Well, momma duck has done a good job and her half a dozen babies are ready to go! They (and mom) escaped their separation pen yesterday while I was rescuing a stuck newborn duckling from the wire so I left them with the herd to see how they’d do. Mom decided she was done with them after about 10 minutes and left them on their own. I went back about 2 hours later and could only find 4 out of 6…after searching the entire pen I noticed one of the water tubs was flat on the ground instead of leaning against the pen.
I know not to leave anything leaning when there’s animals small enough to get trapped under, but I was distracted by newborns… I went over and lifted the tub and sure enough, 2 very disgruntled ducklings went zooming out from under it.
I decided to see if they could spend the night with the big ducks, but after listening to their frantic crying changed my mind and herded them back into the separation pen. Despite 2 weeks of seeing everyone else through wire, they just weren’t fitting in. I refastened the wire separator and decided it was time for them to find new homes. I’m gonna miss them!
