Sssssshhhhh! Duckies sleeping!

Breakfast

In which they get really close to their food.

And then there were 19. Plus 2.

This morning I sat quietly, willing it to happen.  I had checked the tracking record and seen that my box was scanned in Kalamazoo at 2:49 am.  It must have gotten to this corner of the state by 7 am.   Or 7:30. 

I didn't dare get into the shower.  Ulani was denied a walk.  I could hear the clock in the bathroom ticking away the minutes; would I have to leave for work before the call came? 

At 7:59 am I picked up the phone.  Should I try calling, or leave the line open in case they called me?  Just as I was about to hang up, it finally rang.

"Hello?" says I.
"You have babies!" exclaims the postmistress.

And so the chicks came to Busy Solitude Farm.  Or rather, I raced two miles to the post office, where the happy postal worker explained that at first the box had seemed so quiet that she peeked inside, only to discover eight happy, peeping baby chicks.

"Good luck!" she called as I whisked my box out to the car for the ride home.

The babies were right at home on the passenger seat. 

I had worried that the hatchery would need to add "filler chicks" to the package to keep the body heat warm enough, but when we got into the barn I was relieved to discover that they now use a heat package so my eight babies could travel from Ohio to Michigan (a 36 hour trip via USPS) without aid of superfluous boys.  You can see the package in this photo just after I opened the box.

As soon as they were out of the box, the babies were full of peeping and walking around, eating and drinking and taking over the place.  I tried to keep the camera at ground level to get good photos of them, but they'd race over and peck at the lens!

It was a work morning, so I had to tear myself away from the girls to earn a living.  I didn't worry about them, though.

The hens were looking out for them.

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After I got to work I started thinking.  Mr. Duck has been the only duck since last June's terrorist attacks.  Now I'm back to 17 hens and two roosters, shouldn't he have another duck or two to pal around with?  A quick phone call told me which store still had ducklings.  So after work I expanded my flock.

Hello!  We'll be your new ducks.  Just show us where to go.

They always send us to the back of the line.  Why are we in line, anyway?

How do you like it here?  Been here long?  Nice weather we've been having.

I think I'm going to really fit in here.

Owls

More of the story later, wanted to get these photos up fast.  I've been informed that the parents will do their best for the baby, and if it is strong enough and ready enough, they'll work things out.  If not, then nature will do what it does.

In any event, I am keeping Ulani tethered away from the willow tree until all owls are gone.

Update tomorrow.

Morning has broken, 16

A quiet Sunday morning here at Busy Solitude Farm.  Except for the birds.  They are madly building nests, then doing what's (ahem) necessary to fill those nests with eggs that will grow the next generation.  Quite a lively, quiet Sunday.

* * * * *

Around the place, anticipation builds for the arrival of eight new chicks on Tuesday!  There have been no further losses from the barn, so the babies will go into the isolation pen, under a heat lamp, to begin their lives of busy solitude.

And the grass is knee-high due to the old lawn tractor's ailing health.  If it doesn't get mowed soon, I'm going to lose Ulani out there.  Promised returns of last Tuesday and last Friday both fell through -- once because it was not fully fixed, and the second time because the repair place's delivery truck broke down.  If I didn't know it would make Ulani absolutely crazy to have something grazing inside the dog fence, I might break down and get a cow.  Or a couple of mini-donkeys.  I've always thought I would enjoy having mini-donks. 

Instead, I try to refer to the yard as my meadow and leave it at that.