Totally OT - Hen hatches 2 ducklings :o)

[Tom]

I know this is waaaaay off topic but I thought I'd share it with you. One of my hens, a Cream Legbar, has hatched out two ducklings today and they are so sweet She's hatched ducklings before, even though she lays her own blue eggs. She just doesn't seem to like her own :roll: Earlier this year she hatched out 9 ducklings, 5 of which survived (4 were taken by Pike). She's back on the nest again tonight (behind a plaster board pallet :lol: ), so we may have some more ducklings tomorrow. I think there are about 6 eggs unhatched. Anyway, here's a picture....

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Cute!!

 

[Penners]

Wonderful! That's Christmas lunch sorted! :wink:

 

[Tom]

Hee-hee! They better get eating fast, then :lol:

 

[robgil]

can i just ask , how can a hen lay a ducks egg? are all the female ducks round your way playing hard to get or are the blokes just adventurous?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Awww to the ducklings, I hope they survive - it's late in the year for them. My cockerel's stopped mating, as if he's somehow aware. :?

A broody bird steals eggs Rob, it doesn't matter whose they are. And a canny farmwife slips the eggs under the broody she'd like hatched - so a chicken can hatch a duck. A broody hen is any hen whose comb goes bright red, who fluffs herself into a ball, who plucks the feathers from her breast for a nest, and who just wants to sit.

If you look on Ebay you can buy hatching eggs for all species.

This year I hatched the Orps in the incubator and when only three survived decided not to bother with raising them under the heat lamp. I happened to have a hen go broody at the same time, and, although she had only been sitting on eggs for two days she was delighted when I went to her, took the eggs, and slipped the 2 day old chicks under her wings. She was immediately convinced she'd hatched them herself and they were her babies, and she's raised them into very pretty fat little pullets indeed. It's one of the nicest sights in Nature.

 

[CatherineB]

Easter Sunday roast, perhaps?!

Very cute ducklings!

 

[Tom]

Joce is right, Rob. One of our ducks laid some eggs behind the pallet, whilst the Cream Legbar was laying in a barrel. She went broody and decided she'd rather sit the duck eggs, rather than her own!! Like I say, it's not the first time she's done this :roll: She is a good mum, though. And even when the previous ducklings were ready to leave and go on the river with the rest of them she just let them go. She didn't act any differently, other than "OK, where's the next lot?" :lol: