Got a cool picture of the young Muscoveys, incubated and hatched around the beginning of October (it was a nice birthday present, hee, hee). There was 8 hatched out.
We had quite a number in the incubator, have learned quite a bit about incubating since that time. Many mistakes made and lessons learned.
We had purchased an egg incubator, I think it holds about 150 eggs, we did not put that many in, thank goodness, that would have been even more of a waste, due to being uninformed about incubation practice. We got 12 Muscovey eggs from the man who sold us the incubator, we put a mark on them and we put in about 12 of ours, no mark.
Out of all these eggs, 8 hatched, 6 of which came from the incubator dude, 2 of ours. One drake is what is called a "mule" (thanks to Angi's informations), he is sterile. He is the progeny of that horny black Indian Runner cross that loved all the girls.
The first picture is that of them just after they had been born, the second picture taken a short time ago, my they grow fast!!! The third picture depicts them when they are two and one half months old. Best of this great and wonderful day. Cindi
The first picture is shortly after they hatched. The "mule" is the one without the dark on its head I would venture. The third picture is of them now, but now the "mule" has the totally dark head, the others have white on their head. Isn't that an interesting thing? The reversal of the colour?
These little babies were so tame. One day they got out and decided to leave their "young" duck pen (it is beside the rabbits) and take a walk along the grass, over the bridge, to the deck that we were sitting on watching them. Gotta love those cute little duckies!!!
The last picture is one of the duck survivors from the time when the weasel got in and killed 10 of the drakes and ducks. She and another duck survived. Now they are just waiting for one of the drakes from these young drakes to grow up so they can have a mate. One of these ducks is going broody, she keeps sitting on her and her pals eggs, but they are obviously not fertilized, so I keep removing them. Regardless, every day, she still goes back on to sit on the eggs that these pals lay. I am tempted to give her some chicken eggs to incubate, it would fulfull her need to mother. But, would she raise chickens? I have no clue, but I kindof doubt it, hee, hee.
She loves to bathe, and for some reason she thought a great big pot would be the perfect place to have a bath. She has a very nice clean kiddies pool to swim in, but she really likes this pot. Strange things done in that midnight sun.