Well Genny, would it help at all to know that you and your ducks were in part, a big inspiration for us to try raising Muscovies? If I'm not mistaken, you have enjoyed quite a number of them. (Not sure if Troy was one from the pic or not). After some research, we thought we'd add a few to our flock as well. We now have 5 babies. I don't know their gender yet, but they certainly have proved to be the most modest and well behaved little creatures! We've had quite a busy Spring so far rearing goslings and battling another raccoon over here. In the middle of all the mayhem, members of "the M Team" as we call them have been so patient, so polite, and so undemanding - they practically take turns at the feeding bowl. We've likened them to 'the English-proper" version of a duck. Just a quiet little twitter to say "All quite tickety boo here now, so cheerio and hope your day is just ducky!" No wonder your love them so much. Sorry to hear about your loss and thank you for letting us know about these interesting birds. LF & RJ

Yes they can have fertile eggs. Being in Florida you can expect them to get broody and hatch young any time during the year. They look to be in peak breeding condition. When ducks pair up it is very common for them to be intimate without egg production. When her body is ready to lay eggs they will have all the mechanics 'worked out' and produce a fine family of interesting color patterns and/or markings. Do you close them up a night? All the critters that your catching can and will do harm to them and any eggs/young they will produce. Have you prepared a place to nest in. They prefer to nest directly on the ground. She will seek a place that is hidden from sight and will dig a shallow blow shaped depression in the ground and line it with grasses and soft feathers from her belly. She will lay an egg a day and only set on the nest long enough to deposit the egg. Then she will cover the eggs with nesting material to protect them from sight and sunlight. When she has laid 6-10 eggs she will start to set tight and brood them. Note the color changes of the hens bill(tip). Each change will tell you at what stage in the brooding cycle she's in. This is more distinct in the darker colored hens. Hope you are feeding a good complete duck ration. If you have a Tractor Supply store near they carry a 16% layer that is very good for ducks. Demor is the brand name-it has no animal by-products or antibotics/hormones. No need for oyster shells or even grit. When the ducklings hatch out use the higher game bird starter for the first 1-2 weeks then switch to the 15% grower/finisher. I'm getting all excited about your future family. Good luck with them.

Twitter is a GREAT place to meet fellow birders at any level of interest-they even get together with fellow bird tweeters in their area for excursions. Just no one lives very close to me. To find fellow birders on Twitter ,you can fill in the search box with a word like "birds" or "birding" and it will link you to anyone who has included that particular word in his or her current post. Once you get a pile of people, click on each person's avatar or user ID to go to his or her page. Read quickly through a couple of pages of that person's "tweets" to see if interests match, then, if you like what you see, click the "follow" button. Then start posting tweets about your birding adventures, mentioning birds you see, birding activities, posting photos on Twitpic, or whatever Twitter photo site you please, and people will start following YOU. I must have gained several hundred followers in a couple of weeks. I always check the tweets of people I'm following and if they never talk about stuff that interests me, I de-follow them. I.e., clicked on a link yesterday of someone I was following to see his "duck photos" and they were all photos of hunters holding up bloody duck trophies. I couldn't de-follow him fast enough. I'm "rachelbirder" on Twitter, and I follow some great birders and photographers..you're welcome to click on my "page" see whom I'm following, and check them out, or follow them as well. I talk about birds, post bird photos, but today I was going on about other topics of interest to me as well. May have to go back to yesterday when I posted bird photos. An "RT" is a "re-tweet" when someone posts someone else's tweets so their followers can see it also. http://twitter.com/rachelbirder

Knobs: Lowes, ~$3.25/each. (And I needed 39 of them, so price was a serious consideration!) Question is... which cat? The lights will change when I am passing by a clearance table and see the right ones. Always happens that way if I don't push it. :) Another change that needs to happen is the sink and faucet. I really don't like stainless steel, and while part of me enjoys the minimalism of a simple pantry faucet... I need spray. And a spigot for my RO machine which is living in one of the sink bowls right now. No tap water for the fishies, I'm afraid. Also the faucet does reach far enough, so I end up splashing behind the counters a lot. I'm thinking a sink bowl brown granite composite and a single handle pull-out faucet in satin nickel.