Chickens and Ducks

The Mother Instinct aka Chickens and Ducks

One year Mother decided to raise some ducks. I don't know why. She bought some Muscovy eggs and gave them to one of the setting hens. I'm sure the hen was quite confused when Mother would lift her off the nest two or three times a day, roll each of the eggs over and then sprinkle them with water. In due time the poor mother hen had a bunch of little funny looking “chicks.” She took good care of them teaching them to forage and scratch for seeds and bugs they couldn't pick up because their “beaks” were in fact bills.

One day my sister and I heard a loud, frantic squawking coming from the area of the pond created by the overflow of the barnyard windmill and tank. Thinking it was probably a water snake threatening the ducklings, we ran to the rescue.

We found the hen frantically running along the muddy edge of the pond as her babies cavorted happily in the water. Eventually, the babies returned to her side and dutifully followed her back to the chicken house. This was repeated daily for several weeks.

Years later, I was witness to the opposite scenario. I had finished a meeting with the ranchwife and was getting into my car when she said, “Watch this.” A duck had hatched a chicken egg. She was leading her baby to the hydrant in the barnyard. The hydrant was set to drip into a shallow pan so that small animals in the barnyard always had fresh water. The mother took a long drink and then got into the pan getting herself wet all over. Then she shook herself off and proceeded to try to push her baby into the pan. The chick protested loudly and ran away from the pan.

Mothering is universal. With my adopted children I have found myself in both these incidents.