My duck had her babies last week – sadly, 2 didn’t make it and died despite my best efforts.
On Friday, she left the nest with her eight surviving ducklings in tow and I checked the eggs left behind. Only to find one just pipping, with an alive duckling still inside.
I wasn’t impressed that she’d left it there and I’m too compassionate to let anything die if I can help it, so I brought it inside.
After finding it rather hard to keep warm in a box with heat packs, I gave up and tucked it in my bra.
Where the duck poked and prodded and eventually, started to emerge.
A few hours later, the hole was even bigger.
Well. A little bigger at least.
The hatching was very slow going and at 6pm, I remembered that I had a broody hen, without any eggs. So I popped the duckling under her to keep warm overnight.
However, the problem is, often chooks will peck to death anything that they hatch that isn’t a chook itself. Shame, but it’s how it works.
So at 8am Saturday morning, I went and checked my duck.
And it still hadn’t hatched.
I picked it up, still in it’s shell, with a hole about an inch across and looked at it. Struggling strongly still, the shell had dried out under the hen and the duckling had no hope.
A little bit of warm water, a few hours later and some serious help from me…
SUCCESS!
It did the final hatch in a box with it’s sibling. Before I went and stole the egg back from the hen, I found a duckling, supposedly dead in the shed. Cold and stiff, it’s foot twitched when I picked it up.
I wasn’t sure it would survive, but tucked it inside my top to warm up, while I went about the morning chores.
Coming back inside, I handed the half hatched egg to Nathan to keep warm and made up a batch of sugar water to hopefully perk up the 95% dead duckling that was unresponsive.
20 minutes of heat late (some of it from the hair dryer), some sugar water and a warm box later, the duckling was looking like it might just live.
They’re bloody tough.
I left both ducklings in the care of Nathan while I went into the city for a twitter meet up and when I came home, they were doing brilliantly.
Here they are Saturday night.
We had some issues with the little one with the black dot on it’s head – the mother got them wet too early and I think it caught a chill. It’s needed reviving a few times, but it appears to be getting a bit better now.
We’ll keep feeding them and babying them when they need it.
I mean, how could I not?
***
Unfortunately, we had a major problem with our ‘older’ ducklings – they managed to get into the big bathtub and couldn’t get back out again. I was appalled to find ten dead in the bath yesterday morning and angry with myself, because I’d meant to put a plank of wood in the bath and just hadn’t gotten around to it. I didn’t think they could make it into the bathtub yet.
They managed to jump the 12 inches to get into the bath, but couldn’t manage the 3 inches to get out of it again.
I’m so angry with myself still. The poor babies.
Needless to say, there is now a plank in the bathtub, so any other babies finding their way in will be able to get out again. This joins the standard ‘bricks in the water’ that all the shallow and low down containers had to prevent drownings. Next time I won’t just assume that they can’t jump up to the bath yet. Because obviously they could and did and well, fuck. The guilt.
Sigh.
HA HA HA Ohhh you so have got to submit that to a parenting magazine! Please do it! I would rather read this than a standard “how to get your kid to sleep through the night” or “waah, my body isn’t the same after having two children” articles.
Seriously, save some people stuck waiting at the doctor’s office when they forget to bring something good to read, would ya?
‘When good parents get a little confused about what they’re actually raising: A True Story’.
Like that?
That is so cool that you hatched a duck egg in your bra!!! Wow, I would be freaking out!
I’m sorry to hear about your other duckies though, I can’t believe they could get in but not out… from my experience ducklings aren’t the brightest creatures
We had some that really thought they were dogs, one of our dogs had puppies and the ducks would sleep with them at night as well as eat dog food, play with the dogs, and try to drink milk from the mama… It was adorable. They are named dog the duck and duck the duck… Alas friend with a dog that sadly was not so duck friendly moved in and we moved the ducks with the chickens, they ran off on a free ranging day and moved to the school across the street. I have heard that the kids love to play with the ducks.. but I miss them
We had a rooster that thought he was a dog when I was a kid. He used to ride on the handlebars of my bike. Hehehe.
