Dip

With a new day brings new cute photos of the babies. Everyone made it through the night and the snake didn't come back to the pen. I'll get them all to sleep in the pen tonight.

Snake fest 09 resumes

As I was penning everyone tonight I got a torch and had a look behind where the snake was today, only to find it still in the pen. Perhaps the neighbour just pushed it - out of sight out of mind? So now all chickens are in the trees tonight in the hope that they are better off out side of the pen. Am I making the right decision? Who knows even princess Speedy is out of the pen. I've moved Lady into the old duck pen so she's locked up with the ducklings but she's very upset about this. One of the young chicks isn't in the tree yet and I can hear it chirping. I should got and help it reach its mother. What a drama.
Papa is back tomorrow evening so hopefully he can get the snake out. I hope everyone makes it through the night.

UPDATE: Well I went over there at about 9pm just to check on them to find the snake up and moving about in the pen. I was worried so I went back over to the neighbours to help me move him on. The snake was so full of chicken that it was finding difficulty getting out of the pen. But we helped it find its way through the door. Hopefully it wont be back and the chickens will be safe in the tree tonight.

Below is a snake that was scoping out the chicken pen the other day. I'm not sure if this was the one in the pen today.

Baby Photos

I just wanted to thank Jodie for telling me to look in the car for the camera chord. Bingo.

Lady is back as well, I think she must have been scared when the neighbour drove up to the pen on his four-wheeler. How cute are the ducklings?

Missing Lady

Well the snake has gone now but Lady and the ducklings are no where to be seen....
I'll keep you posted when she turns up.

Snake fest 09

I went over to the pen to dote on Lady and the babies when I counted that brown bitch only had three babies. I know that five went to bed with her last night so I went into the pen to investigate.
I saw a snake in the pen resting after having eaten two of her babies. Lucky it wasn't the ducklings. To make matters worse Papa isn't here to move the snake along plus I took photos but can't upload them. Damn it. I've shut the pen and the neighbour is going to come up later and get the snake out of there. Dramas.

Update: here is a photo of the snake with a full belly.

Out and about

Lady came out of her pen today with the ducklings. I snapped off a few hundred photos of them as I watched them. Problem is I've misplaced my camera chord. I can't be bothered looking today but will do tomorrow. The ducklings are just the cutest things ever. There are 5 all up and two of them have black on their heads (just like Lady did).

Baby Mama

They were taken on my camera phone as my batteries are flat. But its better than nothing. I'm euphoric!

Visual confirmation

I got up early today to go and do my work so I went over to feed the animals at 4am. Lucky for me though as I got to see the ducklings. I saw three - one looked older then the other two as it was dry and yellow and fluffy!!!! it was so cute. While not trying to flash the torch into Lady's eyes (and the ducklings) I watched her with them and squealed with delight.
I'm so excited. I'm going to need that 'ducks crossing' sign after all. You know when the ducklings follow the mama duck. I can't wait to go home and get another glimpse of them.

The Ducklings are here!!!

Well its finally happened (I think, anyway). Lady's eggs have hatched (I think).
I went over to do my usual check on Lady and she was standing up, with her wings down protecting her nest. I even thought I heard chirping. In my excitement I raced inside to phone Papa with the good news. While I'm yet to officially see any ducklings I think we may have some.
I congratulated Tommy on his fatherhood.

UPDATE: 7.45pm
Yep I can confirm the ducklings have arrived, or one at least. I saw an open egg in her nest. So while I'm yet to see the babies, the cracked egg is good enough for me. I wonder how long it will be until Lady shows them off. I really need to find the camera chord so I can upload them to the computer. I don't want to miss a minute. I'm a Nana now!

Sat morning

You know what? I'm really happy with the way Miss Muffet health is. She's loving walking around, foraging and just in general being her normal self. I think she's really happy being home. I read the palliative care brochure last night and I just don't think it applies to Miss Muffet. I thik she's got a little while ahead of her. But come when her breathing is difficult and she can't walk then we're going to make that decision. I think if the current vet had of seen her in December I would have put her down. But thats in the past now.
Of course I'm going to give her special treatment (but I always did as she's my favourite). I've have many favourites - Tommy is my favourite Male duck. Speedy is my favourite chicken, she used to be favourite hen and Old Boy was favourite rooster but he's no longer with us. But I guess he still claims that title. I haven't worked out Lady's favourite title, yet. But I'm sure it will come to me.

Home again

Well I've just returned from picking Miss Muffet up from the vet. She's busy getting reacquainted with Tommy. The x-ray turned results showed that Miss Muffet had previously broken her left leg. While it has healed, this results in her sometimes being unable to put weight on it.
The vet suggested that I need to isolate Tommy from her, but I think they enjoy each others company. Tommy practically ran up to her once she had walked up to the mango trees.
We'll see how she goes and just try and make it as comfortable as possible for everyone involved.

