Stories from the Farm

My mama ducks amaze me!  Sitting on a nest of eggs for 26 days is just a little too mundane for me 🙂 but they seem very happy to be doing it. 

During their swimming, eating, stretching break today, I was able to take some pictures of their nests.  I provided a little bit of straw for them to use and they scoop a nest in the ground and pull some of their down out to insulate the eggs.  When they leave the nest they cover their eggs up to keep the eggs warm while they are gone.   

Pulling the top layer off reveals all of the eggs.

This nest has 13 eggs and belongs to…

the little snowy call duck hen in the middle.  She was sitting on a nest of eggs that were due to hatch a couple weeks ago, but silly me I looked at the eggs using a candler and removed the eggs that weren’t fertile.  She got very upset with me for taking some of her eggs and would not sit on the nest anymore.  She moved to the other house and made herself another nest and laid more eggs.  Now I know that she can count 🙂 and will leave all 13 eggs in the nest! 

This nest contains 11 eggs…

and belongs to the super mama…

Here she is with some of her babies from last year.  She hatched two different clutches last year. 

 Baby ducks are just the cutest!

This is the third mama duck and I don’t know how many eggs are in her nest because she is very dilligent.  She must take breaks, but I haven’t seen her in a few days. 

All of the eggs are due to hatch in 11-13 days.  I’ll post pictures as soon as their mamas bring them out of the nests.