It's Official! I Am A Quack Dealer!

So, during the ten days I was at the State Fair, a magical thing happened, I went from 11 ducks to 34 ducks!

The thing is, I don't really desire to have more than eleven ducks, but being a somewhat kind person, I said I'd let the ducks hatch a few more ducklings for a friend of mine who wanted their own flock.

I just didn't think I would get the duckacolypse!

I mean, just look at this pile of quackers:

Apparently the murder of ravens who usually help themselves to the duck eggs decided to be all benevolent and left them all to hatch. Holy feathers and fowl do I have my hands full!

And there were actually 25 ducklings hatched on two different days. On the 19th I popped in to check on things and saw 8 little waddling floofs that I had the children promptly collect and put in the nursery in the barn. All eight of those littles are doing well and growing like mad, as you can see in the picture above.

The hatch on the 31st broke all previous duck hatching records on the farm. That morning when I went to feed the ducks, I heard the tell-tale peeping of baby ducklings. The kids rounded up twelve of them, and to be honest, I was impressed with that clutch, that's a lot of baby ducks.

However, the next morning when I went out, I spied four more. Seriously, that mama duck hatched 16 ducklings all together, my eyes slightly crossed.

However, not all the little squeaking fowls made it. One of the giant batch had improperly developed legs and didn't make it til nightfall, poor little quacker, and another is probably not going to make it until tomorrow as it too is not quite fully developed and thriving. Which is a bit sad, but also the reality of homesteading and tending to animals. Nature is metal.

That said, I did leave the last three I found yesterday with their mama as I figured she didn't need to be deprived of all her children.

And just to clarify, I usually remove all the baby ducks because most of the mamas aren't the greatest mothers in my flock, and any babies that hatch are usually dead by nightfall if I do leave them with the flock. And no, I am not exaggerating.

However, the mama duck who hatched the massive clutch is an proving to be an excellent mother and the three I left with her are doing great, as are the heathens in the barn nursery.

I'm waiting to hear from my friend to see how many ducks they would like and then I get to do some unexpected duck-rehoming. You know, right in the middle of back to school and harvest time lol! Pieces of cake.

They are pretty cute though😊

So now that I am unexpectedly duck rich I am having a rethink of how I manage my flock a bit. All last year in the orchard the ducks only hatched one clutch of eggs. I think next year I am going to have to be a bit more intense in my management.

But I do so love the duck egg baked goods, the pest control, and glorious fertilizer the ducks provide!

And at least the ducks are snug in the orchard and the barn nursery. Right now my whole house is a nursery for these:

It's going to be an interesting Fall😉