The wee baby duckies hatched out just 21 days, three short weeks, ago. They arrived to me only 19 days ago. Tiny, super fragile, and essentially just born. They were fluffy and easily fit in the palm of my hand.
It feels like they have been here forever, mostly because we have gone through 3 brooders, 1x50 lb bag of feed and moved them from the bathroom, where they spent their first 2 and 1/2 weeks, to a new safe home in the garage.
They have quadrupled in size and are feathering out, notice the "highlights" in the first, those stick out much farther than the downy ones, and sporadic tail feathers in the second.
At the end of next week they will be moved to the outdoor pen where, the ones we keep, will live out their long lives, and the ones we cull will live out there short lives.
There they will begin the process of getting to know the adult ducks, through a protective fence of course. And will also lean what being a pasture raised duck is all about. In a little over a week they will be out of doors all the time, unless we get more rainy 40 degree nights, I hope those are over.
I can't get over how fast they grow. I mean I know they are essentially adults at 8 weeks, but they double in size every week and that is not an exaggeration.
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