Our first ducklings are here!

Back at the beginning of March two of our Muscovy ducks (our blue hen I call Cinder and one of the self-blues I call Angel) laid their eggs in the hollow base of an old oak tree in the cow pasture just a few feet outside of the poultry run. So, for a few weeks now I have been peaking into the tree every morning and asking "Any babies in there yet?" and there never is... that is until this morning!

This time when I looked in on the ducks I saw a small little head sticking out from under Angel. I was so excited to finally have a baby duck around. My next thought was that I needed to move everybody out of the tree right away because if the duckling(s) wandered out of the tree they would be fair game as a snack for our Livestock Guardian Dogs.

I got a bucket out of the barn and put some hay in the bottom and headed back to the tree. I scooted Angel off to the side and found 5 hatched ducklings and one egg that was mostly pipped out. I put them in the bucket along with some of the unhatched eggs. I moved them into an empty brooder in the chicken coop. Back at the tree I reached under Cinder and found two more ducklings and a bunch more eggs. I moved them and both Cinder and Angel into the brooder. By the end of the day we had 19 ducklings hatch out. They are so very cute!