Sunday, August 19, 2007

Baby Ducks!

On Friday Jamie called me to tell me that he had found three little wild ducks. They were only about two days old and seemingly without their mum. He found them along the railway line and he looked up and down and couldn't find a sign of their mum. He had popped them in a box with a hot water bottle wrapped in an old jumper along with a snack. We weren't sure if they would make it but they did fine.


I have a clucky silkie here and her eggs didn't hatch so we thought, maybe, we could put them in with her. I posted the question on ALS and the ladies 'in the know' said that a silkie would be a good option (if we were sure that their real mum wasn't coming back!) We waited until about 11pm then crept up to her broody box with a blue light and snuck the little ducks under her. She wasn't very impressed to start with! We persevered until the cold took hold and we all decided to call it a night. We still weren't sure if she would keep them warm enough over night. I jumped up early and went for a look. How cute is this!

The ducklings must be bi-lingual as mum is clucking away happily and the little ones are peeping back! Everyone is Happy!

5 comments:

Michelle said...

What a lovely picture Kirsty. If only people could be as accepting of differences as your silky and ducklings are.

Unknown said...

aahhh ~ how cute!! :)

Lucky-1 said...

How cute is this. I to have used silkies to hatch and bring up ducklings. Mum handles the paddling babies quite well too.

The Duck Herder said...

OH how lovely Kristy! Do you think they are pacific black ducks? We have hatched out duck eggs under the silkies in the past, and it works incredibly well (although ducklings can not climb ladders!) But what a lovely chooky to take on those little ones when they were already hatched. Clever Silkie! And what balm to your silkie's heart after her eggs failed to hatch! :o)

Jenny said...

We had a dear sweet hen who brought up three ducklings and did a fine job until she tried ti teach them how how to scratch for food . They kept standing right behind her and got dirt in their faces. They couldn't figure our what to do and she couldn't work out how to help them.