It's hard to believe that it has been 8 weeks now. Today Fuzzy and Berry started their "big boy" quacking, they have been pretty much silent until now. Sera has been using her "big girl" quack for probably 5 weeks. And using it, and using it, and using it. She sounds a lot like her namesake, even her mother doesn't quack that much. I keep hoping that one of the others will be a girl and refuse to believe that it is too late for that. I think I will hope until I see the obvious "boy feathers" and then give up. I noticed that Sera and Fuzzy have penciling on their color patch on their wing, and Berry doesn't. Berry's head has more shine than either of the others. Sera has developed just a touch of color on her wings, and Fuzzy is in-between. Daddy Mikey usually has color but I can't remembering if the feather edges have color. It's hard to tell since he got his wings clipped a few months ago (it didn't work)
For those who don't know the story, last year I got three Khaki Campbell chicks from the farm store. Two sexed females and one straight run who turned out to be a boy. They grew up and started laying. about a week after they started laying Sarah got sick and after a week died. A few weeks later I remembered an instance where she grabbed something unknown off the ground and ran away from Betsy. Just when Betsy caught up she swallowed it, so this was likely the cause of her death. Anyway. This spring I collected a dozen of Mikey and Betsy's eggs and gave them to a friend who has an incubator. 28 days later she told me to come get the ducklings who were pipping. When I got there I found only 3 who had made holes in their eggs and the other eggs looked like they had died when I candled them. So I took the three home. Fuzzy had the proper "zipper" around the top edge of his egg which he popped off and gradually made his way out. Sera had been at it so long she was drying out so I gave her a little help when spraying her egg wasn't working. So she came out with help as well. Berry made an impression on his journey. He had picked a hole in his egg. When I checked on him and there was an eye peering through the hole and the tip of his bill sticking out. Next I looked there was one wing and the entirety of one leg sticking through the hole, which didn't look like it had gotten any larger. Just then there was a big kick of the leg and the egg rolled and rolled, each time being propelled by the now frantically kicking leg. Still the whole wasn't getting any bigger. I misted the egg some hoping to make the egg easier to crack but after a while it appeared that he was getting tired so I enlarged the hole some to make it easier. This was the birth of Mikey and Betsy's kids. Now they are almost grown up.
I got my buff gosling (who is way more fun than the ducks at that age) and in a couple weeks I hope to get 2 Khaki's and 1 Cayuga ducklings (sexed) Then this will complete my flock. Alas, I will need to re-home 1-2 males so that they will not pester the girls too much. I find it hard to part with the teens, as I was the one to see them hatch and cuddle them. Bad Mikey, with all his horrible behaviors, is Betsy's best friend and when he is penned so that the others can use the duck yard she is often seen just laying there with him, the fence separating them. He would be hard to place when I know how much Betsy would miss him and be upset. I wish bad Mikey would just learn to like the teens and not be so... naughty... with them.
Fuzzy (L), Berry (C), Sera (R)
For those who don't know the story, last year I got three Khaki Campbell chicks from the farm store. Two sexed females and one straight run who turned out to be a boy. They grew up and started laying. about a week after they started laying Sarah got sick and after a week died. A few weeks later I remembered an instance where she grabbed something unknown off the ground and ran away from Betsy. Just when Betsy caught up she swallowed it, so this was likely the cause of her death. Anyway. This spring I collected a dozen of Mikey and Betsy's eggs and gave them to a friend who has an incubator. 28 days later she told me to come get the ducklings who were pipping. When I got there I found only 3 who had made holes in their eggs and the other eggs looked like they had died when I candled them. So I took the three home. Fuzzy had the proper "zipper" around the top edge of his egg which he popped off and gradually made his way out. Sera had been at it so long she was drying out so I gave her a little help when spraying her egg wasn't working. So she came out with help as well. Berry made an impression on his journey. He had picked a hole in his egg. When I checked on him and there was an eye peering through the hole and the tip of his bill sticking out. Next I looked there was one wing and the entirety of one leg sticking through the hole, which didn't look like it had gotten any larger. Just then there was a big kick of the leg and the egg rolled and rolled, each time being propelled by the now frantically kicking leg. Still the whole wasn't getting any bigger. I misted the egg some hoping to make the egg easier to crack but after a while it appeared that he was getting tired so I enlarged the hole some to make it easier. This was the birth of Mikey and Betsy's kids. Now they are almost grown up.
I got my buff gosling (who is way more fun than the ducks at that age) and in a couple weeks I hope to get 2 Khaki's and 1 Cayuga ducklings (sexed) Then this will complete my flock. Alas, I will need to re-home 1-2 males so that they will not pester the girls too much. I find it hard to part with the teens, as I was the one to see them hatch and cuddle them. Bad Mikey, with all his horrible behaviors, is Betsy's best friend and when he is penned so that the others can use the duck yard she is often seen just laying there with him, the fence separating them. He would be hard to place when I know how much Betsy would miss him and be upset. I wish bad Mikey would just learn to like the teens and not be so... naughty... with them.
Fuzzy (L), Berry (C), Sera (R)
