More eggs

We found 10 new eggs today in a new nest in the corner of the pen. We collected these eggs and will be checking to see if they have been fertilized. We have kept the male duck our of the general pen for a couple of days, cause he's really been a pest around the little duckies. Stay tuned...

Ducks for Sale

The Longworth Family had a yard sale today. And you know what that means...baby ducks for sale! $5 each. We had two families come around the same time and each family took a pair of babies. We think we were giving them one male and one female, based on the ducks' markings. So we sold 4 ducks! Well, then a little while later, one family brought them back because the mom was certain that the little girls were going to strangle the ducks within a matter of hours. The mom said she'd rather have the ducks survive!! So, they came back. We now have 6 little ducks outside.
We had one little duck inside. Bill and I were going to try to be good duckie parents and not send this one out into the big bad duck pen to soon. The others haven't survived. Well, this one still didn't survive and we kept him inside. Perhaps we left him in the incubator too much? We gave him food, water, attention, a towel...one of the websites we looked at suggested a "brooding lamp" or heat source of some sort. Guess the incubator was too hot. Or maybe it was the food? Or maybe it was us handling him wrong? I don't know.
This is very frustrating for us. Slightly depressing as well. We've hatched 4 eggs here in the basement. We've lost 4 babies. One of them we aren't sure if it was a basement duck or not, but my guess would be yes. :-(
I hope we get another chance to try to get it right. We'll do more "research" in the meantime.

But until then, we will enjoy our 6 little ducks that we still have! They sure are getting big! I take pictures all of the time, but just don't get around to getting them on the computer.
I'm still REALLY bummed about our two recent losses. Those were very sweet little ducks.
Please, Lord, can we have another chance?

Current Duckie Status

It's been an interesting few days. We were up to ten ducks. Then down to 9. Then we lost another one. :-( Perhaps being passed around to various kids that afternoon did him in. Or perhaps he was one of our incubator ducks...that didn't quite make it. We don't know, but it was quite sad. :-(
So then we were back down to 8 again. And those 8 sure are growing!!!! They are getting so big. Well, another day, not too long ago (can't remember exact days at the moment), one of our "inside eggs" hatched! Yippee. He was so sweet! I tried to take him out to the big ducks but he wanted to crawl around on my hands, arms, legs, lap, etc. Very sweet. It broke my heart to put him back with the other ducks. I wish we hadn't. He didn't make it. They got him. Looks like the bigger ducks did him in. :-( Very sad. I don't like those big ducks picking on my babies!!!

SO - new approach! After those 8 have been doing quite well, it looks like the mamma ducks really don't care about the rest of their eggs. They aren't sitting on them as much, so we took them in. ONE ALREADY HATCHED!! That was fast! Typically, we hear the squeaking egg and the next day, a duckie arrives. Well this one only took an hour or two to push on through that shell.
We are NOT putting him out with the other ducks!! No way. We found a website that has some duckling tips, so we are going to try to keep him inside with us. :-) We've still got a bunch of eggs in the incubator, so we may still get a few more inside ducks. Of course we aren't going to let them roam the house or anything! Hopefully, our inside babies will last better with us. We don't have a very good track record at this point. Keeping our fingers crossed!

Update on the duckies

Our little duckies are growing. We have been letting them out to roam around a bit. The past few days, the babies have taken it upon themselves to get out and roam! Neleh is our expert duckie watcher. She spotted them out the first time a few days ago. Then they did it again. And again! This morning, as I was getting ready for the day, I peeked out then window and there they were again! I think they've been getting under the chicken wire. They ended up on the street side of the pen then ran around to the Halls' yard. I'm not sure where they started this time. (This laptop keyboard is driving my batty! I am not used to the "key placement." I keep typing stuff I don't want to. I give up. I'm not correcting sutff now. Deal with it. Besides, this compuetr saus it has a media resaser and I can't fid it.)

Anyway, I'm beginning to believe that 9 babies is all we are going to get. And that's ok. What on earth are we going to do with 9 more duciks anyway? I swear I'm not this bad of a typist. Just having a hard time getting used to this keyboatrd. That's it!!! I'[m done for now. I'll have to go bnack to my desktop for the next roung.

