Upsetting the Balance
Mother Nature reminded
me of how it goes when adding new members to a family, especially if they are
not the same species or say henhouse. Getting acquainted or moving in is always
fraught with strife, be it animal or human. With ducks it can be comical
especially when one duck was seeing her dreams come true after losing so many
nests of eggs , to finally see four young ones getting of size that even they
have surpassed in size their dad? Greenie,
my six bucks for a duck, WTF duck. Can’t
believe it, but it doesn’t look like Greenie is the dad as the young ones start
to feather out. Besides the size difference as Greenie has not grew much since
buying him at auction and I would say that outside of getting a little fatter,
he is still the same Greenie. Anyhow Grennie and Whackers were in for a surprise when i upset the apple cart so to speak.
Greenie, Whackers and the rest of the duck clan
So early this
spring there was a commotion at the pond shortly after getting Greenie and to
my amazement was two mallard ducks seemingly appearing out of the wild and
landing on the pond and engaging with wings flapping and what else a wagging
and apparently bred my female duck. Therefore I didn’t need to spend six bucks
for a duck, or the gas it took, not counting the fact that since I last checked
I think my time is still worth something, isn’t it anyway? I guess nature had its own destiny for my
ducks in mind. But then I am seeing a green shiny head appearing on the young ducklings.
This could be from the mallards and are wild. So why isn’t the ducklings
appearing wild. They come within feet of me as I feed them seemingly unconcerned.
Seems as much as I learn about ducks, only leads to more questions. Is domesticity
an inherited or a learned trait in animals?
Well back to
upsetting nature, I added one old hen, two geese, and another duck, possibly a
male drake I believe, to the equation of my fowl feathered friends. After brokering
a major deal over some hay with my neighbor I collected my fowl friends and
offered them a tractor ride to my farm over the back forty to our pond of ample
size compared to their plastic kiddie pool. My neighbor wished to down size and
I was looking for new additions to the pond. The two geese were hatched from
eggs at her place and both were injured in separate incidences only in a minor
way. One has a limp and the other has a wing problem that would prevent it from
flying. The geese and the duck appear to be in good shape although young. The white
duckling is still larger than the other ducklings here. He seems to be taken in
by the geese that protect him at times. He is always following them around.
They took at
once to the water and were soon flopping around and taking baths as my female
duck, Whackers, began to see her idyllic world collapse around her as she took
to chasing them away from her babies and back over the hill from whence they
came, as she wanted no part of them, and their non-sense. Greenie although
small in stature stood behind his slutty mate and was willing to catch her
back, or at least give her something to trip over when the geese would return
fire and she would have to retreat. At one point the geese were attacking the
old hen I had in the cage with them pulling her feathers out. She looks a
little rough but better now as I rescued her from their onslaught and brought
her back to the house. She looks a little pitiful but she is in molt.
Mo
I tried to
introduce her to my other two chickens Minnie and Pearl but they instantly
attacked the poor old girl and I was forced to let her, spend the night, not in
the company of others of her own kind, but instead on the very workbench I am considering
transforming into a chicken coop out of as it seems to be its best purpose
according to my flock of fowl friends. Minnie and Pearl as I now call them,
along with Whackers have used this workbench right outside my back door
repeatedly as a safe place to stay, and hatch young as in Whackers’ case. Mo as
I am going to call the new old hen, she is doing better and she seems to be
adapting well. Mo isn’t hard to catch, so getting her in a safe place at night
is easy. Just scoop her up. Why Mo? Cause I kinda like the sound of Mo, Minnie and
Pearl for the names of my chickens. Mo in the sense as she needs more feathers,
and Mo time, as she looks old here in my land of retired chickens, where they
can live out there life going hither and there in search of peace. Scratching out
an existence which is what we all do. Some have it a little better, some with
ruffled feathers a little worse, but we still all share the same place and
time.
Minnie and Pearl crossing the road just because they can
Babe has taken
to intimidating them all as I think she is honing their survival skills by
stalking them. She has never hurt any chickens or rarely attempts to chase them,
but instead skulks around uncomfortably behind them warning them there are
animals far worse than her so she doesn’t want them to let their guard down. It
is funny watching her swim around the pond as the ducks and geese swim to stay
out of her reach as I think she likes to play gator for them. Buddy my mom’s dog
is keeping his distance from them all, as he is unsure of the geese since they
are much larger than he is.
Babe
A couple of days have passed and Whackers
and Greenie have accepted the geese and the new duck. The chickens Mo, Minnie and
Pearl are still not together but are aware that their paths must cross at some
point. I noticed Mo made it to the garage yesterday and I am sure Minnie and Pearl
made a point of watching her, and making sure the pecking order stays intact. Yet
still, it seems as if things have quieted down and now I am left wondering if Crackers
as I am going to call the new male duck and Whackers may be suitable mates,
since Greenie doesn’t appear to have the weenie to make things work. Then I
guess that gee it appears I could have saved myself six bucks for a duck that doesn’t
give a WTF. The further I go along reminds me of a Dr. Seuss book gone wrong? What
will I do? What should I do. As if I knew, as it seems you can only do what you
can do, and some things you just have to leave to nature. So I must bid you adieu.
Buddy
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