THE GIFT THAT (HOPEFULLY) KEEPS ON GIVING
I am so glad that these creatures reproduce after their own kind!
Part of the goal of the @papa-pepper tribe is to provide more of our own food and an income for our family from home. Animals like our Muscovy Ducks are great for this. First of all, they grow very large and can provide a lot of food for us if need be. Additionally, they brood well, so if left to their own, they will mate, lay eggs and hatch them, without us needing to interfere in the process.
Three months ago, the @little-peppers made a post about receiving a pair of free ducks from some of our neighbors. Their ducks reproduce really well, and sometimes they will eat or sell them, but on this occasion they chose to bless our family with a pair and also the family of @bluerthangreen & @allforthegood. What an incredible blessing that was to help us all as we progress towards our goals and our future.
Then, a few days later, the neighbors chose to bless us with another female Muscovy Duck. The @little-peppers posted about that too! Now we had twice as many potential mama ducks!
Before too long, one of the mama ducks had made a nest and began to lay eggs. It wasn't too long until that next filled up a little more!
If you notice that smaller, darker egg on the left side, you will see that a chicken laid an egg in their too! Our chickens are not broody, so they do no sit on their eggs and hatch them. We will have to incubate the chicken eggs to get them to hatch... except for this one. This chicken egg may be hatched by the mama duck.
It is a good thing that they gave us that third Muscovy too, because she is the one who is sitting on the eggs! That sure worked out well for us. Perhaps the other one will join in one day, but for now, at least we have one sitting on the eggs.
Since Muscovy Duck eggs take 35 days to incubate, we still have a little time before we see how this will turn out. So far, we are optimistic and so excited. As long as we take care of the parent ducks, they will keep making babies for us, and we could have a never-ending supply! What an excellent opportunity, especially for free! What great neighbors!
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-mama-duck
Until next time…
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wow they seem to be producing well! what do you feed these ducks?
We feed them a bit of "store bought food" but they mostly forage really well, which is a huge bonus.
@papa-pepper Beautiful bird!
I raised Muscovies back in the day on the Llano Estacado.
what you say is true.
Cool. Wevare looking forward to seeing how this works out,
Beautiful birds!
Thank you! They sure are.
Tastes like chicken*
We'll give it a try!
very nice very cute duckss
They sure are! Thank you.
In our area they are called deaf ducks :)
Interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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Followed back. Thank you.
There are certain breeds of birds that wont to be broody.
You can often add eggs to these mother's nests.
Especially if you handle them so they are used to you and your smell.
Also, incubators are fairly cheap and do everything.
Temperature, humidity, rolling the eggs over...
Right. We will be working on that sometime soon. Thanks my friend.
Aww that's great! What a nice neighbours you have :-)
I hope they do well and I'm sure the little peppers don't mind the animals :D
The @little-peppers enjoy them a lot, but we can't wait for ducklings.
Oh my gosh, that would be so cute! You'll share pictures, right? :D
We sure will. In fact, we'll keep you posted.