1st Babies on the Homestead: Ducklings!!!
I am squealing with joy and an overload of cuteness! Today we saw our first duckling from Iris. I had actually counted the days out wrong. Apparently 35 days starts from the last egg laid and not the 1st day she starts sitting. So we’ve been waiting on pins and needles for 3 days! Oops.
(Iris and her duckling!)
This marks the completion of the 2nd milestone, the 1st babies on the homestead. It’s super exciting and I bet every clutch and every birth will have a similar level of excitement. Nothing says self-sufficiency like being able to complete the life cycle. Sure we could order 50 meat birds and put them in our freezer but it’s not a sustainable way of producing food. You HAVE to get those birds somewhere. This suits our life philosophy much better.
(that tanish yellow looking duck is one of our recent purchases. Isn't she pretty?)
Unfortunately, this is the only duckling I have seen so far. It’s entirely possible a couple more have hatched. It is rather cold so they are probably hiding under mama. Most likely most of them haven’t hatched yet. These 12 eggs were laid over a few days so they aren’t quite developing at the same rate though close. Stayed tuned for a duckling update in the next few days!
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oh my goodness, what a sweet cute little fuzzlewuzzle!!!
tiny things make me nonsensical. what i mean is, good job on focusing on the path of true sustainability! sure, you're going to eat it someday, but providing a great life for an animal is the best way to honour it before it goes back into feeding you & your family.
so excited to see more!
It's darling! This one may not get eaten. 6 of her ducklings are being traded for meat rabbits. She's sitting on 12 so whatever is left the females we will keep for eggs and the males will get eaten. Hopefully this little cutie is female!
OH MY GOSH YAAAY. I'm so SO happy for you guys. I can't handle how cute that is, with the duckling sitting on her shoulder like that (she looks so proud, too).
And we totally agree with you on being self-sustaining, in addition to self-raising, when it comes to food. It's a robust system that can support itself like that, and it's exactly what we hope to achieve someday as well.
I've been thinking about you all a lot, recently--we just added two new ducks to our weird little flock, and one of them is a Muscovy-Pekin mix. We just learned today that she's a "mule," so we won't be getting any viable eggs from her, but I'm hoping she'll be good at brooding!
awww yay! She's being very protective still but that might be because some of them haven't hatched yet. That would be cool. Someone mentioned in my muscovy group that they had one hatch out chicken eggs right along side duck eggs!
I like it. We have 7 females, and one drake. All muscovy, I hope to get some baby ducks this spring.
How old are they? This hen went broody at about 8 months! We also had 7 hens and one drake. Noe we have 8 and 2 but the new guys aren't mature yet. Hoping for some more females from this batch!
3 hens are over a year, 4 will be year old in april. 21°F was the high today. I think as soon as the weather warms up this spring they will get started.
Yayyyy!
No matter how many babies are born, it just never gets old...💖
You know the incubation period can vary, and I have found that in hot weather it is a little shorter than average, and in cold weather, it may take a few extra days. That's probably why you had to wait so long...
Congratulations on those cuties!!
I was counting from the 1st day so idk. Duck people told me to count from the last day I had just assumed the first. oh well! The suspense was intense though
I know what you mean! Those last days feel like FOREVER!! LOL
Any more show up?
6 total. I'm actually disappointed since apparently she was laying on 18 eggs!
Well, dont give up yet! Hatching can take place over a few days. And even if its only 6... Thats not a bad first birth! Especially in wintertime! 😁
She got off the nest and they were cold this morning 😭
Ugh! Well, honestly that probably means they werent going to hatch anyway.
I have tried rescuing eggs like that from chickens, where they abandon them, and 99% of the time those eggs were no good anyway... :/
Congrats on the babes! I was lucky enough to only have one male in the chicks that Dalle hatched. There will come a day when we have to process some of our hatched here babies though. Probably in less than a year. We've processed meat birds bought as day olds but this'll be different... Anywho, big congrats, keep the cuteness coming :)
I will definitely post an update when it's all done! Our first 6 ducklings we got from a local lady ended up all being female. We were hoping for at least one male so we could have him for Christmas dinner. Maybe next year 😁
Iris what a good mama, it's adorable, do you let it in the house, like some of the other homesteaders with ducklings do?
oh noooo. I don't think that duckling has left the nest at all. This was the only time I saw it. I'd prefer to let mama handle everything so it's less work for me!
Great way to start the new year on a high note! Congratulations on the newest arrival.
Thank you! Hopefully many more anazing things to come!
So supportive of growing and caring for your own food! I actually subsist on a plant-based diet, but fully respect people who recognize the importance of raising your own meat. So much more positive energy is given to the animals and in return, the owners!
Great story, can't wait to see all the future ducklings hatch!