Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

More broody stories today... Apple (the white, right hand duck) has been sitting for a few days, Banana (behind her) for just one day. Banana has been sitting on TOP of the bantam who in turn has been sitting on 11 eggs. It looks as though Apple has won this one now as the bantam has moved three nestboxes down (off camera) and has found three more duck eggs to keep warm. We have slightly lost count of how many duck eggs are now being sat on by our four ducks: possibly up to 50!! If we do get high numbers hatching we will start to sell them when they are three-four weeks old. It would be a tad cruel to take them all away from their mums straight away after the hard work that will have gone into hatching them!!
So far all the ducks are proving to be good at their job, and they are certainly good at getting off the nest at least once a day to feed, drink, poo and wash. Interestingly duck eggs need more humidity for incubating than chicken eggs, possibly because the egg shells are more porous than chicken eggs and so more moisture escapes. They have tough shells too and so at the point of hatching it is crucial for the humidity to be right in order the shells don't get too dry and tough for the ducking to break. Part of the ducks' routine each day is to have a swim and so when they return to the nest, their wet breasts helps to get that humidity just right again!! Clever!!
And talking of clever, Katherine has been OUT with her young turkeys today. We moved her into the larger indoor space and from there she was able to access the paddock. With only a little bit of help, she got all her babies outside and then spent a VERY happy day dust bathing, pecking at the grass and enjoying the warmth. Even more fabulous was the fact she then managed to get them all back safely at the end of the day. We are fast re-thinking our opinions of turkeys as bad mums: Katherine is being a star!!!