Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => Chicken Chat => Topic started by: Caralou on April 29, 2010, 22:24
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for Eve to hatch my lovely little Bumble & Bee babies nature has given me a treat! Behind my house is a field and at the bottom of the field a stream. I went for a walk yesterday afternoon and found that the duck who lives on there has hatched 9 little babies :D Little tiny fluffy wonderful ducklings that were swimming up and down and so brave that they came over to see what I was looking at ;)
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A close up of the ducklings :D
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So cute. we used to have them visit in our garden but then we filled the fish pond in (it was when Cam was a toddler) so they stopped coming in. I've got some appleyard eggs coming :)
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Yay, I love Appleyards :D My Erin is a lovely girl and lays lovely big eggs each day.
Are they going under a broody or in an incubator?
I'm going to try to get more photos of these little ones as they are ever so cute and it is so lovely watching them on their first days out in the water :blush:
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Well seeing as the broody orpington has decided she's not broody anymore they are going in the incubator. I bought 6 eggs and got an extra one for luck!
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Eve has hatched her first little Bumble baby for me :D
It is a Bumble & Topaz baby and I have called him/her Jet :wub:
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oh he/she is so cute :D
we don't get many wild ducks on the beck next to us but every year we get signets hatched on it :D
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Ahhhh, just beautiful Cara :D x
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Just checked on Eve and Little Jet is running around the coop like a little lunatic and underneath her another little baba has just hatched out. This one is a little white fluff ball so most likely a Bumble-Erin baby, but will have to wait and see :wub: :D I'm now worried though as the other two have only just started pipping and with Jet running around and wanting to get out I wonder how much longer Eve will stay sat.....
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My broodies usually give the other eggs 2 days before they leave them, if she can feel them pipping she may wait a little bit longer :)
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Another is nearly out now - lifted Eve and it was half out the shell so I quickly put her back. She is so good and lets me have a little look with no complaint :wub: Number 3 is another little black duckling.
Here's a picture of number 2 (Buttercup) popping it's little head out :D
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What a super photo - that is so sweet :)
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Oh, that's wonderful news!
What a great reward for Eve's and your patience. OK, probably most of the patience was Eve's!
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So little Jet & Buttercup now have little Onyx out to keep them company. Eve is sat tight on egg number four and I can hear lots of cheeping from inside :D
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Little Onyx has now fluffed up and it turns out it's a Blue Swedish not Cayuga cross as thought. It has the lovely blue tinge of it's mum so now Topaz, Erin & Jade are all mums! I am sooooo hoping the final chick is a Khaki cross so that Alice also has a baby. I did collect all eggs the same day so in theory it should be one of each of the four girls, but I didn't think Alice was laying (I though Erin had doubled up that day) so I have to be patient to find out :)
Since Onyx isn't going to be a Cayuga mix I have decided to have a little name change to Sapphire :) I so hope this time I don't end up with lots of drakes with camp names :tongue2: :lol:
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Awww, they are so so sweet :)
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Sadly number 4 was abandoned by mum this morning :( As I don't have an incy I have had to dispose of the egg. It had pipped and last night was chirping in the egg, but it was stone cold when I found it this morning (I did briefly debate the "up the jumper" method of finishing hatching!). Today was day 28 so the other 3 were all early, and I think had she sat a few more hours this one would have joined them :(
The other 3 (Jet, Buttercup & Sapphire) are doing really well and are currently in the little run with mum enjoying the sunshine while also scaring Eve when they try to climb into the water ::) :lol:
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so sorry about the last egg, nature can be so cruel :(
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Jet is two days old so she really needed now to take him/her to the food and water so she was just doing what was best for the babies already out I guess. Still, made me wish I had an incy so I could have popped it in there (although I think she had kicked it out for a few hours so it was probably too late anyway). I'm surprised by the fertility rate anyway as all my ducks had only been laying a few weeks and it was a risk even using the eggs so three healthy ducklings is a wonderful result - it also shows that Bumble was really doing the business with all the girls and not just his favourite girl Jade :D
I am having a few problems at the moment with Bumble though as he always heads for Jade and he has hurt her head pinning her :( There is some feather loss and soreness but there doesn't appear to be much I can do other than antiseptic spray for infection as it isn't a nasty pecking or pulling, just the normal pinning ::)
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Im sorry about the last egg, Such a shame :(
The other 3 are so adorable though
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I just vent sexed and *think* I have two girls and one boy. Typically my naming does not suit them though as Buttercup is the little boy :lol:
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Oh they are sooo sweet, They have grown so much already :)
Just looked at dates, and only being 3 days old, maybe they havent grown that much :lol:It just looks like it