On the 30th November, a duck hatched out 5 little ducklings. It’s her first time as a mother, but she has proven very attentive. Despite the chilly mornings, she takes them out of the barn every day and shows them all around the place. They are now a few weeks old and are the cutest little things.
The other mother duck is an old hand at the mothering business. However, this is the first time she’s had chicks! She stole the nest from one of our hens and guarded it very jealousy during the incubation period. We were worried that she might kill the chicks when she discovered that they weren’t ducklings, so we were ready with a home-made incubator in case we needed to whisk the eggs away from her. However, when the first one hatched out, she treated it as one of her own, so we let her be. She now has five healthy chicks.
The boys have been spoiling all the babies rotten. They take them handfuls of mealworms several times each day. As soon as the chicks hear the boys open the barn door, they come running to their gate and start jumping up and down. The kids are delighted, and claim that the chicks love them just as much as they love their mother!
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