Cuddles & Duke

I’ve learned this so many times, yet somehow I forget it every now and then. With death, comes life. I don’t know if this is true everywhere, but it certainly is here.

I was collecting eggs just a second ago, avoiding Mini’s body, when I heard a strange crying. Not strange, familiar. Really? A clutch? Did some hen succeed in hatching eggs?

The answer, of course, was yes. Well, someone succeed with at least one egg. A single chick was peeping- very loudly I might add- all my it’s self, it’s mother being away on a water run/waddle. Yes, the ‘hen’ was a duck. And this was a chick. A hen must have laid one of her eggs in this duck’s clutch.

There were three problems, however. One, there was only one, lonely chick. Two, the duck wasn’t paying any attention to the chick. And three, the duck had laid her eggs under the milking stanchion, the base of the enemy rats, which love to steal chicken and duck food. They also have a taste for little chicks and ducklings.

So, I coaxed the chick out of the nest using a net, found some chick feed, grabbed an old hamster cage, and took it to my room, where it is now chirping very loudly with my parakeets, who have no idea what is going on.

I was just now talking the matter over with my grandma, saying how odd it was that only one egg hatched. She said “what if duck eggs take longer to hatch?”. Of course! Chicks hatch after 21 days (exactly 3 weeks) of incubation; duck eggs take 28 days (exactly 4 weeks). Looking at the beginnings of feather growth, and lack of an egg tooth, I know the chick is at least 2 days old. So that means I have 5 days, and then the duck will get off her eggs and leave the rat base, and I can give her back her chick. I’ll tell you what happens in a couple of days!

When I went out to milk the cow this morning, I was afraid to check on her. I feared she would be even weaker, and may not be able to lift her head, as has happened to other goats. As I rounded the corner, headed towards the feed room, I noticed she looked fatter. It looked too much like bloat. No, no no…… I came closer; her head was on the ground, her tongue out, and her eyes open… but they were glazed and blank. I slapped away our livestock guardian dog, who, still a large puppy, was weaving between my legs, and stroked Mini’s course fur. Some days I hate living on a farm.

This evening, when milking the cow (dad usually does it, but he’s with mom on a date), I noticed mini had not moved. This is not a good sign. I walked over to her and tried to get her to stand up. She did, but immediately fell back down. She had diarrhea all over her. Not a good sign at all.

I put her on some feed sacks and took her to the feed room/shack, where the other goats wouldn’t bother her then gave her a can of water and a can of feed. She began eating. Good.

She looked in dire need of both nutrients and a treat. So I ran over to the nearest tree and took a branch for her. Her eyes widened as I brought it to her and she ate it as soon as it was within her reach, while the other goats watched, very jealous.

I picked her a bouquet of her favorite green things, clover, some branches from a tree she loves, and a bunch of weeds. She seamed quite grateful as I left her amid the pile of food.

I’m kinda worried right now, about one of my goats. Her name is Mini, and she’s not doing too well right now.

She was my first goat, the first goat on the farm actually, and because of her we now have a small herd of goats. She is a Nigerian Dwarf, a mother of 8 (one of which is only 2 months old), and is my favorite little goat. But she has lost a lot of weight recently, and has developed a baggy, lumpy chin, which means disease. I’m giving her all the grain she can eat (which usually is all the grain I can give her) all the green things she cares to taste (which usually is all the green things on the farm),  as well as a bunch  of de-wormer, but she still is not gaining weight.