Fourteen chicks hatched last week, one of whom had a birth defect (hatch defect?) and did not survive. The first hen that I rescued from an abandoned egg that initiated this whole egg incubation thang has started laying little cream-colored pullet eggs daily.
Since Pup has been on patrol at night, the chicken losses from raccoon predation have ceased around the house and the sheep barn. Chickens and ducks that roost beyond the confines of the yard and sheep barn fence are still falling victim to predators.
Hens are so confident in the ability of pup to protect them from the peril that kills in the night that they have moved back to the sheep barn to incubate some eggs under the feed mangers, damnit. I had been grabbing the eggs from the nests out there to place in the incubator but obviously waited a bit too long this last time.
I have big blood blisters over the back of my hands from attempting to rescue an egg that had rolled out from underneath a duck along with some broken shells this morning. Apparently there are ducklings now. I hope that she has better luck raising them than any of the other ducks have had this year. Out of @ 50 duck eggs hatched, there are only two surviving ducklings, and those are from eggs that I rescued.
Anyway, duck and hen are incubating the nest; I don’t know which one is sitting on the ducklings!
