Mallard peeps DUE..tomorrow, hopefully..ok, nevermind

[Ducklove334]

Well, My mallard hens nesting Exodus is nearly over, after trial after trial error of her stealing Rosilees nest, laying her eggs there, trying to set once, only to be constantly chased away by the H*****y mother freakers that are three of my call boys, having both Stencil and Akai steal her nest, and jeopardizing the eggs by sitting for hours, or even a day or two then leaving, and FINALLY having to box her in, tomorrow will be day 26

, she's been an excellent momma thus far, she has lots of water, and a food bowl in her little nursery pen, but she still only leaves the nest maybe once a day, as far as I can tell, she stopped turning the eggs on the 13th, and so far has only cast out three(one about a weeks ago, that looks like she may have eaten it, everything BUT the baby was gone inside the egg,the baby was tiny, and the egg shell stunk something awful, and this morning, two more eggs were out of the nest, I'm not going to intervene, and trust her judgement, and PRAY that there will be atleast SOME babies by tomorrow

.

who wants to join me in my frantic panicking?? umbsu..

 

[mamanaturale]

oooh, how exciting! what a roller coaster so far! phew! i would be a nervous wreck. lol

 

[Ducklove334]

OOOOHHH trust me

, I AM

I have been checking every few hours to see if I have any early shiners(speaking of wich..., I havn't been out since we got home), but I've learned from the 4 day late chicken baby, a watched pot never boils(in this case, a due egg) never hatches.

I just hope they arn't late

, if they are, I'll go mental....well, more.


keep ya updated, and pics when they get here

 

[Ducklove334]

she cast three eggs out now

one with nothing in it, and two with babies, one baby bigger than the other that were still embryo-ish not BABY babies, but both dead,

in a way this worries me, what if she starts throwing them all out?

but at the same time, gives me hope that somewhere in her eggs(she's still got atleast 12 more!) there are live ducklings waiting to hatch

 

[Ducklove334]

ok, so help me understand something,

UNLESS I am wrong in my set date, wich I'm prety surre the was the 20th, one of the other ducks got imto Mouses nest pen, and knocked over the board, her eggs were all over the place, but some still warm,

now she's out and won't go back to her nest, so I took the eggs,

I candled and WTH??, they don't look anywhere NEAR ready to hatch, opened one of the cold eggs, and the baby was STILL TINY, pink...

I don't get it, she's sat for the full 26 days.

so i'm considering putting them under our two broody chickens, or setting up the bator again,

I've got them under a heat lamp right now.