It’s day 14 for the Muscovy eggs, so we candled them this morning to check development. Of the remaining 6, one was clear (the one repaired with nail polish), but the remaining 5 had wiggly duck embryos in them. They have about 3 more weeks to go, but we’re optimistic about a good hatch, despite the odds.
Ducklings are arguably some of the cutest baby animals…they’re soft and fluffy, and just generally adorable. They are very messy, though (and are prodigious poopers), and pretty much everything they come into contact with will get wet because they love water. Muscovies, unlike Mallard-derived breeds, supposedly don’t need a pond, but the sheer delight our ducks display when splashing around in their wading pool (or even the rubber tub) suggests they’re happiest when they can swim and splash.
Today, we made a wire partition in the brooder and moved the tiny batch 2 chicks from their cardboard digs to the “real” brooder. For their safety, we created a separator from leftover hardware cloth (always handy to have around, and we use plenty of it), so the month old chicks can see the three day old chicks but can’t actually reach them. 
Progress yesterday was slow, so when I woke up at 1 a.m. this morning, I made a beeline to the incubator to see if any of the pipped eggs had zipped. None had, though a couple had enlarged the initial pip so I could see little beaks moving inside and hear chirping.
We spent the weekend putting up hawk deterrents to try to discourage the hawk from continuing to attack our chickens. The reflective mylar tape was very flashy with its prismatic print, and we cut “tails” into it to make it even more annoying and distracting. The tape lengths we tied onto the lines rustled and spun in the breeze. We also added DVDs tied onto lines throughout the streambed area, and they spun and flashed, too. Finally, the glowering owl was added on a tall pole. Hopefully, it sends the message “hawks stay away”!