Last week, as I was cleaning up the duck run...I found the first duck egg in a little nest made in the ducks' house! It was a beautiful light blue shade. My ducksitter found two additional eggs while we were out of town and this morning I found two more! That's a total of 5 eggs since last week that Fonce and Abbey have laid. Check 'em out: For a size comparison, I grabbed a large chicken egg (white) from the fridge and held it next to the duck egg ("blue"). One duck egg = two chicken eggs when cooking/baking. The first few eggs I'm going to blow so that I can use them as decorations (learn more here about egg blowing).
With the good news, comes some less than thrilling. Of course, by now, all my ducks are sexually mature. As a result, the three boys are competing with one another and my two girls are being "overwhelmed" shall we say. With the feather nipping that occurs with such behaviors the oils get worn away, making their feathers no longer water repellant. With the cold temperatures and wet of winter...that's not good. I have a heated lamp in their duck house so I've been locking a couple of them in there for an hour or so to dry off, hopefully preening enough to reestablish their feathers water repellency. It has worked so far, but I will not be able to keep this up when I return to school. The reality that I will need to find a new home for Hugh and Sgt. Pepper, for the sake of all my ducks' well-being, is sadly sinking in. I don't know that I have an alternative...but I'm looking for one.
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