Permit me to bore you with tails of my grandducks. There much to report, and lots of photos and videos, but I’ll try to restrain myself in this post. On Tuesday, one of our duck farmers reported another hen and a newborn brood had entered Botany Pond. There were nine of them, and they were skittish. But both duck farmers managed to get food into them and, mirabile dictu, all the hens got along.
Secret Duck Farmer sent this early report:
The new mom was most definitely skittish and very nervous about my presence. She kept mostly to the smaller side of the pond. I was able to feed both her and babies by being patient. There are definitely 9 new little ones and they are tinier than even Anna’s brood were when first met them. I’m attaching pictures from this morning’s miracle of miracles.
Katie came over to the new brood while I was there, she was on her own, her own brood was on the island, rings and lily pads. She swam up to the new brood and mom calmly, no chase was given she ate some food and swam away. I included a picture that shows Katie and the new mom and some of the new brood. If anything she seemed to keep her brood away from the new young ones. Later she pushed them into the corner of the pond near the duck ramp and when the new mom went venturing into the larger part of the pond she again swam over, didn’t chase or make noise, one of her ducklings followed and she turned and chased him/her away. For now everyone seems happy. Anna’s brood didn’t seem bothered. They came close to the ducklings at one point but then returned to the beach and napped by mom. I’m also including one picture that shows how close together Katie’s brood and Anna’s sleeping ducklings were also without issue. I’ve also attached a close up Anna’s ducklings which show their new feathers, I think I have photos from yesterday that I didn’t send that show the first tiny feathers, I’ll look for them and send later.
Here’s the new mom and her nine offspring (this makes a total of 27 ducklings and 3 hens). The hen needs a name, so feel free to suggest one.
Nine—count them—nine!
Anna’s brood, with the ducklings getting big.
Broods #1 and #2: Katie’s brood (swimming) and Anna’s brood (foreground on the beach) coexisting peacefully:
Brood #3 discovers the lily pads:
And the first video of brood #3:
A few more snaps. I’ll miss these little guys in their first two weeks of life.
Along the wall you can see two hens getting along. One is Katie, mother of the oldest brood, and the other is Hen X, the new mother. All is placid—for the time being
Wow, a total of 30 ducks on a small piece of water. Hopefully, no wild animals show up.
“Predators”, surely? Wild or tame.
Jerry, did you mean “tales”? (first sentence)
It was deliberate; I often use “tails” when referring to duck stories.
Coexisting peacefully, because you *did* “bring enough for everyone!”
Yes, and we just ordered more duck food.
Somewhere between xenophobia and a rational concern about new organisms introducing new pathogens?
Could we name the third hen Grania? I hope this suggestion doesn’t sound disrespectful, as it surely isn’t intended to be.
I thought about that yesterday and am not sure I’m quite comfortable with that. I’ll ponder it. In the meantime, readers are welcome to suggest other names.
I thought (wrongly) that most wild animals gave birth/incubated eggs at roughly the same time. The fact that these duck broods are months apart seems strange to me (but probably shouldn’t).
The duck children may continue to increase! How about starting to use numerically based names? For example:
Tertia: occasionally used in the UK for the third child in a family.
Tressa is a Cornish word meaning third.
Daphne, as a play on the cartoon character, and because of the aquatic connections of the mythological character.
I am so happy & so thankful that you and your “helpers” are taking so much care with these ducks & ducklings. So many people would just ignore them … or worse. I am really impressed at how much effort you take with them and understand your costs (we feed lots of birds, but don’t have any ducks around).
Thank you!!!
Hennifer 🙂