(I am back at work in the morning so may not be quite as communicative until the weekend).

Six little ducklings set off into the world!

I started this blog on day two so only three posts and four day old ducklings, so I need to catch up.

Yesterday the ducklings ventured out onto the grass for the first time.  at first we thought that they would just stand there and maybe go back in because it was a horrible rainy day, but they stayed outside all day.  part way through the day we noticed that they had explored all the way around the duck house and were in fact small enough to fit through the chain link  fence at the back and had been going into the factory yard.  Not too much of a problem normally but the occupants of the unit at the back have a dog, who if they are like ours would find little ducks very tasty.  A few planks along the fence solved the problem.  Before we went to Rome I had built a ramp and up to the door and blocked off the gap underneath the duck house so that they could get into the house and not disappear underneath.

Last night all of the ducks, Frank included, decided that they would not sleep on the nest that they were born in but but on the big bed that Frank and Minty had always slept on when they were alone.  They all got in by themselves – or so we thought!  This morning we discovered that there was only only one little duckling sitting under Minty.  Where were all of the others?  Had five little ducks been eaten by a mystery beast?  We searched high and low.  Once we found a torch they were discovered in the small gap beneath the bed and the floor.  Maybe they had been there all night directly below their mother but with a plank and bedding between them!  We had to move the entire bed out of the duck house to get them out.  We then spent the a couple of hours building a ramp up to the bed and blocking any available gaps.  Let us hope that that is that for the alterations to the house and run – but no!  The dogs (well Amber and Jimmy) have decided that they can stick their paws below the board that makes up the temporary pen – they might catch a little duckling.  So the girls have lined up bricks inside the fence so that this is no longer possible.  What will be next for alteration?

The first five ducklings seek protection behind Minty.

The day that we arrived back from Rome we stood outside the duck house talking about the fact that there were no baby ducks yet.  Little did we know that as we spoke the first egg was hatching.  Mum and Dad left requesting to be told news of how many ducklings there were and wanting us to email images so that that they could see what they looked like.  If we had just looked in side the nest that Minty had so carefully built (with my help) we probably would have seen the first little ducklings head sticking out from between her mothers feathers.

Once we left alone to recover from our early morning and flight I popped into the duck house just to change the water in the bowl.  You can probably imagine my surprise when I spotted a little head sticking out.  Caused some excitment in the family too I must say.  I hope that Minty did not mind us all pouring in to the duck house to see how clever she had been.

By the end of the day we realised that we had six little balls of fluff taking shelter under their mothers wing.  We have kept ducks for years but never had any baby ones.  We wer’t sure that we new what to do and what we were meant to provide for them.  luckily I had used Google to findout a few things before we had gone on holiday so that Mum and Dad might have something to offer them to eat if they had been in charge of the birth.  We had a small bag of Chick Crumb.

Frank waiting for his children!

We were going on holiday to Rome.  We had been worried about going because our Minty, one of our Muscovy ducks was sitting on eggs.  My Mum and Dad were going to be house sitting because we have got the ducks (Minty and Frank), the dogs (Stella, Amber, Hettie and Jimmy) and the budgies (Percy and Madge).  Minty had been sitting on her eggs for about 4 weeks and we thought that she was probably wasting her time sitting on eggs that were not going to hatch.  just before we went away we broke an egg – inside there was a chick in a fairly well advanced state.  So the other eggs might too be fertile.  What would mum and Dad think of having new born ducklings to look after as well as all other other animals?  Was Jimmy the Jack Russell going to eat them while we were away?

The run that I added quickly to stop the new born ducklings getting in to the garden went un used as no chicks were born when we were away.  One egg was found on the floor of the duck house one morning, broken with another partly grown chick in it.  They were to wait until we got home before they hatched.