
Aren't they sweet? =)
Alright, so we got the ducks Friday morning... Our eggs arrived home with Daddy at 6 pm Monday.. they were scheduled to hatch, 6 on Tuesday and 6 on Thursday. WELL... the early chick gets the worm, I guess, cause they were hatching Monday by 8:30 pm! Here is the first to get out. He was quite energetic and wandered around, pushing the other eggs all over the place =) It is hard work being born, and he took many breaks to just lie there and rest!
This was the 3rd one to hatch... we saw the first 2, and were enjoying watching them, when "Hey! what's that?!" Yep, he hatched in the back and peeped out over at us. My favorite picture!
Here they are the next morning... As you can see, they are drying out nicely and getting fluffy.
We moved them out pretty early Wednesday morning when the first of the second batch broke out.. he actually got out before we had time to get them all out of the incubator... we were afraid of the new ones getting trampled by the careless things. We would have liked to keep them in the warm incubator for another day or so, but felt this was safest for everyone! The next 5 hatched at various points Wednesday... There was only one egg that did not hatch of the 12.
Ok, here are the same 6 Khaki's in the same bin. Would you believe this is like a week and a half later? Holy cow! By 2-3 weeks of age they had almost reached 1 pound, which is roughly 1/3 of their full grown weight. Khaki's aren't very big ducks... usually only 3-4 lbs. We got them for eggs, not meat ;)
Here are the chicks in Bob's hands... when we change their bedding, they get a tad bit agitated. Bob can pick them all up, or squish them all into the corner of a dishpan behind his arm. Then they quiet down and go to sleep. It is very cute!
Alright... a few days old... 4-5... and the chicks are getting feathers! I am not sure if this is normal for chicks, or if it a result of them being a hybrid, "fast maturing" egg laying machine. Just an FYI, they are Hyline W35... in the future, we would probably get an "heirloom" breed. But these were free... can't beat free!
The chicks are growing, but at about half of the rate of the ducks... Erin can still hold one in her hand (where yes, it fell asleep). They are getting more chicken like daily... we have 3 suspected roosters, one of whom lunges at the other birds from up high... Nasty creatures!
Ok, those ducks got TOO big for their bin; they had no room to turn around. So, they graduated to a large plastic kiddie pool we scavenged from the side of the road. They enjoy having a bit more space to turn around. They are starting to "honk" a bit and get their feathers... WAY later than the chicks. They weighed about 20 ounces at this time.
Alright, so I should have rotated this BEFORE I downloaded it..
I will get savvy about these things with practice! Just to show you some scale, Lucy needs to use both hands to keep the duck still in her arms... they started out the size of a small apple. WOW. They are much larger now... I believe 26 ounces this morning with breast feathers and some wing feathers coming in. I'll post again after I get new pictures downloaded! Coming soon... the 2 itty bitty mallards and BIG ducks and chicken looking chicks!
Tell me what you want to see, and I will try to post it! =)
