LUCKY DUCK hatched 10 baby ducks, we stole four

Our little Muscovy duck friend, "Lucky" (who was born at P2 Spring 2023) hatched 10 baby ducks on Monday, February 19 2024. 

We immediately stole the "slowest" four babies and moved them to a wood dog box on the porch. 

As of Friday Feb 23, all six of the remaining babies in Lucky's care are still alive and doing fine. 

The four we took are also doing fine. Yesterday one of the "bumble bee" baby ducks was able to leap out of the dog box and led us on quite a chase around the porch, he's really fast.

Silkie Moms (x2) hatch six baby Muscovy Ducks (eggs stolen from "Lucky")

Thursday, FEB 22 2024 - babies begin pipping and hatching - Mary spotted two hatched by 10am, we decided to leave them to see if any of the other eggs would hatch.

Two of our Silkie hens have been incubating duck eggs we stole from our Muscovy friend, "Lucky", who was also born here last year. 

Friday, February 23, 2024 - six new baby ducks hatched under our two Silkie moms. We moved the two moms and all the six fragile babies into a wood dog crate and brought them into our porch.

BABY DUCKS FIRST FLIGHT

UPDATE: DEC 5, 2023

George made 'em, Marilyn hatched 'em and today one of them briefly walked on air. Della Mannix became airborne a couple of times. We did not get it on video but we both saw it. She is lighter weight than the others in her flock so she was literally lifting off as she flapped around the play area. 

DELLA flew at 10 weeks and one day.

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As we get closer to seeing our new baby ducks have their first flight, we went back to double check when Lucky and Bill flew the first time.

Lucky and Bill were born April 1, 2023, and flew on June 11, 2023 (actually Bill flew first...).  That's 10 weeks and 1 day.

So.......

George's babies should be flying soon - in mere days.

And Billie's babies (raised by Marilyn) should be flying by December 4, 2023.

Awwwwwww!

GEORGE'S BABY DUCKS ENJOYING THE RAIN DRAIN SPOUT

Every day the baby ducks - Lone, Tonto, Scout, and Silver - do something new and cute.  Today, it was the game of drinking the stream of water as it poured out of the drain spout :D

 

GEORGE'S BABY DUCKS, BORN SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

This morning Mary discovered that George experienced a miracle last night, at least 10 little baby Muscovy ducks were born. George is a wild Muscovy female duck (we named her George before we knew it was Ms. Duck).

Looking at freshly born Muscovy baby ducks, less than 12 hours old

Poor Billy, George has evicted Bill (also female) from the house. It appears, she who hatches first, owns the house. We are watching the drama unfold on a pair of wireless cameras. Billy has been sitting on her eggs almost as long as George. 

George with her baby ducklings (Goldie on the right with her back to the camera)

It has been a couple of hours since we first saw them. George let them fool around a little in their family room then she gathered them all back into the nest underneath her.

The above video was looking in the front door when we first discovered them this morning. 

They grow up so fast, I'm going to try to get more pictures and videos this time around. 

I shot this video off our wireless cameras' screen.

BTW Marilyn one of our favorite Silkie hens is sitting on three of Billy's eggs. She has been on them for almost a week and Billy had been sitting on them. It will be amazing if Marilyn hatches the baby ducks, she is a great foster mom.

More Day 1 Videos

Can't Get Enough of These Baby Ducks

BABY DUCKS AT START OF THIRD DAY OF LIFE

The baby ducks look so yellow against the bright green grass. They are running around like crazy, having a good time exploring the world. Yesterday mom had them out for 1.5 hours in the morning then called them back into their house for the rest of the day. In the evening about half an hour before bed time George (aka Mom) brought them out for one more little period of play before calling them all back into the house.

BABY DUCKS: DAY 4

FIRST SWIM: Watch them line up by the pool, so excited

Our first duck eggs were hatched by a chicken so they had little interest in swimming until they were 13-14 weeks old and already flying, then they found the big pond. This batch of little ducks, raised by a duck (George), are in their miniature pond on their 4th day of life.

BABY DUCKS: DAY 5

This video shows a few of the other little birds roaming around our poultry colony

Feeding the peafowl noodles, not baby ducks but still cute, that is last years baby P-boy eating them right out of the jar (from my hand).

This video shows Marilyn, the Queen of P2, who is sitting on seven baby duck eggs. Later in the day three of the eggs hatched. 

Marilyn hatching baby ducks (Midnight and Sunshine showing :-)

More Marilyn and her baby ducks (which were laid and abandoned by Billy)

This is the second time Marilyn has hatched eggs laid by another bird. She has never hatched any of her own eggs. It does not matter who made them, she loves them like they are hers.

Georges Baby Ducks: Day 6

George, taking her 11 baby ducks for a walk-about

MEET PAUL DRAKE

This is the guy who made all these baby ducks happen, he's such a handsome boy

Mom and Baby Wood Ducks Playing 7-2-2021

 

 

 

Baby Ducks!

 You know it's going to be a good year when you see a mother Florida mottled duck with her babies in our beautiful pond.

 Last year - 2020 - was a very odd year (in so many ways)...   the papayas produced zero fruits, and we had no baby ducks.

 2021 is a very good year.  We have the positive omen of baby ducks, PLUS 18 baby chickens (awwwwww).

ANGEL FLEW TODAY

Our little wood duck, born and grown up on the P2 pond, flew for the first time today!

Baby Duck

Wait for me!  Baby duck zooming after the other ducks.  Can we play?

Wood Duckling vs Motted Duckling

We have "baby duck" living on the pond now, a duckling with no mother, and we were debating this morning on whether he was really a Wood Duck baby or if he was a Florida Mottled Duck or Mallard type.

As a differentiating characteristic, it comes down to the stripe over the eye and whether it goes all the way past the eye toward the beak, or JUST up to the eye.  Mallard/mottled has a stripe that goes all the way to the beak, wood duck has a stripe from the back, ending at the eye. 

Our "baby duck"has a stripe that ends at the eye.  So he's clearly a wood duck.

Which is good, because we named him Warren:  Warren BD (baby duck), like Warren Beatty.  LOL :D

Mallard type duckling - Stripe past the eye

Wood duckling - stripe UP TO the eye

One is Not Like The Others

A new duck family showed up today!

Mom, 3 black muscovy ducks, and 1 BRIGHT YELLOW muscovy duck.  Awww.  

Duck Family #3?

Today we saw four new baby ducks plus mom, joining the current mom plus three that have taken up residence.  It's hard keeping track of our duck families!  Still trying to name them all LOL.

Baby Duck Family #2 - And First Day of Summer

The 2nd baby duck family was spotted this morning - mom and five babies.  Brand new!  The first family moved on, but now we have mom and five tiny ducklings.  Pictures to come!

Baby ducks morning bath

Baby Florida Mottled Ducks Born!

It's day 1 for our 2019 baby ducks!  Six tiny Florida Mottled Ducks and mom appeared this morning.  We're hoping that mom is Ducky, one of our babies from last year.