Down on the Farm - a Little Clucky

I move the chunk of old, grey timber leaning against the rippled iron and slowly pull the large corrugated iron door of the hay shed open. I peer around the the edge of the other door and see nestled among the hay a soon to be mummy keeping her clutch of eggs warm. They aren't her eggs but she has happily taken them as her own and like her other friends will hopefully protect and raise them as her own. Fostering of the best kind.

While I was home 'down on the farm' there were quite a few clucky hens. I was lucky enough that all three clutches of eggs that were being sat on by broody hens hatched while I was down that way. Chicks galore can be found at different ages, running around in a few different pens with protective mummies trying to round them up and hide them whenever anyone is around. They are just so cute a fluffy.

This very cute bunch hatched by the Wednesday of the week we went down to my Grandparent's place. So in these photos they are a few days old.

 

And these cuties hatched the next week. These photos are taken just after the last chick hatched so not all of them quite had the hang of walking and had to have a snooze every few steps.

 

 



 

 

Did you nice the different breed hens yet all the chicks look the same? That is because the chicks are all the same breed they are not either of the breed of hook that hatched them but Barnevelders instead (black chook with pretty gold lace pattern on feathers).

Cheep, Cheep

On the weekend two of the turkey eggs hatched. 

When the turkeys first layed eggs the kids were highly interested in what turkey chicks are called and so after a little research together we discovered they are called poults.

This also lead to an impromptu session discovering of what various other baby animals are called as the kids had turns at choosing a baby animal they wanted to know the name of. It is amazing how many times the same name is used. 

Unfortunately as of this morning there is only one of the two turkey chicks left. The kids think that maybe it wandered off right into the jaws of a dog.

  

Some more Turkey terms from http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/turkey.htm

Caruncle - brightly colored growths on the throat region.  Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship.
Gizzard - a part of a bird's stomach that contains tiny stones.  It helps them grind up food for digestion.
Hen - a female turkey.
Poult - a baby turkey.  A chick.
Snood - the flap of skin that hangs over the turkey's beak.  Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship.
Tom - a male turkey.  Also known as a gobbler.
Wattle - the flap of skin under the turkey's chin. Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship.

A bit of a laugh

As I am sure you have worked out we have quite a menagerie of animals here so this is this mornings breakfast joke.

We happen to have 2 sows and some bucks (male goats) so we seem to be quite rich with our two-sows-and-bucks however if we gave them away to someone we would no longer have two-sows-and-bucks but it would be cheaper because they probably eat more than two-sows-and-bucks worth of food.