noirenex
Hatching
- Jun 19, 2015
- 1
- 0
- 7
Hi everyone,
Been reading BYC for a while now since I got my ducks a year ago, Ed and Rick (Rickie I suppose since we found she was a girl!), I bought them as call ducks but they are mallards, they are a bit skittish but playful, and recently she hatched 5 tiny ducklings!
I was over the moon, since i had tried to incubate unsuccessfully a couple times, and didn't think she was very broody, but those 5 little ducks warmed my heart.
I decided I couldn't keep all 5 and wanted to keep 2, and I wanted them to be a bit tamer than the others, so I took 2 away as soon as they were pipped and have been hand rearing them in a brooder for the last week, they keep each other company and are very happy around me, they eat well and are such sweethearts to play with.
Here's a picture of one of them, Otto, the other is Heinrich, in honor of my Mrs being over in Germany for the last 3 months! Otto is much calmer and more relaxed than Heinrich
Daddy duck is a bit alienated and unsure what to do with himself, he's a bit of a simple drake and I think is a bit overwhelmed by it all!
Meanwhile mommy duck has been looking after her 3, but a day ago I noticed one of them was a bit smaller, and struggled to get out of the drinking water tray, I helped him out and dried him off, and added some mesh to help him next time, all fine, but to my dismay, this morning that little one had perished, he had got stuck in the bowl of water I had set aside for the larger ducks, I hadn't even appreciated they could get into that bowl, or that they wouldn't be able to get out. I could kick myself for not putting something in that bowl too, or otherwise made it safer... It was heart-breaking to hold him this morning and not be able to do anything to make it better, I just have to make sure I do better with the others, I had Ed and Rick from 6 weeks old so it was a bit different to these, they were a bit more robust and I wasn't careful enough with this little one, he was about 2/3 the size of the other 2 that are outside, and half the size of the ones I have in my brooder.
The 2 I have in the brooder spend a lot of time with me and have a safe environment, I run them a warm bath daily to have a play in and was surprised to find they dive underwater and swim about like a fish just like their mommy and daddy, even from 2 days old! I watch them carefully and hope they continue to enjoy being around me as they grow older.
They're on chick crumbs at the moment, and they are curious about everything, their favorite thing is to find marks on my arm or patterns on my cloths and furiously try to remove them.
Any tips on treats they might like, what age can they have mealworms (I have a bearded dragon so have a tank of mealworms and beetles for him), I tried them with romaine lettuce but they just flung it around and played with it!
Any other advice would be welcome, I've read a lot online but just wanted to share on here really with like-minded folk!
In addition to this, I should add that I would like to give the other 2 ducks that are with their mommy duck away to a caring family, since 4 ducks will be as much as I can handle I think!
Danny
Been reading BYC for a while now since I got my ducks a year ago, Ed and Rick (Rickie I suppose since we found she was a girl!), I bought them as call ducks but they are mallards, they are a bit skittish but playful, and recently she hatched 5 tiny ducklings!
I was over the moon, since i had tried to incubate unsuccessfully a couple times, and didn't think she was very broody, but those 5 little ducks warmed my heart.
I decided I couldn't keep all 5 and wanted to keep 2, and I wanted them to be a bit tamer than the others, so I took 2 away as soon as they were pipped and have been hand rearing them in a brooder for the last week, they keep each other company and are very happy around me, they eat well and are such sweethearts to play with.
Here's a picture of one of them, Otto, the other is Heinrich, in honor of my Mrs being over in Germany for the last 3 months! Otto is much calmer and more relaxed than Heinrich
Daddy duck is a bit alienated and unsure what to do with himself, he's a bit of a simple drake and I think is a bit overwhelmed by it all!
Meanwhile mommy duck has been looking after her 3, but a day ago I noticed one of them was a bit smaller, and struggled to get out of the drinking water tray, I helped him out and dried him off, and added some mesh to help him next time, all fine, but to my dismay, this morning that little one had perished, he had got stuck in the bowl of water I had set aside for the larger ducks, I hadn't even appreciated they could get into that bowl, or that they wouldn't be able to get out. I could kick myself for not putting something in that bowl too, or otherwise made it safer... It was heart-breaking to hold him this morning and not be able to do anything to make it better, I just have to make sure I do better with the others, I had Ed and Rick from 6 weeks old so it was a bit different to these, they were a bit more robust and I wasn't careful enough with this little one, he was about 2/3 the size of the other 2 that are outside, and half the size of the ones I have in my brooder.
The 2 I have in the brooder spend a lot of time with me and have a safe environment, I run them a warm bath daily to have a play in and was surprised to find they dive underwater and swim about like a fish just like their mommy and daddy, even from 2 days old! I watch them carefully and hope they continue to enjoy being around me as they grow older.
They're on chick crumbs at the moment, and they are curious about everything, their favorite thing is to find marks on my arm or patterns on my cloths and furiously try to remove them.
Any tips on treats they might like, what age can they have mealworms (I have a bearded dragon so have a tank of mealworms and beetles for him), I tried them with romaine lettuce but they just flung it around and played with it!
Any other advice would be welcome, I've read a lot online but just wanted to share on here really with like-minded folk!
In addition to this, I should add that I would like to give the other 2 ducks that are with their mommy duck away to a caring family, since 4 ducks will be as much as I can handle I think!
Danny
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