The ducklings are about four weeks old now, so I’m going to start leaving the paint tray pool in the duck house full-time from today on.

Each day when I go to the duck house on my morning rounds, I swing through the veggie garden to get a handful of lettuce or kale treats for the chickens and ducklings, and a handful of fresh straw from the chicken coop to top up the duck house. I often put them on the duck house roof to have them handy (and so Bert doesn’t help himself):

Good morning ducklings:

As mentioned, I’m going to leave the paint tray pool in the duck house now, so I thought I’d try tucking it in one of the nesting boxes, to give them more floor space. We’ll see if this works:

Treats for everyone:

Head room could be a concern as they grow:

Um, you seem to have something on your face and chest there Betty:

Another day of ducklings.

It was cold overnight, so they huddled under the EcoGlow:

The morning treats:

And wading time:

I mentioned in my previous post that I closed up the duck house after dark. Here’s me with a head-mounted light removing the swimming tray:

Treat time:

Eating from the feeder tube:

Today some cam pics, plus I raised up the heat lamp and EcoGlow brooder.

Some morning cam shots of sleepy and active ducklings:

Hey there:

I raised the heat lamp to the highest position; it is off during the day, only turned on at night, since it gets down to around 50° F overnight:

I also raised the EcoGlow, now that the ducklings are getting bigger:

Treat time; look at all those proto-feathers coming on:

I just posted about the duckling names, but I also have the usual assortment of pictures of them eating leafy treats today:

I thought I’d do a separate post to reveal the duckling names, to make it easier to refer back to in the future.

For our first batch of ducklings, we named them with “B” names for boys, and “G” names for girls: Bert, Bill, Gert, and Gill.  For this batch, we initially chose names on that system, based on the country of origin of each breed, then decided to use the breed name as the initial, since the gender is more obvious. Fortunately, our remaining adult duck, Bert, fits into that system too, since he’s a Buff breed: “B” for Buff.

In the following picture, the Buff is leftmost (with her head not visible): her name is Betty. (Actually suggested in a blog comment.)

The two ducklings in the foreground are Khaki Campbells, developed in England, so we considered “K” and “C” names. I think the left one is male, named Clyde, and the right one is female, named Cora.

The one next to the yellow EcoGlow is a male Blue Swedish, named Sven, and the one at the back is a female named Sonja.

The two at the bottom of the ramp are Rouens. We had ordered one female and one male, but unfortunately we received two males (they refunded one). The breed was developed in France, so we went for French “R” names: Raoul and Rémy.

Today I traumatized the ducklings by mucking out their house, as it was getting a bit ripe. I also made a hacky brick patio next to the duck house.

Firstly, a photo from last night, shortly before closing up the duck house for the night, showing the main vent all the way open, since it was fairly hot yesterday:

This morning’s mess:

To muck out the house, I firstly used a small rake to scrape the straw into a plastic bin (for later transport to the compost); the ducklings all hid in the back nesting box:

Then I removed the shelf liner that was there to give traction in their first week:

And hosed out the floor; I designed the house to be fairly waterproof, with vinyl tiles, caulk, and outdoor paint, since ducks are very messy:

All that done, I added fresh straw, and put the waterer back:

Then I added and filled the pool, and the ducklings quickly emerged; they love swim time:

Hand feeding leafy treats:

The ground next to the duck house is a bit muddy from all the water, so I decided to make a hacky patio out of some spare bricks in a junk pile elsewhere on the homestead. So I collected a bunch of bricks in a cart:

I just laid the bricks on the ground. Eventually we might make a proper patio, or just have gravel:

One more project for sometime, adding gravel to the path to the duck house.