Wandering Around the Tub

There's an old comedy routine Bill Cosby used to do about the joys of raising kids. He talks about bath time, and there's a line in there that has stuck with me. He explains when you tell your child to take a bath, you need to give detailed instructions and one of the things he says is something like "You have to tell them to run water in the bathtub or else they'll just wander around the tub wondering what to do." I always found that an extremely funny line simply because of the mental picture I got. "Wandering around the tub." has become a catch phrase Don and I use to describe a state of confusion. I spent the week between Christmas and New Years basically wandering around the tub.

I expected a lot of challenges when we started this whole becoming more self-sufficient lifestyle. I knew there would be times when things wouldn't go well and hard lessons would be learned. I knew there would be a lot of things to master, how to make do with no electricity for days through storms, figuring out wood furnaces, maintaining septic systems and water wells. What I really didn't count on was the simple confusion the accompanies the lifestyle. The DaM farm sometimes seems like nothing more than an acre sized bathtub I wander around in.

The picture of the two eggs is one of things that confused me. The one on the left is a typical egg I find every day in the nest boxes. The right one I have no idea what it is or why it is. It's the size of a marble and I found it under the roosts. Is it a Guinea egg? Could be, but the descriptions I've read doesn't seem to match this perfectly round egg and the colour seems to be much darker than what a Guinea egg should be, according to the books. May-be it happened because a chicken sneezed or hiccuped at the wrong time. Who knows? The books don't say anything about it and when I asked "chicken" people, all I got was "Never heard of that before." I get that response a lot, I'm kind of tired of it, actually. Google is useless because I'm obviously not using the proper key words. Though I must say, I've gotten some pretty interesting results. Unfortunately they have nothing to do with my situation. So I'm confused and I yet again wander around the tub.

I have a broody hen. In fact, I have two. Why on this Green and Good Earth hens would go broody in the dead of winter is beyond me. With a little research, I did find out it sometimes happens but the why seems to be a mystery. Anyhow she was broody and she had one egg so I stuck a couple more under her just to see what would happen. I figured brooding 3 little chicks was something I could manage. After a week or so, I moved the hen to a nice, secluded enclosed spot, I noticed she has another egg. OK, well, I guess that she laid one more the day I put the two under her. A week after that, when the hen hops out to eat I look into the nest. Low and behold there's TEN eggs under her. How did that happen and I thought hens stopped laying when they went broody and are they even fertilized considering she's been in solitary confinement for a week and does this mean they'll be hatching at all sorts of different time and why is a hen broody in the middle of winter? I'm confused and I meander around the tub once more. At least this time I have an inkling that I should be looking for faucets. I have found out that it's entirely possible that other hens will sneak an egg in and I did find other hens on her nest a few times. I finally figured out how they were getting in and put a stop to that.

Inter spacing all the chicken doings were weird rabbit activities. Ceilidh, an excellent mom who pops out litters with no fanfare and cares for babies beautifully has decided to totally forget how to have bunnies. She ignores the nest box and persistently builds a nest in the coldest corner of the colony. Finally, I move the nest box over there and she gets a clue. She's due on Dec. 31. In the afternoon of Dec. 29, I find a little kit in front of the nest box all by its lonely. She hasn't pulled any fur at all. I take the kit inside because I know it will freeze. I figure she'll be have the others shortly so all I have to do is wait...and wait...and w-a-i-t. Gives me time to wander around the tub again. The next afternoon, she drops another lone kit in the middle of the colony. I look at Ceilidh, confused, wondering how she got in the tub with me. She's not supposed to be doing this, I know this because I've read the books. Unfortunately rabbits can't read so there's no way she and I will ever be on the same page. I take that kit in to join the day old kit who's obviously really hungry by now. The next day, Ceilidh kindles five more in a beautifully fur lined nest in the nest box. I've been feeding the other two by hand. That night I put them in with the others. Why did she have such an odd kindle? Was it because of the colony setting, something she'd never kindled in before that confused her? Can rabbits get Alzheimer's? What are the odds of teaching her to read? Can't be much greater than a rabbit dropping a kit daily for a couple of days. I wander around the tub yet again, this time not even knowing there's supposed to be faucets.

The kits are doing fine and the two broody hens seem fine and all is well. I've climbed out of the tub for the time being, and I didn't even need a towel to dry off since I never got wet.