The toughest emergency was the mystery loss of our ducks this past winter.
They vanished.
Had our gate been left open??
Did someone break in and take them??
Did they try to, with clipped wings and all, fly away??
Did something get them??
Did a flock of hawks swoop them up??
Hours searching, left imaging the worst that someone took them and was in the yard. I panicked. We searched for feathers or blood, nothing.
It got dark and almost tripped over a tiny pile of leaves, sadly one of the ducks. Dead. Then another under another little pile. Feathers on the other side of the fence. I was a wreck, but relieved that a stranger hadn't broken in where our kids play. Days went by... where had the rest vanished to??
The neighbor had my hubby come over she found one in her garden, he found a couple more. The rest vanished.
Sadly we were duckless. And we were at a loss as to what had happened. No signs of struggle or foot prints.
We are guessing that a bobcat got them. Only something like that would be able to get the jumbo pekin over the fence and then cache them.
Now every night our ducks get locked up. Thankfully we had saved a few eggs from our ducks. And my faithful desperation with turning eggs under a heating pad was very much noticed. By my hubby, who got me an incubator for Christmas. It was so hard losing our ducks. And it was such a blessing to turn it around and hatch out our next generation.
I had to remind myself, and even now as we face things, that it's apart of it. That there is so much good.
Had to give up being sad, and said, "what now," what can I do right now?
And try to solve the issue and think thru my sorrow.
If hatching had failed, we would have ordered new ones and let the kids choose from the quiet breeds.
They vanished.
Had our gate been left open??
Did someone break in and take them??
Did they try to, with clipped wings and all, fly away??
Did something get them??
Did a flock of hawks swoop them up??
Hours searching, left imaging the worst that someone took them and was in the yard. I panicked. We searched for feathers or blood, nothing.
It got dark and almost tripped over a tiny pile of leaves, sadly one of the ducks. Dead. Then another under another little pile. Feathers on the other side of the fence. I was a wreck, but relieved that a stranger hadn't broken in where our kids play. Days went by... where had the rest vanished to??
The neighbor had my hubby come over she found one in her garden, he found a couple more. The rest vanished.
Sadly we were duckless. And we were at a loss as to what had happened. No signs of struggle or foot prints.
We are guessing that a bobcat got them. Only something like that would be able to get the jumbo pekin over the fence and then cache them.
Now every night our ducks get locked up. Thankfully we had saved a few eggs from our ducks. And my faithful desperation with turning eggs under a heating pad was very much noticed. By my hubby, who got me an incubator for Christmas. It was so hard losing our ducks. And it was such a blessing to turn it around and hatch out our next generation.
I had to remind myself, and even now as we face things, that it's apart of it. That there is so much good.
Had to give up being sad, and said, "what now," what can I do right now?
And try to solve the issue and think thru my sorrow.
If hatching had failed, we would have ordered new ones and let the kids choose from the quiet breeds.