And a tip for you: don't order 8 different types of chicks at once. They mostly all look the same at this stage, and it's really hard to tell which one is which. My daughter and I spent an hour on the computer, picking up the chicks and holding them to the pictures on the screen to figure out who was who. Forget about telling which are male and which are female. We have no clue.
If we were right (might be a big if), we got Black Copper Marans, Welsummers, Speckled Sussex, Ameraucana, Anconas, Black Jersey Giants, Sicilian Buttercups, and Salmon Faverolles. There were two losses right off the bat. I'm holding my breath that there won't be any more.
I'm glad they are here. They were ordered in December, to make sure I'd reserve the really special ones. It's been a lot of waiting.
She laid on them all night, through a thunderstorm. This morning she got up at 6:00 ish when the others were let out for the day. She jumped down from her nest and walked away, and did not want to go back.
Around 7:30, I went to look at her nest. It is lined with some down, and just beautiful. The last count I had was 5 eggs. Today I counted 6. Sometime yesterday or last night, she laid another. Ginger did not appreciate my poking at her nest, and came over to yell at me. She climbed back up and is setting now.
I don't know if there will be more eggs, or if she is ready to set for good. I don't know if she will set for good, because she is so young. She seems protective of the nest, which is a good sign. But the setting takes a long time (30 days), so whether or not she'll stick with it, we'll see.
I would love to get my candler out there and see what's going on. You have NO idea. I'm trying to let nature take it's course. I'm not so good at that sometimes, can you tell?
The waterfowl seem to be getting along a little better lately. Like all animals, there's a hierarchy to their living together--a caste system. Chickens have one that most people are really familiar with -pecking order. But waterfowl have one too, and it can be a bit more complicated to maneuver. Unlike chickens, who can forget that there are any new "people" in the coop with them after a day's rest, Geese and ducks have long memories. They don't forget from day to day, and so the hierarchy "discussions" can be long.
Here we've had a good amount of time to acclimate the old geese with the new geese, and the new ducks with everyone. For weeks, the old geese terrified the ducks. Then one day, everyone was accepted. The new geese/old geese relationship is trickier. As the old geese recognize the new geese as their own kind, they are more reluctant to let them fit in. It seems we may be ironing it out a bit now, though. I think it has more to do with the new geese's size than anything else. They are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Either way, it seems that it's getting better.
Of course, none of that applies to interlopers. A pair of mallards came flying out of the sky this morning and landed in the pond.
They were pretty, and I was hoping they would stay awhile, but the girls were less than hospitable, and they shortly flew off.
I caught it on the camera, too. Ginger did not appreciate me filming and staring at her rear end, but she laid the egg anyway, lowering her rear end out of eye sight at the end.
If you've ever seen a chicken lay an egg, then this will be old hat, 'cause fowl all do it the same way. But if you've never seen it, well, then it's pretty cool.
After years of talking the talk, I'm finally walking the walk--and have the boots to prove it.
Living on a beautiful piece of land in a small house, we are turning to the earth to provide for us and others. I am a "jane of all trades", working the land, tending to animals, and doing things that many people just don't do anymore. Teaching our children to be good stewards, and relearning the skills ourselves is our goal.
