Spring. I guess it's baby season.
Especially around here.
No, no humans on the way, but so many other forms of feathery, woolly, and leafy life is springing forth these days.
Most dramatically in the hen house at the moment.
When we noticed a broody hen in the chicken coop last month Pete set her up in a safe little corner of the farm to hatch out her eggs. Since we're flush with chickens at the moment (notably abundant are bantam roosters around here – and their feed to egg ratio is terrible) we switched out her chicken eggs for a half-dozen eggs from our ducks. Because more ducks sounded like a great idea!
Lupine talked us into tucking one bantam egg beneath her (from Lupine's favorite little hen), too. And they hatched! Every last egg. First the bantam chick, then a few days later the ducklings.
The chick was curious about her new siblings (read: pecking them hard as they hatched) so we scooped the ducklings up and moved them to safer digs (our bathtub). (Tell me I'm not the only one with a habit of raising livestock in my bathroom.)
Ever since the eggs started pipping it's been the duckling parade over here. Ducklings in pockets, ducklings in pails. Ducklings for cuddling on the couch and taking on walks around the farm.
Ducklings, everywhere!
And then my heart swelled when the kids gave three of the six away to their friends. Such sweetness. I think we might need to hatch out another half-dozen soon, just for the heck of it.
Oh, yes. And one last lamb this week, too.
Queen Nutmeg (whom you met here) lambed this weekend. Her first. Little frolicking Peppercorn is healthy, frisky little guy.
And with that we're done lambing for the year (exhale). Hallelujah! (Just one pregnant goat to go…)
Spring has been my favorite season for as long as I can remember. But all these babies? Yeah, they pretty much seal the deal.
What fun! I like seeing how the ducklings went from very wet and scraggly, looking to dry and fluffy! What a wonderful farm you have!
I want baby ducks! Our duck is laying (on land finally, she had a habit of dropping the eggs in the water) but I am not sure if they are fertile….we have a mallard that frequents our pond… I just don’t want to go through the heat lamps and stuff again. Letting my hen raise up her babies was soooo much less work for me! You think a broody hen would raise ducklings?
I forgot to say, holy cats…your farm is growing by the second and I want to see! Hope all is well!
Oh, my! Those ducklings are CRAZY cute!
Wow, I have never seen ducklings right out of the egg. We hatched eggs with a broody chicken once, but never happened to be there right at that moment. How fun that a totally unrelated Mom can hatch them!
We are lucky enough to have neighbors on each side with chickens. We have 2 ducks, a boy and a girl. Started out with 4 but lost 2, either to a racoon, coyote or turkey buzzard. The ducks don’t seem to be as smart about hiding when the turkey buzzards come around. The neighbors noticed that their kids were coming home from playing in the wilder back part of our yards with ticks. They put some chicken feed back there to encourage the chickens to roam a little further. We haven’t had any ticks since.
So, so wonderful! Your farm is definitely growing! Thanks for sharing your miracles with us.
Uber, uber cute. Post pictures of baby animals anytime you want–I keep coming back to get another dose 🙂
We raised ducklings in our tub when I was a child – such great memories!!!