Should I help this hatchling????

[Krazyquilts]

I think the fourth has hatched but I'm having trouble telling because Mama has a helper! Our other Cayuga female is insisting on sitting in the nest helping to cover the babies. Not that they need that extra warmth in this 89 degree heat, but whatever. It's adorable!

 

[WVduckchick]

That's adorable! What are you nest boxes? Looks very nice!

 

[Krazyquilts]

That's adorable! What are you nest boxes? Looks very nice!

Iris brand litter boxes from Amazon. I got them for only $5-6 each, but now the price has gone up to around $20 I think. They work great, but my girls with their "ba-Donka-Duck" butts kept tipping the boxes over so I put cement blocks in the front to act as a brace and step.

The little ducklings keep stretching out their little leggies while I'm holding them! It must feel so good to be out of those tight shells!

 

[WVduckchick]

Iris brand litter boxes from Amazon. I got them for only $5-6 each, but now the price has gone up to around $20 I think. They work great, but my girls with their "ba-Donka-Duck" butts kept tipping the boxes over so I put cement blocks in the front to act as a brace and step.

The little ducklings keep stretching out their little leggies while I'm holding them! It must feel so good to be out of those tight shells!

I'm jealous that they let you handle the babies. Mine thinks I'm an axe murderer.

Thanks on the litter boxes. A quick search found them for $12-$15, probably even cheaper if i look harder. Looks like a great option! Even if we have to use a brick or two!

 

[Krazyquilts]

I'm jealous that they let you handle the babies. Mine thinks I'm an axe murderer.

Spike (what can I say - the neighbor named her) seems like a pretty laid back little mama. She nibbles at me a bit when I'm switching out babies, but she's nothing like my broody Buff duck who hisses at me if I even look at her! Now that one I have to physically move off the nest everyday or she would starve herself! She must be doing something right though because 13 of the 16 Ancona eggs I ordered for her on EBay look like they're going to hatch!

Thanks on the litter boxes. A quick search found them for $12-$15, probably even cheaper if i look harder. Looks like a great option! Even if we have to use a brick or two!

I bought a one-piece litter box for the ducks but I haven't given it to them yet. The only problem with the Iris brand ones is my clumsy ducks knock the top part off quite often.

 

[Krazyquilts]

This little one likes hanging out inside my shirt!

 

[Krazyquilts]

And here is the fourth and last duckling making its debut!


It was so tired from getting out of the shell that it just couldn't keep its eyes open during its very first photo shoot.

 

[mobius]

 

[Krazyquilts]

Grrr. I keep trying to move the babies and their nesting box over into the Maternity Ward house (away from the other ducks) but every time I do, Mama acts like they don't exist. She just keeps going back to the same place where the nesting box used to be in the main duck house. She even started settling down in the next closest nesting box to where her was before I moved it.

Oooh, fingers crossed!!! As I'm writing this, one of the babies hopped out of the nest towards her (she was standing right in front of it) and it was like that triggered something in her and she got back in the babies nest! She hasn't quite settled down yet though, but she also hasn't gotten out. If she doesn't accept being in the Maternity Ward house, then we've decided that we will brooder the babies inside. I feel bad about potentially taking her babies when she sat on them so long, but I'm more concerned about the other ducks killing the babies if I let Mama and the babies stay in the main duck house.

 

[Krazyquilts]

She was starting to pull straw in, but as soon as I got up to let the other ducks into their side of the pen (they've been enjoying themselves by destroying the garden all day), Mama ran out to join the other ducks. Now I've put Arial (the duck who was helping in the nest) in the Maternity Ward pen too and both are and drank but keep wanting to get out to join the other ducks.