West nest hatching

We opened the nest box at 4:00 when the hen was out for supper and found that most of the 23 eggs were pipped. That is, the shell was slightly broken and pushed out from the inside in one small place. This is done by the duckling inside when it pecks at the shell with its “egg tooth” which is a sharp little protrusion at the end of its bill.

If you look at the West nest camera you might not see anything different: just a sleeping duck. But if you watch for a while you may see her moving around and turning the eggs by digging down with her bill. The ducklings break out of the eggs by themselves, but they can’t get out from under other eggs so the hen turns them. She’s reacting to peeping of the ducklings within the eggs, before they have even hatched. (It’s a very soft sound and hard to hear via the camera’s microphones.)

Soon after they hatch you’ll be able to see them as they get more and more active and stronger, alternating with periods of rest. They will most likely jump from the nest box on Sunday morning. On jump day I plan to have a third camera set up outdoors, facing the nest box, so with two browser windows you can watch both the inside and outside action simultaneously.

Here is a link to the outdoor camera. It is offline right now (7:30 Friday) but the link works to take you to where the camera will be live, later on. I’ll post again when the camera goes live.

What to expect on jump day:

The hen will typically go out for breakfast early in the morning. This gives you a good look at the ducklings but they will usually settle down and sleep in a pile, which makes them impossible to count. When she returns she will typically stay in the nest box for a while as the ducklings alternate between climbing around and staying quiet. At some point the hen will jump up into the nest box opening and study the surrounding area, often for many minutes. She’s looking for foxes, dogs, cats, hawks, crows, people, … anything that might harm the ducklings. Often she is not satisfied with the first look and will drop back into the nest and stay for another 5 to 20 minutes. She may repeat this several times.

Finally, when she decides the time is right, she will leave the nest box and drop down to the ground below it and start a soft pulsing call. The ducklings respond by peeping loudly, jumping and climbing inside the nest box, and jumping from the opening. This doesn’t take long. It’s usually only a few minutes from when she starts to call until the last duckling has jumped. She then leads them away and they never return to the nest.

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