Ducks

A Take to Tell

This is Green Duck

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Why is he Green Duck? Because I banded him with a Green band. It’s temporary, it will have to come off soon but I needed this Duck identifiable. Here’s the band.

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Why is it so important to know this duck?

Because this is a smart duck. He manage to jump out of the bin this afternoon. While he was loose he could have gone anywhere or gotten into mischief. But he got out because he was hungry or thirsty. He came straight to get me! That’s a clever duck. I had what he needed and he came to me to get it.

Today’s Mass

Let’s see if you can cut and paste a table.

Duck A

226

Duck B

250

Duck C

224

Duck D

185

Duck E

235

Guess not.

But you can see they are getting big. Its day 10 , more or less, They are approaching 5 times larger than they hatched. They also have duck heads not duckling heads and one of them is really annoying me because HE WON’T SHUT UP!

Here are today’s volunteers.


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Morning 3, all’s well

They do struggle with the food. Must have a very tough constitution because if you or I ate that fast, we’d have a very sore belly ache.

They still think the water bowl is a bath. Or they think the bath water is for drinking.

Breakfast, beverage and bath done, they are now napping.

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Time for Bed

There are now 16 ducks hatched and there are two eggs left. They have movement, a broken shell and noise. Right now I’m confident they are alive and tomorrow is the actual hatch day.

 

Unfortunately they are very active and I have had to move 6 to a temporary brooding box. I’ve got that in my bedroom. The heat lamp is infrared, so there is heat but no light. There are six still lose in the incubator and 4 that are very weak in the green baskets that I use to separate the birds and eggs when traveling. They seem to like the space while they gather their strength. There are also two baskets with an egg each.  

 

I think all are well and safe for the night. But it is nervous time. The first night always is. The major risk is one bird getting trampled to death by the others. That is why they are separated. But things can still go wrong.

 

Here’s a photo of the six in the brooder.

 

 

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It's Spring so, of course, birds return

This year we have ducks and this will be the place to see news about them. They are Cayuga Ducks and they take 28 days to hatch. Today is day 5. There will be postings here to keep visitors up to date about their growth. Right now they are rather boring and will be for the next three weeks, but then things should get interesting.

Today’s Picture. Candling at Day 5. There are 24 eggs. 20 look like this, two have nothing in them and 2 are two dark. They will be light candled again at 10 days. Yes LIGHT candled. There is also Water Candling that takes place after day 20 and before 25. Light Candling has light but no candles. Water Candling has neither light nor candle. Language is weird.

Red dot is the bird, red lines blood vessels wrapping the yoke.

Red dot is the bird, red lines blood vessels wrapping the yoke.