So many babies!
In our update of everything going on with the homestead, I had said that we have a lot of moms laying on nests. Well we have some updates on that front. A mix of things going on honestly on that. So let’s dive in on a small update!
Let’s start with the turkey group! We have a fence that has turkeys, chickens and ducks all in the same fence. This group has had a mix of chickens and turkeys laying on multiple nests since about April of this year. Well sadly they have not hatched any babies yet since they have started. But at the same time we aren’t planning to make them quit on their dreams. This is probably a better way for the turkeys to spend their time with the heat we have in the summer. Instead of panting while walking around, they are spending their time laying on nests and trying to become moms. A much more relaxing time! But in good news for this group, we have had about 4 ducks join in the party for wanting to lay on their own nests. The best part is 2 of the 4 moms are actually sitting on the same nest together and tag teaming in the motherhood goals!
Our free range chickens we actually secretly sitting on a nest of eggs too! It was such a surprise one day when all of the sudden we saw 7 chicks walking around with their moms! Three hens with 7 chickens all walking around together. Now the sad thing is we noticed that the moms truly want to be moms but they lack the actual drive to make sure their babies are taken care of. So by the next day we were down to 3 chicks. Then 1. Then none. So we sadly now realize that if they have babies we will need to catch the chicks and put them into our brooder house so they can actually grow! One of the moms from this group has once again started laying on a nest but this time its on our front porch! I can’t complain! What a wonderful way to start a morning than to walk outside, put your shoes on and say hello to a chicken!
The last update on hatching and my absolute favorite! Our Muscovy mom officially had babies!!!! Obviously she waited for us to be away from home on a trip so our friends had a lovely surprise when they came to help with the homestead! Momma Muscovy (that is her name haha) managed to hatch our 15 ducks this round! That was the first weekend of June. Now Mid July she has 13 still alive. One was not looking too good and we had figured it wouldn’t make it and the other we truly do not know what happened to it. But now at 13 she has managed to keep them nourished and growing. They are in their “teen years” now with their growth and they are starting to slowly get a little more adventurous. Although during the last few nights we have had storms and momma muscovy has always gotten them all to safety and stands watch. She is absolutely the best mom we could ask for! Now we are praying that everyone else that is laying on eggs can follow in her footsteps too!
So lots of hatching has begun but we also have a lot more to come for the homestead! I would say we have about 10 moms sitting on eggs that we are waiting to see what the outcome will be with them! As you can safely assume we will update you again on what happens with this next hatching round!