These are my part runner duck babies that hatched May 28 and 29 . They are from two moms, a Runner mix and a lovely Saxony Runner - and two dads, a Magpie and Saxony Runner (but it appears that the Magpie drake won the day in spite of my best efforts to keep him separate).
My Magpie duck has six babies hatched (24 hours old) and two more (almost there?). I'll post pics tomorrow if all continues to go well. There was one Runner egg in her nest and one of the babies is a lovely blue, but the rest appear to be pretty pure Magpies. I'm new at this, but fascinated by the genetics and had hoped to keep the breeds separate, but gosh aren't they cute regardless?
Though I'm so terrified ALL the time that something will go wrong - a predator will get them, a squished duckling, a drowning, I don't know something I hadn't even imagined. I think this should be my last time encouraging this broody thing (as much as I love it) - I'm just too obsessively worried (given my past experiences and many other posts here) for this to be healthy.
But it's so lovely when it all works out okay.
My Magpie duck has six babies hatched (24 hours old) and two more (almost there?). I'll post pics tomorrow if all continues to go well. There was one Runner egg in her nest and one of the babies is a lovely blue, but the rest appear to be pretty pure Magpies. I'm new at this, but fascinated by the genetics and had hoped to keep the breeds separate, but gosh aren't they cute regardless?
Though I'm so terrified ALL the time that something will go wrong - a predator will get them, a squished duckling, a drowning, I don't know something I hadn't even imagined. I think this should be my last time encouraging this broody thing (as much as I love it) - I'm just too obsessively worried (given my past experiences and many other posts here) for this to be healthy.
But it's so lovely when it all works out okay.
