Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Indian Runner Ducks: Three Weeks Old


Raising six ducklings is what I imagine raising a new born to be like except on accelerated speed and no baby-monitors. On second thought its probably not even close but for us right now its the closest we are going to get. My most recent worry has been focused on "legalities" (of which I will not divulge here, yet) and getting them outside as much as possible. You see they are getting big. Real big and stinky. Their adult feathers are coming through on their wings and upper torso and the chirps are tiny quacks with chirps sprinkled in. Still cute, still relatively young, they are strong, healthy and definitely ready to get into the garden. However they are still too small and not quite ready to go off to college just yet. We switched from pine shavings in their brooder to straw and they are going through their duckling starter feed at a steady rate. Once the bag is gone we will switch to the adult mix with vegetable supplements and ample foraging time. They are wonderful and I adore them. Enjoy the photos from the sharer taken over the past week. The image second from the top and last image were taken last night.

You can see their downy feathers coming out on the duck butt on the left!
XOMC