It's That Broody Time Of The Year ~Spring !

 It's that broody time of the year again, Spring! All my poultry, including the ducks have laid many eggs and now are determined to sit on their eggs until they hatch. The Midget White turkey Tom tries to protect his setting hens from me as I enter their pen for feeding & watering. I have to keep a big bucket between us so I don't get hurt. Tom turkeys can be pretty dangerous when they feel they need to protect their hens.

 Here are the 5 Midget White hens. 2 of them are setting now...

 ...and here are the eggs. Well, some of them.

 This White Orpington hen went broody on me and was trying to hatch out wooden eggs because I kept gathering all the freshly laid eggs she settled on. Since she seemed determined to hatch out eggs I put turkey eggs under her. Turkey eggs take 28 days to hatch versus the 21 days for chicken eggs.  She finally did hatch a turkey egg, I'll show you her babies in another post.

 This is Mr. Fancy Pants. He is a Bantam White Cochin and Silkie cross. He is one frilly rooster, but don't let the frills fool you, he is ALL rooster and he too takes his job of protecting the broody hens very seriously.

 This Silkie hen, her sister, and another bantam hen are softly clucking, snuggling, warming, and dreaming over 3 large clutches of bantam eggs. I can't wait to see what they bring out of the chicken shed in a few days.

 My white ring-necked doves are all in a dither when I enter their pen. They too have babies and eggs they want to protect, but being doves, they just go all a-flutter.

 Here are 2 baby doves just beginning to fly around. They still need their parents to feed them. Did you know baby doves are fed "milk" by both their mothers & fathers?

 Another wee little dove peeking through the straw at me, hoping I don't see him.

 But I do see him. Really, I cannot tell for sure what sex the doves are until I observe their behavior. Neither can the experts. Fortunately the doves can tell the girls and boys apart!

 This baby dove is getting his tail feathers.

This is such a wondrous time of the year. Not only do I have poultry hatching out and new lambs to watch, but the wild birds have nests all around our property and in some of our bird-houses. There are big gloppy plops of frog eggs stuck on branches in our pond, the honey bees are very busy in all the flowers , the hummingbirds are buzzing like kamikaze pilots around the sugar water feeders. Spring, don't you just love this time of year ?