Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Why ducks line the fence when they see "the cup"

If I walk outside, carrying "the cup", they watch... And wait. This was the 2nd cup of slugs collected this evening. Oregon sure is great for slugs (of manageable size... WA is ridiculous. Damn banana slugs).

The slugs especially like the places where the chicken tractor and its assorted poultry have rested. Easy pickins and happy waterfowl. :)

Must use the cup, as slugs have different sorts of slime. Some thin, and some like glue which literally has to be SCRAPED off... Absolutely will NOT wash off. Yuck.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Lost 5 ducklings... New lesson learned :(

All 6 of Maggie's ducklings were out there this morning. As of this afternoon, there was one. I'm about 95% sure that the culprit was the local raven. It's huge, and "quorks" instead of cawing. Totally not a crow. I saw it go after a duckling last week, but the other birds chased it off. Figured that was the end of it. But, down to one duckling with no trace of the others, and no grass was flattened around the edges of the pen, so nothing climbed the fence and stole them. I don't see a hawk stealing off with 5 freakin ducklings. But I've observed a raven return several times within an hour to the same campsite to steal, each time, a piece of bread from a torn breadbag. So. I'm putting my money on that damn raven. It steals eggs too. $&@!  I took the last duckling from Maggie and slipped it in with Goldie. Hopefully Maggie decides to set another clutch.

Hard lesson learned: next batch of ducklings will go into a chicken tractor with momma for 3 weeks or however long til they reach a size that will deter the raven... If said raven is still around come the next hatch. Funny, it is the only raven I've seen in our area. Always alone.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

One of these things is not like the other...


One of these things just doesn't belong...



Well, at least Goldie doesn't know any different. :)  She hatched out two, btw. The two that I hope will be black and white like Freida. The brown one in the back is Maggie's, but injured its leg, so I snuck it in with Goldie. She seemed happy to have it!

Friday, June 14, 2013

More muscovy duckling pics!


They're quick little buggers. So difficult to get a good pic!

Goldie chicken came away with two, and while all of Maggie's babies appear to be brown like Merle and Maggie, the two Goldie hatched seem to be pied black/white like Freida! We'll see when they get feathers, eh? :) Pics of the Goldie babies soon.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Our first farm-hatched ducklings!!!

Maggie was off the nest this morning for a drink and a bite to eat, so I went out to check the nest. Lookie what I found!!!

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Broody butts!

Left to right... Goldie (5 duck eggs), Bellina (5 turkey eggs), Smaug (2 chicken eggs so she'll stop trying to steal the other hen's nests), unnamed buff (4 turkey eggs).