We love farm babies! While the three ducklings that have made it, so far, are getting in their awkward teenage feather, pinfeather pushing up through their fluff feathers, we have two other foul who have become broody. Our bantam hen from last year started getting really upset we weren’t letting her keep her eggs, so I stopped collecting them. She laid seven teeny tiny blue eggs that she has been sitting on for about two weeks. She is a grouchy mom too. I thought the mama duck was bad, I was very wrong. This little thing lays as flat as possible in her nesting box squawking at everyone and everything that gets even close to her nest. It’s so bad that the other hens have stopped laying in the boxes. I’m not sure where they are laying at the moment, but it’s not where they are supposed to, that’s for sure. I can’t wait to see little tiny baby chickens hatch.
As for the second mom, apparently the white duck that we saved last year, the one who has been a great nanny to the little ducklings that just hatched, now has her own nest. She starting setting about two or three days ago. We were concerned that she had disappeared. Then we were noticing the mama and daddy duck spending a lot of time down by the mulberry tree (which is currently dropping mulberries all over the place making the ducks poop black). When I went to investigate, lo and behold there she was. She was far back in the weed so I could only hear her short quack/chirp sounds they make when they are on their nest. I have no idea how many eggs she has, but she is definitely setting.
I guess in two and three weeks we should have even more babies around here! That’s good. That’s eventually what we want, to not have to purchase chickens anymore. We will reserve two to three nesting boxes for setting and remove the rest to sell.
