Introducing Chuck!

Thoughts on the 'hood, here at Cowfeathers Farm.
My 'hood is Motherhood, and it happens around here. Everyday. Not the breeding kind, with pregnancy and delivery, I gave that up 12 years ago. The sheep carry that tradition on and make me pay for it every year with sleepless nights, missed commitments and my cold body trying to warm that lamb. The chickens are persistent mother attempters. They lay egg after egg, "going broody" every so often trying to "set" eggs and get them to hatch into cute little buggers. We allowed Ebony, on of our Australorp hens to "set" about 7 years ago. She hatched out three little peepers. One drowned almost straight away. The other two grew. One was a beautiful red rooster with green tail. As a "chicken teen" he was already beautiful. He was called "Prettybird". His brother (for the two remaining chicks both turned out to be roosters) was the most ridiculous teen chicken I'd ever seen. He looked like a design by committee, and naturally became "Uglybird". Well, as the story goes, time went on, Prettybird more or less stayed the same. He peaked early. Uglybird continued to develop into a most unusual, but beautiful rooster. This is one of nature's lessons for us all.
One of the farm lessons is that roosters can be difficult. I have terminated several roosters who became too mean for co-existence. Our first foray into allowing a hen to set yielded two roos, and we haven't allowed a hen to set since. Too many roosters is NOT a good thing. Ugly and Pretty managed to stick around. Prettybird was fairly docile, and when he was two went blind in his left eye which left him skittish and easily intimidated. Uglybird, on the other hand got big for his britches right around that time. He decided to see how good Huz was at cockfighting while poor Huz was staking tomatoes in the "corngarden". In self defense, Huz whapped Uglybird with a bamboo stake. Ugly went down for the count in a spasm on the ground. Huz felt awful, and came into the house to tell me "I think I killed Uglybird!" I walked out to the garden, to see Uglybird walking- in a fashion- legs stepping well up into the air, head craning out in front, very slow. He eventually recovered, but never challenged people again. On the other hand, he will defend us from the other roosters with great vigor. He follows me around like a benign presence, making sure I am safe.

 

Uglybird.



 

 

 

But the instinct for Motherhood is strong, and the chickens keep laying. As do the ducks. Now, I do love the ducks. They are the least troublesome of the creatures at Cowfeathers Farm. And, while we tend not to eat many duck eggs- they have a stronger flavor and are terribly rich- we do use them in baked goods and they become important around Christmastime. The ducks, too, get broody every so often and want to set on their eggs. I don't worry about that much if we aren't using them, and we have no drake. No drake (boy duck) means no baby ducks. What we found out though, is if you don't check to make sure all the eggs are duck eggs, a chicken can lay in that nest too. And we do have roosters, so letting a  duck set can mean a Chuck.

 

 

 This is Chuck- the chicken/duck. Motherhood is strong. And while we too often think of Motherhood being birth of your own progeny "as nature intended", here is more living proof that Nature intends there to be Mothers, even if it means this chick has a duck Mom.
Years ago, we had Clover and Rosebud. Clover was also a duck, and Rosebud was her baby boy- a gander. They stuck together like family until Clover died of old age. And these two are likewise bonded.

 Here, Momma Duck of Chuck the Chicken/Duck is letting me know "Hands off!" Ducks are very docile critters, but she is a Momma now, so will hiss and run at you and bite with her beak.


When Chuck was a few days old, we let them out for a break. The duck needed to have a swim, and Middlest and I were self-appointed Chucksitters. Chuck does pretty well when she is held (I'm hoping its a hen!) But when she's put down she peeps very loudly.

 Here, she is running for her Momma through the grass, as Momma has heard the peep and is frantically quacking back. What we found interesting in this exchange, is that Chuck follows her Mom's quack pretty easily. But Momma Duck doesn't seem to know how to identify Chuck. She runs right past her still calling "Where ARE YOU???" and Chuck runs after her, peeping madly.

Fortunately, we were on hand to sort it out, and put them back together in their house, where Chuck then trills contentedly, and Momma Duck hides her under her body. There are some complications to the arrangement. Normally, we would let the pair out together for short bits of time, but I'm not convinced Momma Duck can recognize Chuck when there are lots of animals around. And, it is cold now. Chuck needs to be kept at 95 degrees, and so she needs her Momma's warmth. Also, Momma Duck will soon take her baby to the water to teach her to swim. This will not be good for Chuck. Chickens don't. Swim. Not a complication between Clover and Rosebud, so we'll see how it goes for this pair. In the meantime, it is fun to watch someone else living in the 'hood.