To help pass the time while we wait for our new blessing (as if we were bored!), we have become the recipients of six healthy, yellow, fuzzy baby Muscovy ducks! They all arrived about 1 week ago today, and have added alot of excitement and opportunities to waste time.
To help preserve life and peace in the pen, we had to remove four of the non-maternally inclined ducks, as one of the males munched the first hatchling. Kinda yucky...but the rest have done great.
The two remaining momma ducks are largely cooperative with ducky care. No need for duck training, as the babies comr pre-wired to stay near momma. They are speedy and quiet and eat flies like they were Cheetos.
They do everything together. Here (above) they are cramming together to keep warm on a cool, summer morning.
Here is momma housing them during nap time. She may not be affectionate, but she sure is protective! If we get too close to her brood, she hisses and gets really irritated. So, we are not cuddling the baby ducklings at this point.
[On a side note, several of the little boys now consider baby chickens to really be called "chickenlings". Language acquisition is so amazing! On a tangent, after telling Gideon to pick up clothes on the bedroom floor recently, he came back and said, "There was only one clo." I'm sorry, but we Kleins will always favor people over animals, no matter how fuzzy the animals may be!]
Anyway, the ducklings are growing like weeds, so we'll see if they get enough meat and feathers on them before the cooler weather hits.
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