More Babies

And the fun never ends.

Woke up this morning to Lisa, brandishing a baby turkey. It had hatched, and been tossed from the coop. The ducks were picking at it; she got it just in time. We didn't expect it to live too long. Baby turkeys spend much of their early lives trying to figure out ways to die, and this one was well on its way.

I stepped outside to look for the shell. Whoops. There was a baby duck wandering around outside the coop. I scooped it up. Seemed healthy, so we put it in the brooder. A few hours later, it looked just fine, although it'll probably require pretty extensive psychotherapy after being raised with 30 chickens.

Lisa put the turkey in a plastic bag and put the bag in a cup of warm water. It seemed to be doing better, so after an hour, we put it in the chicken box underneath a heat lamp. Problem was, we didn't have a good thermometer, and baby turkeys have to be kept around 95 degrees. So we ran into town and grabbed a thermometer and another watering stand.

Got home, and the turkey was still alive. Took a half-dozen eggs out of the coop and put those under the heat lamp, since the turkey hen had demonstrated it wasn't terribly interested in doing the motherhood thing. We'll see if they hatch.

Lisa went to check on her four baby Angoras and found, um, that there were six baby Angoras. The original four are big as little pigs. The two newer ones are much smaller, and one might not make it. We'll see.

As of 11 pm, the baby turkey was doing OK, and the duck seemed to be doing fine. We'll put the turkey in the brooder Sunday if it's still up and peeping.

All the animal husbandry kept me from doing any swimming, running or biking. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, but I'm hoping it'll wait until later afternoon so I can get a decent workout done.