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June 25, 1987 - Cheep, Cheep, QuackPage 8A/The Suffolk Times /June 25, 1987 Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh HEN RAISES DUCKS - -A clutch of abandoned mallard duck eggs were hatched by this chicken after 28 days of setting. "Mother" gets bewildered when they go for a swim, but otherwise mother and ducks are doing fine. la • '. Industrial & Farm Equipment .,. ROLLE BROS. ROUTE 58, P.O. BOX 358 RIVERHEAD, NEWYORK 727 -4383 Your Authorized Sperry -New Holland Dealer IWO N N IE S- BV I:. 725 First Street. New Suffolk 734 -6664 Rohe 25 to GLtangis. Rlght (south) at traffic light. Left at blinking light. Left at First Street. Dinner: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 5 to 10 pm, Friday and Saturday 5 to 11 pm, Sunday 4 to 10 pm. Closed Tuesdays Late -Night Menu Friday and Saturday until midnight "The Food? Merely sensational. "* * * I Mike McGrady, Newsday August 4, 1985 BAR OPEN FROM 4 p.m. till ? Serving cajun martinis and frozen fruit daiquiris • We're looking forward to seeing you again this year Elaine Rorrtagnoli and Afa,tcine Kessler Cheep,, C Quack By PAULSTOUTENBURGH Out on the lawn there are five baby ducks running around like lit- tle windup toys -- this way and that -- after anything that moves. I think the pesky wood fly is the chief part of their diet, but I'm sure there is also a wide variety of insects they're col- lecting as well. These patchy, dark brown and yellow balls of fluff are some cute. They never seem to stop their racing and searching. How they arrived at the Stoutenburghs is a rather interesting story. We received a telephone call from a young carpenter working at a house on the bay. The men were working on a deck and as their work got under way, they noticed a nest of eight eggs that had been abandoned. Since the nest would have had to be moved or destroyed, the young man gave us a call to see what we could do. Well -- it wasn't long before Bar- bara and Paul were on the scene and found the eggs had already cooled down and speedy action had to be taken. Barbara tucked them under her shirt to keep them warm and we headed home as fast as we could. We just happened to have a hen that had started to sit on a few eggs so you can guess what we did. We took the few eggs she was on from under her and replaced them with the eight light green mallard duck eggs and crossed our fingers. Watchingand Waiting Sure enough, she stayed on them and the days rolled by until we thought they'd never hatch. We were used to the 21 -day incubation time for chickens, but after looking in our Palmer's Field Book of Natural His- tory we remembered that ducks take from 26 to 28 days. As her time drew near, we decided to move the hen to a big enclosed pen. It was quite an experience that night as I picked up the chicken and Barbara gathered the warm eggs to put under the hen in the enclosure. Things don't always go the way you want and the next morning she was running around all excited with her eggs thrown about on the ground! Evidently she didn't like her new quarters, so we picked the eggs up and put them back in the original high box that was five feet off the ground. Later she came back to the box and settled in as if nothing had happened. Sure enough, one morning I went out to the barn and found the "mother" on the ground with one baby duck tucked under her. Ducks, when hatched, start moving out of the nest almost immediately and, sure enough, this one was off and running. What was to happen to the eggs now since the mother had left to care for her first - hatched? The next move we made was to take the eggs and slip them under her on the ground. This was done by covering her so she couldn't see us and then By engineer John Cronin: 'Your Home' from basement to attic every week, only in The Suffolk Times Focus on Nature gently tucking the eggs under. The remarkable thing was it worked and the next morning we had five little mallard ducks. It's a complicated story, for now she is off with the little ones and has left three unhatched eggs behind. One has started to peck his way out and seemingly gave up, so we brought them all in the house and put them under a light bulb for warmth. Barbara's motherly instinct helped the little fellow out. When about a third of the shell was off, the little fellow gave a big shove, as Bar- bara says, "almost like a mother de- livering a baby" and popped out all wet and wobbly into her hand. Sixth One Made It Now what to do with this one? Luc- kily, this all happened towards even- ing when the chickens were going to roost. The new mother hen took her clutch of ducklings and found a safe corner in the barn and settled down for the evening. It was here, with flashlight in hand, we slipped the lit- tle wet fellow under the mother. By morning we were happy to see she had six fluffy little ones scurrying about. The other two eggs never did hatch, but perhaps those had gotten chilled when she couldn't quite cover them all. The poor mother is a bit baffled about the goings -on of her brood. We've put a small wading pool by the barn where the littles ones drop in and frolic about as mother hen looks on with astonishment. None of her offspring ever did this before! Their feeding behavior tops all, for here again she looks on as they scurry about, not at all like well- behaved chicks that always stay close to mother. But despite all this they are grow- ing and look healthy. Each night, or should it get the least bit cool during the day, you can see mother sitting sort of spread -out with her busy little ones poking out from under her pro- tected mantle of feathers. We keep the barn door closed for I know there is a raccoon roaming the neighborhood. Our garbage pail is overturned and I can see the tell -tale footprints of Mr. Raccoon on the back porch. This year there have been more calls about raccoons in barns, homes and chimneys than ever be- fore. Most calls come from people who do not cover their chimneys with some sort of wire protection. A few get in openings that people have neg- lected to close up but the vast major- ity come from uncovered chimneys. The easiest method to keep them out of your chimney is to get what the hardware man calls turkev wire. It's a heavy galvanized wire with approximately one -by- two -inch squares. It can be cut to fit over and around the flue pipe that comes out of the chimney and when secured it gives total protection to the chimney, still letting you use the fireplace or oil burner. There are professional people who will come and remove the raccoons, but it's better to be pre- pared, for sooner or later you'll be vi- sited by these rascals.