{"id":327,"date":"2010-02-12T17:34:58","date_gmt":"2010-02-13T00:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=327"},"modified":"2010-03-13T19:24:03","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T02:24:03","slug":"welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=327","title":{"rendered":"Welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It finally happened.\u00a0 Today I opened the barn door to the sound of peeps and chirps.\u00a0 There was Grey Girl, huddled over two freshly hatched chicks, a bright yellow and a mixed tan.\u00a0 Huh.<\/p>\n

Back in December, Grey Girl decided she had to have some babies.\u00a0 She chose a corner of the goat barn and dutifully sat a clutch of 8 duck eggs.\u00a0 Ducks should not be sitting eggs in December.\u00a0 The temperatures are too low and the necessary humidity is nonexistent.\u00a0 Besides, a corner of the goat barn is a bad choice.\u00a0 The eggs were trampled just a couple weeks after she started her mission.\u00a0 All except for one slightly cracked survivor.\u00a0 Grey Girl stuck to her guns, rebuilt her nest, pulled some more feathers, and went on with her business.\u00a0 I watched her, hoping she would discard the egg and move on.\u00a0 I could have taken it, but more surprising things have happened here than a duckling hatching out of a cracked egg. We waited.<\/p>\n

On the 48th day of brooding, I coaxed her off the nest with corn.\u00a0 Muscovy duck eggs hatch between 38 and 42 days.\u00a0 But a duck will sit a rotten egg for months, until she is sick and weak.\u00a0 I figured it was best to take the egg and let her recover some vigor for the coldest months of the year.\u00a0 Turns out the chickens beat me to it.\u00a0 When Grey Girl left her nest, she revealed 14 chicken eggs,\u00a0 smooth and warm.\u00a0 The hens had been laying eggs in her nest, leaving her with the hard work, and chuckling over my perplexed chagrin at the empty nest boxes in the chicken coop.\u00a0 Clever opportunists.<\/p>\n

This was bad.\u00a0 An egg laid under a broody duck on Monday will hatch earlier than an egg laid under her on Friday.\u00a0 Different hatch days will result in chaos in the nest.<\/p>\n

This is good because now Grey Girl will get to have her babies, although they may appear a bit different than she expected.\u00a0 We’ll also have spring pullets to sell and cockerels for the freezer.<\/p>\n

Funny how life is such a mixed bag.<\/p>\n

So, despite the odds, the first babies of the year have arrived.\u00a0 Welcome, little ones.\u00a0 We are happy to see proof, once again, that life is stronger than winter winds and frozen nights.\u00a0 Evidence that a mother’s determination is a force to be reckoned with (and that the chickens are sneakier than the devil himself).\u00a0 Welcome to the world.<\/p>\n

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

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

It finally happened.\u00a0 Today I opened the barn door to the sound of peeps and chirps.\u00a0 There was Grey Girl, huddled over two freshly hatched chicks, a bright yellow and a mixed tan.\u00a0 Huh. Back in December, Grey Girl decided she had to have some babies.\u00a0 She chose a corner of the goat barn and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35,15],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-sweet-spot","tag-chicks","tag-ducks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":605,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}