Ducks

Flock Friday for June 4

On last week’s Flock Friday I announced the hatching of Betty’s ducklings, and followed up with three days of posts featuring the ducklings. I may do that again once Sonja’s ducklings hatch, expected around mid-June. But for now, it’s back to a more normal Flock Friday post, with some duckling pics included.

Starting with a few token chicken pics on a wet day:

Chicken

Chickens

Chickens

Bert about to hop into the pond:

Bert

Ducks in the pond:

Ducks in the pond

Ducks on the path to the duck house (time to remove those gates; don’t need them with mothered ducklings):

Ducks on the path

Betty and a duckling on an upturned pot island:

Ducks

Ducks enjoying mealworm treats; it didn’t take the ducklings long to learn how tasty they are, and come zooming over when they see me on the pond deck:

Ducks enjoying mealworm treats

Ducks enjoying mealworm treats

Ducks on pot islands:

Ducks on pot islands

Ducks on pot islands

Ducks on pot islands

Betty and ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Duckling

Ducklings

Betty and ducklings

Betty’s ducklings on May 30 and 31

Are you enjoying the daily updates on Betty’s ducklings, or is it just too much cuteness for you? Let me know!

Yesterday evening the ducklings had their first taste of mealworm treats… and they really liked them, unsurprisingly:

Ducks and ducklings with mealworm treats

Ducks and ducklings with mealworm treats

Ducks and ducklings with mealworm treats

This morning — Bert, Betty, and ducklings:

Bert, Betty, and ducklings

Bert, Betty, and ducklings

Betty and her ducklings; yes, there are still five; four together and one further back:

Betty and ducklings

One on a pot island:

Betty and ducklings

Betty’s ducklings on May 29 and 30

Some more pictures of Betty and her ducklings!

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I put a duckling that was struggling in with Sonja, who was also looking after another of Betty’s ducklings. Here’s a GIF of those two from yesterday afternoon:

GIF

Later they joined Betty; here she is next to the duck house with six ducklings (a little hard to see them all, but they are all visible here):

Betty and ducklings

Betty and ducklings

Yesterday evening she led them back into the duck house for the night; there are three visible here:

In the duck house

Though I think one didn’t make it back in, or didn’t survive the night, as we only saw five ducklings this morning. Attrition is a natural part of having ducklings; that’s why the ducks lay 15 or more eggs.

Here are a bunch of pictures of Betty and her ducklings swimming in the pond today:

Betty and ducklings in the pond

Betty and ducklings in the pond

Betty and ducklings in the pond

Betty and ducklings in the pond

Betty and ducklings in the pond

Jenn captured some pictures of Betty and ducklings on one of the upturned pot islands:

Betty and ducklings in the pond

Betty and ducklings in the pond

A view from the pond deck, with the other ducks rushing over for treats:

Betty and ducklings in the pond

Betty and ducklings in the pond

So cute. Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow.

Betty’s ducklings on May 28 and 29

Lots of activity with Betty’s ducklings today!

We start with some GIFs and pictures from yesterday afternoon.

An animated GIF of a duckling going into and out of the dish under the feeder tube:

GIF

Duckling in food dish:

Duckling in food dish

A photo of Sonja half-buried in her nest:

Sonja

Me adding a duckling food dispenser:

David adding duckling food

A photo of Betty and four ducklings; I later saw a total of six:

Betty and four ducklings

A GIF of Betty gathering in a duckling with her wing:

GIF

A GIF of Betty flapping her wings; it’s good to stretch:

GIF

A GIF of ducklings exploring the food:

GIF

A GIF of ducklings eating:

GIF

A picture of ducklings eating:

Ducklings eating

Ducklings about to explore the ramp:

Ducklings

Betty chasing the ducklings back inside:

Ducklings

A GIF of Betty chasing off another duck, as one of the ducklings was exposed in the middle box:

GIF

A GIF of Sonja moving around in her nest, and ducklings exploring:

GIF

Ducklings:

Ducklings

A GIF time-lapse:

GIF

Ducklings by the door:

Ducklings

Ducklings

A GIF of Betty and her ducklings going into Sonja’s nest:

GIF

A GIF of Betty and her ducklings heading out the pop door on the way into the pond:

GIF

A bunch of pictures of Betty and ducklings on the ramp then their first swim in the pond, with other ducks nearby (thanks to Jenn for capturing most of these):

Ducklings on the ramp

Ducklings on the ramp

Ducklings on the ramp

Ducklings

Betty and ducklings

Betty and ducklings

Betty and ducklings

Check out the video on YouTube, if you haven’t already.

One of the ducklings was struggling, looking like it might drown, so I fished it out of the pond and put it back in the duck house:

Duckling

I put it in Sonja’s nest, as I noticed another duckling in there, probably from when Betty went into that nest:

Sonja

Here you can see Sonja and one of the ducklings:

Sonja and ducklings

The other four ducklings took a breather on the edge of the pond, while Betty was quacking nearby:

Betty and ducklings

Betty and ducklings

Hopefully the ducklings won’t overtire themselves, and will be able to find their way back into the duck house tonight, or some other safe place.

Stay tuned for more updates! 

