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Neverbloom

By Neverbloom
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wendybr

wendybr

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, SomeGuy1977 said:

More ducklings have arrived!

All 3 of the girls have (or had) nests. A fox got in and hurt one of them (but for some reason didn't actually kill her; maybe the yap yap dog did something?). She didn't make it, so we took her eggs and put them in the other 2 nests, hoping they'd hatch around the same time.

Last week (during that rain 'event'), one of the nests hatched 15 of the eggs. This mumma rejected 2 of them. They were in a bad way. Normally the babies can walk a day or so after hatching. These 2 could hardly hold their heads up.1 has died, but the other is fighting on. We have her separated from the others (mumma attacks her a bit) and she's being hand fed for the time being. The kids thought she was lonely, so they got her a stuffed toy (a lama), which she loves.

I was starting to think the other nest wasn't live, until last night, when at least 2 of the eggs had started to hatch (or rather, I saw part of 2 ducklings sticking out from under this mumma). That's all I could see, as this mumma (who had the first batch a few months ago) was sitting on most of the eggs and not letting me see much. I did hear the 'tapping' of the eggs (called pipping), so I hope there's more ducklings there when I get home this arvo.

With the first batch a few months ago, puppa duck didn't really know what to do. He hung around, but kept his distance.Typical first time dad I called it. 'Now what the **** do I do?'. (I actually think mumma decided he was a dead **** and gave him the arse, but anyhow). This time round though, he's taking more of a active / protective role. He eats with them, swims with them, and when it's night time, mumma and puppa are both in the pen, ready to be locked in for the night. Mumma sitting on the babies, puppa sitting in front, guarding them.

With the second nest hatching, it will be interesting to see how this little community evolves.

Ohhh thank you for the duck update!

It's a little more mixed a report  than the first time around...but I'm glad that most are doing well - and that daddy duck is being helpful this time.

Please keep us updated!

:D:D

 

 

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thefairy

thefairy

Posted
Posted
33 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Alll this talk of ducks has answered my question about what to do pre game tonight before heading to SoP..

Chinese it is! Nom nom nom....

A good duck is a dead duck roasted, sliced up, rolled into a pancake with peking sauce.

 

Speaking about pets and food. I am planning to buy baby lamb off my mate. He owns a farm in Mudgee.

Billy (the name I will be giving the baby lamb) will be chilling in my backyard for a few weeks. On Christmas Day my dad, brother in law and I will be slaughtering Billy. Yum!

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SomeGuy1977

SomeGuy1977

Posted
Posted
20 hours ago, CaptainJess said:

Do you have photos? I would love to see the baby ducks :wub:

I do. I'll try to upload some over the weekend. It's pretty cool watching them hatch, actually breaking through the shell. And listening to them communicate. Like when they get separated. The babies change their chirping pitch and volume, and Mumma responds immediately with a short honk sound, and they find their way back to each other. (Sometimes followed by Mumma giving the babies a little nip, as if to say don't do that you little ****).

4 hours ago, sonar said:

Ducks are cool but can they help with gardening...?

https://twitter.com/champagnemikee/status/1070414307073146880

They won't help plant like that, but they can definitely keep it fertilised. A while back, my daughter was telling one of them to get off the deck. She (the duck) turned around, gave a little honk, and sprayed **** on her foot before waddling off. And if that wasn't bad enough, I made my daughter clean up the mess on the deck too. (Maybe now she'll listen to me when I say the ducks aren't allowed on the deck)

14 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Alll this talk of ducks has answered my question about what to do pre game tonight before heading to SoP..

Chinese it is! Nom nom nom....

I regularly crack the joke 'we should call this one Peking or Satay or Barbie'. So much so that I don't even get the dad joke groan anymore. Pappa duck, now that would be some roasting right there. I don't think I've ever seen him fly, and I doubt his wings would haul his fat arse off the ground.

The little ones though wouldn't more than a bite. There would be quite a few bites at the moment, especially now that the second nest has hatched another 5 or so. It looks like she's done too, since she's up and about with her babies now as well.

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Smoggy

Smoggy

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, SomeGuy1977 said:

I do. I'll try to upload some over the weekend. It's pretty cool watching them hatch, actually breaking through the shell. And listening to them communicate. Like when they get separated. The babies change their chirping pitch and volume, and Mumma responds immediately with a short honk sound, and they find their way back to each other. (Sometimes followed by Mumma giving the babies a little nip, as if to say don't do that you little ****).

They won't help plant like that, but they can definitely keep it fertilised. A while back, my daughter was telling one of them to get off the deck. She (the duck) turned around, gave a little honk, and sprayed **** on her foot before waddling off. And if that wasn't bad enough, I made my daughter clean up the mess on the deck too. (Maybe now she'll listen to me when I say the ducks aren't allowed on the deck)

I regularly crack the joke 'we should call this one Peking or Satay or Barbie'. So much so that I don't even get the dad joke groan anymore. Pappa duck, now that would be some roasting right there. I don't think I've ever seen him fly, and I doubt his wings would haul his fat arse off the ground.

