Mama Duck

For the past three and a half to four weeks, we have been patiently waiting to see what happens with the clutch of eggs that one of our female Khaki Campbell ducks has decided to brood upon. Based on rough dates, I expected (or hoped) to have some hatches this weekend; the same time that our second incubator group is due to hatch.

We have never hatched eggs "naturally" before (in fact, Nemo was our first ever hatch three weeks ago) and we have been really excited to see nature takes its course. Mama duck has been very attentive to her eggs, coming out only briefly in the evening to eat, drink, swim, and socialize (boy, is she ever vocal when she comes out!).



Here's Mama Duck sitting on her brood

Yesterday, when Mama Duck went out for her break, I couldn't help but get a closer look at what was in the nest. There were 14 eggs in total. I decided to candle some to check progress. Many seemed to show good growth and progression, a few were dark-shelled and I couldn't really tell. I covered her nest up nicely and as I did, I heard a cheep from one of the eggs. I told Pete that we were probably see something in a day or two.

Returning from work this afternoon, I immediately opened the gates for all to free range and went to check on Mama Duck. She hissed at me (like she should!) and was very protective of her nest. I continued to hear cheeping and saw some movement behind her. Could it be? I decided to grab the camera with the telephoto lens so I could get a closer look without disturbing her too much and agitating her.



I think I see something under there!




Out emerges a little fuzzy butt




Rut roh, Mama Duck, I think Solo (our Campbell Drake) is going to need an explanation! Call the Maury Povich show!




Motherly love knows no species barriers.

Have a delightful evening!
:o) jenn

Ducks and Daffodils (and a couple of chicks, too!)

We moved the four oldest chicks and the six ducklings out to the Taj Mah Coop over the weekend. I let them out for a little "exploration free ranging" yesterday afternoon. The older chickens and ducks really aren't at all interested in them, other than to raid the feeder. We have a small tub for them to bathe in, and one chick jumped right in with the ducks (identity crisis?). Here's some photos from their adventures.


Taking a drink out of the tub (this is after they jumped in it, of course!)


Exploring and checking out the area


Trying to get organized for their photo shoot


Leaving the shoot...


Being so cute makes us thirsty again!

Have a ducky day!
:o) jenn

Photos of the Farm

Adam took awesome photos at our homestead while "farm sitting" last year when we were in Montreal. He keeps telling us that we need to go out of town so he can come stay again.

Photos of the Farm

Enjoy!

Spring Fresh Sheets

One of my absolutely favourite indulgences is freshly line-dried sheets. I love the cool crispness that you feel when you crawl into bed. This morning I hung my first sheets of the season out on the clothes line. I am giddy with excitement for going to bed tomorrow night (sheets are changed on Mondays and Fridays here).



Sometimes it really is the little things that can give us the most pleasure!

Have a delightful day!
:o) jenn

Hatch Two - Day Four Egg Candling

Last night, after I finished with my canning, I candled the seven new eggs in the incubator to check for fertilization and/or progress. This would be the first candling of this batch. At this point, you are looking for a "spider" appearance of blood vessels within the egg. This is sometimes hard to see with darker eggs at this early stage. I put the first egg in the Brinsea Ovascope Egg Viewer. YES! I could see the spidering effect:


(You may have to enlarge the picture to see it.)

This is a medium-sized white egg so visualization is a bit easier.

Egg #2 is a blue-green egg laid by one of our "Easter Eggers". This breed of chicken is really cute with its muffs and beards. I am curious to know which rooster's characteristics will go along with this chick. Anyway, I put egg #2 under the viewer and it looked like this:



Not to bore you with photos of all seven eggs, I will give you the run down thus far:

Egg 1: Fertile and developing
Egg 2: Fertile and developing
Egg 3: Fertile and developing
Egg 4: Unsure. This is "big bird's" (a Rhode Island Red) egg and due to the shell colour, I can't say for sure. I will recheck on day 7 as it will be more apparent. Ironically enough, I was unsure about #4 in our last batch as well and that ended up being Nemo!
Egg 5: Fertile and developing
Egg 6: Fertile and developing
Egg 7: Unsure. This is a Copper Maran's egg with a dark brown shell. Like egg #4, I will try to make a better determination on day 7.

So there you have it - the latest on the 7 eggs in the incubator. I checked on Mama Duck yesterday and she is still sitting strong on the 12 or so eggs in the duckhouse. I also have 4 muscovy eggs from another farm that are due to hatch around the same time, so it will be "out of the brooder" with the present chicks and "into the brooder" with up to 23 new chicks/ducklings in about 17 days.

Have a fantabulous day!
:o) jenn

Pickle my fancy....

Last weekend, we went to Frog Pond which is a local produce stand (although much bigger than a side-of-the-road stand). We like to go there on the weekend to get fruits and veggies, and it is also the place where we get our turkey chicks. We bought kirby cucumbers, Roma tomatoes, green beans, kiwi, plums, honey stix, and green peppers. Last night, I got to the kirby cukes with my plans to make homemade pickles.



I washed up the cukes and then quartered them into spears. I made the pickling brine (a double batch before it was over), let it boil as per the directions, and then poured it over the cukes and covered with wax paper for 30 minutes. (It was at this point that I realized I needed to make more brine to cover the cukes, so I quickly made another batch and poured it over them. I sterilized some pint-sized canning jars and lids, cut up garlic and added spices to all of the jars. I then put in the cukes and poured the brine over with enough headspace to allow for expansion. Next, it was into the hot water bath for 15 minutes. Allison, who loves pickles, started asking me how long it would be until we could eat them. Patience, dear grasshopper, patience... After a nice hot bath, I removed the jars and placed them on a cooling rack to sit overnight.



I can't wait to try them in a few days. I am really enjoying this canning experience. I asked Pete last night if we would be going back to Frog Pond this weekend so I can look through my canning recipe books to see what I can make next. Tonight: Finish the green beans (I didn't have fresh dill) and the second batch of pineapple salsa. I need to buy more jars! :o)

Have a dilly-licious day!
:o) jenn

Chicken Hatch - take two!

After our "Herbie incident" with our previous hatch, we have now set seven new eggs in our incubator.



Most, if not all, of these will be mixed-breed birds as our roosters are silver-laced polish (although we do have two females of the same), a black jersey giant, and a white jersey giant (I think - he was in the "tetra tint pullets" bin but obviously he is not a female, so I question his breed as well). It will be interesting to see what combinations come out of this hatch. We will *not* be moving this hatch out of the laundry room - keeping it safe from Herbie. I think the peeping from the eggs in the previous hatch was just too much for his curiosity.



I am going to try to post photos of the candling throughout the process. I will be candling for the first time tonight with this batch. Stay tuned!