Here's another thing to teach you. How absolutely emotionally draining this homesteding life can be. I'm incubating 12 guinea eggs. They should have hatched a couple of days ago and/or at least started to chirp. As I heard nothing, I had to "check" before giving up figurinfg the eggs were infertile.
So, I broke open one of them and discovered a "baby" chick alive and, up to that point, well. It was probably at least 3 days from hatch and absolutely could not survive as it was. So I has to humanely dispose of it. Gosh did it wrench out me heart!
On the same day, the cats got into a birds nest and had to dispose of 4 baby robins as the mum and dad attacked me.
All and all many more joys than pains but not hardly ever glorious for more than moments at a time!
Brian