Lavender Orpington chick Pics are here ! Saint Patrick's day hatch-a-long EGGS ARE HERE!

[gimmie birdies]

the man who gave me the eggs, put down their the lavender orpington dad, because he was getting really aggressive he gave me the rooster's body to process for dog food. I took his body home to process He was huge- bigger than a meat bird even. (I advise a bird 12 weeks old.) I gave him a new rooster i had who was 3 months old. He was a splash from Meyers. He was really cute going in. He did the sideways dance around the new hens. He is very friendly and will be better for the hens.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Betty Notsowhite #23 just hatched- dark gray.

Waiting on last 2. So far 14 hatched.

 

[Zallix]

Gimmie your chicks are adorable!! Catching up on your progress has been nice now that we are mostly chilling over here lol. Glad I joined you for this fun adventure!!!

 

[Zallix]

Got my latest update for yall!

Starting with this morning, Lady Spot decided it was time to take her babies down to the lake and leave the nest. She had 2 mallards, 2 Swedish, and 2 of our stolen runner eggs hatch. For whatever reason she originally went towards our house with her babies so after watching them for about 20minutes not understanding how a fence worked I went outside to help herd them out the other side and around the duckling fencing I still had up from last year.

She ended up abandoning one of the runner ducklings that we are guessing was the last to hatch and couldn’t walk quite yet so once we went inside we waited a bit to see if she’d come back for it but instead went off to the opposite side of the lake. At that point since it was one of our runners I went ahead and scooped up the little guy and put it in the brooder with the rest of the flock.

Checking on them now and we got more energy out of lil runty and everyone else is doing well and running all over the place. My wife ended up putting them in a small tote and having them in her office with her while she worked from home today, guess it’s a good thing she like it warm with that heat lamp in there with her

Runty definitely is behind by a day size wise but at least it’s starting to stand up and walk around a bit on its own instead of sliding around on its belly!

 

[gimmie birdies]

Egg #24 hatching...15th to hatch (Ann-Margeggs.)

 

[gimmie birdies]

Waiting on one more egg. It is pipped. And has veins so I will not help. Egg when it hatches will be the 16th to hatch. (#4 Goldie.)

 

[Slothinc]

Betty Notsowhite #23 just hatched- dark gray.
View attachment 4075055
Waiting on last 2. So far 14 hatched.

Yay Betty Notsowhite!!! You are beautiful!! She almost looks like a lavender with dark head and shoulders. Definitely want to see her fluffed up!!

 

[Slothinc]

Got my latest update for yall!

Starting with this morning, Lady Spot decided it was time to take her babies down to the lake and leave the nest. She had 2 mallards, 2 Swedish, and 2 of our stolen runner eggs hatch. For whatever reason she originally went towards our house with her babies so after watching them for about 20minutes not understanding how a fence worked I went outside to help herd them out the other side and around the duckling fencing I still had up from last year. View attachment 4075129View attachment 4075130View attachment 4075131
View attachment 4075132

She ended up abandoning one of the runner ducklings that we are guessing was the last to hatch and couldn’t walk quite yet so once we went inside we waited a bit to see if she’d come back for it but instead went off to the opposite side of the lake. At that point since it was one of our runners I went ahead and scooped up the little guy and put it in the brooder with the rest of the flock.
View attachment 4075133
Checking on them now and we got more energy out of lil runty and everyone else is doing well and running all over the place. My wife ended up putting them in a small tote and having them in her office with her while she worked from home today, guess it’s a good thing she like it warm with that heat lamp in there with her View attachment 4075134View attachment 4075136
Runty definitely is behind by a day size wise but at least it’s starting to stand up and walk around a bit on its own instead of sliding around on its belly!View attachment 4075137

Love the pictures!!!!! So is Lady Spot a wild duck that just hatched out some eggs and happened to have some of your ducks lay in her nest? (Sorry if you’ve already been over this!) Or is she one of your ducks that you allowed to be broody and raise some babies? The timing worked out great for you to be able to rescue the abandoned chick and let it join your others. Thank goodness you saw it happen. I hope she cares for the other little runner baby!!

 

[Zallix]

Love the pictures!!!!! So is Lady Spot a wild duck that just hatched out some eggs and happened to have some of your ducks lay in her nest? (Sorry if you’ve already been over this!) Or is she one of your ducks that you allowed to be broody and raise some babies? The timing worked out great for you to be able to rescue the abandoned chick and let it join your others. Thank goodness you saw it happen. I hope she cares for the other little runner baby!!

Lady Spot is a wild mallard mix with Swedish blue in her that flew in a few months ago. My guys had started nesting in their run but never went broody so I was using it as an easy way to collect some of their eggs. Then Lady Spot found the nest and started laying in it and for a few days I was watching it before rotating out some of the older eggs and in the process mistakenly got 2 of her eggs. About the same time I found my double yolker and threw it and the eggs in the incubator that I hadn't put in the fridge since we had about 18 at the time. Spot spent a few days trying to chase Lady Spot off their nest but eventually he gave up and started ignoring her.

The timing worked out great and back on day like... 5 after she got chased off I grabbed 3 of the eggs and took them inside to candle real quick and saw they were looking to be about the same as mine before quickly putting them back out there for her before she returned. I'm glad that of her 5 babies she ahs with her only 1 is a runner, the goal wasn't to replace her normal ducklings with runners but once she took over the nest I was letting stay at like 8-9 eggs it was probably going to happen either way. I can also add in at least yesterday morning her mallard drake boyfriend that's been hanging around off to the side when she's on the nest and had tried to defend her from the mallard drake gang a few times finally got to reconnect with her and they were laying together with the babies which was cute to see!

(Look at Lady Spot’s legs in this picture of the family lol. They look so out of place I can’t stop laughing)

 

[gimmie birdies]

Nice.