Loretta’s nine kits are all alive and well, and spending most of their time doing what kits do…sleeping. This litter’s sire is Raylan, a very mellow and friendly white New Zealand buck. While Loretta isn’t as outgoing as Ava (a white NZ doe), she is reasonably tolerant of being handled and is a good mother. She fostered Waldo, also a white NZ, when Waldo was a kit and too small to compete with his 10 littermates. We’re happy to report that it’s impossible to tell which kit is Waldo now; all four of Ava’s white kits look nearly identical.
This kindling was different because Loretta didn’t want to use the nest box and kindled on the wire. Continue reading “Loretta’s Kits – Day 5”
We got a good look at Coraline’s ducklings this morning, and they are cute as can be. One of the quick photos we snapped before she got too huffy showed eight little ones. We also thought we spied one unhatched egg, which is still within the “normal” hatching timeframe – actually, it could conceivably even hatch within the next few days.
Coraline and the ducklings drank some water (we put a small chicken “fountain” waterer in there, too small for any of the ducklings to accidentally fall in), ate some food, and mom even took a couple of bites of the slightly out-of-control vegetation growing in the duck enclosure; we noticed that when she went for the greens, she positioned herself in front of the ducklings on the coop ramp so they couldn’t come out. They’ll be chowing down on greens and bugs in no time, too. 
We had another night of severe storms, with forecasted winds of up to 55 mph. After the chicken tractor went aloft in the last windstorm, we modified it by shortening the tarp providing shade and cover on top; the result was that less than a quarter of it remained covered. There’s no way that thing could take off again.
Yesterday was the 20th day of incubation for the Muscovy eggs in our incubator. We’ve been turning them 3 times a day by hand (even though the incubator has an autoturner), manually cooling once a day (even though the machine has an autocooling feature customizable for waterfowl), and misting with water daily. Are you wondering why we would choose the manual route when the incubator could do everything except the misting for us?