2019 Spring Ducklings are here!

[WannaBeHillBilly]

What no new pics?

OK, here is a picture of the eggs my ducks produced today:

Katharina Duck must have laid that huge »Goose egg«. She walked strange this morning, was quiet and laid down in the outside duck(ling) house after the morning meal-worm ritual. That egg weighs 128 grams (4½ Oz), for comparison the brown egg is a "large" chicken egg with 48 grams. How can such a small duck (Indian Layer) lay such a large egg?
We get three to four smaller eggs every day in addition to the three eggs from our Indian Runners. My assumption is those smaller eggs are from the Magpie ducks. Also we get 1-2 »Drake-eggs« (soft shell), which i usually scramble and feed back to the ducks. I assume those are from the White Layers because they are quite large.
So the former Spring Ducklings have started to lay at just over 4 months old!

 

[SailorNoMore]

Picture day for my four Ancona will be Wednesday, at two weeks of age. Today was spent on the construction of their garage brooder because they are outgrowing the brooder in my office, which is a 50 gallon RubberMaid tote (20 by 40 inches). The brooder in the garage is made from one sheet of OSB is (3'x5') while I finish up their 8' x 8' duck house in the side yard. They started out at 5 1/2 sq ft and are steping up to 15 sq ft before occupying their permanent house at 64 sq ft. Hopefully we will be moving to a 2 1/2 acre homesite from our present 1 1/4 acre site. So everything is designed to be disassembled and easily moved to the new home. I did increase the height of the MHC by zip tying two pieces of 2x2 to the bottom of the MHC to raise it a 1 1/2" temporarily.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They sure do grow fast don't they. Look forward to pics!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Picture day for my four Ancona will be Wednesday, at two weeks of age. Today was spent on the construction of their garage brooder because they are outgrowing the brooder in my office, which is a 50 gallon RubberMaid tote (20 by 40 inches). The brooder in the garage is made from one sheet of OSB is (3'x5') while I finish up their 8' x 8' duck house in the side yard. They started out at 5 1/2 sq ft and are steping up to 15 sq ft before occupying their permanent house at 64 sq ft. Hopefully we will be moving to a 2 1/2 acre homesite from our present 1 1/4 acre site. So everything is designed to be disassembled and easily moved to the new home. I did increase the height of the MHC by zip tying two pieces of 2x2 to the bottom of the MHC to raise it a 1 1/2" temporarily.

Yes they grow like weeds! - It wasn't so much a problem with available space, my ducklings always liked to huddle together, they still do that at night as grown up ducks, but the kiddy pool's rim was too low to confine them in the end. They just hopped out and pooped on my computers…
And don't use card-board to build something for the ducklings: Mine dragged down the tarp in their garage brooder once, chewed through the cardboard and conquered the garage…
Can't wait until tomorrow!

 

[SailorNoMore]

Here are the two buddies, usually where one is the other is nearby. Oh look what I found underneath the MHC just before they go to the transfer box while I clean up.

 

[SailorNoMore]

If I was able to get accurate weights from these wiggling characters, they have tripled in weight since their arrival two weeks ago (from 534g to 1686g). I would say size wise that is correct.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Its almost like we feed them fertilizer they grow so fast!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Here are the two buddies, usually where one is the other is nearby. Oh look what I found underneath the MHC just before they go to the transfer box while I clean up.View attachment 1809667 View attachment 1809668

Very cute duckies! Ancona ducks are still on top of my duck wish-list. Maybe next spring…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

If I was able to get accurate weights from these wiggling characters, they have tripled in weight since their arrival two weeks ago (from 534g to 1686g). I would say size wise that is correct.

So average from 133 grams to 421 grams per duckling, that is a good progress. Have they attempted brooder escapes yet?

 

[YodaBat]

NEW BABIES!!!!!! How fun!