{"id":128,"date":"2009-06-13T16:59:43","date_gmt":"2009-06-13T23:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farmingforprofits.com\/?p=128"},"modified":"2010-03-14T04:59:23","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T11:59:23","slug":"operation-adoptakeet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"Operation AdoptAKeet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I wanted to share a story with you but figured you needed a review of the terms listed below:<\/p>\n

Woodland Pond Farm Glossary<\/p>\n

“broody”<\/span>–physical\/emotional state of a hen or duck in which is she is prepared to sit on her eggs until they hatch.\u00a0 Can also include the time during which she is raising her young ducklings or chicks.\u00a0 Generally involves the duck or hen viciously attacking you should you come near her eggs or her young and can include you and all 4 children needing to work together to pry her out ofthe nest box in order to remove her and gather her eggs.
\n“setting”<\/span>–when the hen or duck is actually sitting on her eggs in order to hatch them.\u00a0 Why isn’t it called sitting?\u00a0 I have no idea.\u00a0 Perhaps, to make farming seem like a fancy inclusive profession where normal people cannot understand the terminology while in reality no sane person wants to be tied down to their house every single day in order to let the ducks and chickens out at dawn and lock them back up at dusk.<\/p>\n

“guinea”<\/span>–those prehistoric looking grey or spotted hump-backed birds that you see walking in the road when you drive through the country.\u00a0 They are famed for eating ticks and making a loud annoying alarm call should any strangers come onto the farm property.\u00a0 No one has documented that they decrease the ticks on a farm but all farmers will swear by it in order to
\nprove that they are not stupid for raising such loud, ugly birds that apparently find the most prolific population of ticks in the road where you never let your children play anyway (unless you’re talking on the phone in which case the kids can play wherever they want if they would just stop bothering you!)<\/p>\n

“keets”<\/span>–baby guineas.\u00a0 Why are they called keets?\u00a0 See explanation under “setting”.<\/p>\n

“co-mothering”-<\/span>-a term we use at Woodland Pond to refer to two ducks sharing the setting of eggs.\u00a0 This is often very successful, allowing the eggs to remain warm while one mother goes off to swim or eat.\u00a0 It is also very helpful when the young are out of the nest and free ranging as they have 2 responsible adults to guard over them.\u00a0 Occasionally, one of the mothers will only remain with the young until they are old enough to free range.\u00a0 Then she will go a for a long swim on the pond and return to the bam yard acting like she has never met the other mother or seen those ducklings before in her life and resume her single lifestyle, yakking it up with the other females by the water trough and hanging with the males in the bushes. I hear ya, sister.<\/p>\n

“nest box”<\/span>— an actual box or just a small space where a duck or hen lays her eggs.\u00a0 Duck nest boxes are in the duck barn and chicken nest boxes are in the chicken coop.\u00a0 Seems simple enough but the chickens and ducks often interchange their laying areas at will.\u00a0 I discourage this, but they really don’t give a you-know-what about where I think they should lay their eggs. And if I really harass them about where they lay their eggs then they will simply lay them in the middle of the front yard for snakes and crows to eat in order to spite me.\u00a0 That’s not anthropomorphism, that’s just true. Don’t know what anthropomorphism means?\u00a0 See “setting.”\u00a0 (And just because I had to google it in order to know how it’s spelled doesn’t mean I don’t know what it means!.)<\/p>\n

Now, armed with those helpful definitions, proceed:
\nOperation AdoptAKeet<\/span>
\nApril l8th, 2009<\/span>.\u00a0 Eleven broody ducks nesting in duck barn.\u00a0 All is calm.
\nApril 21st.\u00a0 Discover a Buff Orpington hen sharing a nest with a duck.\u00a0 Remove her promptly as co-mothering between species in not encouraged.\u00a0 Chicken eggs only take 21 days to hatch. Duck eggs hatch after 38 days.\u00a0 Do not want to deal with these types of complications.
\nApril 22nd. <\/span> Discover same Buff Orpington hen sharing a nest with a duck.\u00a0 Remove her again with a scolding.<\/p>\n

April 23rd.<\/span> Discover same Buff Orpington hen in duck nest.\u00a0 However, she has now pushed the duck into the comer of the nest box, off the eggs.\u00a0 Remove her with a scolding.<\/p>\n

April 24th.<\/span> Discover same Buff Orpington hen in duck nest.\u00a0 No sign of the duck. Upon seeing me, hen puffs out all her feathers so that she is big enough to fill up the entire nest box.\u00a0 Isn’t that funny? Call children over to see how funny she looks.\u00a0 Decide she is just like a big marshmallow. Laugh over the name Marshmallow.\u00a0 Remove her from the nest and receive a vicious peck in the process.\u00a0 Not really so funny anymore.<\/p>\n