The little ones though wouldn't more than a bite. There would be quite a few bites at the moment, especially now that the second nest has hatched another 5 or so. It looks like she's done too, since she's up and about with her babies now as well.

In the local Boro news a few years ago now there was a report on the declining number of ducks on a local village pond / stream....

Turned out a local Chinese takeaway were raiding them, chopping them up and putting them in the takeaway dishes...

 

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wendybr

wendybr

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, JackDoff said:

We occasionally kept ducks when I was a kid. Not as pets though......

i remember the time I told this to an ex g/friend and her asking me if we named them. “Sure! “  I said  “One was called  Sunday  and the other  Next Saturday....”

her look :shok:

:P

Her look? :shok:

Yes I can imagine. :nono:

Hurry up and move on you lot! 

This is the LIVE Animal and Pets thread....not the Dead, Chopped Up Former Live Animals/Meat thread.

 

It's over that way-----------------------------------------------------------------------> Food Thread. :P

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wendybr

wendybr

Posted
Posted

But anyway...

Speaking of dead animals...

Our staff got an emailed request on Friday, not to use the big mini skip bin.

It contains a dead alpaca.

One of our alpacas died (we have a school farm)......and it's been put in there!!

 

I feel upset about this!!

Upset that the poor creature died, and that this is how it's disposed of!! :(:(

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wendybr

wendybr

Posted
Posted

Nah...You're wrong!

I've AWAYS had a problem with Threads being derailed by food!

To me, anything other than eating (non-dead animal) food is boring.

Can't stand cooking shows  - discussion of food - pictures of food.

It totally bores me.

I just never bother to whinge about it, usually. :P

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Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, wendybr said:

But anyway...

Speaking of dead animals...

Our staff got an emailed request on Friday, not to use the big mini skip bin.

It contains a dead alpaca.

One of our alpacas died (we have a school farm)......and it's been put in there!!

 

I feel upset about this!!

Upset that the poor creature, and that this is how it's disposed of!! :(:(

What did they do with the fleece?

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SomeGuy1977

SomeGuy1977

Posted
Posted

A (mostly) live duck update

Babies from the first nest that hatched, enjoying a bit of sun. They've taken over the chicken coup (and yes, the chickens have moved into the duck area too).

4-B2-BB9-C1-159-C-4423-AF74-F8-D0669681-

The second nest to hatch (this is the mumma that had the babies about 3 months ago). Her nest had about 12 unhatched eggs, so we actually think these are the babies of the one the fox got (we took her eggs and put them into the nests, hoping some would survive).

88-A4-E828-6-D97-4041-86-E8-7-DCB4-C1775

One that I was able to catch (they're quick little buggers when they want to be). From the second nest. Mumma was not pleased with me. Had her head down and started charging at me

0221-F514-ED6-D-4082-9896-0-FAD3-AE097-F

Mrs Robinson. She was one of the 2 from the first nest that mumma rejected and we were hand feeding. She was the fighter. Very social little thing. Noisy. Loved being held (unlike the others lol). Sadly, she didn't make.

FA4622-A3-6-FCD-4300-9-BDE-EC413-EE066-E

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SomeGuy1977

SomeGuy1977

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, wendybr said:

Ohhh thank you SG!

This is what this thread should be all about!

A mixture of the delightful and the sad there :(!!

 

But I guess that's what's life is all about!

Seeing one of the eggs in the process of hatching (which isn’t easy considering the mumma gets really protective) is pretty awesome, especially for the kids. 

Like you said, some sadness in there too, but yep, that’s part of life. Doesn’t make it any easier to explain to kids (especially the one on the autism spectrum and takes it pretty hard), but it’s the natural end to life. 

And to think, if the kids didn’t turn their noses up at eating duck eggs (god only knows why they didn’t like them) we’d have never got the fat boy and we wouldn’t be where we are now. 

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wendybr

wendybr

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, SomeGuy1977 said:

And to think, if the kids didn’t turn their noses up at eating duck eggs (god only knows why they didn’t like them) we’d have never got the fat boy and we wouldn’t be where we are now. 

Well - I applaud your kids for turning up their nose at duck eggs!! :good:

PS I think I posted about this  last year..... But about this time last year, I was privileged to watch the hatching of some chickens in an incubator after school.

I was minding a class before Lunch, when the tap tap tapping sound and some movement of the eggs started...…. from a couple out of the of 8 -10 eggs in a Science lab.

I went back to the incubator after school and waited for about on hour, to watch 2-3 of them take about an hour to tap their way through their egg shells, and free themselves into the world.

It seemed an exhausting process, given that there would be some activity, then nothing for a while - as they seemed to rest for the next burst of activity. Such small increments of progress.

It was wonderful to witness! 

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Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Posted
Posted
46 minutes ago, wendybr said:

Ohhh thank you SG!

This is what this thread should be all about!

A mixture of the delightful and the sad there :(!!

 

But I guess that's what's life is all about!

Henceforth, I shall endeavour to respect that belief.

But  ... I may have an occasional weak moment,

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