More Ducklings

I admit it.  The ducks did a better job hatching eggs than the incubator.  Momma duck first had a nest of 30 or so eggs.  It was from there that I put the eggs into the incubator.  She abandonded that nest and made another nest.  There she laid 11 eggs.  8 hatched on Wednesday afternoon.  We brought six of those into the house and left her with two. 


I don't expect the other duck to hatch her eggs for another week or so since she built her nest later than the first duck. 


Maybe it wasn't my bad incubator job?  Perhaps all those eggs the ducks laid in that first nest weren't intended for setting?  Maybe most weren't fertile and the ducks knew it?  Maybe I was really lucky to get any to hatch?


Because we brought the six ducklings in and put them into the stock tank that I was just about ready to take OUT of my livingroom, I put the two bigger ducklings into the spare chicken coop.  First I thought they could co-exist but I was wrong.  The older ducklings are so much bigger that they were knocking the babies over.  Now they have lots of space to roam around: there are weeds growing to give them some cover, plus there's the enclosed area - with corners that they've decided to cram themselves into.  I'm hoping they soon notice that I put out a little tub of water for them to swim around in.  I also put their feed in the pen.  They should like it once they get used to not being in the stock tank! 


Comparing the two older ducks, which are two weeks old today, and these 6 day-old ducklings, I realize I will not be able to mix the chicks and the ducks together.  This means I have to bring in yet another stock tank for the chicks.  They will go in the laundry room.  I really don't want two stock tanks in my living room.  People think I'm sort of nuts as it is.  I don't need to give them reason to believe it's true!