Day 17 of 21
Last night, I heard Ruby talking to her eggs. I love this part. I love the way the mamas and babies communicate with each other before the hatch. It’s fantastic to witness. When we used to incubate eggs, I would sing to the babies in the last couple of days. Poor babies though. They probably hatched and thought, “well, this is the worst mom ever, but we’ll have to made do.”
But I am very worried about Ruby. I fed her eggs this morning and feed her some kind of breakfast every day, but she’s not eating or drinking enough still. She’s a thinner bird anyway, but she’s very thin right now. Then, this evening, when I went to check on her, one of her eyes was stuck shut.
I scooped her up, found two new Juliet eggs underneath her (Juliet is a little cowbird), but the fertile eggs were fine. I carried Ruby around forever, trying to find Ron for help holding her, as Ruby is not a good patient. When I couldn’t find him, I checked her eye as well as I could, and I pried it open. Once I did that, it seemed fine. I am not sure, but think she is so dry and crinkly that her poor eyelids stuck together. Poor Ruby! I have to feed her more each day. She’s a little picky though. I just have to keep making scrambled eggs, I guess. Sometimes, with work and everything else going on, it’s hard to make Ruby a separate breakfast every day, but I had better figure it out. Poor Ruby has me worried.
I am worn from the worry about her and Anna Maria and Antonio and now Schumann’s bumble foot is back, which means I didn’t get it taken care of well enough the last time, and we have so many broody hens. So many. So many. Sigh.
I gave Ruby a duck egg for dinner, and I left cut-up grapes in her crate. I also made her walk around and get some movement. Hopefully, things will be better tomorrow. Cross your fingers those babies come early!
