A pleasant surprise—Duck story chapter 2

I told you around Little Sister's birthday in April that the 2 remaining ducks who were living here at Lester's Flat had ditched us...or were about to. They had stopped letting us close them up safely at night, but were still coming back during the day to hang out with the chickens (and eat the chicken feed). The pictures I took then were probably the last day that they even came back during the day. The neighbor out front said he had seen them behind the barn a few times even a week or more later, but now they have disappeared completely.

I choose to believe that they found the creek and moved down there, or maybe down to the lake to make a happy life together. The alternatives are not pretty.

Early this morning we got a phone call that of the 10 eggs I stole from the nest back in April, 3 of them hatched! I gave them to Elmer, a neighbor with an incubator, just in case they might give us some more duckies. I didn't really expect them to hatch because they had been in the crate outside for several very cold days without a momma sitting on them.

Three hatched, but one of the ducklings was pretty obviously not healthy. He or she had trouble breaking out of the shell, and was all wobbly and weak while the others were moving about normally. The poor little thing died a few hours later.

The remaining 2 are so far, very happy little ducklings out in the garage, under the heat lamp. I will do my best to help them through these difficult first few days.

So adorable! And just in time for Middle Sister's birthday! Happy birthday (almost) Middle Sister!