Originally Posted by cassiesmom
Critter Crazy, would there be any reason why they would not all hatch? (What would cause a chick or duck to not survive all the way to hatching?) You mentioned that they're exhausted from breaking out of their shells ... do you ever have to help one break out? I think I read somewhere that the chick needs to use all its muscles and strength to break itself out, and that it can be bad for the chick to be assisted too much.
When our office was in the old location, we had a pair of Canada geese. We called them Mother and Gander. They made a nest in our parking lot, on a little island under a tree. Stubborn Mother sat out there in the cold, wind, rain - we couldn't figure out why she wouldn't have put it in a more protected location. But there it was. Gander was such a meanie to people trying to walk from the parking lot to the office that we had to warn people not to park too close to them. We had 4 babies that year. They were little green fluff balls at first and it was so cute how they followed Mother around, and Gander followed them. The following year the nest was built in a new place, but the mother goose disappeared from it and the eggs didn't survive. We weren't sure if she got hit by a car or an animal got her. In our current location the 'geese police' keep them on the move so they can't start setting up nests. They sure are big.
