Yesterday I pulled out the kiddie pool and filled it up for the very first time this year. Josh was thrilled. He stayed in it most of the day. At one point when Helvegan (our Khaki Campbell / Runner drake) attempted to join Josh in the pool, Josh jumped out, chased Helvegan around the pool, pinned him down and stomped him for a few seconds, before jumping back in the pool. A couple minutes later, Helvegan was in the pool with Josh peacefully. None of the other ducks attempted to swim with Josh.
Today Josh took the ducks around the yard, eventually finding a new water source in the big buckets from last year's container gardening. I guess despite having drainage holes, the soil is still frozen enough to pool the water up on top. I guess they like that more than the pool or the water bowl in the barn. To each their own I guess.
Today #1's friend's mom came by with the eggs from her flock. She has Polish and feather-legged chickens, and two roosters... So we'll see if any of these eggs are fertile. And if so, what kind of neat chicks we can hatch out.
The 20 eggs from the friend's flock, and the eight from our hen will go in the incubator tomorrow, which will set us up for a hatch date of 5/13.
I candled the eggs in the incubator again, in a desperate attempt to find some sign of life in the other eggs. Still, just the one egg. It's obvious, and you can actually see the heart beating inside the shell (awesome!), so it's pretty clear to me that the other eggs are duds. I will check one last time tomorrow before tossing them out. It will be a sad lonely little duck, raised with chickens. Perhaps having an identity crisis if we manage to keep the contents of that shell alive long enough to go out to the barn.
Tonight I checked the incubator one last time and the humidity had spiked to 70% and there was condensation on the viewing window. I haven't added any water in two or three days now. So I opened it up and let all the air out. Hopefully this correct the issue. The heater works pretty fast to get the temperature back up to 100, so I'm not terribly worried about the temporary temperature drop. I'll have to ask kids in the morning if they're sneaking extra water in there somehow.