Kitchen Garden Forum

They are just adorable at that stage arn,t they?

My only experience with hatching eggs is as a child during the immediate post war years when I surreptitiously exchanged some of my mum's clothes from her wardrobe for a couple of yellow chicks from the Rag and Bone man outside my primary school. One died and the other grew up to be a fierce black cockerill who took control of the garden and terrorised us all to the point where we didn,t dare go outside for fear of being attacked. He eventually ended up in a neighbour's casserole pot!

What a difference a couple of weeks make!
All fourteen growing fast.

Perfect weather for the here alan this is our fourth day of rain

And here are we with a forecast of two and a half days of heavy rain and in the event hardly any! Pretty wet further east though. It pays to live on the peninsula.

They certainly are lovely looking Ducklings, Alan.

Alan, they are so cute! Beautiful to see your pics!

Already clearly ducks.

The Harlequins are now just three weeks old and are now out on the grass in the field. I had hoped for a better shot, but they are lively as anything, move all together in a gang of fourteen. They're feathering up rapidly and looking more "ducky" every day.
Another hatch is due in a week from now - Rouens and Rouen x White Campbell.
We keep busy

Looking great Alan!

Another two weeks and at five weeks old the Welsh Harlequins have a large run, a plum tree for shade and lots of grass. These birds don't half grow - even quicker than courgettes!
We still have all fourteen, but a trio (drake and two ducks) are booked to go to a local farm soon.

At just over none weeks old the young Exchequer Leghorns and Cream Legbars are in with their respective parents, who are not best pleased to see them, but tolerate them!

It must be really fun watching grow up through their juvenile stages. I guess they grow so quickly that every day there is a change of some kind to note.
Are you up to full capacity now ?

Primrose wrote:It must be really fun watching grow up through their juvenile stages. I guess they grow so quickly that every day there is a change of some kind to note.
Are you up to full capacity now ?

They're hard to keep up with, especially the ducks! Fortunately my son is chief bird man
We have another hatch of nine ducklings from 6 days ago, five new chicks from a couple of broodies we obliged by letting them sit a few eggs. And the bird man is talking of another hatch of chicks in the incubator, probably including Dorkings, if he gets some hatching eggs.
I hope he does, as Dorkings are a breed with an ancestry in this country probably going back to the Romans! They have five toes instead of the usual four.

Fine looking birds, I assume you didn't need planning permission for the housing estate that's grown up.

Geoff wrote:Fine looking birds, I assume you didn't need planning permission for the housing estate that's grown up.

That's the benefit of having an acre of agricultural land