April 25th.<\/span> Discover Marshmallow is still in the damn duck nest box.\u00a0 She puffs up and I call in daughter, Pretty, with renowned ability to bond with and soothe all animals.\u00a0 Pretty receives several vicious pecks while removing Marshmallow from nest box.\u00a0 Once out of the nest box, Marshmallow chases me and all children out the duck barn.\u00a0 Resumes her position in the
\nduck nest box.\u00a0 Hate Marshmallow fiercely.<\/p>\n

April 26th-29th.<\/span> Remove Marshmallow each night from nest box with a hoe.<\/p>\n

May lst. <\/span> Decide a new month calls for a new plan.\u00a0 All Marshmallow needs is her own nest. Gather some chicken eggs from a neighbor’s farm, build a nice nest of hay and eggs in an unused rectangular pen.\u00a0 Congratulate myself on a plan that will allow the duck back onto her nest and let Marshmallow hatch out a bunch of new hens for me without me doing any of the work.\u00a0 Sweet! Go into duck barn and remove Marshmallow from nest box with a hoe.\u00a0 Throw out chicken food in the barnyard and prepare to catch Marshmallow and put her into nest I have prepared for her.\u00a0 Forget that all of my Buff Orpington chickens are the same size, color, and shape.\u00a0 Marshmallow is effectively camouflaged against capture among all the Buff Orpington hens happily eating their dinner.\u00a0 Bemoan that the little details always get lost in my big plans. Discuss with daughter which chickens look most likely to be Marshmallow.\u00a0 Choose 3.\u00a0 Lock all 3 into pen with the new nest.\u00a0 Declare to children that due to her broodiness, in the morning Marshmallow will be setting the eggs and we can release the other 2 non-Marshmallows.<\/p>\n

May 2nd.<\/span> All 3 Buff Orpington hens stand smashed against the wire of the pen waiting to be released.\u00a0 Eggs sit neglected in their nest.\u00a0 Much weeping and gnashing of teeth.\u00a0 Release the 3 hens.\u00a0 One hen makes a beeline for the duck barn and gets into duck nest.\u00a0 Aha!\u00a0 Grit teeth against the coming ordeal, remove the self-identified Marshmallow from duck nest and, screaming, carry her pecking, clawing, puffed-up-to-the-size-of-Godzilla body from the duck bam to the pen.\u00a0 Slam pen door, triple lock it and leave her with the eggs.<\/p>\n

May 3rd.<\/span> Marshmallow begins setting the nest.\u00a0 I win.\u00a0 Tell children to make note of the fact that with the proper planning and persistence, anything can be accomplished.\u00a0 Children ask if crying and screaming are a necessary part of the process. I assure them that it is.<\/p>\n

May 26th. <\/span> Realize Marshmallow’s eggs are not going to hatch.\u00a0 Must be infertile or were too old or too exposed to weather before I collected them.\u00a0 What should I do with Marshmallow?\u00a0 Decide to wait until June as I am too exhausted at the end of a month to start anything new.<\/p>\n

June 2nd. <\/span> Must track down a supplier of guinea eggs.\u00a0 Will place under Marshmallow and she will hatch the eggs and raise up some tick-eating, alarm-sounding guineas for me without me doing any of the work.\u00a0 Brilliant!<\/p>\n

June 3rd.<\/span> No one closer than 3 hours away has guinea eggs available.\u00a0 Apparently guineas eggs are hard to come by as adult guineas tend to go wild, refuse to be locked into barns or pens at night, will not lay in nest boxes, and just get picked off gradually by nighttime predators until they are all dead and you have to buy some more.\u00a0 What a perfect addition for my farm!\u00a0 I must have guineas!\u00a0 Share this information with husband who simply shakes head and walks away.<\/p>\n

June 5th.<\/span> Find out the local feed mill has tracked down a supplier of guinea eggs, is incubating them, and will have keets for sale soon.<\/p>\n

June 10th.<\/span> New plan: purchase keets, go out under cover of darkness while Marshmallow is sleeping, remove eggs from under her, and replace with keets.\u00a0 Chickens are notorious for not resisting contact during the dark hours.\u00a0 Marshmallow, in her broody state, will think she hatched them and will raise them as her own young.\u00a0 No one with whom I share this plan
\nthinks it is possible.\u00a0 Several farmers share stories of hens attacking and killing keets, ducklings or other poultry placed underneath them.\u00a0 Non-farming friends remind me there are several effective brands of tick spray on the market that do not require hatching or raising of anything. Some idiot just suggests letting Marshmallow out of the pen, throwing the old eggs away and see if she’s done being broody.\u00a0 Check the internet and read many online stories of how a broody hen will successfully raise other breeds of poultry.\u00a0 Decide the intemet is never wrong and proceed with plan.<\/p>\n

