ClassiclyAmber » Ducks

Margaret Hatcher is Missing. :-(

classiclyamber — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:11:47 +0000

Don’t ya just HATE it when your duck gets away from ya?!?

When the ducks aren’t swimming, they are usually napping around the pond and basking in the sunlight on the bank. At times, they even try to nest in the tall tufts of grass that run along the sides of the driveway [which is ALSO the pond bank]. If we are “lucky”, we can collect eggs in these types of places. That’s a rare occurrence, though, because usually the eggs roll down into the pond or are cracked – or they EAT them before we get to ‘em!

Lately, I’ve been seeing everyone hanging out in their usual places, except for Margaret. Now – I know it’s springtime and love is in the air, so this is a good time of year to expand the family. However, Margaret eludes us. She’s not been in any of her normal and random nesting places [sidenote: are you allowed to describe something as both random and normal all at once? just checkin...]. Her past fav place was under the steps at the back of the house. It was a good place because it is very difficult to get in there…and it had a covering to shelter her from the weather.

She’s not there, though.

For several days, I’ve been sorta sad while scratching my head and wondering where the STANK she could be! I kept thinking that surely I would find her at some point and really wanted to – just to know that she’s okay and so we can help out with any future ducklings. Just some brief history here – Margaret hatched some ducklings early last year….and let’s just say that it didn’t turn out too pretty. It takes trial and error with learning how to care for animals and we weren’t totally prepared with what we had to deal with those precious baby ducks. Out of 10 perfect little ducklings, only 1 made it. I know. It’s really sad. And if you think THAT is sad, then you should have seen me desperately scrambling to nurse several little ducklings back to health – all at once! I’m soft-hearted when it comes to animals, and cried a decent bit over those baby ducks. I’ve learned the hard way that when it comes to chicks and ducklings, you have to not let them get to “that point” where they are starting to fade. If they go barely too far and get weak, then it is nearly impossible to save them. So when I figured out that Margaret must be nesting somewhere, it was starting to drive me bonkers that I couldn’t find her hideout anywhere. I don’t want ANY of these ducklings to die this time!

Finally, I was outside one day working around the yard, and this caught my eye:

Do you see her? And yes, I realize that this grown up mess looks…well…MESSY. To be fair, when I first found her, the weeds weren’t quite this bad. Now that I know she’s there, though, I have not continued with clean up on that side of the house because we have to keep her hideout hushies! Besides, hubby is working feverishly to get new pads for everyone here – the chickens AND the ducks. We want to have somewhere safe to keep momma and her babies once they hatch.

Anyway, she is brown, so she blends in pretty good with her surroundings. YES, I was ecstatic to find her! I cried out her name from across the way, and she cried out mine in return and we ran to each other, meeting halfway in a tearful embrace! She didn’t mind me blowing my nose on her shoulder [do ducks have shoulders?] and – actually, no.

She wasn’t really that happy to see me AT ALL. She flared up her feathers, fluffed up her tail, opened her bill and said “Youuuuuuuuuu better LEAVE ME ALONE! I do NOT need your help, you IDIOT! I remember what your sorry mess did to my youngins LAST year, and I’m not ABOUT to sacrifice my sweet, new babies to the likes of YOU!! Now GET back!! And don’t tell ANYONE that I’m hiding out here…or so help me…” [she said all of that in angry, hissing ducks sounds]

Rest assured that I calmed her nerves and let her know that I was only here to help. You know, a midwife of sorts. I also promised not to let any harm come to her children for as much as I could help it. Honestly, she could care less because she thinks that she can totally do this without me, but we’ll see. I will keep you updated on her progress and hopefully catch some cute duckling pics before too long.

Let’s go back really quickly and talk about the 1 duckling that survived last year:

Isn’t he colored – uniquely? He’s been mistaken for a cat on multiple occasions [from a distance].

Anyway, we never decided on a name for him until recently: Manley. Yeah, I figured that he could use a little…confidence-booster, if you know what I mean. You can tell by the way he acts that he feels like his coloring is a little TOO unique, so I’ve tried to have pep talks with him and to encourage him. He seems to like his name, too. And look how good he looks in the lineup:

The first pic of Manley was taken back in the snowy wintertime, and this one here [with Gordy the Gardenhose] was taken just today. Is it just me or is Manley’s bill gotten a LOT darker? To me, it looks nearly solid black now. Aw, SHNIFF shniff!! My little ducky is growing up into a respectable gothic THUG duck! Makin’ momma PROUD!

Jon & Kate

classiclyamber — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:15:22 +0000

Beautiful.

Elegant.

Wondermous.

And sooooo frickin’ ANNOYING! Jon & Kate (pictured together above) have flown south for the winter and decided to stop in at our Bed ‘n Breakfast. Jon is literally trying to take everything over, as if he makes the mortgage payments here. When I first walked down to the pond to get some snappety shots of these Greylag geese, I thought they were so beautiful and hoped they would stay. But – just as it can be with some house guests – there comes a point in time where you’re ready for them to hit the road again. Why? Checkie below:

Homeboy is literally coming after me there. And he freaked the CRAP outta me because I’m used to our lovely, docile ducks that – even when they run – they are only waddling very slowly. So Jon saw me and swam fast to the edge of the pond, stuck his beak up in the air for intimidation purposes and when his feet hit the ground, he was FAST! Oh my gosh.

