This morning #5 isn't feeling well. He slept late, and when he did get up, he complained of a tummy ache. Then he spent about an hour laying on the floor in the bathroom. Even snuggles from Sage didn't make him feel better.
I was out in the barn today to help #3 with the bunny chores. Some of the does are looking quite round, but nobody is pulling fur yet. Everyone has nest boxes just in case. Penelope looks huge - either she's bred or we need to put her on a serious diet. Hers was the only witnessed fall off, so hopefully she'll do her thing and give us some super cute little Thatcher babies. Snowflake is looking round too, which confuses me because when she was put in with Fella, she was not cooperative at all. I was sure that wouldn't end up with any kits. We will see.
While checking my Facebook I saw an ad from the lady we got Josh and two of our remaining ducks from. She had five Embden goslings for sale. Well, we have the brooder all set up, and we're getting babies in a couple days... Why not bring some goslings home at the same time? So I told her I'd like to buy two.
Someone else commented on the post, and she ended up sharing a photo of some ducklings she also had. Well, those are on my want list too, and I've been unable to track any down. So I asked about those too. Unfortunately, by the time I'd seen that part of the post, she'd sold all but one of her ducklings.
Flash forward to late this evening when Tony (finally) got off work and we were arranging a meet up. She said she had two more goslings that were late hatchers, their umbilical spaces hadn't healed properly, and they may or may not survive. She didn't want to cull them, but she didn't want to keep them either, and not knowing if they'd survive and thrive, she didn't want to sell them either. Well, anyone who knows me at all knows I'm always one to root for the underdog. I love broken and damaged things. So of course, in the box went the two slower goslings.
Tonight the brooder lamps are on, the feed bins are full, the water bins are full, and we have five new babies. Four purebred white Embden goslings, and one little black duckling. He's half Indian Runner and either half rouen or half silver appleyard - we don't know. They will have to be separated from the chicks just due to the sheer size of the goslings, but for now they have full run of the entire 8' x 4' brooder.
Side note here - Tony got the promotion he was after and started as a department manager today. His schedule is all wonky and he's set to work 11-12 hours a day for the rest of the week. I'm relying on the post office calling first thing in the morning to arrange pick up the day the chick box comes in (probably Wednesday) . In the meantime, any meetings for rabbits or anything else have been put on hold. He hasn't gotten his schedule for next week yet, so we don't know what to expect as the new normal. Please bear with us.