June 11th.<\/span> Go to feed mill for goat feed and come home with goat feed and 10 cute little keets. Put keets in brooder box under heat lamp in dining room.\u00a0 Run over and over Operation Mother Hen<\/span> in my mind.<\/p>\n

Step 1.\u00a0 Rise before dawn<\/p>\n

Step 2.\u00a0 Remove eggs from under sleeping, non-resisting Marshmallow.<\/p>\n

Step 3.\u00a0 Place keets under her in place of eggs.<\/p>\n

Step 4.\u00a0 Sit quietly sipping coffee and reading book next to pen until the sun rises.<\/p>\n

Step 5.\u00a0 Observe what Marshmallow does carefully to ensure that she does not begin to peck keets when she gets up.<\/p>\n

Step 6.\u00a0 Tell friends how wonderful it all went and how Marshmallow is happily caring for keets.<\/p>\n

June 12th.<\/span> Rise at 4:45am.\u00a0 Make coffee, gather book, flashlight, and lawn chair and take outside next to Marshmallow’s pen.\u00a0 All is quiet.\u00a0 Return to house and check on keets who are happily eating and drinking in brooder box.\u00a0 Wrap keets in a towel, place in a pot, and carry out to pen.<\/p>\n

4:55am.<\/span> Open pen and reach for eggs under Marshmallow.\u00a0 Forget that Marshmallow has a mean peck and is not afraid to use her talons either.\u00a0 She is not sleeping and is extremely resistant.\u00a0 Nix Step 2 of plan )removing eggs).\u00a0 Proceed to Step 3. With one hand, hold a stick close to Marshmallow’s head to receive all her pecks.\u00a0 With other hand, begin placing keets under Marshmallow.\u00a0 Several keets make a break for it, dash out from under her, and begin racing around the pen, peeping hysterically.\u00a0 Forgot to account for unreasonable keet behavior.\u00a0 Marshmallow is not completely blocked by the stick and several keets receive an unwelcoming peck as I put them under her feathers.\u00a0 Gather the panicked keets scurrying around the pen that did not follow the plan and put them under her tail feathers, furthest from her sharp beak. Remove the stick and quickly close the pen door.\u00a0 Listen in the darkness to a disgruntled Marshmallow pecking a keet every once in a while and the keet peeping hysterically in response. Tell myself she needs a few minutes to settle down.\u00a0 Wait, sweating and heart pounding, trying to decide if she’s pecking them more frequently or less frequently.<\/p>\n

4:56am.<\/span> Cannot wait any longer.\u00a0 Decide I have to retum to Step 2 and remove the eggs or she is not going to accept the keets.\u00a0 Briefly consider that moving backwards in the steps may be a sign of an improperly planned operation but forge ahead anyway.\u00a0 Quickly crack door open and pull out eggs despite a ferocious attack from Marshmallow.\u00a0 Grab a few keets and
\nmove them directly into the warm spot under her abdomen and spread wings, where chicks and ducklings usually hang out under their mothers.\u00a0 Slam door and sit leaning against it, trying to decipher the sounds in the darkness.\u00a0 Quiet.\u00a0 A bit of ruffling of feathers. No peeping. No pecking. I win?<\/p>\n

4:57-5:11am.<\/span> On to Step 4 and 5.\u00a0 Use flashlight to read a bit in book.\u00a0 Sip coffee.\u00a0 Keep an eye on Marshmallow.\u00a0 In in the dim predawn I can see that she has spread her wings to cover the keets. Occasionally I see a head peek out from under her wing.\u00a0 However, if a keet comes to the front of her, Marshmallow will give it a fierce peck.\u00a0 It will run peeping back to her tail feathers and slide underneath her from the back.\u00a0 She does not resist this.\u00a0 I think she is just getting accustomed to the idea of babies.\u00a0 Or perhaps she is trying to insist they stay warm.\u00a0 A bit of tough love?\u00a0 I am unsure of her motives so begin using Jedi Mind Trick.\u00a0 This can work. It can. It can. It can. It can…….<\/p>\n

