Baby muscovy ducks 🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣

Our Muscovy's have been producing eggs since spring and now, of all times, is when they decide to hatch them out; they certainly picked a funny season those silly little quackers. With fall just around the corner we still have enough time for them to grow, the only problem now, keeping walking bait away from the barn cats.
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As soon as they hatched the father duck wouldnt leave the coop, I thought it was just some nice gesture to the moma but boy was I wrong. So the next day I walked in and gave them some feed, then, out of nowhere, the male duck bends down and snaps up a little baby duck by the head.

WHAT THE!!

So after a little research I found out this can happen, the male might be trying to stay in his hierarchical position, so any new male competition is lunch, regardless of whether its his babies or not.

The interesting thing of all this is, one day, the moma duck looked like she had left the kids with the other duck, we'll call her auntie. I thought to myself (how nice), it almost seemed like some type of companion parenting, after all, it does take a village, right.

But soon I realized something was off. Whenever moma duck came around, auntie would hiss, then  start biting and I could tell auntie wasnt letting moma near her babies.

This must have been happening for a while as when I separated the babies from auntie, they chirped away very unhappily. Auntie did not want to give up those babies, she hissed at me, bit me twice and fluttered in my face with her wings. Im starting to wonder if maybe she doesnt think she's stealing them, maybe she thinks there her own for some reason?. not sure why all this happened, but very interesting to watch the drama unfold.

In the picture here is moma duck and babies. Moma is a blue eyed, all white Muscovy, with a very friendly attitude. Her sister on the other hand,......

The little yellow one was just stepped on by our new goat, it was terrifying.
I thought she was a goner. But she literately dusted herself off, pushed her wing back into place and went off hunting for bugs with the rest of the family. Not even a sign of hurt or shock. I figured Id give it a day or two to really know how she was doing and so far, she's a trooper.

The old nest. As soon as the young ones hatched she gave up on the old eggs.

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Golden laced polish chickens in Ontario, ☼Canada.☼

As being new to owning chickens we wernt sure if they would come back after being let out, and the first time we tried it, it didnt turn out well. It resulted in me running around the property chasing after these birds with toes like velociraptors
( I may be exaggerating on that ).
But after a good hour or so I maged to corral them back in the coop.

We then found out chickens need time to grow used to they're new home, so we gave it a few weeks and then crossed our fingers. Now, we really couldn't wait the full two weeks, we dont like animals being locked up, so, it was decided, enough is enough, if they fly off they fly off, it will be a $40 lesson.

Luckily, now that we've added a few more animals, everything seems to have changed. When the chickens were let out today, they didn't immediately run off, they stayed to watch what the ducks were up to. After that, they started to act like chickens, rustling through the leaves and dirt looking for bugs, climbing up trees and looking for places to lay a nest.

The golden laced polish chickens just happen to be one of my favourite breeds, The colour pattern on them is brilliant, with they're boisterous hairdo resembling something of a mix between Einstein and don king. One thing to keep in mind, while they are an attractively showy bird, of coat and hairstyle, they are in no need of specialized care, in fact, they are an extremely hearty variety of chicken, putting up with frigged Canadian winters and our boiling heatwave like summers.

They enjoy scraps from the table, red wiggler worms from our compost, oats, sunflower seeds, cantaloupe, apples, kiwi, sprouts, and many other fresh foods.

Here is our rooster, youd think it would be annoying having a rooster right out back in your yard but honestly, I dont even notice. It also adds to the ambiance of a farm, with the goats meh'ing, and the ducks squakings, it only makes sense to have a roster crowing, after all, it is only just a few times in the morning, he doesn't seem to do much during the day. This might all change, depending on if we add more birds ( competition ) to the mix.

Muscovy's and chickens getting along

He seems to like this corner, its close to the coop door but far enough in the bush that he can feel like a real chicken.