Happy Duck Days

 

Yeah, I know, I can hardly believe it myself. 

The pipping began

Turns out inside these little eggs are big ducklings. 

Taa Daa!

There's no pointed beak to peck out of the egg, just a rounded bill. And this little duckling has to peck its own way out. I mean, the whole process (like all reproduction) is simply amazing. 

And then there’s two.
They are so wet when they hatch.

Turns out, David and I were a few days off on our estimate regarding the age of the duck eggs, but over all, it was a success. All 6 eggs hatched on their own, with the exception of the last egg that needed a little intervention from us. That last duckling had been trying to get out of that egg for so long, that we were afraid we were going to lose the little guy. We helped a little by picking away at its "zip line" and then the duckling stretched, and popped out of its shell. David and I were so relieved that all 6 eggs actually hatched a duckling from it. Turns out we didn't drown them with too high of humidity in the incubator, or dry them up with too little humidity. We "turned" the eggs as we should have, and placed them on lockdown for their last few days. God took care of them and decided they would live to find their place in this big wide world.

Once hatched, each ducklings needed to stay in the incubator for another 16-24 hours while they rested and dried. Only then, would we moved them to the nursery (also in the house). 

All dry and doing well. 
They say goodbye to the incubator,
and hello to the nursery

We placed 3 ducklings in the nursery first, while the last 3 ducklings hatched later than them, and needed time to recoup, dry and rest in the incubator. It was Thursday morning that the remaining 3 ducklings were placed with the other 3 in the nursery, and now all 6 ducklings were reunited and thrilled to be together. 

Finally, all together 

They were actually calling for each other in separate rooms, so getting them all in the same space (once hatched) was something that settled their little souls. 

What about food and water, you ask? Well, each time we placed a new duckling in the nursery, we dipped their bills in the water, and then in the food, and then in the water again. They are quick learners, and figured out what to do lickity split. They watch and learn from each other as well. They are not a fan of the heat lamp like I thought they would be. Instead, they just want to sit in the water. Yep, they are ducks. 

David and I were so relieved after the hatching process was complete, and realized that using the incubator was great, but we had so much to learn even with what we did know about hatching eggs. Ducks are different than chicks. Yet, we got it worked out. And the ducklings are thriving. 

It would only be a day or two before the ducklings were ready to leave the nursery and head out to their new space in the barn. We settled them into a fenced area, complete with heat lamps, shelter if they desired that, and a little mini swim pond.

Snuggled up tight

They are swimmers from birth

Chick This Out

Ducks n Chicks = 💖

Wait, where did those little tiny chicks come from? The answer is David. We went to the feed store for hay and we came home with four more chicks. Yes, we just got eight chicks not that long ago. 

Look how big these eight chicks have gotten, just since the last time I showed them to you. 

For some reason, David thought we needed four more chicks, so we now have four more. These new chicks are 2 California Whites and 2 Barred Plymouth Rocks. It was something he wanted, so here we are. Six ducklings and four chicks (all only a couple of days old) learning to share the same space in the barn.

I’ll just say that the chicks are not interested in the little mini pond, and the ducklings absolutely adore the mini pond. So the chicks watch and clap their little chick wings to encourage their duckling friends to practice their swim technique. Everyone is very happy together. 

Cluckingham Population Boom

Somebody stop this madness. Yes, we have an up-and-coming new generation of chicken children who have arrived in Cluckingham. Thank you, David. So there’s 12 new chicken children in the barn. What the cluck, this seems a bit much. We even un-fenced the eight (older) chicks, as they are flying over their fence anyway. So they are out and about socializing with the big hens now. They are being well accepted thus far, although redirected at times, by some of the big girlz. But that’s the way it is in the chicken world. No one is getting hurt and they are learning their way around the barn and what the rules are. There are guidelines in Cluckingham. 

But wait, there’s more. 10 more to be exact. 10 more chickens? That can't be true. The story goes like this. It all started on a Saturday morning......... a chicken lady friend of mine texted me and asked if she could bring out a few of her chickens to add into my flock, as she was right-sizing her backyard chicken flock and needed to decrease the amount of hens that she had. I of course said, no problem! And since I wasn’t going to be home that day, she had planned to come by and “drop them over the fence” on our property, very close to the barn. 

