Duck, Duck, Ducklings?

As you've seen from the last post, the ducks from the pond have laid eggs in the front yard behind a bush.  We are sooo excited!  We first noticed the eggs on the 13th, but not sure how long they have actually been there. 

Cate loves to tease the ducks

We've been doing some research and have read that it normally takes eggs 28 days to hatch.  We have been counting down the days since we noticed them and today makes  number 13.

Cate wants to put them under her pillow to keep them warm until they hatch. lol.

The three ducks have actually been around the pond for a while. We were wondering if they are the three babies that we used to feed years ago and maybe they had come back.  You know, because they love us so much.

However, we can't figure the ducks out. A couple of days after we noticed the eggs, two of them were pushed out of the next. We read that ducks would do that if the eggs were bad. Well about 3 days later, the eggs were back in the nest. We hadn't touched them and I thought that was kind of odd.

Then, the duck separated the eggs again. They looked like this. I don't know if that means all these are bad or that there are just too many in the nest. I've counted 20 eggs in all.   If they all hatch, that is going to be a lot of babies!

Today, they are all back in the next. I'm thinking that maybe there are just too many to sit on at one time now.

We just let them be. We're very curious though and the kids want to do all kinds of research on ducks. Win. Win. Learning up close and personal.  I'm hoping that we get to see them hatch or at least I can record it if the kids aren't here. Until then, I think I'm kind of looking forward to being a grandparent...this kind anyway!