Like Weeds

Ducklings grow fast.

I know I keep saying it but they really do.

Sometimes it seems as if they're bigger in the morning than they were the evening before!

This was taken on the 24th. These two are about 4 - 5 weeks old.

The one on the left has started quacking.

That means we have at least one new hen. :)

The little ducklings are 2 weeks old.

Their tail feathers are continuing to grow.

They seem to be getting noticeably bigger every day.

We removed the screen divider because one of the Khaki Campbells had jumped over.

We watched to make sure the big ones weren't hurting the little ones.

They seem to be getting along fairly well.

We took the big ones outside for a short time and the little ones peeped for them.

They missed them.

Now they will even all cuddle up together.

They're so cute.

(Check out the super relaxed duckling by the frisbee with both of its feet stretched out.)

Silly ducks.

Quilt Quack 9

This time the Quilt Quack post will be light on the quilt and heavy on the quack.

It's been quite entertaining around here with all of our ducks.

It's our version of March madness. ;)

First up is the quilting.

I'm still plugging away at the Village Quilt and posting my houses on Instagram.

To date I have finished 56 houses.

It has been so much fun being a part of the sew-along.

I have my pieces cut out for all of the remaining houses.

I divided them into piles of 8 and put them in baggies.

So each week I grab a bag and start sewing.

Yes, I know there's a door that's upside down.

I did this on purpose. I'm actually surprised I haven't done it by accident yet!

I made a couple of mistakes in the first few batches of houses I did and chose to leave them like that.

One house has a door that is wrong side out. It's light colored and hard to see.

One of the egg houses has its eggs pointing down instead of up.

I didn't see it until I went to sew the sides on and decided that I'd

just match the sides instead of re-doing it.

Besides, it won't be that easy to find it among the 131 other houses.

It will give the quilt some extra character.

As if the crazy houses aren't enough!

I also sewed this baby quilt top.

I still have a desire to make charity quilts for the local pregnancy crises center.

This one is for the baby that Dwayne and I lost between the boys.

I'm hoping to have it quilted sometime next week.

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How are the ducklings you ask?

Cute as ever.

Ducklings grow fast.

They are one week old in this picture.

This was taken yesterday at 10 days old.

Their tail feathers are starting to grow.

We started giving them peas.

It's funny to watch the chaos when peas are involved.

Our Khaki Campbells when they were about 3 weeks old.

Same KC's at about 4 weeks old.

They have reached what we lovingly call the ugly duckling stage.

They look like someone beat them up.

One of them is quite a bit noisier than the other one.

It's not peeping as much but makes a louder pre-quack kind of noise.

We're really hoping to hear a loud quack soon.

That would mean it is a hen.

As if we didn't enough ducks in the house, we have this one too.

This is Brownie, our adult Khaki Campbell hen.

Somehow she broke her wing.

So we're attempting to help her.

She's still laying eggs everyday.

That's a plus.

She grumbles quite a bit when we need to go into our utility room where we keep her.

Whenever anyone goes in there you hear a loud quack.

The other day Nolan went in forgetting she was there.

She quacked and I heard him say, "You startled me, duck!"

I think the feeling was mutual.

If you're counting: 4, almost 2 week old ducklings; 2, 4 week old ducklings; and one adult hen.

It's like a zoo.

It's our March madness.

The Hatch

I almost forgot to post this!

It takes ducklings 28 days of incubation to hatch.

We set 7 eggs, the max our incubator holds.

When we candled them at 10 days only four were growing.

For four weeks I checked the water level and made sure each egg was rolling.

On the 26th day, we found an egg that had pipped.

Pipping is when the duckling makes it's first crack in the shell.

We were so excited!

By the end of the 26th day there were two eggs with pips.

Slowly, on the 27th day, the other two eggs had pips too.

We went to bed that night with nothing hatched.

We woke up Sunday, day 28, to find not one, but two had hatched!

It seemed that this one was the first to come out as he was a little drier than the other one.

This one we think hatched just before we got up.

The two little ducklings moved around a lot once they got their sea legs under control.