A special Flock Friday: welcome to Betty’s ducklings

Last night Betty’s ducklings started to hatch! So this is a special Flock Friday primarily about that. I’ll probably follow up with daily posts about how they’re doing and with more pictures; I’ve only seen them on the duck house camera so far, as I don’t want to disturb them too soon.

I did get some duckling food when I went to the feed store a couple of days ago, so I’ll put that in the duck house for them later, though Betty will probably feed them. They don’t need to eat their first day; the nutrients from their eggs sustains them. For these ducklings, I want to remain fairly hands-off, letting their mother take care of them. She will provide them with her waterproofing oils, so they should be able to swim very soon. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.

Before we get to the ducklings, here’s a peek at Sonja’s nest:

Duck eggs

Duck eggs

Sonja started full-time nesting last Friday (the 21st). So the clock starts then for her eggs hatching; expected around June 18. Assuming Betty allows the competition.

Here’s Betty on her nest, a week ago:

Betty

Sonja and Betty in their nests:

Sonja and Betty in their nests

Betty’s nest is conveniently behind the feeder tube, so she’s able to eat without moving:

Betty eating from her nest

Here’s an animated GIF of my first sight of one of Betty’s ducklings last night:

Betty and ducklings

A still image of Betty and ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Another GIF, with a couple of ducklings visible:

Betty and ducklings

Another pic:

Betty and ducklings

Dark GIF:

Betty and ducklings

Sonja, Betty, ducklings:

Sonja, Betty, ducklings

GIF (with broken egg shells visible too):

Betty and ducklings

GIF of an adventurous duckling:

Betty and ducklings

Pic:

Betty and ducklings

Stay tuned for more (and better quality) duckling pictures!

Flock Friday for May 21

Still waiting for Betty’s ducklings (could be any day now); still waiting for Sonja to start full-time nesting (could be any day now); plus some other pictures of ducks and chickens (with a particularly funny one at the end).

Here’s Betty, still nesting on her eggs, and not happy to be disturbed:

Betty

Betty

Betty

Did you see the video of her?

I added more straw to the duck house, and refilled their food and water:

Straw

Taking a peek at Sonja’s eggs while she was away; I see 10 eggs here (at least one under the straw):

Sonja's eggs

Sonja's eggs

She has been increasing the time spent sitting on them, but isn’t full-time yet, so I don’t think we can start the clock on them hatching quite yet. She has also gathered up most of that new straw to insulate her nest.

Ducks on the floating island:

Ducks on the floating island

Ducks on the floating island

Ducks in the pond:

Ducks in the pond

Ducks on the pond bank:

Ducks on the pond bank

Chickens with treats:

Chickens with treats

Chicken

Chickens with treats

Chickens

Chickens with treats

Chickens

Um, three chickens don’t really fit in a nesting box:

Three chickens in a nesting box

Flock Friday for May 14

On Flock Friday this week, we’re visited by a heron a couple of times, a second nesting duck, and more.

Firstly, a couple of chickens in the new coop, one emerging from a nesting box:

Chickens

An animated GIF of a heron landing on the pond island:

Heron

Ducks on the lawn:

Ducks on the lawn

Ducks on the lawn

Ducks on the lawn

Chickens in their run, and ducks on the lawn:

Chickens and ducks

We evicted the chickens from the veggie garden, and closed the gate into their run:

Chickens with closed gate

Another GIF of the heron, this time flying from the island to the edge of the pond in front of the camera:

Heron

A GIF of Betty arriving back in the duck house after taking a brief break, drying herself off, then heading to her nest, and Sonja going to hers:

Ducks

Lots of finches on the bird feeders:

Birds on feeders

Betty on her nest, and Sonja laying an egg on hers; not on it full-time as of this date:

Nesting ducks

Chickens with treats:

Chickens

Ducks in the pond:

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

A nice circle of eggs in Sonja’s nest; about nine there:

Eggs and nesting

Ducks on islands:

Ducks on islands

This morning Sonja seems to have started sitting on her nest full-time, like Betty is — we’ll see if she stays there, or is just spending a longer-than-usual time (apparently common to gradually increase the nesting time):

Nesting ducks

Here she’s pulling some straw into the nest:

Pulling straw into the nest

The ducklings hatch in about 28 days from full-time nesting, so Betty’s are expected within the next week, and Sonja’s will be around June 11. When they hatch, I’ll be sure to do a special post with the news.

Flock Friday for May 7

For Flock Friday this week, an assortment of chicken and duck pictures, plus more of nesting ducks and broody chickens.

Let’s start with some pictures of the chickens:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

And ducks:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Here’s Betty nesting on her clutch of eggs in the duck house:

Duck house

Sonja has also started laying some eggs in a different nesting box:

Duck house

Two of Sonja’s eggs:

Duck eggs

Yesterday I needed to refill the duck food dispenser (the jug at the top of the feeder tube), so had an opportunity to peek at Betty:

Duck food and Betty

I try not to disturb her too much, as she huffs like she’s stressed when I open the door, unsurprisingly. But she relaxes after a few seconds once she realizes I’m not a threat to her nest:

Betty nesting

Closer:

Betty nesting

Some of the chickens want in on the fun; there are currently three broody chickens… though they’re wasting their time, since we haven’t had a rooster in years, so the eggs are unfertilized:

Broody chickens

Broody chicken