circles

It has been a wild few days. Today I think was the wildest. I have hatched 11 chicks and 12 ducks from my incubator starting Sunday until today. It was an exciting and exhausting process. Only, because I had never hatched ducks before and got a little jumpy. I ended up hatching 4 ducks by hand, because my first one, who was doing a great job progressing, suddenly died in the egg. I know I am not God, but I certainly feel the pressure to assure the health and well being of my animals. So I become God-like. God-like in the way of love. If something goes wrong, I turn to myself and think about how I could have done better. I don't give myself a terribly hard time, but I don't take it lightly either. I try my best, and then let it go.

I had to let a few things go today. Like earlier, while out feeding everybody I found one of my brahma hens laying down, with her head buried under the doorway of the coop. She had been attacked. It did not look like she was attacked by a dog, fox, or coyote. We think it may have been a hawk. Perhaps the attack was warded off by Bella our brave dog. I am not sure, but there she was, on deaths door. I picked her up and brought her to a rabbit hutch. I gave her water and food and left her alone, thinking she may just be in shock. I went back to check on her, and right at that moment, she flapped her wings, then dropped dead. I said a little good-bye to her and thought that she should not just be tossed away. Brahmas have big breasts, and even at her young age, they were huge. I would ask Rusty to process her. He did, and she is now in my freezer. I talked to Sophia about it and she said she understood, but she wasn't sure she could eat her. I said, I am not sure I can either, but I am going to try. Sophia knows about how to make food with love. She always enjoyed making tuna fish sandwiches with me and when we were done adding pepper and mayo, we would add love. You may wonder how we add the love. It was quite easy and always makes us smile. We jusy hold our hands palms down over the tuna,smile and then say, "tuna with love!" Sophia and I talked about chicken with love, and how much love that chicken had in her already. *big breath*

A storm was coming in and I began securing everybody, getting the goats back in from pasture, when I went up to check on Sylvia, the beagle. She had just had pups three days ago. I was checking in on her in the whelping box and caught her eating a puppy. After my initial horror, I took her remaining two beagle pups from her and brought them to the house. It was to the core- horrifying and so gross. I could not save the pup, it was obviously dead. I almost threw up right there. I still can't shake it. I wont describe it, so you don't throw up on your keyboard hearing about it. So I put the pups in a basket and thought I would wait until my live-in on-call biologist made a suggesttion. Again, I had to explain death to Sophia. We talked about it more and we both agreed that this was part of farm life. Farm life and farm death.

So much life has begun here. We have babies everywhere. It is Spring. It is the time for birth and renewal. In this mode it is difficult to do a switch to death. However, here in the death, comes life again. I will try to eat my chicken. I will try not to think anything about dogs while I do.

Rusty came home and he feels like something was probably wrong with the puppy. It could have even died on it's own. We brought Sylvia down to the house, and reunited her with her pups. She was so happy to see them. I wonder if she though perhaps she ate them all, and was relieved to see them ok. The pups best chance at life is to nurse from their Mom, and hopefully she doesn't eat them. That would be horrible. But here I am again. God-like. Making life and death decisions. Or maybe, life and death was chosen by something else, something I have no business in messing with.

And then I look at these glorious little creatures, the ducks. They are so exotic to me. I told Rusty tonight that they look so wise. Like they have old souls. These are from the eggs that I received from Nicky, they are Indian Runners and some Pekins. If you want some quality fertile eggs see Nicky's Auctions. The last duckling came this afternoon. A black Indian Runner duckling was fashionably late. There was life beginning, so beautifully. All under the New Moon, the circle continues.

Sophia's Indian Runner Duckling

Pekin and Indian Runner Ducklings - The newest wet black duckling joins the flock

Why Ducks Do That: 40 Distinctive Waterfowl Behaviors Explained & Photographed

Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks: Breeds, Care, Health

The Little Duck (Pictureback(R))

The Duck Handbook (Barron's Pet Handbooks)

Keeping Ducks & Geese

Guide to Ducks and Geese

Choosing and Keeping Ducks and Geese: A Beginner's Guide to Identification, Care, and Husbandry of over 35 Species

Ducks: Tending a Small-Scale Flock for Pleasure and Profit (Hobby Farms)

Great Gallery of Ducks and Other Waterfowl

Flock of Pekin and Indian Runner Ducklings

New Healthy Chicks

Reds, Blacks, Banty, Browns

Very Wild,
Always Wonderful,
~crow

near death

Ok maybe the title will get you in and perhaps FOLLOW MY BLOG! I put up a cute little sign and everything. I know you all are reading though, and I appreciate it very much. However, my ego needs the follows. My soul needs to write. Can't we all get along?
 :-)

So, here is the near death as promised. As I was taking the auto egg turner out of the incubator yesterday, I dropped an egg. A duck egg. I quickly put it back in the incubator and did a little duck prayer energy light thing for it. So, tonight, I wanted to candle my eggs before I went on *lock down* and I checked the broken egg. That ducky is still alive. Phew. Now I need to keep it alive. More light, energy and prayers sent. Yes, I can pray and blog. You just missed the pause, while I visualized pure light embracing the egg and saw a good healthy duckling.  No big mystery. You can ask for what you want. God doesn't always say yes. But the asking... that is hope. Hope is the belief that things will work out. Hope sustains the spirit in the worst of situations. Hope does not have to come near death. Hope can be in the same place at the same time with joy. Because joy is hope, only manifested.

