Well, now that I'm 6 weeks postpartum, I would like to finish my posts about our Bird adventure. But I need to be more brief or I'll never get this done.
We had a great experience. We hatched 4 out of 5 fertilized chicks and 12 out of 20 fertilized ducks. We had 1 chicken fatality due to a poorly absorbed yolk sac. We named our living chicks Cookie, Brownie and Silver and we recieved 2 chicks from a friend and raised them as well. For a total of 5 Chicks. We also had several duck fatalities. One was born with a deformed leg and died around 3 days old. Another hadn't absorbed his yolk sac like the chick and died within a day. We had a couple that tried to get out of their eggs and didn't make it out. That was pretty hard for me. I felt badly that I hadn't helped them out. But helping them is very controversial. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it make circumstances worse. Then I also made a mistake with my watering container. I cut holes too large and one duckling got his shoulders stuck in the hole and drowned in his drinking water. Sad days, but good learning experiences. We named the first duck Apple, but then discovered that the ducks were almost all identical at birth. So they were all Apple! We ended up with 9 ducks. They grew so quickly that I thought I was feeding them too much. After I returned them to the farm, I found out that they were a special breed of Rouen duck that grows to be 15 pounds. No wonder they were growing so fast! All the Ducks were done hatching on Mother's Day and then we kept them all until June 11th, so they were 4 weeks old when we sent them back to the farm. The chicks were a week older and left when they were about 7 weeks old. Once we got rid of the birds, I was relieved because I had been cleaning up food, poop, and water messes from the ducks (who love to swim in their drinking water) a little bit more than I had energy for in my last 4 weeks of my pregnancy. The chicks went to a hobby farm to lay eggs for our good friends. Unfortunately, it's looking like most of the chickens we gave them are roosters and they will be butchered probably by the end of the fall. The ducks went back to live on the farm where they were laid. Here's a photo Journal of our time.
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The Mrs. B.Wife to one, Mother of four, Daughter of the Most High. Archives
August 2012
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