The ducklings are three weeks old now. They’re getting so big! We’re so glad we didn’t get them until June. I cannot imagine having ten ducklings this size in our basement. We had planned to get a larger box of some kind, or build something to keep them in down there, but with the smell and poop and trying to keep the thing clean it would have been quite difficult.
The ducklings’ down is beginning to change to small feathers, and most of them are getting darker on their backs. (Whitey is getting lighter and creamier in color.) Their tails are more pronounced, and the oil duct at the back of the tail is evident. They rub their faces on it, then rub different parts of their body to groom and add the oil water-repellency to their feathers. We wonder which are the drakes or ducks, and are hoping to have at least three ducks to lay eggs. Their voices haven’t changed yet, they still peep and squeak.
We get such a kick out of watching the ducks. We keep a couple of chairs out there and sometimes just sit and watch. We’ve doubled the size of their outside pen, to include the whole tree. This way they can get shade under the tree at all times of the day, and they have more space to run around. It is so funny to watch them waddle when they run! Sometimes they run over each other or tumble. One of them did a forward summersault when he got tripped by another! One time as they were being herded in for the night, Whitey got pushed over by another duck and laid there on his back, feet waving in the air, peeping like crazy until he managed to roll over. It was pretty comical.
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