Mama_duck, you are doing fine with those ducklings. Some losses are inevitable, even if you do everything right. Hope you get hold of your rehabber soon... it will be a load off your mind. If the runt is still having a rough time, you might try dividing the pen with some wire mesh and putting the runt and one of the less aggressive duckings in there. They'd need their own food and water, of course, but it would give him a rest and a chance to get stronger. They'd likely need to go back with the main group at night for warmth. Just asuggestion... I don't know what your set-up is like. It's tough to lose even one. I had to cull a crippled chick this morning. It was likely a B Vitamin deficiency, but in spite of treatment he was just getting worse. This morning he was unable to use his legs at all... I guess I didn't catch it in time. Won't make that mistake again! The area around London is lovely.. so green and I suppose you have the Carolinian forests, if you are far enough south. It's green here too, but not quite as fertile.

The 'stick ups' are called scoli. I've never read anything that gives a reason for them being there, so I assume it's just to make the caterpillar appear ferocious so as to scare away predators. They're harmless to people, don't sting, and I've seen many pictures of people holding the late instar caterpillars in their hands, kids included. Each instar of this species is different from the others. The scoli are much taller in relation to overall body size in the early instars than they are in the later instars. In the later instars, their body gets thick, and the scoli point backward. There are many pictures of them on the internet, but I'll be posting pictures of each instar, since they're so unique. The adults are beautiful. Since they only have one flight per year, I won't see the adult moth until next year. I'll have to provide these with a bucket of leaves or paper towels for them to burrow into when they're ready to make their pupa. I'll keep them on the porch unless we have an extremely cold night (like the one last January) and then I'll bring them into my unheated guest room. I'm getting ahead of myself here, though. They're not the easiest ones to raise, so I don't want to jinx things by talking about their pupae just yet! :) Sherry

I totally understand how you feel. Up until last Friday, I could not have hurt a HOSP. However today I would rather wring their neck as look at them. Three weeks ago we had a hatch of 5 baby bluebirds. We watched them everyday growing like litttle weeds into fully feathered beauties. My husband get telling me the HOSPs would end up killing our babies. He wanted to get a trap, but I stubborningly refused.. A decision I would live to regret. That day was a week ago today when we saw a male HOSP on their house. We found bluebird feathers on the ground. When we opened the box the babies were baldheaded and bleeding. their eyes and beaks had been pecked as well as there wings . My husband handed me the first baby who died in my hand. As I stood there watching my husband pulled 2 more out that were dead. As we walked away the HOSP headed for the house again to finish them off. I took the nest out, asked my husband to get me a spare house bringing it in our house to keep that monster away. I held those little guys and cried my heart out. They died sometime after 1 am when I fell asleep. We ordered a Sparrow trap that night. In 2 days we have caught over a dozen sparrows. I have been responsible for doing away with over half of them and I am not done yet. I guess it takes seeing what I saw to get to where I am.

Thats to bad Tim, but at least they are somewhere where they can survive now! Will you be able to see how they are doing or get updates at all? Glad you have another pair there anyway, hopefully it wasn't them that broke the TRES egg...was the other nest abandoned before or after the BLues showed up? I have seen some bigtime fighting between Blues and TRES when the BLues have gone to a TRES box...the TRES won in my case and the BLues took the paired box..then they both nested peacefully side by side... Donna