Since the sad demise of one of our hen ducks I decided to stop collecting duck eggs. I let our remaining hen duck collect a clutch of eggs to see if we could hatch out some baby ducks. She had collected about 9 eggs as of yesterday morning, then decided she had enough to start sitting. Duck eggs require 28 days to incubate. That means the baby ducks will be due to hatch out close to my birthday, April 14. Our previous ducks, fawn and white India Runner ducks, were too nervous to successfully hatch out ducklings. They were just like Jemima Puddle Duck in the Beatrice Potter story. Long on ambition, but short on perseverance. I tried to hatch some duck eggs in an incubator only to discover that our previous drake was also a slacker so none of the eggs were fertilized. I'm hoping this hen duck will be successful.
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| A clutch of nine duck eggs |
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| Mon Cherie Canard starting to set on her eggs |
I was fortunate to be home while a crew was cutting down limbs and trees to clear the area near the power lines. They were very happy when I offered them a place to dump the chipped branches. Now I am the proud owner of a big pile of chips that I can use on pathways and to put fresh mulch on the area in front of my bee hives. It also made a good little mountain for my grandson to climb.
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| My grandson John Wesley Tunnell on top of my pile of bark mulch |
Oh, I hope you get baby ducklings from your venture!
ReplyDeleteIs this mulch pile as big as the last one?
As of March 27th the hen duck is still hanging in there. She hisses at me when I go in to change their water. I view that as a good sign that she is a serious setter. It also means there were probably a good number of fertile eggs in her clutch.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the mulch pile goes I think it is a bit bigger than the last one. I'm working on making it smaller as I prepare my bee yard.