Duckie Dynasty: Day One

A gaggle of ducks adopted us last spring. Two young Pekin male ducks and five female mallard ducks made the dangerous trek up our creek to take up residence on the bank in our yard. We resisted for five minutes before they were treated like the Kings and Queens they are. Three times a day they're fed frozen peas, lettuce, cracked corn and cat food (they LOVE Meow Mix).

After months of attempting to build trust, I finally have them eating from my hands although they still look at me skeptically if I try to feed them while I'm carrying an umbrella. I'm glad they've decided to like me because I'm confident people in the neighborhood think I've lost my mind. Last summer, I engaged in a verbal altercation with a young girl after I caught her poking my feathered children with sticks and throwing rocks at them. I instructed her to remove her stick and her person from my creek before things went Ninja.  She responded by pointed at me with her middle finger and suggested I do something physically impossible. Ten years old or not, if she's gonna bring it, she needs to prepare for it to get brougted (yes, it is a word today).

This past weekend, eggs began appearing everywhere in locations that bore no rhyme or reason. In a thatch of grass, on a rock, in the water. Everywhere but in a nest. We called a mutual friend who raises geese who told us more than likely our ducks were too immature to really know what to do. We would have to incubate them or the clutch would likely die.

We gathered up the fourteen eggs, spent $47 at Walmart and attempted to incubate them in a rigged up Styrofoam cooler. It's important to note that optimum incubation conditions are as follows:

Temperature must be between 97-101 degrees. Humidity must be between 50 and 70% and the eggs must be turned every four hours. Hatching can occur between 20 and 28 days.

Sunday was my day since Perry was out of the house and, needing to run a few errands, I checked our babies. The temperature was a little higher than I was comfortable with, so I poked a few holes in the sides of the cooler. Still not decreasing the heat to a level within acceptable ranges, I propped the lid open with a snack bag of Doritos. As I have no interest in being a single mother, I will attempt to find another solution if similar circumstances arise. That afternoon, the only thing separating my husband, Perry from Linda Blair was green pea soup. He went a little nuts about it.

So the count down is on! In seven days we will 'candle' the eggs to see which are forming yolks and which are cloudy and need to be culled. I'm curious to see how Perry handles that and I have a feeling he'll be like Templeton, the rat from 'Charlotte's Web' pushing a rotten egg around.

Wish me luck!