It’s almost past “springtime” but last week we had a bunch of new baby animals appear on the farm.

First, this little lamb came into our kitchen.

My sister and brother in law and their family went on a mini vacation and of course within hours of leaving, one of their ewes had a lamb she refused to take care of. The lamb came into our house wet and muddy, but after a bath and some time under a hot hairdryer (a savior of many-a cold baby lamb – tip of the day if you’re in a similar spot!) she warmed up, drank some saved colostrum that my sister had, and perked up.

The picture above was taken the next day after she didn’t stay in her tote anymore. 😀

Isn’t it amazing how fast a lamb can walk/run and how LONG it takes for a human baby??

Marilla wanted to paint her nails (our rule is that it’s done outside to keep inside things from getting painted as well) and the little lamb wanted some color too. 😀

Next, to come, was a (larger sized) calf. He moved into our pastures as a trade with some dairy friends for a pig. Bartering is awesome!

He’s struggling right now acclimating to his new grass surroundings. He was in a feedlot type home but wasn’t doing super well because his feet had some issues.

While his feet are happier here, he seems to have no idea what to do with grass. We had to run to the local feed store a couple times for some grain based feed in hopes of getting him to eat something.

Animals also do MUCH better with a buddy and he’s by himself right now….so that might be a little problem too. He does have pigs on the other side of the fence from him, but I don’t know how they’d truly get along if I put them in the same pen. 😉

Walter has been patiently waiting on a broody hen and last week his patience was rewarded…she hatched 13 babies!

We have a stationary livestock trailer that is connected to an enclosed fence that we’ve used to house the little broiler chicks in the summer. The kids covered the window openings with chicken wire to try and keep cats/other small vermin from killing the baby chickens.

So Walter moved her out of the barn with the other laying hens and into this trailer so they have some privacy.

It’s amazing to watch her clucking around with them, through the 2 ft high weeds that are in that pen right now, telling them about interesting food she finds that she thinks they might like.

Last Monday morning, I opened my email to find a local hatchery was having a sale on ducklings.

Oh boy. It’s hard to turn that one down!

We tried 2 ducklings last summer, but a raccoon got them. 🙁

Before that, which was maybe 15 years ago, I purchased 4 runner ducks. They are a hilarious type of duck (YouTube it….they walk upright 😀 ).

While these on sale weren’t runners, I got 10 anyway. So we currently have 5 Swedish and 5 Khaki Campbell ducklings. So far they are doing well!

We tried to get the hen to adopt them, but with 13 of her own already, that would have been a bit much for her, so they’re currently in the trailer as well, in a brooder tub with some overnight heat in place of a feathery mom.

No plans to eat these unless they’re insanely naughty 🙂 …they’ll just be something fun to watch.

We might have a lot of duck eggs later on this summer, though, if anyone wants to purchase some…

Gentle duck hugs from Marilla in the picture below.

A little bit of everything in this fun video. 🙂