They are precious, I love the one where they are all up against the wall like if I don't look she can't see me. LOLI just want to share some pics of my newest hatchlings.
Mother is a black barred, father is a pied lavender barred. First year parents for both!
10 gorgeous barred ducklings. Looks like some black, some lavender, a few blues, and possibly a few silvers!
They are 3 weeks old today.
Pics are of them as new hatchlings, less than a day old. Picture on bottom is them now (taken Monday)
That would be scary... Hopefully they can get to the water in plenty of time.Miss Lydia, the ducks are lazyyy... They don`t even bother going near the road. In the picture looks like he`s close to the road, but in reality there`s some distance between him and the road.
What does concern me is this...
Not all of them are on the leash....
cute alertOK, my Muscovy Kuh Flecken has ducklings!
Last week, when we candled her eggs, she had 14 fertile and very healthy looking eggs.
This morning, three have hatched so far!
It is cold enough now that the waterers have ice on them in the mornings. She is in an 8x8 insulated chicken coop, behind a little partition for her nest. I put a baby waterer and a baby feeder inside the coop for her, so I am hoping she won't take the babies outside. The baby waterer in the coop hasn't frozen.
Do you'll think I should put a heat lamp in there? Maybe over the feeder and waterer area? (I am in general very anti-heat of any kind, but I have never so stupidly had babies so late in the year)
OK, so here are pictures, Kuh Flecken, she is a pied chocolate, but has light and dark chocolate areas on her, very pretty! See the two babies? She did tuck them back under her after I took the picture. So, don't worry, they didn't get too cold.
A further away shot, here she looks black, but it is just because it is so dark. You can see that her nest area is just a piece of plywood I nailed to the wall. The unpainted wall behind her isn't insulated, I had planned on putting an exterior access nest box there. There is a poop shelf above her (2x8) and I think the lowered ceiling helps keep her warmer. Even though this is set up for chickens (two awesome 8x2 poop trays with perches, all insulated, etc. etc., the chickens got kicked into the uninsulated shed), the Muscovies get the nice coop all to themselves.
Here is one of my other ducks, Pilz, I think she is lavender. I had trimmed all of their wings, but since they were molting, they have already grown back enough that she can fly up to the top of the fence. I don't know if you'll can tell, but that is the bay and then the mountain range behind her.
I can't tell you how pleased I am! And the colors of the babies should be awesome!
The drake is a very light something, maybe silver. Kuh Flecken, the broody, is both light and dark chocolate. I have two other ducks that might have added to the eggs, Pilz, the gorgeous lavender shown above (at least, I think that is what she is, she has both very dilute black as well as some very dilute chocolate), and Kecks who is blue. All are pied.
