One of my absolute favorite things to see is motherhood on the farm. I know that sounds silly seeing as they are just animals but let’s be real, seeing a mom be a mom is wonderful. Normally only our rabbits are blessed to be mothers but currently we actually have three turkeys and a muscovy duck laying on eggs. But before I get to them lets talk about the two rabbit surprises!
Two weeks ago my husband had to go away from home for work for a four day span. Before he left he warned me that one of our rabbits should be having babies any day. It took a while but the first day we was gone the rabbit had her babies. I was so excited and truly thought that was all the excitement for the time being. Except the next day I went outside to feed everyone and noticed a different rabbit, we will call her rabbit 2, had a bundle of hair sticking out of her mouth. When I got closer I saw a few little bits of hair around her cage but not enough to be concerned with. I checked in with my husband to make sure he wasn’t expecting any more babies and he said he was not. But to be safe we decided to put a nesting box in her cage. Four hours later I came back outside and found she had actually had a whole set of babies. Then the next day I noticed another rabbit, we will call this one rabbit 3, looking off. She didn’t have any hair pulled and none of the typical signs of being in labor. She just was out stretched and her eyes were very wide. Im not fully sure what made me think of it but I played it safe and put a nesting box in her crate too. She seriously had no signs of being in labor but an hour later I go to check on her and found 5 little babies all huddled up in the nesting box. A blessing but what an emotional roller coaster!
Now to the turkeys. Once again another semi funny story. I had been down for a little with recovery on my health and had not had the chance to check on all of our animals. I went outside and noticed that I didn’t see my favorite turkey Annabel. She is the queen of the coop and she keeps everyone in line. I panicked and searched frantically until my husband pointed her out! She was snuggled in the coop with our other two females and all the girls are broody on their own nests. Day by day they continue to pull in more chicken eggs in hopes to be mothers. This year we truly are taking advantage of them wanting to be moms so we haven’t taken any eggs from them. This will most likely be posted around the time the babies are to hatch so I will surely update on the progress of how many babies hatch!
Lastly, probably my favorite one of them all. We had gathered all of our ducks into a coop. We currently have one big coop and roaming area for turkeys, ducks and chickens. We had all of our free range animals put back into coops but slowly we have had about 10 chickens and 2 ducks escape and go back to the free range ways. But the best thing is that our muscovy female has been laying on some eggs. This is my most excited one yet. She has them hiding in an area that we walk by all the time and I actually have to mow the yard close to her. So now that section of yard will not be touched as she seriously does not like when we get close. But she has done the best job I have ever seen. There have been a few good heavy rains lately and she just hunkers down with the babies and protects them at all cost. Also her nest is covered in feathers. She pulled so many feathers and did so much to make this nest perfect for them all.
By the time this post comes out we should have the muscovy and the turkeys nests hatching. So we surely will be updating everyone on the progress of these moms. Im truly curious how they will do becoming moms and taking care of their babies. This is a first for all of them so time will tell and I will let you know what goes on!