Ruby and the Fall Babies

I realize I haven’t written much since Rooster passed away. There was such a depression around here. I thought we were going to lose our other rooster, Dvorak. He was so down. He didn’t crow for weeks and just sat around with his head hanging low. I didn’t know if he was sick or if maybe he just had a broken heart like I did. I guess that was accurate because after at time, he started to crow again. He seems to be doing well now.

I am not sure what helped Dvorak’s depression, but mine wasn’t getting better on its own. Ron decided some baby chicks might help, and so we stayed up late one night and looked through the online catalog of a big hatchery. So late in the season, there were not a lot of options, but he wanted dual purpose birds while I wanted heritage. I wasn’t sure if we were really going to order them because we have been trying to downsize for a couple of years, but I guess a couple of years without baby chicks was too much for Ron too because, the next day, he told me he had placed the order.

We got nine Delawares (an old-timey, dual purpose bird), two Cuckoo Marans (a French heritage bird that lays dark brown eggs), two Welsummers (a heritage bird and the same breed as our beloved Rooster), and two blue Ameraucanas (not heritage but beautiful birds with a blue tint to the feathers; they lay blue eggs).

These birds are gorgeous–all of them.

The first couple of weeks we had them, I was working a lot and really sick. I did not get to enjoy them nearly as much as I had hoped, but I started to get better and was able to spend more time with them. I am getting to know them all now, and they are magnificent because of course they are.

But the most interesting thing about getting these babies is Ruby’s reaction to them.

Last year, we did not let Ruby raise babies when she went broody. She was always the most fierce mama and so quick to go broody. She loved being a mama and would spend the whole summer raising babies and then would just go broody again, but downsizing meant no babies for Ruby. This year, Ruby did not go broody. I assume it’s because of her likely ovarian cancer but maybe also because she’s getting older.

Either way, I was thinking just a month or so ago as I looked down at a poop Ruby had left in the garage–a poop that is the calling card of the ovarian cancer–that I have to treasure every day I have left with Ruby. Every day.

I am happy to report that Ruby is treasuring every day too.

When we put the babies in the brood box in the garage, Ruby would visit with them every morning. She watched them through the window and would make noises at them. They, of course, adored her, but Ruby would get busy and go on about her day after a while.

However, when we put the babies into a small fenced area connected to the main chicken yard, Ruby went to work. She would sit the babies for hours. She would show them how to scratch through the fence. The best thing was listening to her make mama noises at them. Ruby is so fantastic. Both Kate and Juliet run around the driveway too. but neither of them seem to care one bit about those babies. Ruby loves them.

Just today Ron was outside making kindling when he popped into the house to tell me a Ruby story.

He said she was scratching at the earth, working hard to get something. She was making all kinds of mama tidbitting noises. The babies were waiting through the fence to see wha she would come up with. Ron said, when she got whatever it was she got, she threw it through the fence with her beak, and one of the babies ate it!

How fantastic is that?

I want to let the babies out to be with her more, but there are too many. Plus, Ruby doesn’t seem interested in full-time care. Still, the fall babies are getting big, and after Halloween, they will go into the big run with everyone else.

I can’t wait to see what Ruby does.