We have so many birds in our chickenyard laying on eggs, and now they are hatching.
The two Muscovy ducks hatched out their babies yesterday. 18 between the two of them. They are sharing a little pen until the babies get older. The little ducks toggle between both mothers. I think that they think they are being raised by both. The Muscovy ducks are the neatest ducks. They have such a soft voice, especially when they are speaking to their young.
We have two Rowens ducks that are sitting on the Indian Runner eggs. They should be hatching any day too. My sister does not like the Rowens. They are too wildish and sneaky, they are not tame, even one little bit. When they are done hatching their brood then they are going into the pot. The Indian runner has not gone brood yet.
We have two banty girls that are now sitting on eggs. Man there are babies coming out everywhere.
Now, the challenge is the broody goose. She is still sitting on her eggs and we are not sure if the gander has fertilized the eggs or not. Guess we will see in a few days.
This old mother goose is a scary old girl. She sits inside her little house. It is dark. She has moved the nest to right infront of the small doorway so no body can get in or out. The Indian runners used to always go in there and she would get so mad at them. She makes me laugh. She doesn't come out of her nest very often, but when she does, she proclaims to the world that she is out for a short moment in time. She yells, honks, gonks, noisy as all get out. Walks around, eats a little, drinks a little, poops a little and then goes back in.
The other day I was feeling kind of brave and I thought that I would try to have a really good look at her. All you can see inside her house is her beak/bill, whatever is the apparatus that her tongue is in is called. I reached toward the opening and she put out her tongue and head and hissed at me. Well, made me jump about 10 feet in the air, it scared the crap out of me. Now that is one intimidating goose. I tried to get my husband to put his hand in there, but he knows me. He would look at her, but narry a hand put within. when I see something so weird, I always have to show people, thank goodness they humour me.
The Rowans are particularly possessive of their eggs, and they are far more aggressive than the goose or the Muscovy. My sister wanted to check to see if there were still eggs under one of the Rowans and she almost had her hand all beat up, you don't want to go close to a Rowan.
My teenager neice is so funny. When they got some babies last summer from the Muscovy, she took a baby into their home and this little duck thought for sure that she was her mummy. This little duck eventually grew up, and went to live with its clan, but my neice, without a word of exageration was its parent.
She took one of the newly hatched duckies again. This is her little baby. It is so cute, cause again, my neice is her mummy. The little duck always is tucked in around her neck, nestled in her long brown hair, sleeps in her bedroom in a cute little nest. It follows her around like a little puppy dog. She is her mummy. It is surprising this thing called "imprinting" for sure. Have a wonderful day, beautiful day, and good health to all. Cindi