Ducklings

Harley & family

Last summer a friend gave me some ducklings, mostly runner ducks crossed with Welsh Harlequins. But one drake looked to be pure WH. Harley is really beautiful with his emerald green head and wing bars, with black and brown on his white body. So I kept him and I got a pretty female from my friend too. She's a little light and does not have as much color on her as I've seen on other WH girls.

She doesn't have a name, I just think of her as Harley's girl or Mamma Duck. She started laying at New Years and laid every day, without a single break until mid April when she went broody.

Now I had read that hatching duck eggs in an incubator is harder than chicken eggs. But I had several hatches of 90-100%. Mamma duck is not very big and was trying to cover too many eggs so I put some in the incubator and left her with 13.

Last week Mamma hatched 10 of her 13 eggs and 2 more babies hatched in the incubator. As soon as they were dried off I gave them to her and everyone has been doing fine.  Harley doesn't bother the babies at all. Oh but don't make Mamma upset because Harley will come to her rescue and Mamma will charge if you try to get to the babies!

All of these babies are for sale, so if you are looking for Welsh Harlequins and are near Globe, Arizona, contact me! (hysong AT cableone DOT net)