Happy, sad, happy story from last night. Stick with me….happy ending
I went to feed the ducks and lock them in the coop. One of the sitting buffs (right by the door) was not happy with everyone in there so I fed them in the run.
Then I notice one of her eggs had pipped and zipped and I thought how cool to see a duck hatch with mom right there.So I pulled up my bucket and sat down to watch.
Side note: the bucket was 2 gal so super short and I didn’t think that through and my butt went to sleep and my legs cramped and I hadn’t thought how I was going to get up again. But I got up without killing myself.
Ok back to the story. Mom was super gentle with the egg and talking softly to it.
I was recording it and pausing and recording so it wouldnt be long and boring.
I was watching the little one poking thru the shell and peeping. I was about to resume recording when I saw some ducks coming up the ramp and so I waited for Khaki, Snow and Blue.
Blue walked in and in a split second she picked up the egg (I think she thought it was just a shell) in her mouth and slung it out of her mouth and there was the baby on the floor of the coop next to the shell!
Mom was suddenly a different duck and wanted nothing to do with it and was poking it and being mean.
I snatched it up and wrapped it in my shirt to keep it warm, walked back to the house and put it in the incubator for the night.
I was stunned and still shocked at how quickly something so sweet went so horribly wrong.
Nature sucks.
Here comes the happy ending. Lucky Duck (as he/she has been named made it though the night and is in the brooder with the others eating and drinking. Oh yes and getting spoiled by me.
