It began with 10 successfully incubated eggs and the only thing left about 60 days later was a duck wing and some feathers.
Dylan Pepin, 11, who is part of a farming family, decided he would ask the Eaglet Lake Farmers Institute (ELFI) to support him in hatching a flock of ducks to raise.
The program, inspired only by Dylan's request, is now in existence and called the Young Farmers Project, which is part of a sustainability effort to try and spark some farming interest in young people during the institute's 100th anniversary.
Dylan got the eggs from his friends at Hope Farm Organics and started on his project in late April. It took 32 days for the late bloomers to start to hatch. Usually it's a 28-day incubation period. Out of the 14 eggs in the incubator, 10 survived. Only two were females, the rest were males, or drakes. Female ducks are simply called ducks.
The beginning of June was a busy time at the Pepin's one-acre farm where they call themselves the Northern Acre Homesteaders in Sinclair Mills, about 100 km northeast of Prince George. The Pepin family is the only young family in Sinclair Mills, population 21, Dylan said eyes to the sky, counting his neighbours up in his head.
The family of five had about 30 chickens, Dylan's Khaki Campbell ducklings, two pigs and two rabbits on their farm.
"Since we already had chickens, I picked ducks," said Dylan.
For Dylan's 12th birthday on May 15 he was gifted with a heat lamp for his ducks.
"Because everybody around him loves him so much," said mom Candice.
Dylan kept a multi-page log of all the highlights of his duck adventures.
"From Day 4 'til Day 5 we had a power outtage," said Dylan.
Power outages are quite common in remote areas but for that to threaten the whole project only four days into the incubation process proved a bit of a challenge. Luckily the family had a back-up plan.
"So Super Dad hooked the incubator up to batteries in the shop and made sure it would keep going," said mom Candice. "So we're thinking it's OK. We got this. We got the equipment, Dylan had gone to the meeting with the farmers' institute, we're going for it. It's in our living room, we're going to hatch these puppies and yeah, so that happened."
To incubate duck eggs the temperature has to be set at about 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. There needs to be some ventilation, and eggs need to be turned a minimum of four times a day. Many modern incubators have turners built in to make it easier. The humidity level must remain between 55 and 80 per cent, depending on the maturity of the egg.
It takes a delicate balance to make a duck.
After the 10 ducklings hatched they were put in the goat pen, said Dylan.
"Then I put a cage thing outside and I would let them out for a bit during the day and I tried to get them to go into their pool but they wouldn't go," said Dylan. "About 20 feet from the goat pen there was a puddle and that was their puddle. Even when they got older that was where they liked to play."
As the ducks got older they were confined to an outdoor pen with the plastic wading pool in it.
"They would climb up a piece of wood I used as a ramp and jump in the pool and go swimming," said Dylan. "They'd get so muddy I would have to rinse them off at the end of the day."
Dylan made a duck hutch to make sure they were safe during the night when predators were on the prowl, looking for an easy meal.
"My favourite was the biggest and friendliest duck, he wouldn't run away from me," said Dylan with an aw-shucks tilt to his head.
The ducks had the flock mentality where if one ran away they would all scatter, if one played they'd all play.
"It was really cute," said mom Candice.
Candice and husband Jeremy are strong believers in free-ranging all their animals.
"We open up all the pens and let them go," said Candice.
"We want our animals to live the good life, eating bugs and getting their own food - roaming through my flower beds," said Candice with a grimace and a grin.
The fateful night Candice and her three children Dylan, 12, Daphne, 8, and Sophie, 5, returned from a 12-day southern vacation to visit family in the Vancouver area for the first time in eight years, it was late and they left all the animals outside instead of putting them back in their pens, Candice explained.
"Usually it's the springtime and the later fall when we really pay attention to that because we know there's babies on the farm and other animals are looking for their meals before the winter," said Candice. "We thought it was pretty safe in the middle of August. I think it was actually a coyote family and I think it was the mom teaching her babies."
The Pepin family had been keeping watch throughout the summer on a coyote with her litter of nine pups out in the field just beyond their homestead.
"We figure it was a training session because we lost 19 animals that night," said Candice. They lost six old hens, a rooster, 10 ducks and two rabbits.
Dylan, who took the Conservation Outdoor Recreation Education (CORE) program in order to get his B.C. resident hunting licence, has a different opinion. He thinks it was the mangy wolf that had been hanging around the farm earlier in the summer.
No matter who the culprit was, the outcome was the same. It decimated the duck flock and broke Dylan's heart.
"All that was left was a duck wing in the lean to and a couple feathers," said Dylan with a shrug, ginger head bowed in sorrow.
"You know the animal that took the ducks was teaching its young to hunt so it's all part of the circle," said mom Candice.
Dylan, who is also a junior trapper, is ready to try again.
This time he's going for a couple of turkeys and a unique duck breed called Cayuga. The ducks have a black body and green head and the drakes are very beautiful.
"I'll try again - that duck is cool," said Dylan, who will reapply to the Young Farmers Project with the Eaglet Lake Farmers Institute for the incubator in the spring because that's what farmers do.
They try again.
