Our Silkie hen hatched out a duck

We put a duck egg under our Silkie hen, it hatched yesterday. The little thing is so adorable and already eating and drinking well. The "momma" hen doesn't know what to think about her baby, she keeps looking at it funny.
We had also put some chicken eggs under her so she would have a chicken baby, but they never germinated so all she has is the duckie baby. I'm not usre what breed this is, at the time we put this egg under her our ducks were not laying and this was an egg we got from my brothers ducks. He has several breeds so I'm not to sure which this is.

The picture is of it standing in its breakfast.

Awwww, how cute! I'm sure momma will learn to love him. Is that scrambled eggs?

It looks like it might be black Swedish.

I love the mental image I get of your hen --" I just don't understand" and cocking her head back and forth.

awwww, ducklings are sooo cute!

Those Silkies are incredible, I only have one and she hatched out two gamehens just three days ago and is setting on five more. What a darling little duck. It seems they all love standing in their food...LOL.

yes terry-emory that is scrambled eggs. Very good for little ducks.

It is an active little thing and eating quite hardily for hatching yesterday afternoon.

How long before it is bigger than its "mother"?

too sweet and toooo funny!!

Look at those little feet! so cute.

Awwww....what a little cutiepie! He does kind of look like my Swedish ducks looked when they were little. Keep posting pics!!

Can you get one of "mom" and baby together?

lol, I was just going to ask the same thing as porkpal

Awwww Lil BooBoo baby.. Love that pic!

Okay you asked for it, here is "mom" and baby.
Mom still isn't quite sure about this thing. Baby duck is loving crawling up under her soft furry feathers, then he twiddles in them. I don't think the poor little hen knows what to do at this point.

Here is another picture.

um.. what is twiddles? I've never had a duck.. so I'm trying to picture this.. got the mental image of a poor silkie hen looking confused.. but I'm a bit confused on the twiddling part. He's very cute.. mom is a beautiful hen too.

Twiddles is what I call it, it's where they "mouth" most everything with their bill. Ducks learn by putting things in their mouth, so it is constantly mouthing (twiddling) stuff.

Funny story I have to share. The momma sits right in front of the plate of food, the duck crawls under her and every so often we see this little duck bill come out from under her and grab a piece of egg and disappear back under her. It is so funny since all we see is the bill.

What a precious pair! I didn't know the twiddle term either. I thought it was a euphemism for pooping. I'm glad I was wrong! Our ducks did that twiddling too, but I just didn't know to call it that!

You hen is really beautiful!

Twiddling isn't an official term, just something I call it. When they do that it just looks like twiddling to me.

thanks Molamola, she is a sweet little hen, the only Silkie we have that is non bearded, all the others are bearded.

those pics are priceless! What a great mom. I think there is no higher praise than a good mom. I love her. You gotta get a video of that baby stealing a bite from under her. This is the cutest thread!

thumbs and toes are most often twiddled...but bills work, lol.... http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/twiddle

well grownut since it has no thumbs and not really any toes, then I guess all that is left to twiddle with is the bill, lol

heh...my thoughts exactly;)

- Then there's whole body twiddling...

notgoingtherenoroad, lolol.

That's what Grownut does at her zumba classes, whole body twiddling....

Ah, no wonder it is a verboten topic.

Moxy's jeeeeeeeaalloouuuuuuusss....

It's a bit warmer today but there is suppose to be a cold front coming through this evening so we let momma and duckie out for a roam.
So here is duckies roam around with momma hen. Funny, momma hen clucks and duckie comes.

My son is digging a trench for water drainage from the other chickens pen. This is duckie twiddling around in the water. Momma hen can't figure out why her baby has such a fascination with water.

This message was edited Feb 8, 2010 10:30 AM

One more picture. This little duck is a bundle of energy, so so cute.

He looks like he is having so much fun! Today is definitely a duck day here in NE TX!

Okay....I lied....not one more picture....here is yet another, couldn't resist this one. Baby duck following momma hen.

Imprinting at it's best!

so cute and funny! Silkies are such good Mamas :-)

She keeps getting about an inch from the ducks face and staring at it. I think she is still trying to figure out what on earth she hatched.

Is she saying, "what on earth did I hatch?" or "who on earth is your father?!"