Vet update

Well Miss Muffet is still at the vet. She didn't end up having the x-ray yesterday as her breathing was laboured and the vet wanted to observe her longer. She had diarrhoea yesterday but today she maintained her weight and had the x-ray. The vet is going to call me back tomorrow with the results. But basically they told me on the phone tonight that she's never going to recover and she needs 'palliative care'. I'm now wondering if it was the best thing taking her to the vet, i hope I haven't distressed her too much. When I was speaking to the vet today, I told the vet aide to tell her I missed her.
I think she'll be fine once she comes back, I'll always keep a close eye on her.
Everyday is a blessing.
Still no ducklings from Lady - I've given up hope of ducklings.

Vet

Still no ducklings... I'm definitely thinking that her eggs aren't going to hatch.

Miss Muffet is off having a holiday with the vet in the rolling hills of Currumbin Valley. Today she's going to have an x-ray done so the vet can see whats going on. They are going to call me tonight after they have viewed the x-ray. The vet advised me that I need to separate Tommy from Miss Muffet as the pounding she is getting from him isn't helping her situation.
The money is ticking over at the vets office so hopefully she wont be there too long. I've been told I need to let her sit on her eggs. I have the option of boiling them so they wont hatch. But I'll probably just let her have babies as that was the deal I made with her.
Tommy, Papa and I all miss her.

Scruffy chicken

Speedy let me take her photo the other day. As you can see she's malting.

Wind beaneath my wings

Still no ducklings and it seems I'm not the only one in the family dreaming about ducklings. I just went and checked and it seems they are still not here. As this is my first experience with ducklings and egg hatching I'm not sure if this wait is normal or what to expect (other than being excited).

Miss Muffet is getting better by the day. I've managed to book her into a avian vet for next Tuesday about 45min away so Papa is going to take me and the duck. I'll be glad to have her see a Dr that can actually diagnose her correctly and give me information I can trust. She's definitely putting weight on too and foraging too. Now if I could only get her to take a bath.

I finally watched 'Beaches' yesterday, it only took me a year since I last planned to watch it. For those of you who need reminding of what happened when I last tried to watch it. http://hydrorancho.blogspot.com/2008/01/beaches.html I thought of the ducks and what happened last year. That wind beneath my wings song gets me every time. I still have images of me patting the baby girl telling them to "Fly, Fly higher etc etc". Maybe I should add that song to my list of Karaoke numbers?

Speedy the wonder chicken

Look who it is - Princess Speedy, my photography doesn't even begin to capture her beauty. This photo was taken two days ago and day by day she looks even more scrapper the more feathers she looses. I'll take another one tomorrow so you can see the comparison.

Annoying mother

My "I'm just going to check on the ducks" and "I'm going to go and see if Lady has any ducklings" has turned into me going over to to their pen to annoy them.
I don't do it on purpose, but I really want ducklings. I can't wait to see Lady swim with them. Its going to be so cute. I've never been good with surprises. I just want her to have the babies now. Speaking of ducklings I should go and check.. Something could have happened in the 2 hours since I was last out there.
I should set up a duckling cam like the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam it would be a hit, I tell you. I'd be able to set up a second monitor and watch it while I work.\

"Does this annoy you when I put a camera near your nest?" Still no ducklings when I last checked at 7.30pm.

Duckling Watch day 2 and 3

Still nothing to report, aside from Lady getting sick of me going over to visit her. I really thought it was going to be this week. I guess I'll have to keep checking on her.

Speedy is malting like its summer or something.

Duckling Watch day 1

Without actually looking into the specifics of it, I think that Lady's eggs should be hatching pretty soon. I was even dreaming about it last night - thinking about dates and trying to work it out when it would happen. Duck incubate for 28 days and I'm pretty confident that these eggs would be fertilised (thanks Tommy) so it should be any day day. I'm very excited.

Miss Muffet seems to be putting on a little weight, which is great news - now she just needs to start preening again and I'll be happy. I'll be sure to get some photos when the new additions arrive. So the anniversary of the ducks dying last year came and went last week, I thought about them as I walked past their graves. I'm very lucky still to have Speedy the wonder chicken and Tommy.

New Year

Well Miss Muffet isn't really much better. She's still anorexic and walking even less - but her breathing is better. Although she does eat some food, she is yet to gain any weight. I'm beginning to think I might take her to another vet. I still don't understand why the vet's never investigate her sore leg. There is an avian vet at Currumbin, which is 50 min away which may be worth the trip. I'm not sure how Miss Muffet would go in the esky during the trip. I'll have to weigh up my options. Lady is still sitting on her nest, Papa mentioned the other day that I'm going to have to decide what I'm going to do with her babies, I figured that I was just going to have me some ducklings, but I may have to give them away. I really need to work it out in the next few days as those eggs must be hatching soon. Does any one want some Lady/Tommy offspring?

Speedy is finally off her eggs. Some craggy old bitch of hen kicked her off. Its great having Speedy off the nest walking around. It makes her seem less crazy. Its coming up to the year anniversary of all my ducks dying. What a crap start to the year that was last year. I'm so pleased that Tommy and Speedy are still with me.