A bunch of ducks and some chickens

[jonasquinn]

Bernie resumed laying a few days ago. She stopped laying for around 3 weeks during her moult. Anni might have stopped to moult now too.

Emmy's 2 hinnies are 10.5 weeks old.

Big boy has a raspy huff sound, if that makes any sense.


Big girl mostly trills like a regular muscovy, she can quack sometimes too.

Managed to catch Chanel and take some photos of her. She's 25 weeks old.

 

[jonasquinn]

Somehow, Chanel has been (and still is) laying in the nest box that Emmylou has been sitting in for over 3 weeks. Diabolical.

Emmy's eggs are due to hatch Monday night. Based on her previous sittings, they'll probably start hatching from Friday (night). Hopefully, Chanel does not negatively affect this process.

The nine.

Still cheeping loudly when they can't see Wanda mum.

I've been woken up before 5am the last couple days from some duck quacking for no discernible reason.

 

[jonasquinn]

Emmylou's third brood, part 1 I gave Emmy 5 of her own eggs to sit on.
Surpisingly, one duckling hatched last night, four days earlier than expected... I went to check for Chanel's egg in the nest box last night and noticed a dark ball of fluff (and thought it was strange that someone would shed that many feathers) in the corner just outside the nest box. Turns out, it was actually a duckling. It somehow got out of the nest box and couldn't get back in, it was huddling on its own. Not sure how long it had been there like that. Luckily, the weather has been quite warm, so it was alive and not too cold, I put it back under Emmy.

Here they are in the morning.

(I did get the debris out of its mouth afterwards.)

Another hatched in the morning. (Photo could be of the duckling above(, they are nearly identical).)

When I checked this morning I could feel two ducklings and four eggs. (Which was one more than expected.) Turns out Chanel had somehow managed to lay an egg in there sometime earlier, I guess she didn't disrupt the hatching process.

Not long after that, between the time I collected Chanel's egg and giving everyone else veggie scraps, another one had hatched.

Here they are freshly hatched, still recovering.

And all fluffed up in the arvo.


As of this afternoon, the remaining two eggs have not hatched. I'll check before going to bed.

 

[jonasquinn]

Emmylou's third brood, pt2
The remaining two eggs did not make it. I examined them on Saturday afternoon, it looks like they were too weak to crack the shell (I could see the bruise on the shell where their bill tried to break through) and suffocated. They happened to be the oldest eggs of the batch too, 3 and 4 days old.

The three that hatched are already running around, jumping in any icecream tubs of water they see.


Cleaning up the mess of crumble the others leave behind.



Broody Fest
A whole bunch of the adults are some level of broody at the moment.

Esme is determinably sitting, she laid for around 5 weeks this time. I will (probably not) try to break her or just leave her be. I won't be giving her eggs to hatch this time.

She's sitting in Siobhan's old spot.

Siobhan has started half assed sitting. She has only laid for just over 3 weeks so far. I may give her some of her own eggs to sit on when she starts sitting proper, but most likely probably won't.


The khaki campbells also have been sitting in their nest for some portion of the day. They seem to be going through a partial moult, they are still laying eggs, for now.

Chanel has decided to lay here now, now that Emmy's eggs have hatched.

 

[jonasquinn]

Random photos
From a week or so ago that I never got around to posting.


Personal pool for this guy, diving for scraps at the bottom. Some of the others are jealous.


Crowded pool.


Alternate view of this one.

View attachment 4284166

View attachment 4284168

 

[jonasquinn]

Hinny spam
More photos of the new (and old) hinnies.


One of them already getting tired of being photographed.

Loving it.

Icecream tub pool time.


The two hinnies from Emmy's previous hatch hang out with mum most of the time, now that's she's stopped sitting.

Big bro and big sis making sure the little ones don't get hassled by the other birds.

The middle one above, I thought she was a girl. Around 13 weeks old.

She sounds just like her bro these days, huffing all the time. Maybe I didn't hear her trill or quack when she was younger.

Not a hinny.

Esme's welsh harlequin boy, 8 weeks old. Each of his wing feathers is blue on one side and bronze on the other, but with the way they are layered, you mostly see blue.

Surprisingly, Esme has stopped sitting. I put her back on her roost one night and she miraculously stopped being broody. Maybe she thought the weather was too hot to be sitting around on nothing. It was getting close to 40°C for a few days.

Siobhan is also back to wandering around. Anni and Dani, the khaki campbells, are even more broody now. Sitting in the nest for as long as they can, until they get scared off or kicked out by the pullets wanting to lay their eggs there. Then returning to sit when they feel it's safe.

 

[jonasquinn]

Farewell to this girl, Esme's welsh harlequin girl, about 2 months old. Off to become a companion with a mixed mallard drake and khaki campbell girl.


A couple of the hinnies got stuck in the outdoor bath tub yesterday morning.

Probably somehow managed to jump in from the brick.


The twins.

One has a white neck line, so (thankfully) not identical.

Older siblings looking out for the younger ones.

Mum is off somewhere gallivanting around taking a break. She seems to do this fairly often, leaving her older kids to look after the younger ones, while she goes off for some "me time".

Despite what I said in a previous post (maybe a egg I didn't collect previously), Bernie has actually resumed laying a week ago. She took around 6 weeks break for her moult. Esme may have resumed laying (found an egg that could be hers?), she's had a two week break so far.

Anni is fairly broody now, sitting most of the day, all puffed up and quacking at everyone and everything when I kick her off the nest (the pullets no longer lay there). Dani is back to normal laying. I think both are partial moulting, they're looking patchy.

 

[jonasquinn]

Farewell to these two quackers. Off to live on 1/2 acre with 3 young khaki campbell drakes and 20 or so (some bantam) chickens. Hopefully, they get some more female ducks or rehome a drake or two.

These two were the loudest quackers I've had so far, sometimes just letting loose for the fun of it.


2.5 weeks old now. They're happy hanging out on their own, with mum, with older siblings, or all together.

A stark contrast from Wanda's crew.

The nine are now seven. They are starting to do their own thing more, but will still (cry) quack when separated from whoever. Thankfully, the remaining welsh x khaki girl is not as much of a quacker as the dark ones (yet). The hinny girl, bottom left, is definitely quacking a bit.

Esme did resume. Siobhan has also resumed, she had about 10 days break after being half-assed broody. The pullets are back to laying next to Anni, she just waits patiently now and tucks the eggs underneath her when they're done.