It was pretty cool – it did the final bit of the hatch in a box with a heatpack and stuff, but yeah. I couldn’t let it die.
I’ve seen some parent ducks lead their ducklings into some pretty tough situations :\
Mother ducks are known for being incredibly stupid. Sigh.
You are a mother to all! Those chicks are precious.
I think that comes with the title ‘mother’. Suddenly you’re babying EVERYTHING.
Darls, you’re more of a mother to them than the feathered poultry critters what popped the eggs out.
Sorry to hear about the ducklings in the bath but yay on the other ducklings.
You’re telling me!
I know, I still feel awful about it. Those poor babies.
On the bath front I’m like that, can just about get in, getting out is another matter altogether. It was a shock to read at the end of such an overwhelmingly endearing post and I imagine you were somewhat traumatised to find so many of the poor wee things. Don’t blame yourself, blame their errant mum Veronica, its she who should be feeling guilty.
Oh yes, me too. I should have thought of it, but you don’t expect the ducklings to be able to make it in!
I had written the post the night before I found the ducklings dead, so I had to edit it. It didn’t feel right to have a ‘Yay! Ducklings!’ post and not mention the dead ones, especially as twitter knew about them. It wasn’t pleasant to find.
This story made my day. I am sorry about the little ones you lost, but the idea of you wandering around with a duck in your bra makes me so happy…
Oh good! It was actually really weird to do, but you’ve got an egg that needs keeping warm, what can you do? Heh.
Oh I was all smiling and hopeful then I got sad.
Me too. It was horrid finding the babies. I was on the phone to my SIL at the time and I think all she heard was a giant string of ‘fuck! fucking oath. FUCK’ from me.
I do admire your determination Veronica. That gives new relevance to the term bosom buddies though 😉
I know! I’m hoping that now it’s outside it does okay.
Sad to hear about the little duckies. But yay on the other two!
I was expecting to hear the duckling had hatched completely in your bra, then fixated on you as parent and now follows you everywhere.
No, I was careful not to let that happen. It fixated on it’s sibling (the black headed one) which sadly died this morning. I was sort of expecting it, it hadn’t been eating or growing properly, but it was sad.
That’s so gorgeous! Is there a reason you can’t help them hatch? Other than keeping them warm. I’m feeling guilty about the chicks we recently lost, I had no idea you could do sugar water and things to help them, we just kept them warm. At least our one with the bad leg made it.
There are blood vessels inside the membrane and if you help too vigourously, you can break them and they bleed. It’s better for the duck’s strength too, to struggle out alone. I helped mine a lot, because it just wasn’t happening otherwise. I removed the shell and sort of peeled back the membrane, enabling it to struggle free alone.
Sounds like a not-so-good mother duck to me there. *hugs*
Hatching a duckling in your bra… not many people would have the gumption to do that! xx
She’s honestly fucking terrible. I’m hoping the other ones sitting make better mothers!
So your new name is Daisy?
I think that went over my head. Explanation please? (Or maybe I’m just having a daft day. Probably)
Re: Daisy comment
Daisy Duck 🙂 Girlfriend of Donald, friend to Mickey & Minnie. Lol!
Of course! Gosh, I was having a daft day.
I am so going to remember the bra trick for our next chicken rescue!
Bugger about the ducks in the pond… but we live and learn right.
I had to wear a maternity bra to do it – something without underwire (or support, heh) works really well.
I know, I’m still kicking myself. Hopefully never again.
You are too, toooooo awesome, lady! I am so impressed! You’re the first person I’ve “met” who has hatched a ducking in her bra! 🙂
I do excel at really odd things! Hehehe.
Congrats on saving those two ducklings… you did more than I would ever think of.
And that stupid stupid “mother” duck needs a swift kick in the pants for leading her babies to that bath.
I know. My fault too, since they’re almost 6 weeks old she’s sort of abandoned them to their own devices. Hence the reason we lost 10, they followed one another in. Sigh.
I guess the water can be pretty sticky and hard to get out of in the bathtub (for small ducklings). Such a shame they died.
