The Ducklings are Here!!

Quackers ducklings just hatched early this morning! It was twenty-eight days exactly! One left to hatch out of it's shell. They are sooo cute! Quackers is not so happy that we are so near her ducklings.

The greyish ducklings are the Blue Swedes and the black ones are Black Swedes, but I'd like to know where the yellow one came from! I'll have figure that out- maybe I'll know when it grows up or I could ask someone who knows about ducks or look in my duck book.

Can you see at the bottom of this picture is a wet little head still working its way from out of the shell? We count eight so far.

Setting Duck

At 7 o'clock every morning Quackers calls to me for her food and after a thorough bath she waddles back to her nest that she has covered with feathers to keep hidden and warm. She is usually a forager but for now I feed her so she can stay close to her nest.

Quackers is setting on nine eggs. We ordered them from a farm somewhere in California. Some eggs will hatch Blue Swedish and others will hatch Black Swedish. It is important to have both varieties for breeding a strong blue color.

It takes 28 days to hatch a duckling. At this post, she will have four days, counting today, to hatch her eggs.

You can see here, Quackers fanning her tail. This means get away from her nest because she is protecting her babies or should I say eggs.

Tut Tut- Looks Like Rain

and my ducks love it! After weeks of hot, dry days, the rain came and made my water loving ducks happy. Mama found them this morning outside her bedroom slider in a rut that Pallo dug to sleep in. The rain filled the hole up with water and the ducks found it and swam and drank from it. It started as a bed and ended up a puddle. The sun is back out but I see dark clouds in the sky.

The ducks I have are Swedish Blues for they are a grey-blue-green. Their names are Flapppers, Quackers and Rolly. You know, Flap, Quack and Roll. Flappers however, is now a dead duck. She had a sickness and Mama checked her and tried to surgury her but we could not save her. Nothing goes to waste around here so we plucked her downy feathers and will make a pillow with her down.