A New Member to our family

[Tremor]

In my agriculture class I thought it'd be pretty cool to incubate some duck eggs from our two ducks. We started out with seven with only six fertilized. By the end of the month we had two ducklings hatch; and the rest had died while in the shell.

Our first duckling, born election day (November 6th) we named Brock.

Our second duckling had a bit of a hard time. The egg had begun to hatch at the same time Brock did but did not start to fully hatch until the next morning. The duckling had a hard time through out the entire day until we decided we NEEDED to help. The duckling was completely dry and stuck in the fetal position and so SMALL. We were so scared for this baby. We ended up naming this one Quinn.

The rest of the eggs did not hatch. We hadn't felt them move for a week and I made the executive decision to crack them open. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. It was hard to decide whether or not it was morally right or even if they were alive. They ended up to be dead and a week behind Brock and Quinn. I ended up burying them by our school pond; all nestled together. I was distraught to say the least. I poured my heart into this project only to have it come crashing down.

Brock did so well for his first week. The kids loved him and he was a complete baby. Brock ended up passing on the 10th. We think that it was because some students (junior boys....) picked on him; and he had a heart attack from stress.

Quinn is doing great. We brought Quinn home for Thanksgiving break and she's doing great. Yes. SHE. I vent sexed Quinn and was happy to announce that we have a baby girl!!! She is fully imprinted on me. She loves to sit in my lap and cuddle. Her favorite spot is my neck and shoulder. She also loves to swim.

We will not be taking Quinn back to school. I feel that she is not safe to be there and it would not be fair to her to take her somewhere where she cannot have cuddle time with me; and baths. I also feel that certain students have lost the privilege of having a "classroom duck". Quinn will be going to school for visits and such though. The elementary kids saw a video of Brock's birth and would love to meet Quinn; once she's bigger and has a diaper! lol.

Aren't we cute? (Sorry about the angry face. I was tired and not in a good mood. lol)

Anywho, just thought I would share.

 

[REO]

I'm sorry most of your babies didn't make it and that Brock died

I'm glad you took Miss Quinn home where she's safe! She's cute!

 

[KanoasDestiny]

That's heartbreaking that the others didn't make it. Sure glad that Quinn is ok and that she won't be going back to school. I work with school kids and alot of them have absolutely no respect for other living creatures. Quinn is quite the cutie! Gosh, now I want one of my own. Lol. Who knows, now that I have chickens maybe one day I'll venture into ducks too.

 

[Jill]

So cute

 

[Tremor]

That's heartbreaking that the others didn't make it. Sure glad that Quinn is ok and that she won't be going back to school. I work with school kids and alot of them have absolutely no respect for other living creatures. Quinn is quite the cutie! Gosh, now I want one of my own. Lol. Who knows, now that I have chickens maybe one day I'll venture into ducks too.

The thing is, I had multiple signs taped above the ducklings boxes (separate because Brock was a bully....and twice Quinn's size) that said that they should not be handled or ANYTHING unless it was by the teacher or myself. Obviously, some people cannot read. And to think; some of these students will be graduating in less than two years. Ugh.

I would LOVE chickens! All we have right now is Quinn and her parents but I would love to have laying hens and more ducks.

Quinn is such a doll. Her parents are Blue/Black Swedish (father is black, and mother is blue) and Quinn took after the drake. She'll develop BEAUTIFUL sleek black feathers and a beautiful white chest. Right now she has a yellow chest but on her neck you can see a smudge of pure white. Everytime I look at her daddy, Harper, I get even more excited to see her grow up.

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Chickens can be a handful. I hand raised a hen and rooster, and I'm guessing that a lack of older bossy hens warped my rooster. He is mean! I bought three more hens to make him happier, but instead he attacked two (killing one) of them. He is now in a pen all by himself next to the girls, and no one other then my husband and I are allowed in his pen.

As for the girls, I have three of them and none have started laying yet. Hopefully soon. But my handraised hen will fly up on our shoulders like a parrot. She's a hoot.

 

[Sonya]

So cute...I tried my hand at incubation. I got only one to hatch out of 2 dozen. She lived though. I felt so bad for her having to grow up alone until she was big enough to be with my adult chickens. It was 2 seperate batches I had gotten from McMurrys....I think something was wrong with the first dozen, nothing at all happened with those (maybe in transport something went wrong). In the second dozen, there were what appeared to be full grown chics in the eggs but only the one hatched. I was a novice so I'm not sure what went wrong...after I found all those chics dead in the shells and only one made it, I decided to never try again.