[masraum]

Originally Posted by Jolly Amaranto

I provide nesting boxes for wild black bellied whistling ducks in my back yard. In one of the boxes this year, four different hens were laying eggs (called egg dumping). One mating pair ended up sitting on the lot and 38 ducklings hatched. All the ducklings bonded to that pair and the big family moseyed off to the local pond.

A few years ago there were only two hens worth of eggs and 21 hatched.

Very cool.

WHen I was a kid, my grandfather and I used to go to a park a few miles from his home. The park had a small lake, and was often/usually frequented by lots of ducks including a bunch of muscovy ducks. We'd often take bread, and I'd feed the ducks little pieces of bread. It was not unusual for there to be ducks wandering around with large numbers of ducklings in tow.