Well, I tried to get a little shut eye but the girls can’t sleep and are watching the whole process… when I heard the sounds of a chick peeping like mad and the hushed oooohs and awwwwwws of my dear daughters as they giggled and watched the process, I knew I had to get up and see! After all, how many times do you get to see the first successful hatching of our beloved little Bucka babies?

Diamond is a grey baby, with a little yellowy tummy fluff! We have NO idea who each of the mommies are… chicks really don’t look like their feathered adults. We hope that Copper might be a chick of Marjory, our big white leghorn hen. Marjory passed away two days ago… it was very sad. Nothing bad happened, she just started to act a little slow, didn’t want to roost and then just laid down in a little hay nest and went to sleep forever. I think she was really pretty old. She didn’t have much coloring in her legs or her comb and she was getting a little slow. It would be lovely if she passed on her little chick for us.

We have decided to call the third chick Tourmaline, because we have a cat named Topaz and that would cause a bit of confusion! And since Tourmaline is a black chick, it works out nicely! (There is a beautiful mineral called Black Tourmaline!) I know it’s a little crazy to name stuff and all, but it’s kind of neat to be able to know which hatching they came from and all by their names. This hatch is our mineral collection! What’s very funny is that Copper has ah, coppery brown on his back… Silver is a fuzzy gray silvery color… Tourmaline is jet black and Diamond is a very light grey color! We’re waiting to see if Emerald is green…. hahaha….

Well, it’s almost 4 in the morning and in just 5 short hours we are supposed to be up to wrangle a 200+ pound roll of field fence to finish the preparations for the sheepies to come home!!! Agh! Our wonderful neighbors Jr. and Julia are coming down to help! And we have to put up netting for the nursery coop that Jr. finished up for us today, well, yesterday! We’re hoping that we can let the turkeys out to play… though we are a little worried… the hen turkey got her head stuck in the door crack and she really freaked out until Maggie found her and set her free. She looked to be in shock for awhile, and had bloodied up her wing in the struggle, but she was peeping and alive when we checked back on her after an hour and then at about two hours. I think that’s a good sign, and hopefully, she will make it through the quiet night and rest to regain her composure from her little accident.

I’m telling ya. Turkeys are proving to be a real challenge for us. Everything they tell you about their lack of common sense seems to be REALLY true! I’m getting afraid to do anything around them, they just are not really bright, AT ALL. Maggie’s quick thinking surely saved her, but of course Maggie was very upset at the accident in the first place. But in a very, very weird way, even though it pains me to see her cry, the very fact that she is so empathic on the plight of her little friends is so wonderful with an autistic person… lack of emotional response is something that helps to define the level of autistic challenges and tears for turkeys is a good thing, it’s a great sign of understanding and feeling more connected with emotions and such. I sure hope the little hen makes it, for everyone’s sake!

Well… more pictures and even a hatching video later on! I gotta get back to bed for a little more beauty sleep! I’m pretty sure that an afternoon nap is going to be in order!!!

Common baby Emerald!!!! Hatch!!!