Hatchwatch 2011 - two little ducklings

Our crazy Khaki Campbell Lucy(fer) has successfully hatched two ducklings! I'm trying very hard to have faith in her ability to protect them because the two little ones are roaming about the neighborhood and yard. I tried to pop them in the new pens on the West Wing of Bunhalla, but they popped right through the fencing. *sigh*

So for now, they are with Mamma Lucy and they are everywhere. I'll try to get a few pictures this afternoon. Right now, she's hiding them under the woodpile.

We're naming them, sans gender identification, as William and Kate!

Burning Cuteness!

This evening I made the difficult decision to take the ducklings away from Lucy. She's unable to keep them with her, which means they were very much in danger from the owls, local cats (including Libby) and Doodle. Add to that the difficulties of getting them water (none of the outdoor waterers are low enough for two barely hatched ducklings and Starter Feed.

The smaller one, Kate, kept wandering off and getting into trouble. Typically, finding herself being played with roughly by Doodle. I rescued her a few times and popped her back with her mother, Lucy. Not an easy thing to do because the ducks run from me unless I'm feeding them. You can imagine the stupidity of me walking around our rough yard, trying to hand back the wanderer to her furious spitting mother. At one point, instead of running back to her mother, she ran back to me. At that point, I gave up, grabbed her sibling (William) and popped them in my jacket pockets. Yes, in a jiffy, jacket pockets are safe and warm duckling holders.

But really, you're just here for the pics, right?



In that first and last ones, you can see the bright yellowed colored 'bib', the hallmark of the Swedish duck which means these are likely Silver Swede/Khaki Campbell mixes. Yellow down turns to white feathers, for those curious.

Looks like I'm gonna need a new avatar!