Bog Hag's Heritage

06/17/2026

Our two homegrowns we kept back are nearly big enough to go outdoors. These will tentatively be replacing the two harebrained Slate girls heading to their new home this weekend.

They are a week apart in age, so waiting a little while longer for the younger/smaller one to catch up before giving them the boot. We also need to rewrap a portion of the Juvenile Detention Center with fresh wire, fill in a few holes, and tighten up the frame before it's ready for young birds.

My daughter said she heard the older one gobble, but I'm choosing to dismiss this info as a lie 😅🤣

Please don't be a Jake! 😭

Ps - enjoy Critter Dad's commentary 😜 I think he may have been tired 🤭

06/17/2026

This picture 😂

Groot loves babies, and will just stand there and watch them do the simplest things - kind of like how we do, I guess.

That's what he's doing here, and it's sweet, but he just got his midday hose-down (to stave off overheating), and his snood is hanging just-so, and it's giving weirdly obsessed creepy elder emo.

All he needs is eyeliner and a restraining order 🙈

06/15/2026

I procrastinate cleaning out incubators at the end of hatching season SO HARD. I'm literally the worst. I hate it so much.

Maybe it's because I've already cleaned them SO MANY TIMES in the span of couple months, and there's too many steps, and pieces, and s**t and baby fluff stuck in every part of every piece 😵‍💫

Maybe it's because I have a million other more pressing things to do by the time hatching time has ended, and what's a few dirty (filthy) incubators gonna hurt, anyway? Seriously, what are a few Styrofoam boxes sitting in a room that nobody ever goes into, gonna mess up, if they dont get scrubbed out right away? 💁‍♀️

Unless you count that time I accidentally left a dud goose egg sitting in one, that is. That was indeed a qualifying mess up. That did factually cause a hurt 🤢

I will forever justify anyone procrastinating the hell out of Incubator Cleaning Day - I stand with you! Just be sure to double check you've removed the bombs 😜

Carry on.

06/14/2026

It's been awhile!

I've been cleared for full duty from the surgeon, back from a trip out of town, done with house projects and garden install, and ready to head back to my "real" job, come Tuesday (physically ready, anyway... spiritually and emotionally, not so much 😅)

We also booted our duck babes out to the garden, where they're overdoing all the fun and working on their wing feathers. Welcome to the Bog Life, Ouiser, Truvy and M'Lynn!! (and Pip too, even if she isn't staying) 🥳 We anticipate turning them loose with the adult flock next weekend.

Our two young turkeys we kept back will also need the boot outdoors, but first we've got to evict two Slate hens occupying the Detention Center... I'm gonna need one of you to come get these girls from me real soon lol.

Throw me an offer and come get both, already! Nobody likes to put young hens in a freezer!

06/14/2026

Kelli, our winner of the last hatching egg giveaway, threw down some next level incubation game and scored a perfect hatch 🤯

Turkeys can be tricky; y'all out here making it look easy 💁‍♀️💅

Put 12 turkey eggs in the incubator, all of them hatched! 🤪

06/03/2026

Coincidentally, I think this woman's name is also Savannah. Guess all Savannah's must vibrate the same 😂

06/03/2026

🎶 One of these things is not like the others 🎶

Pip is definitely not a Saxony 😂 Where she came from has doubled down and insists she looks how a young Saxony should, and I'm not about to sit and argue with anybody about it, so all I said is "I can see how maybe it might be hard for someone to tell, this early".

So, I was instructed to send another picture when she's 8 weeks old, and that's fine. In four more weeks, she'll still be little, cute, dark-billed, and have ass feathers grey as a storm cloud 🙃

I'm not mad, I just don't know why this keeps happening 😅😂

05/31/2026

We are on the cusp of summertime 😎🍹🌞 and half my flock knows what healthy work/life balance looks like, and the other half looks like... whatever you'd call this mess.

I've been locking them out of the coop for the first half of the day, but as soon as I open that door, they're back in a pile 🤷‍♀️

Whattaya do 😅🤣

05/30/2026

And that's a wrap on 2026 hatching season! 🙌

Everyone looks good, no issues, easy 11/12 hatch, couldn't ask for a better end.

There are currently 5 Saxony available, straight run, as 6 should be moving on to their new home.

05/28/2026

We lost one of our big ducklings, this morning 🙁

Early in the evening she started off acting a little drunk, displaying pretty textbook signs of severe wry neck (nutrient deficiencies), and tanked very quickly after that. I loaded her up with vitamins and helped her eat and drink throughout the night, but she never showed any improvement, and was gone this morning 😥

I'm surprised and a little at a loss, to be honest. I'm not in the habit of losing ducklings at the 3-week-old stage, all the others are behaving normally (😬🤞🤞), I haven't skimped on protein or niacin, they get plentiful water refreshed multiple times a day, and nothing new has been introduced to the area (that I can figure).

My only straw to grasp is she was a particularly giant duckling, and they're beginning to grow feathers... maybe her XXL body's demands were just not being met 🤷‍♀️ As you can imagine, I've been watching the others like a paranoid helicopter parent ever since. It's just such a bummer, she was such a sweet and good-looking duckling.

Another (much less traumatic) bummer is I'm pretty sure one of the new girls is *not* a Saxony. I've been suspicious of her ever since they all arrived, and noticed she was smaller and her baby fluff looked a bit off.

But, being that *everyone* in the group is hatchery stock, has very light markings, and never did look quite right to me, I figured I'd better keep my thoughts to myself 😂

As time's gone on, she's stayed smaller and slimmer than the others, fluffs stayed looking off, and her bill's gotten darker 🧐 Then, little feathers started sprouting, and while everyone else is sporting the expected apricot coloring, she's looking... rather drab. I'd say grey. She looks a bit like a splash Swedish baby, to me, if I had to take a guess.

If so, this will be the third time I've ordered Saxony and have received other breeds. First two times were from reputable private breeders in two completely different areas of the country, and now this one from bigger box hatchery stock. I guess I've got questionable luck lol.

I suppose I can keep whatever leftover ducklings I end up with from the clutch that is currently hatching from my own stock, but gosh, what a pain to bring up a whole new round of duck kids with everything else going on around here 😵‍💫

This is long. It's late 😂😂 Goodnight!