One week on

Splish and splash (as I've temporarily named them until we know if they're girls or boys) are doing really well. They're loving the pond and we've even seen them diving right down under the water. Dora is definitely getting the hang of motherhood and stands right over them when they are snuggled up next to the pond. Daphne is not quite so snappy with the babies as she was when they were first introduced - I think she's realised that she's going to get a telling off from Dora. However, we're not taking any risks in putting them altogether in the enclosure at night and we've been letting Dora and the babies have the house, which is closed off, and leaving Daphne and Dolly in the enclosure. Daphne has not been happy about this and has twice managed to break into the house via a window (which is quite high for her - we've no idea how she did it based on her heavyweight size :)). The second time she broke in she bashed down a thick piece of cardboard which was secured over the window - it's now got a piece of wooden board across the window to stop her!! We realised that Daphne is desperate to lay an egg in the house which is why she was breaking in, as she laid one on the concrete yesterday and it ended up getting broken. So, last night I put in an old water butt, chopped in half, laid on its side and with some straw put in, as a temporary nesting box for her. Bingo! This morning Daphne was still in the enclosure, not the house, and she had laid an egg in the water butt - what a good girl - and the egg was in perfect condition!

Like ducks to water...

We let the Dora and the babies out into the garden and the pond this morning for the first time. At first they struggled to jump in and out of the pond over the edging but they soon got the hang of it as you can see. Dolly has taken well to the ducklings and hasn't paid them too much attention but Daphne has not taken kindly to the ducklings sharing her pond. We've had to supervise them (it's a hard life :)) whilst they've been out to make sure cats, magpies and Daphne leave them alone but Dora is turning out to be a great Mum, calling for them and coming to their defence. We gave the duck house and run a really good clean out this afternoon as we have only been able to clean round Dora and her nest for weeks now. By the time we finished and put Dora and the ducklings away the ducklings were so tired they were falling asleep on the edge of the pond and then falling in!!

Duckling update

Well, Dora still hadn't moved off her nest tonight so we had to gently shoo her off so we could remove the remaining eggs as (bless her) she was waiting for them to hatch. Sadly, of the 3 eggs remaining one hadn't hatched at all but the other two had dead ducklings which had halfway hatched - I've no idea why this happens?! :( However, on the bright side, we have 2 beautiful, fluffy yellow ducklings which have now followed Dora out to the the food and water. Tomorrow we plan to let them all out of the run and go on the pond (if they want to). We'll have to supervise them closely to start with and be ready with the pond net in case of any problems. Mr 10-t is then going to build a temporary run on the grass for Dora and the babies so they can be out during the day as they need something with netting over the roof as well to stop any magpies or cats taking them.

And then there were two...

Look what I found at lunchtime! Dora still hasn't moved from her nest so I don't know if that's it now or whether there are any others hiding in the nest. Just waiting for her to get up and take her babies for a drink and some food and then I'll relax. Off to smoke a cigar...:)

Duckling!!!

Here's a photo I took this morning - Just the one made it by the looks of things so far but how cute is this?!!!

Hatching update....

This is how Dora has been all day - snuggled up in her nest with only her head showing. She hasn't budged and I've no idea if any eggs have hatched or even if there's ducklings somewhere in there. Something's definitely going on though as she's never gone so long without moving at all.

Meanwhile, Dolly and Daphne are busy doing nothing except lazing next to the pond....

Hurry up Dora and show us what you've got under there - the suspense is killing me!

Pipped egg

I know this is quite hard to see but the left hand egg has just pipped - there's a small hole with a piece of straw looking as if it has come out. (If you click on the photo and enlarge it you can see it really clearly. You can also see an egg on the right has started to pip as well). Will post more photos as and when so watch this space.

Hatching News.....

Well, I've just been to check on the eggs this morning when Dora got off her nest for a stretch and it looks like the eggs are starting to hatch. Two of the eggs have pipped (the first holes/cracks made in the shell) and there is definite movement going on inside the eggs. I will try and post a piccie of the eggs later if/when Dora moves again but in the meantime here's one of some Aylesbury ducklings that I found - hope ours make it through the shells soon!

Dolly, Guard Duck Eggtraordinaire!

Ok, so there's only so many egg jokes I can make but I'm going to make the most of them anyway! Dolly has become our guard duck when it comes to pigeons landing in the garden, and we do seem to get a lot. Any pigeon (or pig-eon as Manuel from Fawlty Towers would say) that dares to land on a nearby tree, swing, patio etc etc is quacked at loudly and then chased by Dolly. She even gets hackles, or the duck equivalent, which I didn't think anything other than dogs got. What makes this funny is that the pigeons take absolutely no notice of her; they even dare to have a wander near the pond which gets right up Dolly's beak!

Talking of the pond, here's a piccie of a very handsome frog (or may be a Prince if you believe in Fairy stories) which I rescued from a cat the other morning. I posed him on a lily pad and he was so grateful to be rescued that he let me take a photo :)

Duckling news: Dora continues to sit on 5 Aylesbury eggs which were candled last weekend and revealed 5 growing ducklings. There's now 2 weeks to go before they hatch so I'm getting very excited!