5: 12am.<\/span> Sunlight in the woods.\u00a0 Marshmallow rises, begins pulling keets out from under her one at a time and pecking them horrifically.\u00a0 Realize she is the maniacal witch I always believed she was in my heart and rush to pull her out of the pen.\u00a0 Also realize I will never get to Step 6.
\n5: 13am.<\/span> Commence with Operation AdoptAKeet<\/span>.\u00a0 Release all ducks and chickens from their nighttime enclosures and peruse them for prospective adoptive mothers.\u00a0 Keets lay spread all over the pen, cold and peeping weakly every once in a while.\u00a0 Do not panic.\u00a0 Do not panic.\u00a0 Do not panic.\u00a0 Consider and dismiss the hens who have been trying to go broody on eggs
\nover the last few days.\u00a0 Doubt that the keets can handle anymore pecks from a sharp beak.\u00a0 Move on to ducks and their softer rounded bills as an option.\u00a0 Focus on one white duck who has been going broody on chicken eggs in a nest box in the chicken coop for days.\u00a0 Every night we drag her out of the nest box and lock her up in the duck barn.\u00a0 Every aftemoon I find her
\nsetting in the chicken nest box again.\u00a0 There are two alarming qualities about this duck, though. l. She tends to kick any real chicken eggs out of the nest box and tries setting on the fake wooden chicken eggs I keep in the nest box to make it seem like a popular egg-laying spot. 2.\u00a0 She is solid white, just like about 30 other ducks that are wandering around.\u00a0 Distinguishing her
\nfrom the crowd in the next few minutes will prove difficult.\u00a0 Do not panic.\u00a0 Do not panic.<\/p>\n

5:15am. <\/span> Totally panic and grab Daisy Duck, a duck who has successfully hatched and raised ducklings in the past.\u00a0 She has recently co-mothered a nest but abandoned the ducklings to the other mother when they were 6 weeks old.\u00a0 At least I know she is capable of nurturing young, unlike the despicable Marshmallow.\u00a0 Put her in the pen and the keets immediately
\nrush to get under her.\u00a0 But as fast as they head for her, she runs away.\u00a0 Around and around the pen they go, keets peeping desperately for attention as Daisy frantically searches the corners and top of the pen for escape.\u00a0 I feel for Daisy.\u00a0 It is not unlike the chase-while-I-hide scene repeated in my house every time I receive a telephone call, need to take a shower, or get
\nready for Moms Night Out.\u00a0 I survey the chaos in the pen and can no longer remember why I thought it was a bad idea to just let the damn chicken sit on eggs in the duck barn.\u00a0 I am about to commence the weeping and gnashing of teeth.<\/p>\n

5:16am<\/span>.\u00a0 Then, out of the comer of my eye, I see her!\u00a0 The white duck, headed for the chicken coop.\u00a0 She goes in!\u00a0 She gets in the nest box.\u00a0 She sits on the wooden eggs!\u00a0 Never in my life have I been so happy to see such a stupid white duck.\u00a0 I open the pen to release Daisy.\u00a0 As the keets trail out frantically behind her, I plop them back into the pot in which I carried them
\nout here.\u00a0 I rush to the chicken coop and open the top.\u00a0 I quickly cover the nest box with the towel I originally used to keep the keets warm.\u00a0 I lift the entire next box out with duck and fake eggs all together and place it in the pen.\u00a0 I lift a corner of the towel and insert the keets into the nest box with Stupid White Duck.\u00a0 In a few seconds there is silence.\u00a0 The duck does not
\nrush out from under the towel.\u00a0 The keets stop their peeping, Perhaps they are all too stunned to respond.\u00a0 I will not peek and risk upsetting the duck or releasing any keets.\u00a0 I will just wait quietly.<\/p>\n

5:18am.<\/span> I peek into the nest box.\u00a0 Stupid White Duck has spread her wings to cover the wooden eggs and all 10 keets. She looks at me blankly.\u00a0 I smile back at her.\u00a0 I resolve not to peek into the box again today and head back to the house.<\/p>\n

8:30am.<\/span> On my way back from milking I peek into the nest box.\u00a0 I carefully lift the edge of the towel and see a couple keets asleep peacefully on SWD’s back.\u00a0 There are a few fluffy keet butts poking out from under her wings.\u00a0 All is quiet, warm, and peaceful.\u00a0 All is well.\u00a0 For today. Tomorrow the towel must come off and the next box must come out as the keets
\nare too small to climb in and out of it to eat and drink.\u00a0\u00a0 I will need to make a plan for that.\u00a0 Hmmmm………………………
\nWhat do the city folks do with their time?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9<\/span> Stevie Taylor 2010. All Rights Reserved.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted to share a story with you but figured you needed a review of the terms listed below: Woodland Pond Farm Glossary “broody”–physical\/emotional state of a hen or duck in which is she is prepared to sit on her eggs until they hatch.\u00a0 Can also include the time during which she is raising her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8,15,16,19,20],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-do-the-city-folks-do","tag-chickens","tag-ducks","tag-eggs","tag-guineas","tag-keets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":661,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions\/661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}