When I let Taffy out this morning I noticed a big difference in her. Even though she was threatening me with open beak I thought she was rather unsteady on her legs. That was confirmed tonight. She came out of the hut again rather late, at half past nine, and tumbled off the ramp. When I went to shut her in she was still lying there in front of the hut, had trouble getting up, and finally managed to get back in with the aid of her wings. Her 5 [no 6th today] eggs were lying a bit scattered, and I fear she'll be dead tomorrow. Poor little Taffy, she'd been so brave, defended her eggs so well, and now .........
This is such misery, we're close to despair. John's afraid now that the 5 at the big pond will be next.
We had been so pleased today when the parcel with eggs from our friends Michael and Alexandra arrived. We'd even set the second incubator [borrowed from friends Peter and Jeanette] going with these eggs, and now this blow.
With time, I suppose, our sorrow will turn to looking forward to a brood of ducklings, especially if we should see a number of eggs showing a net of blood vessels when candling. At the moment we're dreadfully depressed - and there are so many lovely things to see in the garden, the pergola for instance is full of roses and clematis. We can't really enjoy them at present.
No comments:
Post a Comment