5 Days and Counting

Poor Ginger. 

Sitting on her nest all by herself for days and days and days now.  For maybe the first two or so weeks, she had an assistant.  Mostly Ferdi, who seemed to be the daddy in waiting.  He would stand and protect her from the evils of the Pilgrims and me, and the kids, and my husband, and a passing shadow or bug or what have you.  But he abandonded her. 

As the Pilgrims grew, he saw them less as a nuisance and more as.....kids? 

Wait for me, kids!!

He seems to have adopted them.  He goes where they go, and now he defends them from me, the kids, my husband, or a passing shadow or bug or what have you.  Either that, or he's going through some mid-life crisis sort of thing, where, instead of buying a sporty car, he just "hangs out" with the younger set to retain his youth.  Sad. 

Then, for a short, short time, Arthur took up the post.  He would stand, though in a less dedicated way, next to Ginger and defend her from no one in particular.  Actually, he was terrible at it.  He would just stand there and keep her company.  It was something, though.

But then the little Africans started going outside, and Arthur got all maternal. 

Arthur is with his "babies" 24/7.  He calls for them, they come to him.  They call for him, and on and on.  With his new babies in tow, Arthur quickly abandoned Ginger as well.

Poor Ginger.

It seems she's doomed to single-motherhood.  It does not seem to phase her, though.  She just sits and sits and sits.  She gets down every so often, and when she does, she goes right back in the gaggle and is welcomed with open wings.  But more often than not, she sits alone and gets to see this:

Wheee!!!  Swimming fun!

And can't participate. 

Poor Ginger.

Being a momma is a tough row to hoe.

(PS--I did candle her eggs yesterday, when she got down for a jaunt.  It is very hard to see through the shell on a goose egg, but I could see that two of them I could see through, meaning they never got fertilized, but four of them I could not see through at all.  I think that's a good sign.  The last time I looked at them, the four of them had a smaller area of dark, so it looks like whoever's home, grew.  I think that possibly she's got something there.  I really hope so, for her sake.  She's worked so hard.)