Second first duck eggs

I've thought I had discovered a Bonnie egg a few times now...

and every time I've been wrong.
Last Saturday while cleaning the coop I was excited to notice 2 soft shelled eggs by the duck pool, one barely had a shell at all. Whitney had layed earlier so they couldn't be hers right? hmm, well if they are Bonnies, we had better check her to make sure she's okay and all the egg is out of her. Miss A helped scoop her up and lay her on her back while I searched through a forest of downy butt feathers, all clean and fine. Bonnie scuttled off to her friends.
The next day ad no eggs in the duck nest? seems Whitney is something of an overachiever and Bonnie suffered the indignity of a butt check for nothing...

Whitney started laying 3 weeks ago today and while she doesn't lay every day, there has been more than one egg for every day since she started.
Let's check her nest this morning

 



Yep, in the corner of the coop under the tarps is where she digs her crater

 

Oh look a precious Whitney egg! along with the plastic training egg, neither are buried today. Generally if she lays this will be where it is.

Yesterday only a lonely plastic egg hid in the nest so I thought she had taken a day off and that's perfectly fine with me! I did search the yard though, those pesky rats aint getting them if I can help it.

But wait, what's this?

 

 

Another egg hiding in the gap behind the brick stairs? huh, I don't think that was there yesterday, but to be fair I found it while dealing with the aftermath of a duck/water tsunami (cover with wood shavings and wait, hope that it absorbs most of the damage...)
is it a Bonnie egg? no, probably not and I really don't mind if she takes her time. To be honest I think she is probably quite a bit younger than Whitney and there is no set time for a bird to lay their first egg, I just don't fancy the idea of finding a bunch of half eaten ones some day, so I search most days.
Not expecting to find anything but wondering if I may be pleasantly surprised anyway.



 

Above is a recent picture of our ducks butts (what?)
Whitney on the left has a parting of white downy fluff which is quite noticeable, Bonnie (far right) does not. I wonder if it's an indication of a laying duck... or whether I just spend too much time looking at the wrong end my buddies

 

What?

 

 

 



The fluffy butts have all been with us 24 weeks today, the days grow shorter as we chug slowly towards winter and the colder months.
My saffron corms are starting to sprout so their garden pots have been moved away from curious beaks and only time will tell whether the frangipani will flower again this year after it's traumatic (for me) repotting... It and the banana plant are now officially too big to come indoors so all I can do is hope they will survive the Waikato frost and fog.
The feathered ones put themselves to bed earlier and earlier, Sunnies comb and waddles are an ever darkening shade of dark pink. As Wyandottes I expect they will take a while to start laying but I wonder if Sunny will be first.

 

 

Things I can't manage to catch on camera no matter how hard I try:
The perfect white bulls eye disk of a fertile duck egg (Yep! the eggs are FERTILE. Stevie has figured it out! not that you'd be able to tell from his shenanigans.. climb on sideways, sit on her like she's a pool float until she gets annoyed...) 

 

or Chuck's kicky leg, hang down a wing rooster dance to impress the ladies
It doesn't go on long enough, usually because Bonnie doesn't appreciate it.. and the pullets are still not quite ready for it. Over the last few days it also ends with Chuck stretching up tall and pecking them on the head, yeah cause that'll definitely help

 

 

He's lucky he's so pretty. Today, he also offered a treat to Lizzy
Offered her a treat (not pictured I was too surprised!).
This is pretty big for Mr steals food from his girlfriends mouth and pecks her head to remind her whose boss. Our little boy is becoming a man!