Oh boy, we’ve entered the duckteen stage!
It’s time to spend time outside. Starting inside their pen so the big ducks could get to know them first, they quickly moved to exploring the yard. Despite Mabel protesting loudly, they always gravitate to wherever the big ducks are hanging, or follow them around the yard.
It started a little faster than I intended. After two days spending time in their pen, I opened the patio door to start the grill and they ran over and demanded to go outside. So, I popped them down the stairs and they promptly ran over to the big ducks. They have a death wish.
I decided to let them explore the yard as I prepped dinner, keeping an eye out, and they played nicely. So I put their pen away and now we are working on the transition to living outdoors. Maddie and Nora are my peacemakers, while Mabel is making sure everyone knows she’s the dominant duck in the flock, which Nikki interprets as a threat to Nora. So Nikki then takes on Mabel and I have to keep a close eye and step in on occasion.
More photos and a long video of their outside adventures here. (And all the duckling photos/videos are here)
Right now they are driving me nuts because they can’t go outside, it’s much too cold and snowing. But we are probably a week out from them being outside permanently, so there’s that. LOL
I have to run out for most of the day, I suspect it’s going to be a busy news day, so use this as your thread to come back to for relief from the crazy.
Respite open thread
Amir Khalid
Wasn’t Penelope larger than Maddie and Mabel? I’m thinking it won’t be too long before Nikki and Nora are the big ducks, and there might be a shift in the balance of power.
mrmoshpotato
Snow you say?
TheOtherHank
I’ve been waiting for another I Got The Shot thread, but haven’t seen one, so I’ll put this here. I figured out how to pull a subset of frames from my dashcam videos and made a time lapse of getting the vaccine at the Oakland Coliseum on 4/3/21: Zoom Zoom
eachother
Love the video. Taking that video required patience as much as the flock joining effort.
When I first got chickens, before the coop was ready, they lived in a box in the house. They were soon perching on the box edge. Then, to keep them entertained, we played ball until I realized I may be teaching them inappropriate behavior with an egg like object.
zhena gogolia
Thank you! Your yard is a garden of earthly delights.
I just love when they wiggle their butts.
zhena gogolia
@TheOtherHank:
Cool! You should send that to WaterGirl.
TaMara (HFG)
@zhena gogolia: I wait for the butt wiggle after every bath. It makes the mess worth it.
TaMara (HFG)
@Amir Khalid: Yes, but it’s probably more age than size. Penelope deferred to Mabel and I suspect these guys will, too. But Nikki fighting seems to mean Mabel won’t get too aggressive and hurt one of them.
evap
So cute! I want pet ducks!! Open thread you say? I got some good news yesterday. I wrote a book last spring/summer (a mathematics research monograph, nothing exciting) and my editor finally managed to get two reviews. Both are very positive, so we are good to go! A month of some of final editing and polishing, then I send the final version to the publisher. If I get it in by early June (which will not be a problem), the book will be published in 2021!
cope
I thought wrangling our seven month old terrier pup was a handful but that whole duck thing sounds exhausting. More power to you and keep the pictures coming (as if you don’t have enough to keep you busy). Thanks.
WaterGirl
@TheOtherHank: It is time for a new I Got the Shot! post, I was just getting one together when I saw this comment from you.
I added your video.
Another Scott
One thing I’ve been curious about for a while – why don’t they fly away? Are they too heavy? Do you pluck certain feathers? They just have no interest in leaving because the food and accommodations are so great, plus they get scritches?
Curiously,
Scott.
Benw
Pretty cool cartoon that explains the latest non-Standard Model physics results: https://physics.aps.org/articles/v14/47
Miss Bianca
@mrmoshpotato: Yes, she said grumpily, staring out the window at the 3-4 inches that fell last night and which are now covering the steep ‘n’ scary Driveway of Doom…
Miss Bianca
@evap: Congratulations!
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
Glad to see you in a thread, as I wanted to wish you Ramadan Mubarak. Have an easy fast, Amir.
