six orphaned mallards

For the last three years, a mallard duck has been laying and hatching her eggs outside our kitchen. Until this year, she laid them in a large wooden planter with a fig tree in it outside the back door. This year, she moved around the corner a bit and in to a plant pot. She laid eight eggs and six of them hatched: three drakes and three hens.

Day 1. Saturday 3rd July 2010

A day after the hatchings, the mother was nowhere to be seen. We presumed she'd left the nest for food and been taken by a fox, perhaps.

After searching the internet for advice on what to do and what not to do, and rejecting some of it, we set up a pen from some perspex sheets which were used for giving the hamster a run and fed the ducks on oats and water and finely chopped boiled egg. We gave them some shallow water to play in and some small turves of grass to peck at.

Bedtime.

At night, and during the day if the weather is bad, the ducklings live in their perspex pen on the kitchen floor, with a low-wattage desk lamp over them in one corner and a warm hot water bottle underneath.




Day 2. Sunday 4th July 2010

Fast asleep.

On a sunny day, we move the pen outside, with wire netting over the top to keep them safely in and any predators out, and with a towel over a corner for shade. (The hose pipe in the picture has nothing to do with it. In fact, we use rain water from the butt for the ducks, and there are a few mosquito larvae flicking about in it, much to the ducks' delight.)


Some advised that young ducklings should not have water to play in, only to drink, because their feathers are not yet waterproof, but we felt that this would only be problem if they weren't able to dry out easily. When we put them outside in the sun we give them a bowl of water that they can swim in, with some rocks in and around for them to get out. They love it, took to it like 'ducks to water', and gave us many laughs as they tried to figure out how to use their flippers: paddling like mad, but standing still; trying to go forwards, but going backwards; and zipping across the water at high speed, right across and out the other side.



Day 4. Tuesday 5th July 2010

Another sunny day spent outside in the pen. Three adult males come and wait close to the pen. We assume that they have heard the chicks and are waiting for the mother to come back.



Day 5. Wednesday 7th July 2010

Eating more and more.

Day 6. Thursday 8th July 2010

In for a huddle.

The females have that dark stripe across their eyes and a patterned back; the males have a plain dark back and a bright yellow chest.