I went out to the barn this morning and once again, found a quiet duck pen. The little duckling, who was doing so well last night when I last checked in before closing up the barn , had drowned in two inches of water.
While I had the drown-proof duckling water dispenser in the pen, I also had a small container for mama to drink out of. Looks like baby got herself in and couldn't get out.
I feel horrible. I should have known better. This totally sucks.
Please tell me this gets easier.
7 comments:
I'm sorry and I know just how you feel. Earlier this week we lost a silkie chick because we forgot to take out the goat's water bucket and she drowned. You just feel terrible.
Hope your day gets better!
Sandy
Thanks, Sandy. I appreciate your comment... and I'm sorry for your loss too.
I just spent a few hours digging in the garden so I'm already starting to feel a bit better :)
I am so sorry to hear that. Still, thanks so much for posting your experiences - it helps educate the rest of us! I know it will be a steep learning curve for us too once we make the leap from here to going back up north and homesteading. Reading about things can only take you so far but actually doing it is where we learn some hard lessons. Hopefully things will look up soon for you. Have a great rest of the day digging in the garden!
I am so sorry to hear about the losses you have endured. We have lost some sheep this year and I feel horribly guilty about it.
If it is any consolation for you, I would have done the same as you with the ducklings. I always figure the 'real' mums are better at it than I would be, but it is always so hard to lose any of them.
I think it is a good thing that it hurts though, as it is when people become immune to the caring that situations like you find in the industrial food industry happen.
Erin -- thanks for reading! I sometimes pause before posting entries like this because I feel it just highlights our inexperience... but then I think how much I like reading about other's learning curves!
Heidi -- great to hear from you! I'm just catching up on your blog and it seems I've been out of touch too long! Congrats on the move! Very exciting. I'm sorry to read about your losses -- it is so hard. But I like what you wrote just now about the importance of caring. Well said.. and thanks.
It truly is part of the learning curve, Fiona dear. And if you think these things will stop happening after you've been homesteading for forty years, you're wrong. You can successfully do something one way for years and then for some reason it goes wrong. (Two years ago we lost two chicks to the electric fencing! That's never happened before . . . or since.)
The only thing I can say is next time you may choose to do it (mama duck's watering pan) differently. Nuthin' like personal experience (hard as it may be) to cause us to remember and do it differently the next time around.
I think all of us being willing to share our mistakes and vulnerabilities is invaluable.
And caring about the animals in our care is very important. Just keep doing the best you can and don't be hard on yourself. You didn't neglect doing the best you could for the ducklings.
Thanks, Mama Pea, for more wonderful, wise words. Sniff sniff.
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