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Ducks!!!!!!!
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Ducks!!!!!!!
Ducks!!!!!!!
I wanted to share some stuff about my grandparents' pets who I love a ton! DUCKS! P.S. This is all true, unexaggerated stuff.
Chapter 1
Ok... So let me take you back a year ago. My grandparents decided to get ducks to keep on their pond in the backyard. So they got 3. They were all supposed to be girls, but 2 turned out to be guys. Anyway, before we knew that, we had named them. (All the ducks are named after side-long harry potter characters). We had Tonks, Bellatrix, and Molly. Molly turned out to be the girl. We had a duck house which they would go into every night. After a few weeks, the boys refused to go in the house, preferring to stay on the small pond. (There is an island, 3x5 feet, about, in the middle.) However, Molly stayed in the house, laying eggs. (We always left the door open, day and night) We would collect them every day. One day, though, she hid her eggs in the house and we didn't look carefully enough. She stayed on them all day, all night, and the next day we wanted to know why she was in her duck house most of the time. When she left to go for a swim, we looked. Eggs! Now, Pekin Ducks are usually poor mothers, but Molly was very good. We let her keep her eggs, highly anticipating them hatching! Well, one morning, (about 1 week from when the eggs would hatch) as I went out to feed the ducks, I looked in the duck house. Molly wasn't in there. I glanced at the other two, calmly eating away. Molly, when out of her duckhouse, always stayed with the guys. None of them every wandered away. I walked around the edge of the property. Right by the forest, I saw something I didn't want to see. I knew what it meant, and didn't want to believe it. Feathers, white pekin duck feathers, were scattered all over. No bones, no blood, no feet or bill. Just feathers.I had to go inside and tell everyone. We were all upset. It seems silly to cry for a duck, but these were our pets.
Molly, RIP. You were a great mother and will be missed.
I will post 3 big other adventures we had later. The first is what we did with the eggs, the second is new ducks, the third is "Animal Attack"!
submitted by Elmodaisy, age Ducks, Duckhouse
(June 22, 2016 - 4:17 pm)
(June 22, 2016 - 4:17 pm)
I'm so sorry about Molly! Other than that, I love it! RIP, Molly.
(June 23, 2016 - 9:19 am)
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(June 23, 2016 - 3:40 pm)
Chapter 2.
After I told everyone the news, i suddenly thought: Oh no! The eggs! My mom and I run out to the eggs. We feel 1 of 4. Darn. It is cold as ice. "Wait a minute." I thought. "There are supposed to be four eggs... I only see 3!" I told my mom this, and we looked around. It was I who found it, in the pond, broken. Empty. (It was close to shore and the water is fairly clear) Well, we couldn't help that egg, but the other three? We picked them up and carried them inside. I scanned the Internet for any information, even called some people. All they could tell us was, "They might not be dead; it depends how long they were left alone. Get an incubator!" Well, it took much convincing, but I finally coaxed my mom to buy a $50 incubator. Meanwhile, I filled a pot with warm water and gently placed the eggs in it. I had read that if they are alive, they would be moving around. From the first egg, there was a ton of activity! I was excited. For this story's sake, let's call it Egg 1. Anyway, Egg 2 was moving a bit, but not much. Egg 3 wasn't moving at all. Once my mom came home, we immediately put the eggs in the incubator. (Side note: While the eggs were in the nest, we had marked all the eggs to tell which was which. Egg 1 had a circle, egg 2 had an "x", ect.) Well, collecting the unmarked eggs from Molly, we usually ate them but there was 1 we hadn't eaten yet. It was in the fridge. Well, true fact: you can still hatch refridgerated eggs. So we put that one in the incubator, too. We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. I did so much research; how to tell if an egg is dead, how to tell if it is alive; how soon it is going to hatch, ect. The next day we candled the eggs; we held up a flashlight to the egg in a dark room. We did that with each day. I will show you:
(Note: Although this really did happen, some days elapsed in between. E.G: Day 1 and Day 2 could be 2 or 3 days apart.)
Day 1:
Egg 1- Moving around a bit, still the most active of the eggs, has something dark next to a part of the shell! Weird.
Egg 2- Moving around. Nothing to note.
Egg 3- No movement... Things looking grim to this egg.
Egg 4 (the refridgerated egg): No developing
Day 2:
Egg 1- Not very active, dark spot is spreading. I looked it up. Please don't let it be what i think it is...please.
Egg 2- Active! Looking good!
Egg 3- This egg is smelly. It is dead. We throw it out... if we leave it in, it will explode and contaminate the rest of the eggs.