Another Scott
@Benw: Neat, but a new cartoon is already needed.
ScienceMag:
It’s amazing how quickly cutting-edge science is being done these days.
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
Madoff died.
O. Felix Culpa
@raven: Ack! At first I read “Maddow.” But upon re-reading, I felt a lot better.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thank you.
rikyrah
Awe….they are so cute :)
Shakti
So yesterday, I set my mother’s at home workspace up in her spare bedroom. Because she’s a Boomer and hates change she insisted on getting a Mac mini from Best Buy (because she had a mini before and likes physical stores).
We got a web cam and a keyboard and plugged in a computer mouse. (She doesn’t like Bluetooth). We still need to get her a good thin monitor because her desk is the size of a postage stamp and she doesn’t want a VESA mount.
Hopefully this will quell the fights my parents have over the “office” aka my father’s trash room which has a big iMac.
mali muso
Quick duckling story from my childhood… I think I was about 5 years old and spending the week at a friend’s house. They had ducks and chickens, and we all had a great time feeding them and watching them peck and poke around the yard. There was a duckling who was fostered with a chicken mother and her brood. I guess the duck egg got placed under the hen and hatched alongside her chicks. In any case, it was pretty entertaining to watch momma hen followed by a line of 4 fluffy chicks cheeping and one little duckling at the end of the queue, waddling along. Even more entertaining when the baby duckling jumped into a pond one day and the chicken mom squawked and fluttered on the shore, terrified that “her baby” might drown.
Ken
Such a waste, when you consider how many bitcoins might have been mined using that.
I remember reading an explanation of how the theoretical calculations are done — might have been Feynman, if not then Hawking. What I took away from it was there are an infinite number of sums of infinite series, most of which diverge, but if you’re careful most of them cancel out and you’re left with a problem that’s only horrendously intractable.
Benw
@Another Scott: apparently the alternate calculation’s been “known about” for awhile, but not included in the formal calculation, and then the alternate team published their calculation on the day the g-2 collaboration released their result, as a FY to the formal calculation people, who are now super pissed.
In short, theorists gonna fight.
BruceFromOhio
The duckteens are quite talkative, there’s a constant running commentary. I admire your patience, commentary and headlines in the video – the cuteness overload is awesome!
Thank you so much for sharing this, it is a most welcome respite.
zhena gogolia
@evap:
Very exciting!
WereBear
The Duckteens will be the name of my radical new girl band.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Shakti:
Good suggestions for space-saving 24″ monitors here. Links to other monitor articles at the bottom.
catclub
@O. Felix Culpa: :
I was impressed that Madoff is pronounced ‘Made- off’. How did they already know it when he was born.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Alas, no bookend article on the best 24″” merrimacks.
TaMara (HFG)
@Another Scott: I know it’s late in the thread, but you are correct, they cannot fly because they are too heavy for their wingspan. Much like domestic chickens, once you start breeding for breast size, it soon overtakes the wingspan and they cannot stay aloft.
Maddie is my smallest/lightest duck and she can fly – and loves to fly – she will jump off the steps and fly, she’ll run and get some loft, about two feet off the ground and can fly for a few feet.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this duckteen post!! So cute. I have been waiting impatiently and now it is here :-).
In semi-related news: There are only 2 kittens in my foster kitten litter so there isn’t a lot of competition for places at the milk bar. Hence, both kittens have been gaining an average of 1/2 on ounce a day and look like fat tabby seals. They are very dedicated nursers! I think they’re a little more than a week old now. Their ears are coming unstuck from their head and the bigger kitten (the boy) has opened his eyes.
TaMara (HFG)
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): We may need photos!
Another Scott
@TaMara (HFG): Thanks!
Flight is still a bit of a mystery in some animals…
Cheers,
Scott.
WereBear
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): They sound adorable!
WaterGirl
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I have never seen photos of baby, baby kittens. Yes on photos!
eclare
Thank you so much for the updates, it is indeed a needed respite!