FunnyBunnies Thread: Last Batch Due This Weekend

[FunnyBunnies12]

Well, I ended up taking momma's eggs from her yesterday late afternoon. Weather was getting colder, I tried moving her to our basement with the igloo and all but she would not have it for going in and settling down, I did wrap the eggs in a very warm towel during the transfer there and back when I saw momma was to upset to go to her eggs. So I brought the igloo back and her and she went in looked for her eggs, and it was like "Oh ok, there not here", and went about her business for the rest of the day, wasn't upset, didn't go back/forth to the igloo looking, she actually acted happy and relieved to finally get out of that jail! She was catching up on her eating, her drinking, her slashing in the pool, and her time with her man. He was excited to say the least and not in the manner of wanting to mate with her. In the mean time I had the Hova Bator set up just in case she wouldn't settle down and take to sitting on the eggs inside. So they are in lock down tomorrow for sure, hands off, hands lock up, and I truly honestly learned the hard way. I was at war with myself rather to do this or not, but I did because of the weather temps, and momma's disability being on one leg and will she be able to properly correl them if need be on one leg, ect. Just a lot of weighing of pro's and con's I did and getting advice, so I will be hand turning these eggs until tomorrow afternoon when lock down begin unless I see something happening before then. But I know I will leave them alone for sure, my mind will be on more important things.......MY HUSBAND IS COMING HOME TODAY FROM AFGHANISTAN!!!!!

 

[duckyfromoz]

Good luck for this lot. A one legged mother duck may be a risk to the babies. I assume she hops to get around?? It would be too easy for her to stand on one that is just hatched- or still hatching and crush the egg. It may have been better to leave them with her until they had pipped- but it would have been more difficult by then to take the eggs away.

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

Yes, she hops around, and she has lost her balance getting up to adjust from sitting and getting out. If she is to far from us and tries to keep up with the drake and us, we'll turn around and get her and pick her up and bring her where she/they want to go. Especially on a small incline. At one time she did fly this past summer around our house and she did come back but I was nervous of her landing on one leg. So we brought the ducks to a vet and had them clip their wings.

 

[duckyfromoz]

Did you ever find out exactly what is wrong with her leg??

I have a duck who hatched last year from a posted egg. She was unable to turn properly in the egg- her leg was dislocated and by the time she hatched the tendon had slipped and the joint was deformed. She isnt able to live with the others- so is an inside duck. She is a sweet little thing-a black Indian Runner - less than half the size of a normal Runner - and still has some of her baby down attached to her. She has never laid and egg- or even molted yet. Unfortunately- he foot webbing is shrinking at the moment so I am having to do some exercises with her to try and open her foot out again.

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

You may have already seen this picture, but I got her at a Farm store, and she was like this from the start, the only one out of the many, many, ducklings, my son saw her and rescued her as he said "From certain death of a snake feeder". She is such a pretty girl!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/66568_img00339-20100905-1921.jpg
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/66568_img00338-20100905-1921.jpg
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/66568_img00330-20100905-1908_2.jpg

 

[duckyfromoz]

She is lovely.
The foot and leg dont really look " damaged" in the photo - it just looks like she has her leg raised. I wonder if maybe it is something from the hip causing her to do that as the foot and hock look ok.. She would still have some movement- but she would hold the leg up to stop it being painful or irritating. In a lot of cases- a limb that is not used will wither as the muscles shrink. Her leg looks so normal. How does she go when swimming?? Does she use the leg then?

I had another years ago. A pekin that was more like my Regie is now than your girl. I saw him as a day old at a meat bird farm. There were over a thousand ducklings in the brooder- and I spotted him because he wasnt standing up like the others. He was an outside duck- but very dependant. You are lucky- she sounds like she is fairly independant and can get around alright by herself.

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

She can use the foot/hip[, but she can not bend the leg. So the hip works fine, it is right at that joint where the leg should bend, even when she was so tiny, we tried to see if it would bend and straighten but it was like concrete in that joint. Would not slightly budge. But she is a real sweetheart, even when she was brooding, yeah she gave me lip, but she didn't bite, she let me run her ears and head. And when she snuggles with my son, she really snuggles and puts her head down on his shoulder. But her other leg does get the brunt of all her weight, and the longer she sat, the weaker it seemed to have gotten because she wasn't using the muscles like she was. So I feel good about my decision in taking the eggs. She wouldn't have been able to keep up with her wee ones.

 

[gofasterstripe]

Good Luck with this bunch, fingers crossed you get a good share of healthy happy ducklings for you and your boys to play with

 

[cracking up]

FunnyBunnies - Good luck with your eggs. Your two little ducks are adorable! I saw on another thread you asked about taking moms female parts out, just eat her eggs. They are real good and you can buy good eggs to incubate if you still want to hatch some. Hoping these are all good!!

 

[desertdarlene]

I just noticed your change in avatar, so cute! That brown one looks a little bit like the rouen-runner ducklings I've seen at the lake, except that they had little bit flatter heads. They might end up growing up on the big end if yours are anything like them.

Chocolate 1 (I have found 4 rouen-runners on our lake this year and named them all Chocolate because they all were brown for a long time) turned out beautifully and he's such a character!