Mothering

I have this small 'herd' of moscovy ducks. 2 beautiful gray ones and the more traditional black and white. One of my gray ones, Gracie, had babies this past August. More on the month of August in another post. So I'm watching her be a first time mother to her cute little ducklings. She really is amazing. She's also mean and protective. Mean in a mama bear kind of way. She'll hang on to the wing feathers of one of the other ducks, they'll run away and she still hangs on! She'll snap and bite at anyone or anything that comes close to her babies. I've also noticed that she's not just a 'do as I do' mother. I have seen her take her babies to 4 out of 5 of our pastures just to show them around the farm. Just a little duck stroll. I've also seen her introduce them to our big, loud, dogs! She only brought them to within sight range of our dogs, but it was enough for them to run for the hills and for our dogs to want to play catch with them. Thankfully they didn't meet each other. It's funny that even though they can get their chick feed anytime they go inside the barn, they always come in when I'm feeding the alpacas. So now that I've bored you with my duck news I'll get off here and check facebook. Enjoy the fall!