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Do you see movement in the air-bubble when you candle the fifth egg? - If yes: Safety hole!

Remember, a duck's bill is like our hands. Ducks do everything with their bills, grooming, carrying things around, digging,.… I assume that this grooming of their new friends is their way to make contact and welcome them into the group.

I am still in contact with the Loopeend, since she was ousted from here three years ago. - And i agree: If the duckling is crying for help and no longer making that eating motion with its bill, help it!

I knew the Dux were up to something! I knew it!

Egg is egg and Momma is Momma.

Candle as often as Momma Duck allows you to do so and your curiosity demands. Can't do anything wrong with peeking into the shells. You should be able to see development starting after just three days. After about two weeks the eggs will become opaque as the embryo is filling up more and more...

Momma Ducks know best how to treat their eggs, hands off! You can mark and candle the eggs if Momma let's you, but do not apply any treatment to her eggs.

What do you refer to as »spraying«?

Tomorrow is day 28 for the remaining eggs of the first group in the CCI. A couple of minutes ago the high temperature alarm rang for the first time, so the eggs have started to produce their own warmth.

The little bills of the 'scovies have a tiny hook at the end.

Fuzzy indeed! - I have to dust off my screen now.

Just plain old wood-fungus, responsible for that »earthy smell« of fresh compost soil. Not harmful at all, its the sing that the wood has started to decompose rapidly, it will become "puny" very quickly. The same fungus that i have observed developing in the piles of wood-chips when those get...

Egg 1,2 and 5 is from the brown duck (Khaki?) and 3,4 and 6 from the black one.

I run a similar experiment this year: i dumped the last remaining potatoes from last year into one of my raised beds. - I had removed the soil from it to let it rest this year, it is in a bad spot anyways… Then covered the potatoes with several loads of grass cuttings and kitchen scraps...

I used Wood-Chips and Hay in the last couple of years, but the wood-chops make the top of the soil slightly acidic and the hay tends to jam my tiller. Cardboard and newspaper loos really unsightly and i have my doubts about the glue, the paint and the printer's ink in my soil. Also nowadays...

Its all about time! Time can heal all wounds and with enough time even small amounts of money become large amounts of money. I promised the dux that i will build them a new house next year if the nursery-plant sales is a success. Until then we all have to focus on what we can to make our place...

She built that on flat land, did she? - The house structure is not the expensive part: I have to build the new house on a platform into or better over the hill-site. That platform must be stable enough for me to walk on. And it must be constructed to withstand the elements and the "duck juices"...

I would love to, but i cannot. Seriously! The duck house is already a tad too small and there's four seriously broody hens, sitting on i can only guess 20+ eggs again. I am already measuring a spot for a new, larger duck-house with a new, larger duck-run with the entrance away from the weather...

I vividly remember having a tail of fourteen ducklings wagging behind me last year…

Don't worry about gosling or goose posts here: They are both members of the Anatidae family. Only issue is that i now want geese more than before… 😊