Duckies today

Still just nine babies today, but they look great! We let them run around the yard a little bit this afternoon. They sure are fun to watch. We just have to keep them away from the driveway and back fence. We've got two big dogs that live behind us. I'm sure they'd love to play with some baby ducks! A bunch of the little guys went to the Halls' yard again today, but they figured their way back. Not really anything remarkable today. Still 9 duckies. Still a bunch of eggs in there. We'll just have to wait and see...

And then just 9 again :-(

It was a sad morning in the Longworth duck pen. One of our little guys wasn't out walking around with the others this morning. We'd lost him. :-( Maybe it was the one that hatched yesterday. Maybe the transition from incubator to outdoors was too rough on him. Maybe it wasn't him and some other little one got sick, or whatever. :-(
The others are doing quite well.
We let them all out into the yard today...under supervision. They all wandered out and walked around in the grass for a while. We finally had to put them back in when we realized we would end up "duck-watching" the whole day if we didn't! Duck-watching is fun and relaxing, though.
I think we may start letting them roam around more often...when we are willing to stand guard! Don't want any neighborhood cats or dogs to get them. They don't seem to have the desire to fly away. The little guys kept climbing through the chain link fence into the neighbors' yard. Most of them figured out how to get back over to our side. Becka had to run around to get the other one.
I got video. You'll see it...someday...
Come over to the house and see them LIVE!

And 10...

FINALLY! The girls and I were able to witness and acutal hatching! The egg was squeaking and rolling around when I got to bed. I figured they little guy would probably hatch while we were out for the day. We went to church, to the baseball game, to Mom's house. The egg was still unhatched. So I started watching it. (Duck watching is quite addictive. Probably better for you than TV). I got my video camera and was prepared. It was certainly going to break though any second. I set the camera up on something to tape while I ran to get the girls. And Rebekah, Neleh and I enjoyed Mother's Day watching an egg hatch to reveal a little duckling.
The freshly hatched ducklings seem so helpless. They are wet and sticky. They can barely get their balance to walk.
Since I did get the thing on video, I'm going to play around with Bill's computer later and see if I can find a way to post the video. (I can't use my computer cause it doesn't have "firewire.")

The girls got to hold babies for a little while today. Those little duckies are quite squirmy and hard to hold on to! The girls from down the street, Samatha and Sierra, were here and also help them.

We left the pen gate open after we put duckies back in. I stood back and watched. Most of the ducks wandered out of the pen. The adults were digging around in the grass for food, I guess. All 3 of the big ducks came out. We may let them roam the yard a little more now...under supervision, of course.

And then there were 9

At my last post, we had 4. Well, it's up to 9 now. I think we had 6 Friday morning when we left for MOPS around 9:00. We had 8 total duckies when we got home in the afternoon.

This morning we saw a new little one in the box with the mamma duck. Freshly hatched and wet.

Our ducks have had some special visitors the past couple of days. Some of our friends and neighbors have stopped in to see them. Not sure if the big ducks appreciate all of the attention or not. ;-)
I do believe that there pen is a bit more smelly now than before, though :-(
I changed the water earlier today cause it was nastier than ever! Yikes!! Of course, as soon as you give the ducks a full container of fresh, clean, clear water, they splash around in it and you are left with HALF a container of not-so-fresh, not-so-clean, certainly-not-clear water.
The babies are able to drink from the shallow rubbermaid lid. They have also been swimming in it a little bit. Have I mentioned that they are SO cute?

We've got another sqeaking egg, so I anticipate that we will have another duckling in the basement tomorrow. With our luck, it will probably hatch while we are at church. We'd like to be able to watch a full hatching sometime. Anyway to make a duck hatch faster??