It really it. The poor little things.
Hello, just had a good read about your delightful ducklings! and had to laugh at the warmth of your bra to hatch one, loved it! Found your blog through Steves blog, from Cygnet. I also love chickens and ducks, and like the way you write, with so much description and spoken from the heart. Thanks for making me smile!
Thank you so much! You’ve made me smile in return. The little one is now doing brilliantly out with its mother and siblings, you’d never know it was 3 days younger now! I enjoy Steves blog – although I probably don’t comment as often as I should!
I think some days, the chooks and ducks are the best bit of living here. Ducks have so much character and I really couldn’t cope without my fresh chook eggs!
hugs
cute lil ducklings,,
dont let it get to you hun..
Thanks. I won’t, but it’s frustrating, you know?
What an awesome story. My first thought, when I saw the title, was “and was the bra still attached to you?” Apparently it was. 🙂 That little duck deserves a name.
And I concur with the one comment about submitting this to a parent magazine. Do it.
Yes, was still attached to me! The final hatch was in a warm box, but most of it was in my bra. It was sort of weird.
Bath’s are a killer, we have lost ducklings, whole ducks and chooks in our water troughs. Muscovies can be stupid mums though, as a kid I lost an entire hatching when a muscovy mum decided she would like to stay under a sprinkler on a hot day. All the ducklings got cold and died, couldn’t believe it. At least muscovies are normally good hatchers.
Impressed with the bra effort, as a bloke, I would have to develop my man boobs or pecks which combined with some chest hair might go close to doing the job.
We recently had our own disaster with our incubating duck eggs. Puss puss decided to sit on the incubator knocked the temperature switch and cooked 2/3s of the eggs. We ended up with 6 Aylesburys and 5 runners out of 30 fertile eggs.
We have hatched duckings under a chooks a couple of times with no hassles, if they haven’t already got chickens, it shouldn’t be a problem. I have 2 chooks sitting with duck eggs at the moment. However I have noticed that if a hen leaves the nest with their brood and an egg is unhatched, if you hatch the egg and then put it back with the hen, she will peck it to death!
This duck is a stupid stupid mum. It’s pouring with rain today (but warm) and she hasn’t bothered to keep her babies dry. If it continues I’m going to end up with the 4 smallest inside to dry out and have something to eat.
Pecs (or man boobs) would only work so long as you stayed laying down. I’m not sure that’s a feasible idea somehow!
Oh no! That’s something my cats would do too. Frustrating. I suppose that’s how it goes sometimes with animals though. You just try and stay a step ahead of keeping them all growing and alive.
Another idiot keeping animals when they don’t have a clue how to care for them!
Another idiot commenting on a subject they no nothing about. You troll morons will never learn!.
Did you hit the enter key before you thought that one through David? Didn’t your Mum teach you to criticize the act and not the person? It’s one of the tools in our civility “tool box”.
We had a duckling like that once. We had to help him out of the egg. He still did rather poorly. My girlfriend, who uses a wheelchair and sits all day, put him on her lap under her breasts and raised him there. We just changed the poopy towel on her lap several times a day. He grew up.
Yes, this one is doing rather well now too. At least, I assume it is – I put it out with the others and can’t tell them apart anymore.
hi i have three duck eggs and its the 28 and they never hatched when i candled them i saw the air sac and something black on the top but there was no movement and if a duck died in its egg would it float or sink. and for the air sac would anything happen to it or not plzzzz help me
i am hatching a egg i found at a pond i asked if i could keep it they said yes and i put it under a lamp that reaches 79 f – 90 f and every 2 hours i wet the shell with warm water
Your story caught my eye because I have quite often ended up with baby birds in my bra….Its warm, has a comforting heartbeat and means you can keep a constant eye on them! Im hatching 5 eggs that I took from a very silly mother duck. Im hoping all turns out well with them but at least I know now rats or snakes wont get them!
I know your pain with the babies in the bathtub….We make mistakes so that we can save others in the future. Your story really touched me, nice to know there are others like me in the world 🙂
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