Letting Go

OK, one of the he hardest things there is for me to do is to let go of my babies.  I have been hatching geese and ducks and have been selling them.  It is not so bad selling eggs, but there is a lot of work involved in all of my poultry endeavors and after collecting the eggs, setting them in the incubator, checking them multiple times a day for humidity and temperature, some hand turning each egg twice a day, candling them and inspecting the growth rate, seeing the small signs of life blooming in the egg, waiting and performing these tasks every day for anywhere from 21 days for chickens to 30 days for geese...waiting for the first pip, trying my best to make sure they all make it...even if it means helping.  It is just hard...I hope it gets easier.

I sold 16 ducklings and 3 goslings this week, I have sold 3 dozen hatching eggs too...but, I have filled all of my egg flats and the fridge I keep eggs in.  I have a lot of eggs.  I have duck eggs and chicken eggs all over my kitchen, I have a few small first turkey eggs and all three geese are laying now...but I keep putting their eggs in the incubator...it is getting full, but it won't be long and I should have a couple more hatching...and I have four reserved and more people wanting some as soon as they are available.  It shouldn't be much longer and my turkey hens should all start laying, the first eggs I have found are about the size of chicken eggs...but should get bigger...then I will hatch them too.

I think chicks are the easiest to hatch and care for, geese don't really move around much the first two days, but their shells are so thick I imagine it takes a lot out of them and they need time to recover.  Ducks recover quicker and generally start scooting around pretty quickly after the break out of the shell.  Waterfowl are extremely messy though, the older they get as babies the worse it gets because once the discover water they start playing in it, drench their bedding numerous times a day, the more they drink and eat the more they poop too...and that is a lot.  I had 17 ducks, I kinda wanted to keep a couple that were not full breed...they had a black diamond shape on their head were gold colored and had a black tail...but after taking care of them for over a week I decided to sell them all...I listed I had 16 for sale, but I had 17 and ended up throwing one in for free so it wouldn't be alone.  I gave that customer a dozen duck eggs too, they said they really liked eating them and I have an over abundance of them, I was just going to pitch them into compost soon if I didn't sell them.

I basically have a waiting list for goslings now, and people want me to call them when I have turkeys available too.  It is easier for me to sell them just after hatching so I don't interact with them much and form attachments...makes it easier to let them go.