Friday, April 16, 2010
Claire's First Lambing
She had twins. First came a small Moorit colored, just like daddy and then a larger black one with white on its face and black rings around its eyes.
Absolutely the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! Everyone was awed and amazed.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
New Friends!
What can I say...
Everyone knows that it is "chick days" there. Who can keep away from their cute peeping anyway? I went right for the big bins hoping they would have goslings or turkeys at a reasonable price.... but no, they only had goslings and they were about $12 each. So, I would wait for the eggs we have here to hatch and then maybe ask the lady that gave us them for some more if that worked out well and I wasn't too bored with turning eggs and watching temperatures. The type of goose she has is a cross, as I understand, between a large white goose and a Japanese goose which is large, white, with a long neck and a little flap under the chin. She said they will be a long necked large white goose. They sound just lovely!
Anyway... Miranda found the little ducklings first and fell head over heals for this little black cutie. It was so quiet and sweet up in her arms. So, I took a look. Now, I have to say.... I only had $5 on me so, I wasn't really in the market to make a purchase, had really attempted to keep my hands off, but there we were now both holding peeping little ducklings and then Robert came over from sitting on the 4-wheelers, which were conveniently parked next to the chicks, and he started to hold one of them. Well, you can't just get one of anything and so there we were... box with bedding in hand and Miranda and I each holding a black one and a brown one. The guy in charge of the wee ones came over to help another customer and then I asked him what varieties he thought that each might be (I had been frantically looking over a "duck" book just before his arrival and could not figure it out for lack of pictures). Well, he says: " The little brown ones are most likely Khaki Campbell and the little black ones are just beautiful when grown with an iridescent green feathering, but I'm not sure which breed they are." After pulling the duck book back out we discovered that the KC would weigh 3-4 pounds and could lay 300-350 eggs per year. Nearly one a day! And being a brown bird I knew that Bob would quickly fall for them for that reason as well as their egg laying ability.
Ducks are supposed to reign supreme when it comes to eating bugs, slugs, and vegetation. So, we will have to keep them out of the garden, but they should help keep the population of bugs down. They will also be a lot easier to put up at night than the Guinea are. We can't really put them up... they just roost high in the barn and we hope for the best. We lost one of them a couple of weeks ago to what we think is a racoon, that has taken 5 of our feathered friends in the past 2.5 weeks. sad. However, the ducks will have a moving house and run area and then be let out when the weather is nice and have fun with the kiddos. I'm sure there will be pictures of Miranda "swimming" with her ducklings in the turtle pool and eventually in the big tub we have set up for the kids to cool down in. (eye roll) That is if it ever stops raining!
Yes, that is Jacob pulling himself up at the side of Miranda's bed! Guess he had to move to a taller object than other "toddlers" might use since he is so tall himself now. It was so exciting watching him. He was really intrigued by Miranda's multitude of dolls and critters she has up there he wouldn't stop until he got the exact one he was looking for. There is NO stopping him! He was giggling and having so much fun!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Mr. Wiggles
Thursday, December 4, 2008
In Awe
Then, here are some amazing pics of the babies at almost 10pm tonight. Look at how much they have grown. The first one hatched a week ago. And his little fuzzy feathers are starting to get dark and I would say he is 3-4 times larger than the one that hatched today.
This is just amazing!
Here is a little movie of them in the nesting box tonight at about 10pm. It is a bit dark, but I didn't want to disturb them with too much light. And at least you get to hear them. Things are still mainly quiet, but I'm sure if they 'talk' like their parents... it won't be long before it is way noisy here.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Jacob
Love Bird Hatching Update
Friday, November 28, 2008
First New Babies
Our Love Birds, Peaches (daddy) and Posey (mama) have laid 5 eggs and the first of the five hatched yesterday with what appeared to be a naked chick (never did see much of anything of an egg shell left... bet they got rid of it in the bottom of the cage or ate it). Within a few hours it was dry and fluffy. It lays on its belly and hasn't said a thing yet. But what a gift of 'Thanksgiving' on Thanksgiving Day!
This is Mommy and Daddy. Peaches is toward the front. Posey is closer to her nesting box.
Peaches and Posey arrived to the farm as a gift from friends who decided after getting them they did not want 'parrots'. We could not have been more thrilled. They are quite quiet birds and have a tendency to keep to their nesting box... coming out only to poop, eat, drink, talk (very little) and do what Love Birds do best (throat clear - whisper) we have given them a curtain for privacy now. (now that I have written this they will become quite noisy! ~ right!)
They are both very bashful as far as sneaking a peak at them in their nesting box is concerned. Whenever we open the lid they vacate! This is a picture of Posey's tail. Isn't her color just beautiful and vibrant?! Peaches is the same color that I just painted our Kitchen walls... Ivy Green (of course!). He has such a lovely lighter peach face. On November 9th the third egg arrived and then on the tenth the fourth egg! They sometimes skipped a day. A typical clutch for a Love Bird is 4 to 6 eggs.
Posey is a very diligent Mum. Normally she would vacate as soon as the door was opened, but here I was able to get a picture of her on her precious 4 eggs. Just before we got them our friend had removed and disposed of 6 eggs and replaced them with marbles. I'm sure they had to guess that something was amiss. So, I think she is even more diligent this time around.Here she leaves so we can get a peek at the fifth wee miracle that was laid on the 12th. Then we waited to see if she would lay a 6th... but no. Five is a nice number. And if all survive the first three to four weeks with mom and dad we are going to remove them and start hand raising them. It is going to be interesting, but oh so rewarding! Love Birds which have been hand raised can be very nice companions, sit on your finger, talk with you, take a ride in a car, etc. This pair came with a little 'traveling' cage for just such events and we have read about people taking them on vacations with them as well.