Egg 4- Small veins are forming...
Day 3
Egg 1- No! It is what i thought it was! The egg was cracked, bacteria got in... This egg is infected. All infected eggs die. No movement. Dark ring is blood. We have no choice but to throw it out.
Egg 2- No movement. Maybe it is sleeping?
Egg 3- RIP
Egg 4- I see a heart! It is beating!
Day 4
Egg 1-RIP
Egg 2- Can't see much. the thing inside is dark (this is natural). Not sure if there is movement.
Egg 3-RIP
Egg 4- Dark blob; i see the heart, it is still beating, i can see it! (The blob is the heart)
Day 5-
Horrible smell. Oh no. An Egg is rotted, either 2 or 4. It is 2, and by day 6 the last one is dead, too. RIP, eggs of Molly.
(June 23, 2016 - 4:18 pm)
Aw, I'm so sorry, Elmodaisy. :( It's so sad when something kills your pets. I know how you feel; a fox killed three of our ducks. And 40 or 50 of our chickens. And I was so, so, SO mad. I still am mad.
How long ago was this? Not long ago? If it was only six or seven days ago, you may want to keep an eye out. Whatever took Molly will most likely return for the two male ducks.
(June 23, 2016 - 5:49 pm)
Thanks, guys! Thanks, cockleburr! Actually, the animal did return, and we saw it had chased it away. I will write that chapter soon!
(June 24, 2016 - 9:55 am)
I'm so sorry Elmodaisy! I also keep birds, though mine are chickens, not ducks, and I completely understand that these ducks are your pets. We have no roosters, so none of our eggs will ever be fertilized, but I can feel what you are going through. I'm so, so sorry for you, Molly, and Molly's children. :(
(June 23, 2016 - 6:30 pm)
Wow, guys, ive heard this story a million times... animal attack is so scary! just... shocking
(June 23, 2016 - 6:34 pm)
Ch. 3 (New ducks)
Once Molly was gone, and there were only 2 ducks, we decided to get 2 female duckiings. We named one Narcissa and the other Myrtle. I was put in charge of them, and they were so sweet. I'd handle them enough that they would cuddle with me. I could easily tell them apart (and now, grown up, still can): Myrtle has really, really big feet, as a duckling was more yellow than Narcissa, was more dominant, more adventurous, quacked first, and has a slight limp. (Like tonks!) On the other hand, Narcissa has smaller feet, and is more timid. Let me see if I can post a pic... Admins, this really is my own pic!
Will post more pics later, and the rest of this chapter.
(June 24, 2016 - 10:23 am)
CUTE!!!!!
(June 24, 2016 - 7:15 pm)
We kept the babies in a large box, away from the dogs and cats, filled it with shavings and put a heater in it. Once they were old enough, we bought a dog cage and put it outside so they could enjoy the sunny weather. It was hot, so we usually put them in the shade. I am uploading a pic of the pond. They started growing up quickly! We eventually made a chicken wire enclosure about 6 feet high that connected with the duck house and led into the pond; so they could go in their house and go in the pond whenever they wanted. Now, The side that was in the waterwas about 1 foot off the surface... Tonks, (he is super aggressive-he chases our dogs and scares them. They won't go near the pond at all) would literally CLIMB the fence by the water, using his feet to "walk" up the side and flapping his wings. He would try to breed with the babies, but they weren't old enough, so we'd have to chase him out. Bellatrix is more mellow, and just liked hanging out with them, so usually we left him in with them. That's the end of Ch 3, but I have a question for you, Admins:
If I post a picture of the babies with me, can i blur myself out completely and post it?
(June 25, 2016 - 7:44 am)
Baby ducks! These are Narcissa and Myrtle.
(June 25, 2016 - 7:52 am)
The ducks are sooo cute!!!
(June 26, 2016 - 7:44 am)
Awww! What sweet babies! I love those little beaks! I got to take care of our chickens when they were chicks, and I cuddled them a lot. Now they are full grown and love to be petted! When anyone opens the squeaky back door they all run to the closest end of their encloser to try to see whose comeing to pet them! It's interesting that they can tell us appart. They used to be afraid of my mom because she had a tendency to try and grab them when they weren't expecting it, so whenever she came up to the chicken run they would all run into the coop! Now they love her and one of them, Zahava, (the bully) will only let my mom pick her up. If anyone else tries to hold her, she runs away and doesn't let anyone touch her for weeks!
(June 30, 2016 - 2:29 pm)