Dead duck day

I've decided that I need to keep better records of what's happening on the farm.

I've known this for a while, but it really came home yesterday morning when my darling duck, Ms Moneypenny, was attacked and killed. She died defending her nest, probably from raccoons. She had become quite a good friend and I would bring her breakfast in bed every morning so that she wouldn't have to leave her eggs to go forage. I never left any food around the nest because I was worried about attracting rats.

I had been looking into incubators lately, especially after I found that Ms Moneypenny had bite marks on her neck one morning. Possibly from rats, but I think the teeth marks were too far apart and were most likely from a mink. Given the price of incubators (starting around $200) and the lack of supplies on hand to make my own, I was tempted to simply remove the eggs. I would rather have the eggs die then loose the duck. But I didn't have the heart to do it to her. After all, she had put so much energy and love into keeping those eggs. That's where I went wrong.

All of the eggs survived the attack, but the battle itself seems to have ranged across half the back yard. (this is the gross part) Her head was ripped off and carted away which is usually the act of raccoons. A raven as large as the ones you get in The North, half again the size as the local ravens, had already found the carcass and was finishing off the entrails. All this in about an hour and a half - between the time when we got up in the morning and looked outside to check on them and the time we finished drinking our coffee.

I tell you, the realities of living on the farm can be extremely hard sometimes.

I'm not certain if this experience makes me want to raise even more animals so that I can enjoy the company of more ducks like Ms Moneypenny or if I just want to give up on animals all together. They do break my heart.

The thing I could have really used a journal for was to know when exactly she started sitting on those eggs. It's been at least a month now. You see, we ran out and immediately bought an incubator, stuck the eggs in it, and crossed our fingers. According to this fantastic egg hatching guide, a Muscovy duck takes up to 37 days to hatch. If my memory is right, which sometimes happens, then the eggs should be ready to hatch any day now. But it sure would be nice to know exactly when.

The next goal is to find some way to candle the eggs and find out which one has gone rotten. It really smells. Maybe I can discover if they are still viable and/or how far along they are. There isn't much information on Muscovy ducks anywhere; online or in books. But, I'll do everything in my power to hatch these eggs even if it means stinking up the house for a week with rotten egg smell.

Also, I've set up some traps: have-a-hearts (borrowed from friends and neighbours) for the raccoons and the mink and snappers for the rats. It may be considered cruel these days to use snapper traps, but you know what, it's a much kinder and faster death than poor Ms Moneypenny got.

Ms Moneypenny is the small white duck in the back.