So while I was gone that day, that indeed did happen. And to our surprise, it was 10 laying hens that they dropped over the fence to join into our flock. The exciting part about this was that they were the most beautiful chickens! Many of them Easter Eggers, Americana‘s and Wyandotte’s. These are beautiful chickens that lay gorgeous green and blue eggs. I can’t begin to tell you just how truly beautiful they are. Pictures do not do them justice. Kind of like when your on vacation and you take all these breath-taking photos, but it's just not the same as seeing it yourself. That's exactly how this is. These girlz dropped off over the fence are not your regular chickens. They are flat out gorgeous.

These girlz lay the most gorgeous blue green eggs.
This photo does not really show their true beauty. 
Trust me on this.

So many beautiful new hens!
I'm almost giddy about this.

I was beside myself for various reasons. One, because they are all so beautiful and two, because now I have 10 new laying hens, along with my 12 new chicks which equals 22 new chickens into my flock within a very short amount of time. This does not even make sense in the chicken math world. I am officially past crazy chicken lady status. I didn’t know you could go past that status. But I did! I think now it’s just called Crazy. You can take the chicken lady part out - and just say crazy. Yep, that’s me. And here I am in all my glory. Chicken glory.

Fish It Out

While David has been busy buying “me” chicks, I did decided to buy him some of his own living creatures. Maybe then he'll quit buying chicks if I can get him more interested in something else?

Fish. Lots of fish for the pond. 

I surprised him with an appointment last Saturday morning at 8 AM at Pond King in Gainesville. We would be going to buy fish and stock the pond for the first time in the 5 years we've lived here now. We can see minnows in the pond, likely from birds and fowl flying into the pond and transferring fish eggs from pond to pond that they travel. But we need some real fish.

We decided on 200 catfish and 250 bluegill fish. Pond King bagged up for us and loaded them all in the back of our truck. We had one hour to get them back to the pond.

You remember the turtle trap, right? This is so we can get rid of the turtles in an effort to be able to grow our fish population, otherwise the turtles will just eat all the fish eggs. And to be quite certain about it right now, the turtle trap has only trapped two turtles. Not to worry my sweets.  We are waiting for sunny days to come around so that all these turtles will want to climb up and sun. All this rainy weather lately does not have the turtles up and sunning. I think we got this though. Once sunny, the turtles only choice to sun now is either on the shoreline, or to climb up on the turtle trap and slide in. Time, it's all about time. And waiting for the sun to come back out.

Back to the fish. We drove the fish home and then carried the bags of fish over to the pond as we had been instructed to place the bags of fish in the edge of the pond for 15 minutes to let the water and the fish acclimate to each other. 

After about 15 minutes we did as they said, and we cut the bags open and released the fish into the water. 

I'd say they were a bit shocked. 

The water was murky with the dirt we had stirred up at the shoreline and the fish did not know what to do or where to swim. But as the cloudy, murky waters settled, you could see the fish all shooting out toward the deeper areas of the pond. They were free! 

Now, we need to focus on trapping more turtles and rehoming them in order to grow our fish population. We also bought fish food to help supplement the new fish in their growth. David also cut down two small trees that were dead on our property and sunk them in the pond to provide hiding spots for the smaller fish. Hopefully, we can get some decent size fish just in time to start fishing with bubbi Brooks. 

Fishing outfit on and he’s ready 

HTown

With all this growth on the farm and so much to look forward to in life, David made his way to Houston Sunday afternoon. Monday morning at 6 am, David will have his PET scan that tells him how things are looking after his radiation and chemotherapy. His MRI looked pretty good, but the pet scan is the gold standard to tell us what’s really going on and if there’s any cancer left in David. This is a big moment. It’s the one we’ve all been waiting for, to find out David’s response to the treatment, and if in fact the microparticles were all zapped by the radiation and disintegrated by the chemo. 

David will have his PET scan bright and early Monday morning, and then on Tuesday he has his appointment with Dr. Hanna to get the results. He also has an eye exam while he’s there as a follow up. He says he’s noticed some changes in his eyesight so they will take a look at it and let him know what’s going on there. It’s also wonderful that they are all in that one area at MD Anderson and he can see the doctors he needs to see when he makes trips like this. It’s just so convenient. Actually it might not seem convenient to have to drive to Houston to go there, but I assure you, it’s so worth it.

We are sending lots of prayers up for David and good results. We understand this is out of our hands, and are accepting of what we are told. We really do hope and pray that his cancer is gone.

On this note, I’ll close for now and tell you that my heart is full. I have confidence that all will be well. David and I trust in God and have faith in this process, and know everything is going to be as it should be. We just know it. No matter what happens, everything is going to be okay. 

Every little thing is gonna be alright,

 Cyndi