Baby tales

Young muscovey ducks

I do enjoy the baby ducks.  Last week I let them loose, the morning of the big rain, which was lucky because the rain collapsed the top of their pen when it collected on the tarp.  Momma duck had brought them safely inside the barn when it began to rain.  Contrary to what most people think ducks do not enjoy rain.  I don’t think momma duck has taken them to the pond yet, they still enjoy splashing in the big rubber dishes and I haven’t seen them down there yet.  They do enjoy chasing bugs all over.   The little buggers know what a bread bag looks like and mob me when they see me carrying one.  I love watching them play.

Little chick being raised by red momma turkey is still alive and well although it looks so small, even compared to baby ducks.  I so wished for my camera the other day. It perched up on top of momma turkey as she walked around the turkey yard, just sitting there like riding an elephant.  I fill a red chick waterer for it every day as it still can’t reach the water in the big dishes.  It has to wait until the baby ducks quit playing in it- they like it even though they can jump right in the big water dishes. And to eat the poor thing waits until everything else has its fill, then momma brings it to the dish.

After I repaired the roof to the nursery pen I moved the hen that hatched 4 chicks there with her babies.  The first thing she did was make a dirt bath, and she stayed there at least an hour, turning and tossing dirt on herself, looking like a bird having a seizure, so happy to be back on soil.  They had been in a 2 foot square cage for their first 10 days and the little chicks really enjoyed running around in the bigger pen.   The chick that lives with the turkey likes to watch them; it somehow knows it is connected to them more than its foster momma I think.  In another week the hen will be turned loose and the babies can mingle.

One of the other red turkeys had a nest in a plastic doghouse just outside the barn.  It was under the overhang of the tree and also partly under a piece of plywood leaning against the fence, but still the heavy rain managed to get in there and with the floor being plastic it didn’t drain away.  I didn’t realize this for a day or so until the hen came out to eat and I noticed her breast was all wet.  I immediately checked the nest and it was a loss- the eggs were in 2 inches of water and muck and I had to dump the entire thing.   The hen’s breast and legs looked reddened for a day or so but she looks better now.  She is very unhappy though.

Today after morning feed I noticed this turkey hen was sitting next to a duck on eggs.  As I watched she carefully put her head under the duck and slowly rolled an egg out and under her breast.  She wants to sit on something and isn’t beyond stealing.  Poor thing.

Another weird development is that the dark tom turkey has been sitting on 4 duck eggs in the barn.  He doesn’t sit totally faithfully, although he spends a lot of time on the nest. And I doubt the eggs will hatch.  But I don’t understand his motive.  He seems perfectly healthy when he’s out strutting and gobbling but spends a lot of time on that nest.  I think it was abandoned and maybe he just thinks the eggs need a sitter. 

The dark turkey hen had a nice nest and was just about to start sitting when something got the eggs. Instead of finding a place near the barn she went way out by the pond under a bush.  I set a trap after that and caught a huge possum.  It was just outside the barn door in the trap and I was running water there and it looked thirsty so I dribbled water into the trap, which it lapped up with its little pink tongue.  It’s head was all bleeding from trying to get out of the trap.  I suddenly felt sorry for it and drove it a couple miles away and turned it loose, which didn’t make my husband happy, he generally shoots them.

 

We still aren’t getting the amount of eggs I think are being laid but I have set the trap again a couple nights and haven’t caught anything.  I think it may be something besides a possum eating the eggs now.

The baby kittens are out of the box and walking around the barn and that is a problem.  My husband’s electric wheelchair is big and heavy and they are so small he can’t see them good.  He gets to buzzing around so quick in that chair I worry about kittens getting squished.  One I named Tippy, because it has a white tip on its tail of course, is particularly persistent in trying to follow us around. He also follows mom up around the car and porch.  That’s always the one that gets killed, the too friendly one, so I don’t know why I name them.  I think it’s actually better if they have a little fear of humans and strange things.  Maybe I can raise them a few more weeks until they can be given away.