too much drama?

I’ve been having a little bit of duck-drama around here.

Now, I’ve talked to moms who are having teen-drama and gals who are having gal-drama and, let me just tell you right here that I would rather have my duck-drama than their drama any day of the week.

When we were away on vacation last month there had been an apparent drive-by-duck-dropping and we came home to a beautiful white duck, floating in our pond. [I have since found the guilty party]

This duck was very vocal, which after doing a little bit of research,I realized that was an indication that it was probably a female [no comments from the drakes, please]…so I named her Jemima.

Jemima seemed very lonely.   So, what’s a girl to do but go to craigslist and see if there are any more cute, white ducks in the area.

Right away I was able to find 4 more cute, white ducks.  [Pekin,btw]  Three hens and a drake.  Mr. T and I went and loaded them up in the back of his car and we brought them home, put them in a little, somewhat temporary, pen by the pond and left them a few days so they could get used to their surroundings…hoping that they would want to come back in each night for safety.  We also wanted Jemima to get used to them in hopes that she would  join them.  After a few days, we were able to get her into the pen and then we waited a few more days to let them all out.

It didn’t go as well as it should have…considering they are ducks.

Jemima headed right for the water and Mr. Drake went right after her and tried to drown her.  Now I know that mating can look a lot like this for ducks but it seemed clear that he was just being plain mean.  After that he came in and none of the 4 new ducks wanted anything to do with the water and they really haven’t been interested in it since.  They seem to be quite comfy in their little pen.   And, Mr. Drake continues to be mean to Jemima.  I can’t stand to watch it sometimes.  If there are any experienced duck owners reading this, I would love some advice.

Anyway, they’re cute.  They eat like horses but we like watching them and listening to them and we are hopeful that eventually they’ll all get along well and also will learn to love the water.

We are getting two eggs a day.  Duck eggs can be used just like chicken eggs but they are quite a bit bigger.  I picked up a very old incubator a couple of years at a garage sale so I decided to put it to use.  I know…here comes more duck-drama.

Although I won’t go into quite the detail, I’ll say that I’ve been having chicken-drama too.  I told my daughter last night that I really need to go to farmgirl school.  Truth be told…jumping in with both feet is the best farmgirl school I could learn from.

I have a sweet, silkie hen who lives in the goat barn with Nel & Papa Jack [also silkies]. She has been laying on eggs most of the summer.  The first batch were duds [I've since labeled Papa Jack a dud] but I also have a rebellious chicken, whom I’ve affectionately called, Sunshine, who kicks Poppy out of her nest each day and lays her own egg.  I throw her back into the hen house each night and Poppy climbs back in the nest until Sunshine kicks her out the next morning.

On Friday, those eggs began to hatch.  I separated the two hens and gave each one half of the eggs and now we have four chicks but I’ll tell you, Sunshine wins the award for Mother Hen of the Year.

Liberty [2 months old] :: poking her head through the little hole that’s cut out of the bottom of her stall’s gate.

This is Sunshine :: She is quite the mama hen. She literally growls at you if you come near her and her little chicks. She now has three.

Poppy and her one little chick {actually this chick belongs to Sunshine but I’m not going to tell her that}.

Is that not just the cutest little chick bum you’ve ever seen?

It’s time to announce the winner for my recent give-a-way.  Sheila will receive all of the fun things mentioned in THIS POST.  I always enjoy your comments.  Feel free to leave them with any and all posts!