It is spring! We are having a late spring this year due to the drought. But the birds are having an early spring. The geese, ducks, chickens and turkeys have been sitting on eggs for some time now and babies are popping out everywhere. Today there are new turkey poults and new goslings. Unfortunately, I will have to take the babies from the geese and the turkeys because the ravens will eat them. They don't bother much with the chicks, likely because there is not much to eat there, but they love ducklings and goslings. The turkeys just loose their babies, then the babies get cold and go to sleep forever. 

Chickens do make the best mothers, especially in the breeds where the instincts have not been bred out. The little bantam cross bred hen that sat on her eggs in the yearling ram pen, hatched 10, but is just cavorting with 8, so two have been lost. She is fiercely protective and very watchful and likely will keep the rest of her babies. 

The goose has 7 eggs. Three have hatched and she is sitting on the others. Hopefully they wll all hatch. There are some new goslings that arrived from the hatchery on Saturday, perfect timing to add these to the incubator, which is an old livestock trough. A Khaki Campbell duck has a nest and should be coming out very soon with her babies and I gave 2 goose eggs and some Muscovy duck eggs to the Mottle Houdan hen. She has to sit for a month to hatch them and so far it is fine. I keep removing any chicken eggs, which would hatch 10 days sooner than the duck and goose eggs, so she would abandon the nest. This way she will stay until she hatches the eggs. Unfortunately for her, I will have to take them from her as well to ensure their survival. 

Now, spring on the farm is teeming with new life and that is so perfectly wonderful, isn't it?

In the old days, a chicken flock was self perpetuating, that is, the hens laid eggs and hatched them to produce new birds every year. This provided eggs for the farmer and meat at the end of the summer when the roosters and old hens were butchered. The chickens lived in coops not well insulated if at all. Some farmers would pile straw over the building, but most did not. The body heat of the birds had to keep the coop warm enough for them to survive and they had to be hardy. 

The Fat Ewe Farm Flock is a flock of various breeds chosen for three things: winter hardiness, foraging ability and egg laying, but broodiness is a factor as well. The Chanteclers, both the Partidge and the Whites, are excellent brooders. I have two Silkie hens and they too are known for being great setters. 

In addition to these birds, there is a Khaki Campbell on a nest, which is considered rare for that breed. They were bred for egg laying and the broodiness trait was left out, but I have a strain of the breed that will hatch their own, thankfully. Every year, one or two of the Khaki Campbells hatch babies. There are also two Muscovies sitting on nests and a half bantam hen that I know of. That does not mean there are not others. Last year there was a hen who hatched 12 babies under the sheep shelter, and I was not aware of that until she came out with them. That is the true meaning of free range chickens. You never know where the heck they are! Every day is an Easter egg hunt too, because they are inventing new nests and laying anywhere but the nest boxes which are now mostly occupied by brooding hens. 

I am thankful for the hens and their ability to raise their babies without me having to incubate and brood the chicks myself. Isn't nature so grand?

I have some friends out here in this forsaken land who are always thoughtful and always seem to show up when I need some help. We do a little barter and trade and sell and buy from each other as well. The woman is a great baker and I encouraged her to learn to make soap and she has. The man is an all around fellow who knows about farming the old fashioned way and also knows alot about fixing stuff. If I ask for help, if they can, they come. That is always appreciated and I would definitely try to do the same for them. 

During the spring, I bought two turkeys and a tom from them, plus geese and ducks. Shortly after, the tom died. I did not ask for a replacement, but today, this morning, I got a phone call asking if I was home and if they could drop by with a surprise. About a half hour later, the man and his son, who lives in Grand Prairie, I believe, came by. They were driving the welding truck and we looked in the back. There was a crate there and I could barely make out the head of a large bird. He asked his son to bring down a tom turkey and replaced the one that had died in the spring. Now that is being neighbourly beyone the call of duty. 

We had a quick look around the farm and he mentioned his Silky rooster died. I happened to have two Silky roosters and offered him one, no charge of course. That is how we do it. It is nice to have some friends out here and I am grateful for these lovely folks. I am comforted knowing they enjoy my company too and we have had many long conversations standing in their barnyard or mine. 

But, I have never seen a red neck turkey crate until today! Now, I have seen it all!

Working closely with animals, one soon realizes that they have emotions and feelings just the same as people. Mamma Turkey hatched one chick and 4 turkey babies a couple of weeks ago. The baby chick hatched about a whole week before the turkeys, but she diligently continued her sacrifice and hatched the rest of the little ones. One turkey got stuck in a place he could not figure how to get out of and got cold and died. Turkeys, particularly require the high heat of the mother's breast warmth for longer periods than do chicks and ducklings. The chick died at two weeks, when it drowned in a pan of water. Another turkey baby drowned as well. The water is for the adult birds and is not deep, but baby chicks and turkeys are not good in water and succumb very quickly, even if they can get out with some effort. I don't know what happened to the other babies, but yesterday she had none left. She knew. She was sad and sat on the ground with her head and wings down, not moving. I am sure she was grieving. All those days she sat on the nest, giving of herself unselfishly because she only came of the nest once or twice a day to drink and eat. He own body weight dropped, but she held her vigil and then the babies were gone. Poor Mamma Turkey. I picked her up and put her in the brooder coop where there are 6 turkey poults a month old, thinking she might bond to them, but she just flew the coop. If she could not have her babies, no others interested her. 

So, today, she sat there, again with her wings and head down, unmoving and not talking as she so proudly did when she had her babies. She is in mourning, I am quite sure. The turkey tom died, so there is none to breed her again. The stance she is holding is a breeding position, waiting for the daddy, who will not come. 
Mamma Turkey is crying inside.