The Magpie Population

Let's start with my first post about Betty and her broody ways - go HERE to check out that post. 

Just last night Tom looked at me and said that he didn't think that those eggs were fertile and asked what we should do. Well, I thought about it for a second and then said that it take about 4 weeks for ducklings to hatch. It hasn't been quite 4 weeks yet so we need to wait. Good thing we did because Betty successfully added to our Magpie Duck population by hatching out three more ducklings.

Shortly after I arrived to work this morning I got a message from Tom saying that Betty was a surrogate mother again...YAY. After a couple of more hours he took this photo and sent it to me:

Duckling No. 1

There was no sign of other ducklings since this photo. So he was thinking that just one of the eggs was good. Again, I told him we had to wait.

He came to Hazel Dell and we went on our lunch time Pokemon hunt as we do most days. After he arrived home I received the following message:

"I think you could put a rock under betty and she could hatch it. We have 3 new duck babies."

It's good to know that Gordon is doing his job and the girls are popping out fertile eggs! These three make eight Magpies now. We'll see how many last to adult age. Out of the four last year we have one. Two were taken by a predator and one was probably squished by momma. I am hoping that hey will all survive. If they do survive we might have two "gangs" and Princess Leona. We'll just deal with the logistics of the ducks later when it becomes a thing. 

This will work out in our favor in the future. If our Turkey hens don't show interest in nesting and sitting on eggs we always have Betty. Actually, we could take a certain amount of the turkey's eggs and then give them to Betty. Then let the turkeys nest with any eggs they lay after, if they choose to. Another idea, we could just maybe sell those eggs to someone who is interested in White Holland Turkeys.

For now, we are going to enjoy the three new babies on our farm. I'm REALLY excited to get home and see them, if Betty will let me.