They were so cute, weren't they? The cuteness of the baby ducklings was so powerful that it drew in visitors in from as far as Hamilton!
Aren't they handsome? They are fully formed adult ducks. I think they are so handsome. They don't even squeak anymore, they quack. They grow so fast, don't they?
Later on this week, the ducklings are off to live in their new home. They are going back to the people I got the duck eggs from originally. They will go there with their foster mother until they've grown enough feathers to not need her warmth anymore and then the hen will come back here.
I tried to get a good photo of the ducklings in the small puddles, but if I got too close it would scare everybody out of the water.
If regular readers will recall, earlier in the spring we had a problem with Jackdaws trying to make nests in our chimneys. The birds were put off that idea by the fabulous Man of the Place and the Jackdaws were forced to make their nests in trees! Nature can be so cruel. There is one successful nest in the beech tree in the corner of the place. The little ones are getting ready to leave the nest any time now. They make quite a racket at the moment as you can hear in the video clip.
I'm off to do something domestic like scrub the kitchen floor. When I do this, the kitchen door will be open and I might get a vist from the mother hen and her little adopted ducklings.
There are now EIGHT day old ducklings here at Whitelees. My mother hen has accepted these new ducklings and they have accepted her.
(newly hatched damp duckling on the left and older sibling is on the right)
In any case, you supposed to damped the shells so that the membranes aren't so brutal for the little hatchlings. I forgot and only remembered this evening. What I did instead was to help the little guys along by cracking the shells here and there and partially removing the shells for them. I think it is important that the ducklings still have a bit of a struggle to get out of these shells. I saw a rare crane being hatched out on TV once. The crane egg started to hatch and the little guy had pipped but then struggled to get out the rest of the way. The people caring for this rare crane egg caved in and did all the work for the hatchling by opening the egg up for it. The result was that the newly hatched crane had deformed legs. My ducklings had been trying to get out of the shells for two days and worried that they'd die before they finished the job, I helped a bit. I didn't want my ducklings to have deformed legs so I let them struggle a bit as well.
After the weekend, these ducklings and their foster mother are going to my friend Helen's place to live. Once the ducklings no longer need their mother, I'll get the hen back. 
I believe that the breed of these ducklings are Khaki Campbell. I've let them be in a safe, dry area with some nice food and clean water, ensuring that the babies are tucked safely under the mother hen. I'll check on them regularly, but I think they'll be fine now.
