Hi Folks
I thought of sharing the following photos and story with you.
We are living on a grain farm in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Often wild birds would make their nests in the grain fields but unfortunately this leaves them vunrable come harvest time. About two weeks ago whilst we were harvesting we exposed a Wild African Muscovy Duck's nest in the middle of the grain field. There were 8 eggs. Obviously the mother would not retun to the nest because we have now cut away all the protection against the sun and wind so I decided to "rescue" eggs and placed them in my incubator.
Late last night and early this morning (15 October 2015) the eggs started to hatch and by sunrise we had 7 baby ducks. I am going to keep them with my chickens once they are independant but if they want to return to the wild we will not prevent them.
I also have 48 Guinea Fowl eggs in the incubator that I have rescued the same way. They are due to hatch from about 27 october.
I thought of sharing the following photos and story with you.
We are living on a grain farm in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Often wild birds would make their nests in the grain fields but unfortunately this leaves them vunrable come harvest time. About two weeks ago whilst we were harvesting we exposed a Wild African Muscovy Duck's nest in the middle of the grain field. There were 8 eggs. Obviously the mother would not retun to the nest because we have now cut away all the protection against the sun and wind so I decided to "rescue" eggs and placed them in my incubator.
Late last night and early this morning (15 October 2015) the eggs started to hatch and by sunrise we had 7 baby ducks. I am going to keep them with my chickens once they are independant but if they want to return to the wild we will not prevent them.
I also have 48 Guinea Fowl eggs in the incubator that I have rescued the same way. They are due to hatch from about 27 october.
The adults definitely look similar to Muscovies, especially if you saw the mother from a distance.
