Duckies

The duckies are here!!!!!!

All 11 of them arrived yesterday morning, we only ordered 10 but the hatchery once again showed its generosity and gave us yet another mouth to feed, but you don't hear me complaining;)



They’re addicted to water, which wouldn’t be a problem except their sloppy drinkers, and all the bedding within 1 foot of the water is always soaking wet. to try to help keep the mess down I put an old tray covered with newspapers and old wash rags under the water to help contain and absorb the cups of liquid they fling out. Also when I first put them on the wood shavings the silly little babies started choking down pieces of wood!! Luckily I had done my research on the common problem, and knew the best way to stop them from possibly dying from constipation is to cover all the shavings with paper towels for a few days till they get old enough to recognize their food from a chopped up tree. The 11 duckies are more work than the 27 chickies, but boy are they cute.
I’m trying to get them used to my hand, because they are quite skittish. They squirm their little hearts out if you try picking them up unless their very tired like this little guy was.
Taking the soaked bedding out of from around the water sends them all into the opposite corner where they huddle on top of each other till my hand is withdrawn before mobbing the water as if they were dying of thirst.



After several sessions of hand feeding a paste ( their food dissolved in water) they have become much less fearfull of the hand and a few will even step up and try to eat my watch In a few more days we will try letting them swim for the first time. I can’t wait!
--Anna