So far in this series we met the Goats and the Large Ducks. Today in Episode 3 please meet the small, the beautiful, the somewhat loud and annoying…
Australian Spotted Ducks!
There are several seperated flocks of these beauties on the farm. This is for breeding purposes. When my daughter saw small groups of certain males and females with specific genetic traits she put them together to create three different flocks. One flock is large and random. One is only three birds and another is only two birds. Mostly it’s the flock with three birds that we call “the breeders”. They are very beautiful and we hope to someday be successful at incubating their eggs to see how those beauty traits transfer to the baby ducklings. This breed of ducks only lay eggs in the Spring so there hasn’t been a lot of chances to try this out yet. Of those few that we have incubated, only a small percentage have successfully hatched.
The Breeders
interesting note about these photos - I'm away with my family at the moment. The photos were all taken by my daughter. She has them stored on her phone and sends them to me so I can make these posts. Sadly, there are no photos specifically of the breeders right now.
We have one very special exception to the rule that I haven’t mentioned yet. Cookie. Yes, Cookie is a very special Australian Spotted Duck. Mostly because she doesn’t believe she is a duck. She actually hates and gets very upset when she is placed with other ducks. Cookie was hatched out as a runt, or very small duck. We didn’t believe she would live because she was so small. Cookie is so small, in fact, that I believe it interferes with her ability to lay eggs like other ducks her age. She has never laid an egg. Cookie insists living with the Silkie chickens. I think, she thinks she is a Silkie chicken.
Cookie The Tiny Duck
Now that we are finished with the duck characters we’ll meet the chickens tomorrow. We’ll start with the Fluffy Silkies! Until then, have fun on the farm!
