Look Ma, We're BIG!

Time for a duckling update.

This is the way the babies looked a week ago ...

See how tiny they are compared to their waterer and their feeder? See how unsteady they look on those feet?

Well, a lot has changed in six days.

We stopped using the blanket over the bedding a few days ago and let them start playing in their wood shavings and ground corn cobs. They tried to eat it for the first couple of days, and it's funny to watch them taste-test everything and then spit out what they can't eat. Sometimes Omelet will stop in mid-spit with her little tongue sticking out of her bill. (I'm assuming she's a girl, since she's quite petite and still much smaller than all the others.)

Here they are today ...

Look how duck-ly and tall they are! Those big feet sound like a herd of thundering elephants when they start running around the pool. They're going through a gallon of water and emptying the feeder every day now, and it's going to be no time at all before they're ready to move outside.

So far no one's escaped from the pool, but I think it's just because they haven't thought of it yet.

This weekend we're going to build their outside enclosure so we can start taking them out to the yard for part of the day. They're still all fluff and no feathers, but if it's warm and sunny it'll be time to let them try swimming a little.

It's not hard to get a picture of all eight of them together, since they never do anything without the whole flock. When we take one out to hold it the rest of them get worried and stand there peeping at us until the missing duckling is returned.

Kwach