Blog » April 2008

Many folks say that you shouldn't let baby ducks into water until they're at least a month old, lest they catch cold and/or drown.  But here at webmeadow, we throw caution to the wind and let the babies in on the first sunny day we have.  In this case, that day was a Thursday. 

They took to the water like, well... ducks in the water.  They jump in, they jump out; a great time is had by all.  I'd like you to notice Bruce's butt in the bottom-right of that picture.  Bruce's butt seems to be in every picture I take, because he is SO FREAKING BIG.  At 7 days old, he weighed in at 13.5oz.  That's a 4x increase over his Day 3 weight of 3.4oz .

Sometimes they like to wash in the water, but mostly they like to careen around like maniacs.

(And in case you are concerned:  they have a nice warm place to dry off, so they don't catch cold.  And because we have a long tradition of using snow toys for watering holes, their pool is a plastic sled that has a nice slope for entrance and exit out of the water.  So no drowning, either.  Splashing, though -- there's a bunch of that.)

Meet Headder:

She is a wee Khaki Campbell, pictured here with a kiwi that is the same size as the egg she hatched from nary 5 days before this photo.  And though it does not quite show in the picture, she is exactly the same color as the kiwi as well. 

Headder was named by Dave Moore and his family.  Dave runs Cornerstone Technologies*, one of our very favorite partners.  Dave points out that the name is "Heather" as spoken by a two-year-old, but I think we can all agree that Headder is a much more fitting name for this little duckling. 

* New website coming soon, courtesy of yours truly!  Keep your eyes peeled!

Next up we have a picture of goose feet.  Bruce Goose feet, to be exact.

There are three important things to notice about this photo:

1. The dude has huge feet. 
2. They look alot like chicken feet, but with webbings.
3. There is very little green grass outside, even though we are quite clearly a full month into the season we call "Spring".

Next time in the exciting world of baby waterfowl:  the first bath!

My friends, the time is nigh!  Meet Spruce:

Spruce Goose.  In the lower right of that picture is Spruce's future boyfriend, Bruce.  Bruce Goose.

Along with Mr and Ms Goose, we got 4 Khaki Campbells, and 3 Indian Runners.  The geese are huge (3.6 ounces each), but the ducks are very very small (only 1.5 ounces each).  You might notice in that picture above that Spruce has a strong resemblance to a pear.

This is one of the tiny Khakis taking a tiny nap.  She does not have a name yet.  In fact, none of the ducks have names!  That is because it is up to our trusted clients and partners to name these lovely little gals.  For a little while now, we've been giving away naming rights to the ducks, so it's up to ya'll (you know who you are!) to come up with appropriate titles for these little ones.  We'll have announcements as the names come in.

Past names have included:  Esmerelda, Biggie Smalls, Cuz, Dre, Boot, Elephant, Guillermo (AKA Ghee),  Mo, Frahnck, Cantaloupe, Penelope, and Cayuga Joe.  So as you can see, silly names are encouraged.  These happen to be girl ducks, but we do not require (or even desire) their names to be gender-appropriate.  (Hey, you know what would be a funny name?  Moniker!)

I realized that none of these pictures have a good sense of scale, so I tried to remedy that situation.  However, it turns out that the wee stubborn ones will not really hold still for poses.

P.S.  After I took those pictures, I put that teacup back on the shelf without washing it.  Don't tell Aaron.