A new baby

We've got a couple of new babies today!
We watched that squeaking egg for a long time last night. Then we watched the beginning of a hatch for a long time this morning. Once everyone left the house for a little while this afternoon, the duck decides to come out of the shell! How frustrating. I came back to the house around 2:00 and there he/she was. Still wet from the hatch. Very cute and pitiful. I'm leaving it in the incubator till the rest of the family gets home. I'm hoping he/she will have time to dry off and fluff a little bit. If anyone knows anything about ducks, please give us some tips. We are making it up as we go. Hey! That's how I do most everything!!

We counted ducklings outside earlier today and there are now 4. They are extra cute. One of them was swimming in the rubbermaid lid of water we set out. The little guy is very independent it seems. The drake, Daffy, is really a pest these days. He was trying to chase the cute little duckie around. That's where the momma duck steps in and throws a fit. I think we may have to get Daffy out of there. He is really bothering the ladies.

I hear lots of little squeaks even now from my computer chair. I could spend all day watching them. :-) Of course you realize that this is also turning into homeschool science. ;-) We've been "doing school" on the back porch lately and are often distracted by the duckies. So we have a brief interlude of science here and there.

The squeaking egg

This has to be one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. One of the eggs in our incubator is moving and chirping. There are no cracks in it, so it's not quite hatching, but there is something alive in that one. I've got video clips, but I don't yet know how to upload them to my computer, nor how to use them here. Stay tuned...

Baby Duckies

We have some new arrivals to announce! Day before yesterday, we found two broken eggshells at the edges of the duck cage. We didn't see any baby ducks, so it was quite mysterious and we wondered if perhaps the mama ducks had "disposed" of these eggs since they were no good. We were sure what to make of it.
Yesterday, we discovered two cute little ducklings!! We have Neleh to thank for the duckling spotting. Bekah (her newly adopted spelling) and I were doing school on the porch when Neleh told us. I wasn't quite ready to belive her, but she was right!! They are so cute. I took pictures. Once I learn more about this blogging stuff, perhaps I'll post the pictures.

Well, on May 6, Bill had decided that he had waited long enough for baby ducks and was taking matters into his own hands. He collected 8 duck eggs and brought them inside to the incubator. In response to a suggestion from our neighbor, Has Hall, we marked the shells of the other eggs with the date, 5/6. This would help us to know if any new eggs were laid.

This afternoon, Bill went to the incubator to "turn the eggs." One of the eggs had hatched!! There was a freshly hatched cutie in our basement! He was still wet and everything. We carefully put him on a paper plate and carried him out to the duck pen. Sadly, the mother ducks are not really accepting him. :-( He's so cute though. They are snubbing him quite a bit. You'd think that they'd have taken him in so easily, but no. The other two ducklings are nestled in the back of the box, and our little guy is stuck on the outside. He was trying to nudge his way in between the mamas earlier without much luck.

A ha! I may have discovered my purpose for blogging. A diary of duckies.

The point of blogging

Well, some people have very interesting blogs with lots of interesting stuff on them. You can actually learn a lot from people's ramblings!! It is very annoying, however, to google a topic for "research" only to get a list of blogs. :-( I have a friend who is running for President, using blogs as a means of campaigning.
My dearest husband has started a blog...at least signed up for one...to post his regular "articles" of interest to folks.
Some people use blogs as a journal.
Some folks use it as a way of communication.

So, what about me? Why the heck am I blogging? I'm not running for office. I'm not sure I want the whole world to see what I am thinking about. I'm not sure I have anything to offer to the world any way.
Perhaps I'm just here cause if I'm not on "myspace" and don't have a "blog" then I am really "out of it." Well, now I have both. So what?
During February, "myspace" was somewhat useful in posting songs for FAWM. Well, February is long gone. I've got more "friends" now, but don't know what to do with them. I actually have two "myspace" locations somehow. I can't get them to merge, I don't know how, so I am friends with myself. *sigh*
Perhaps I'm blogging cause I can. Perhaps I just have a blog and since I only have 3 entries now, it shouldn't really be considered "blogging." I have a blogspot. Not much more than that.

I am sure this message will be an inspiration to many. Inspires one to really ask the question, "why the heck am I blogging?"

Oh, pizza's done.