Hello friends, nature lovers like me. Congratulations to my friend @adalger for the growth of his project, I hope his success continues every day better. This week I am going to talk to you about a topic that I learned firsthand, I did not read it in any book. Many times we learn more with what we do than with what we read.
When I arrived at this farm in Colombia (I am Venezuelan) I found these two ducks that are already old and could not have had young. The owners of the ducks asked us to take care of them and if they had baby ducks they would be divided between the two families.
Almost immediately the female began to lay eggs and everyone on the farm (adults and children) was very happy.
She managed to lay 12 eggs. Taking advantage of the fact that she is looking for food and bathing in the lagoon I took the photo of his eggs since I wanted to know how many she had. As all mothers are very jealous of their children and take care of them a lot, it takes up to 4 days to leave the nest to go out to eat and they do it in 5 minutes or less since they could cool their eggs.
About a month the ducks have left and immediately she takes them on a tour of the farm to show them the place, where they have to go in search of food, to swim and everything they must learn to survive.
Unfortunately the ducks disappeared and we did not know what had happened to them.
We thought they were the dogs that had eaten them, but we thought we could find the feathers left in place. The bodies were not found until a neighbor told us that the dog was carrying one in the mouth but was dead. Of the 9 there was not a duck left.
Quickly he laid eggs again and this time we rushed to make a confinement for him to be quiet in it, we built a small lagoon and a house to lay their eggs more privately and much safer.
This gave us a little work but we finally made it and we were happy and they too. The ducks grew rapidly and we looked after them like never before, but it happened one day that they went to the lagoon and returned scared. I counted them every day to see if they were complete and that day there were 3 ducks left.
We got the dying ducks around the lagoon, almost buried in the mud. There it was that we realized what was happening. The duck dad killed them, he hits them with his beak, grabs them by the neck and shivers them. It breaks their bones and they are dead or die every day for not being able to eat.
Of 12 ducks left 10, 2 died and are still here on the farm.
We were happy again. We would have more ducks !!! Mama Pata had 15 eggs this time and 10 baby ducks came out.
Unfortunately, our joy did not last. We all went out to work outside the farm and neglected the ducks and dad duck ended up killing all the ducks, first 3, then 5. I could only give 2 to some friends at work.
Teaching:
Ducks are like lions. They kill their young so that the mother returns with him and can mate. It is sad but that is how amazing nature is.
The animals are beautiful and give us a lot of joy but we have to take care of them and love them.
This is my learning in this story, not so happy but amazing.
Isabel, that is so sad. I would never have thought that the mate would have done that. Now, they know how to protect them.
That's right, friend @sunscape. I had to learn seeing it, no book says. I already have experience that I must take care of them more. Thanks for comment.
Thanks for this story @isabelpena ^^ It is a absolutely lovely one, also also a bit sad :(.. I never believed that ducks would actually do thing like this!!
My dear friend @adalger Even though I grew up watching animals in my house, I never saw something like that. It's amazing what nature teaches us. I hope I have understood the new guidelines of the contest with the fusion of DNA. Thanks.
A very interesting story and great photos of your #featheredfriends! Poor babies! I'm glad that you can keep them safe. !tip
Thank God I saved one of the 3 that the father attacked, I almost gave him mouth to mouth breath lol. I became very fond of my animals. Thank you my dear friend @mel010100-life for your comment.
Nice story my friend. I hope those babies are good now. Have a nice day. Greetings from Argentina.
Hi @healthrecipes thank you for pasing by, yes, there are fine now.
I lived the blog i loved the ducks too, we have 11 ,the mother was killed and we lost one after caring for then 8 months but its really cruel to see the dad ducks indeed, nature is weird that way.
Thank you for a great share.Hi Isabel i found your blog in the discord steemterminal in the contest room by @adalger.
Or
Happy friday
BrittPlease go see @steemterminal and @heyhaveyamet for our redfishrally fro delegations @sgt.dan he has a great 1000 delegation contest,
Thank you @brittandjosie The life of the farm is wild and we must respect their customs and their way of being. It is the cycle of life in nature, although it hurts we must respect it. Thank you for your comments.
Good narrative as well.
Beautiful photos @isabelpena, and it is really sad for people because of the harsh reality of nature and it's selections and reasonings. I would have used the #education tag on this one as well, since there is a teaching here.
Thank you @jamerussell. It has not happened to you that sometimes does not know which labels to use or lacks space for one more, haha. Well, there we go watching. Thank you for your comment.
All the time about using the right tags, but I use Steempeak.com and we can use 10 tags, but that is a strong tag to use, so I would prefer it over something not quite so strong.
Never realized the drakes will kill all the ducklings like that making the female ready to mate again soon.
Perhaps once the eggs are laid remove him from the enclosure giving the female time to raise the young.
Being an older guy I would go in with gloves on he will most probably attack if he is this aggressive already.
We had a female duck when young, no drake so found chicken eggs for her to lay on when broody. She raised 4 of the original 7, three died with her trying to teach them to swim when we were not looking.
Too bad @joanstewart, these ducks are able to swim from 3 days of hatching and they look beautiful swimming all together following their mom. Unfortunately we have to learn the things of animals by watching them, observing their movements. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Animals do strange things, some don't have young when we have droughts, others kill their young if born deformed. Males in different special are known to kill the young of another males offshoot to procreate, not often they kill their own to procreate again so soon. Hope you find a way to continue breeding without the killing field....