You might think that with all the unexpectedness that occurs on the farm, little would surprise me – but you’d be wrong. While exploring a shot of an ice-ringed pool, I discovered something in its shallow depths that was simply…startling.
Recent snow melt (helpfully aided by rainfall) turned drainage ditches into short-lived swimming holes for the waterfowl, enticing them to frolic in the water. Unfortunately, a duck apparently decided that she couldn’t be bothered to lay somewhere appropriate and, instead, dropped her egg in a puddle…that froze. The water in those puddles are typically muddy because the ducks stir the silt up while bathing and dabbling in them, but, overnight, the silt settled and the previously-hidden object was revealed.
It’s almost indescribably frustrating to find a submerged egg because it’s no longer hatchable (eggs are porous) and I also wouldn’t eat one. Knowing that it had been in the water overnight in freezing temperatures suggested that it had probably been, at least, kept cool. The egg wasn’t a complete loss, though: an appreciative pig ate it, and was none the worse for having done so. If they can eat the rabbit bones left from a predator’s meal (scavenged, not provided to them) after who knows how long, a puddle-refrigerated egg seems pretty low risk. Oh, to have a pig’s constitution!
I’m really going to have to have a talk with those Runner girls again. The very recently cleaned and refreshed (with a fluffy layer of pine shavings) duck coop is the appropriate place to leave eggs, not on the mud outside, in the grass, or in any body of water. Who thought I’d be “fishing” for eggs?
Speaking of fish, did you notice it? It’s an optical illusion created by the shadow of the concrete piece at the edge of the pond, but it seems like it belongs there. Actually, I think it may have been trying to tell me that something strange was in the pond!
Last but not least, here’s a bonus limerick for those (like me) who enjoy them:
Comments are closed.