The snuggled up together.

It was quite funny how they would move around and then suddenly go to sleep.

Like someone turned off their power.

It's hard work hatching out of that egg.

(Not to mention gross, messy, and stinky.)

Here is the third egg cracking open an escape hatch.

It's called zipping when the duckling cracks around to make an opening.

Once they have the egg fairly cracked they push their way out.

It's quite an amazing process to watch.

It's an exhausting journey.

Here is the yellow duckling almost dried off.

They are supposed to stay in the incubator until the last hatched one is dry.

Yay! The fourth and final egg is starting to zip.

It was very crowded in our little incubator and we decided to remove the hatched ones.

We had the duck tank ready for the new little ducklings.

We set up a screen divider to separate the older ducklings from the younger ones.

The older ones are about 2 1/2 weeks older. It's hard to believe how fast they grow!

They are very curious about each other and spend a lot of time side by side.

We were hoping moving the hatched ducklings would

give the last egg a better chance at hatching.

This last one kind of stalled out.

We waited all day. It didn't seem like it was making very good progress.

This last egg reminded me of our failed eggs from last year.

I was trying not to get bummed.

It would stick his bill out the hole and then not move.

I honestly had given up on this one.

Then late that evening he began to make progress.

All four of us were able to watch it hatch out of the egg.

It was quite cool to see.

So all four of our fertilized eggs made it to hatching!

All four seem to be healthy.

Connor named the yellow one Banana.

Oh, and the last one that hatched we've named Pokey... since he was such a slow poke to hatch.

He's the one on the left.

He has a two toned head. It will be interesting to see how they feather out.

All of the darker ones stand upright when they run.

We're still not sure what the yellow one is.

Quilt Quack 8

It's time for another Quilt Quack post.

First, the quilting. :)

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago.

It was agreed that I could shop for my own birthday gifts with the

understanding that I could not have them until my actual birthday.

That was fun to do with the exception of this particular gift.

This quilt pattern is part of a sew along I'm participating in online.

Let's just say by the time I was able to have my pattern I was a little behind.

I didn't mind.

It gave me some time to start gathering fabric!

I started sewing my first set of houses this week.

They are super easy to do.

I then sewed two more weeks worth of houses.

The schedule is quite relaxed with making eight houses per week.

There are a total of 132 houses in the quilt.

I think the schedule has the quilt finish sometime in June.

If you're on Instagram check out #sewingavillage.

Quilters from all over the world are participating.

It's been fun seeing all the different houses.

My pile of house parts ready for starching.

Then I'll cut the larger squares into smaller pieces.

This coming week I should be able to catch up with the sewing schedule.

I'm using scraps and fabric from my stash.

One of the best parts about this project has been the doors.

Some people were "fussy cutting" them.

That means to cut the fabric in such a way that a picture of something is in the middle.

I decided to do that too. It's quite fun! So fun that someone set up a door swap.

I am anticipating some swapped doors in the mail in the near future.

I can't wait to see what I get!

This fox looks a little ornery.

The fox came from the curtain that hung in Nolan's room when he was a baby.

This is probably one of my favorite doors so far.

So much so that I sent one to my door swap partner.

This duck reminds me of our Pekin drake when he struts around the yard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Q U A C K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've had a few people ask us where we keep the ducklings.

They are in this stock tank behind our sofa in the living room.

This tank has worked really well for housing chicks and ducklings over the years.

Although I think our chick days are over.

It's ducklings from now on.

We've seen noticeable growth in them.

Ducklings grow faster than chicks.

For some reason these two have taken to hiding between the "mess hall" and the side of the tank.

Mess hall is what I call the plastic tub we keep their food and water in.

Ducks are incredibly messy creatures.

Their mess hall needs to be cleaned once a day.

They thought they were getting peas when I took this picture.

We recently started giving them squished peas.

Ducks go nuts over peas.

We have no idea why but they do.

Think feeding frenzy or a cat hopped up on catnip.

As of today there are 7 days left until hatch day.

Three of our four surviving eggs are wiggling every once in a while.

We're getting closer!