Remember when this used to be a Knitting Blog?

Yeah, me too.  Then I said to my husband, "We should get chickens and raise them."

Famous last words.

Yes, there are birds in that incubator, but you have to look REAL close. Our hatching survival rate for ducks this year has been dismal: 20%. So I threw out the rule book and decided to assist the buggers in hatching.  We had 20 eggs with 4/19 written in pencil  on them.  Of that 20: 3 were infertile, 2 died in the egg, one died after 2 days of life (aspirated yolk, he was looking good for a while) and that one top left - who is still amazingly alive.

I thought he was dead. I'm not kidding, I SWEAR TO GOD I thought he was dead. I massaged him, poked him a bit in the shell to see any movement: None. Of course, I was poking and massaging the wrong end of him. You see, 3 of my eggs were presenting backwards; a sort of breech birth.  It's nerve-wracking not seeing that cute beak where it should be.  And the fact that it's turned 180 degrees means you're working blind.  The landmarks to show you where to tweeze, cut and pull back are totally gone.

Incidentally, All I've learned from hatching eggs can be found here: http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/48726/incubating-hatching-eggs-important-topic-index-please-review

It's not for the faint of heart, nor for anyone with unsteady hands.  These 14 I've been working on have taken me since Sunday to get this far.  Five are in the nursery, and the rest are in the incubator.
So I figured since the duckie was expired, AND that I had another 2 breech births to attend, maybe there's some sort of rhyme or reason to their position. Maybe it's the same for breech births (It is, btw).  So I decided to practice extracting a breech on the dead duck.

I chipped away at the shell til I got to the membrane. The membrane in fertile eggs contains many veins, and if you attempt to help a chick out too fast, it will bleed out.  You have to patiently wait for those veins to dry up and for the blood to be reabsorbed into the duck/chicken/goose/bird. IF you know what you're doing, you can sloooowwwwly ( I mean glacially slow) ascertain the progression of blood out of the veins and into the bird and clip around the big ones slowly drawing the membrane back from the chick until it can wiggle it's way out of there.

In the dead duck's egg,  I clamped some veins, cut through the membranes a bit and found his neck.  Sliding the rest of the head out, I looked at the bugger and saw..."Sorry you didn't make it, dude." To which he peeped at me.

I damned near fell off my chair.  I massaged his chest, with his body still 1/2 in the shell.  He peeped again! Oh hey! "Hi little dude! Shall I call you Lazarus?"

He's lounging in the incubator now.  His umbilical + Yolk have some time left to reabsorb and I don't know if he'll make it but he's got a shot.

Knitting? Yeah, I knit at night when I get a chance.  Mostly hats. One baby blanket and one baby sweater on the needles.  The rest can wait.

Oh, and did I mention it's finals week? 

It's a scratchy picture due to low lighting but it is a family picture of Ron and Sissy. Sissy is brooding her clutch of 12 eggs and Ron is nervously pacing and keeping others away.  Geese mate for life, and Ganders protect their ladies and their babies from any perceived threat.  They stretch their necks, lower them to the ground and hiss.  If you get too close, they will peck at you.  It's their way, and to get mad at them for doing what comes naturally is really stupid.

So when Ron starts hissing at me, I tell him he's being a good Daddy and mate.

Dave and I go round and round about the look of Ron.  He's got a muddied-feather look that is not as defined as the others. Well, it's easier to see in comparison:

Here are the twins: Ginger and Sweet Pea.  Both male, both will never go anywhere without the other.  Notice the smooth breasts and defined side feathers on both.  Ron doesn't have that. My theory is that Ron is a mix of an African and a Chinese goose, both have the same markings and coloration, but Chinese -brown Chinese - are more a Milk Chocolate coloration instead of Dark Chocolate.

And who knows? There might be a bit of Sebastopol in that Gander as well.  His offspring will be interesting to see.

Our girls are growing rapidly: a month old and sprouting feathers. The ducklings are being raised with them and it seems to be a good idea.  They don't really notice that there is a difference in them except when trying to swim. To them, they are all one flock. This was taken last weekend and you'll see them all with their heads tilted up to the sky. They cannot see bilaterally like we can, so to really look at something, they tilt their heads and look with one eye.  In the sky above, were two turkey vultures.

More ducklings are on the way. I also pick up 6 new chickens next week.  Real sized chickens, not these bantam things that are pretty much useless.  Their eggs are small and they barely feed two adults off of one rooster. I remember the lady that sold me Molly was looking for Bantams.  Maybe she'd want the ones we've got. 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh Spring!

I can smell grass! It smells lovely.

So here's the count of animals  here:
7 adult geese
4 adult ducks
3 roosters, 4 hens
6 female goslings
3 ducklings of indeterminate gender
6 bantam chicks of indeterminate gender
28 duck eggs incubating
3 bantam eggs incubating
18 eggs on Sissy the goose's nest.

3 human adults
3 cats who do absolutely nothing but eat food.

A duckling explaining life to Dave. Isn't he/she adorable???? They've lost much of their yellow fuzz and are replacing it with white down.  After that come the feathers.  They are liking it outside and have been introduced to the flock.  The boys are very interested in the girls. As Mama Goose, I must remind them to keep their distance.

In order to help keep the two flocks apart, I made a partition of sorts from a sheet torn into strips with narrow strips of fabric sewn at the corners with enough room to stick bamboo garden stakes through. You'll see it the background of the top photo.  It makes it easy to move and gives a physical barrier that works most of the time.  The little ones seem more at ease when they can't see the adults staring at them.


Molly is the newest Adult Goose. She's the big goose to the right of the pink pool.  She's doing better with the flock. though still ostracized a bit more than I'd like.  We bought her for Buddy, who charges her with neck out when she gets near.  Yeah, he's an idiot.  Hopefully when mating season is over the flock will be more accepting of her.

This photo also shows 2 of the 4 pools of water out for the enjoyment of the ducks and geese. The problem with our land is there is no where level except where we park the cars.  I've learned to make level pads for the pools out of mulch.

Knitting is being done.  Another Rikke hat to match the blue scarf I've knitted.  A red throw out of wool, and a baby sweater for our Cantor and his wife at church. We're so excited, it's their first child. I envision another 2 or so baby items off my needles in the next few months as a good friend of ours is expecting an addition to their family in October.