I just couldn’t tell you another sad story…

It’s been a rough spring on the farm!

Let me tell you, keeping animals is hard.

Like, daydreaming-of-throwing-in-the-towel hard.

We’ve seen a lot of loss here in the past couple of months and so I, really and truly, just didn’t want to tell you another sad story.

So I didn’t tell you when our fiercely independent mama duck (the one who set her clutch on our neighbor’s property) was absconded with by a predator one night just over two weeks ago.

Yes, if you’re keeping track, she literally went missing right after I posted here about all of the duckling abundance that was seemingly headed our way.

But I didn’t say anything here or on social media because I was just too heartbroken and I just really didn’t want to tell you another sad story.

And so, after a little less than 24 hours of waiting and deeply hoping she’d return, we debated what to do with her 16 perfect eggs still on her perfect nest…

We wondered if we should put them under Kitty, but she had just set her own clutch and we didn’t want to risk her tossing the whole nest or hatching out these older eggs and then tossing her own eggs which were about three weeks behind.

We also lamented the fact that not a single one of our hens has gone broody in over a year.

So we brought them inside, candled them, and put them under a heat lamp (because, as you might remember, the incubator we purchased was defective)…

And we asked our friends and Ember’s classmates and County Extension if there were any extra/empty incubators floating around that we could borrow…

But it’s spring, so the answer was, “Nope. They’re all in use.”

And then, as we approached the 48 hour mark, Kim found an incubator on Craigslist…

So they now had a safe place to stay, at least.

And then we waited…

And we turned and candled and turned and candled…

And we were told it’d be a miracle if any of those babies survived at all.

And slowly, one by one, they stopped developing.

We went from 16 to 13 to ten to three.

But I told you I wasn’t going to tell you another sad story…

And so I won’t.

No, this is not another sad story…

It’s a story of extreme resilience…

And hope and perseverance despite all the worst odds.

Because, Wednesday evening, we started hearing little knocking noises…

And we starting watching tiny eggshells crack open, an itty bitty bit at a time…

And by Thursday evening we could hear chirping from time to time…

And the cracks were getting bigger and bigger…

And by Friday morning we had not one, but two sweet ducklings make their way out of their shells and into this wild world of ours.

And so, miracle of all miracles, two of that fierce mama’s sweet babies have survived!

And now, with these two babies looking for a mama, we have two more babies to bond with and care for.

Aren’t they just lovely?

And so my heart swells.

xoxo,
M

P.S.

Here’s the actual busting forth of the first sweet duckling, filmed by our good friend Cameron who was here helping with Disbudding Day.