And like a foolish coward, I RAN.

Then when I went out to feed our ducks, Jon runs up and chases them away and comes zooming after me again. Corey came outside and ran TO the Big Bad Goose and yelled out in a most booming voice: “You SHUT UP, GOOSE! Get BACK TO THE POND NOW!”

Know what? Homeboy listened! Heh heh heh!!

So will they stay or will they go? I dunno. I am beginning to wonder if they are gonna try and raise 6 or 8 youngins while they are here and do a reality show. I don’t know about it, folks. I foresee only bad things coming from that…

Rain Rain Rain

classiclyamber — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:02:53 +0000

The rain rain rain came down down down

In rushing, rising riv’lets…

Do you remember that from Winnie the Pooh? I’ve always like Pooh bear. He’s just so sweet and innocent and tubby. How can you NOT like him? Anyhoo, so check this: the pond overflowed onto our driveway! Guess we’ll be staying home today~! ;-D

To say that the ducks were ECSTATIC with all this rain would be QUITE the understatement! Love you, quacks!

And I heart this green stuff, too:

Now that all that rain has passed, it’s shaping up to be a totally gorgeous day! Everyone – have a great ‘un!

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Don’t forget about today’s Giveaway Day over at Gussy’s! It’s free to enter and win – all day long! Check it out HERE!

Now Performing: Ducks on Ice

classiclyamber — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:35:06 +0000

It’s been so cooooold here, peeps!

The ducks don’t mind. It gives them a chance to show their high performance ice skillz.

Enjoy.

(applause, applause)

MEET YOUR PERFORMERS

You know her and love her – Welcome back Margaret Hatcher!

Daisy Duck

Donald Duck

And – - er, uh…yeah. Who is this again?

Honestly, we have named and renamed this poor fella so many times that we can’t keep up with his actual name.

I feel bad for him. Any suggestions?

Now for the truth – actually the ducks DO mind if the entire pond is ice…and they aren’t happy until the sun melts a corner for them to splash in – or until we break up part of it so they can play ‘n dunk.

And isn’t this cutesie? I’m actually talking about their little feet. They are hiding. Do you see part of ‘em? The ducks actually lay on their bellies and pull their feet up totally off the ground. It looks like they sorta tuck their feet under their wings. Do ducks know yoga?

Make that…10 Ducklings!

classiclyamber — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:40:50 +0000

I woke up this morning to quickly check on Miss Margaret and she was already up and at ‘em – with her 9 little duckies, no wait…What? 1, 2, 3, 4….5, 6…7, 8, 9, – 10!! REallY?!? I counted again…and again, just to double chek, and sure enough! She had 10 little ducklings following along behind her! I’m not sure if one hatched really late or if he was just hiding from us yesterday, but there are definitely 10 ducklings now. I am in Duck Heaven! I just love it!

Hubby is in the process of building these duckies a sweet new home for safety from racoons and other boogers at night. He’s really new at this sort of thing, but I believe he’s got a knack for it. Plus, he really enjoys it so I am looking forward to the things he’ll be making in the near future. I have lots of ideas for his budding talents. Next? A much needed clothes line!

Diving In.

classiclyamber — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:25:55 +0000

So our family is kinda small right now and we live on a kinda small-ish farm. Maybe one day, all of that will change and we will have a large family and live on a large-ish farm. My name is Amber and I am married to an amazing man who puts up with all of my wild ideas and crazy hangups. We have 4 amazing children that range in age of (nearly) 5 months old to 8 years old. These are the people who live in the farmhouse. The people who live in the farmyard are: Macy, the dog; Natalie and Molly, both cats; Joleen, Beatrice and Blanche – all sometimes laying hens; and Donald, Daisy and Margaret Hatcher, all ducks. One day, I would like to have some dairy goats and a dairy cow or two, too, but that’s a different post.

I wanted to talk about our ducks because we’ve had something exciting happen lately. Just yesterday, we had our first ever hatching of ducklings! Yes, Margaret Hatcher is the proud new mama of 9 baby ducklings. They are so incredibly cute. I mean, all babies usually ARE cute, but I was noticing how ducklings are exact miniature replicas of their parents. Does that make sense? A chick IS a small youngin of it’s larger parents, but it doesn’t look EXACTLY like them. A baby duck looks almost exactly like their parents pretty soon after they hatch. It’s a pretty amazing thing. I guess what I’m referring to here is proportions. Just take a look at their rounded beaks and their big (but so small) webbed feet!

I can’t wait to see them all heading down to the pond, one after another, being good little boys and girls and following their mama all in a line! I know they will be happy to dive into the pond – to swim – and eat all kinds of fresh yummies (whatever kinda fresh yummies it is that ducks like to eat down there!).

They are truly perfect and I love all 9 of them.♥