I hear peeping in the eggs. It is early for that, but my neighbor Shirl told me his banties always hatched before the others. Shirl is right about many things. He is a simple man. Not stupid, but he lives a simple life. He grows a garden every year, he has chickens, and dogs. He likes to hunt. He cuts and stacks his own wood. He keeps his property neat and tidy. He likes to talk. He is a faithful Christian, He lost his wife recently to cancer. He has grown up children and grown up grandchildren. He is alone most days, working. I see him sometimes during the day and try to catch his eye and wave. I want him to know I appreciate him. I know I have talked about him before. Funny, or interesting at least, I have way much more in common with him than I do with most people.Yes, so the banties are coming early. Everybody else is due to hatch on Tuesday.They are the itty-bitty cream colored eggs pictured below. Shirl didn't think they were fertilized, but he told me to give them a try. I cant wait to see him tomorrow.

most of the chicken eggs were on the turner, the duck eggs I turned by hand

Speaking of chicks... the president day chicks have decided they are big enough to do some free-roaming. During the bad storms that hit the South and came up here in WV, I had moved them to the little red barn. I knew that their temporary housing would not withstand fierce winds. They were confused, but seemed to adjust to the new surroundings. I kept them in there yesterday, because I was not going to be home all day. I like to keep a close eye on outdoor newbies. So today Rusty and I were trying to gather them and bring them back to the temporary run. Well, catching that many chickens proved to be difficult. One panicked cheep-cheeping from one chick makes them all panic. So we decided to just open the door and lead them up. Well, they found some fresh green grass and deep dark moist earth and happily began free roaming. They all stayed nearby and found the coop when they wanted to rest. Like they had been doing this all along! Meany pants, the Rhode Island Red Rooster chased the little chicks. The littles were from a hatch after the Pres Day chicks. So we caught only the young-ins and are keeping them within the safety of the run. The President Day chicks are now free roamers! Tonight is the first night closed up in the coop. Rooster is in the barn perched above Deer the goat's stall. She can take him. The knee bone is connected to the leg bone. So. of course the coop was moved to where I thought was a better place for my chickens. I am always re-arranging things.

Rusty got his portable electric fencing up for the goats so we can pasture them. Of course my buck got out a few times. No brain no pain. But my poor deer's first experience was licking the pretty yellow plastic that held the electrified wire. Zap. In the mouth! It was hard for me to see. She tested it out one more time, then stayed away from it the rest of the afternoon. It was hard to coax her out of the pen to go to her stall. Poor girl. But she has her own place to sleep and I have her food and fresh water waiting for her in her stall. She even had a surprise carrot in there. That eased my guilt. I am pretty sure she is with kid. I am watching her milk bag, as that will be the only sign to tell me she is near ready to give birth. I am hoping for a doeling. One buck is enough. I want the gentleness of the females and of course I want goats milk!

Speaking of goats. I have been talking to a really nice lady who breeds myotonic goats. She just had a doeling born and sent me the photo. OMG cute. Big ears and white with very light cream spots. Her mom is a beauty and I fell in love instantly. I hope she sells her to me. She has several nanny goats that are kidding and she might keep one. I need to write her and see how she is doing. Her, as in her and the goat.

I was going to go to the market to sell plants this weekend, but I think I will give some of my plants another week to mature. The ones that are planted in the garden have found their "legs" and seem to have perked up. I have seeded a bunch more Summer crops and they should be peeking up through the dirt soon. They are now in my warm sun room, germinating. I need a greenhouse. I am going to have one. Watch and see. Oh and there is two rows of carrots planted by moi.

The baby bunnies are growing overnight. They are four different colors. I am unsure of what to call the colors with the exception of one true blue. I will post their pictures up for my rabbit friends to have a look. They are so darn cute. Tiny bunnies, tiny ears and noses and feet. They no longer look like mice. Yoda, their Dad got to spend late afternoon into evening in the chicken run. I was so busy at the end of the day that I did not go to bring him in until dark. Usually he will hop away, not wanting to be caught and brought back in. But tonight, the sun was down and he was out there just still. He was not scared. Just still. Sort of in a bunny meditative state. I picked him up and told him he was a very good bunny and tucked him back in his cage for the night.

All is calm. All is well.

From wild and wonderful West Virginia I send you brightest blessings.
~crow