Thursday, February 6, 2014

New duck hut


Despite the cold weather (<20deg this morning), the ducks have started laying again. Front pen contains Beefy and his new girl Abigail (Broccoli is in the freezer), Merle, Maggie, Frieda, Crusty, Olga, and two new scovy girls (Sven is also in the freezer). We're only getting 1-2 eggs a day, but the girls are making pretty little round nests in all the huts. They didn't like the new hut last night, (the geese swore at it for hours and the scovys wagged their tails and bobbed their heads), but today the straw on each side was swept into pretty little nests. Hoping the low dark doors and nests being in the back of the hut will help dissuade the ravens from sneaking in to steal eggs. Stupid ravens.

Beefy is not impressed.

But I'm pretty happy with my work. :)



4 comments:

Carolyn said...

Oooo! Nice duck hut!
Question for you, as we just recently dispatched our male goose (forgot what kind he was, just know he looked just like yours in the picture and he was a royal prick)....are your male geese jerks, or is it just me that seems to pick all the mean male livestock?

Rae said...

Hey Carolyn, thanks! We've had 3 geese that were definitely ganders. Our dearly departed Bitor was hand raised, a toulouse, and was a raging jerk in the springtime. Not so much of a jerk that I didn't still love him. He was unfortunately killed by a bobcat last year.

Geoffrey was a white chinese, hand raised, and was just a nasty little guy. He also liked to rape the ducks. He was tasty.

Beefy, our current gander, is as far as I can tell an African. He likes to sneak up on me and nibble my pants. Thinks he's super mean and hot stuff, but is really just comical. He also LOVES my husband, and will crawl in his lap. We bought Beefy when he was a couple years old, so I don't know how he was raised. Must have been by a guy, though.

I think it just depends on the bird. With roosters, we've had the best success with those raised by the hens AND that we have never ever touched. No familiarity developed, and they leave us alone. Hope it stays that way.

Karen B. @ Making Shift said...

Wow! That thing looks great! I'm going to bookmark because I may end up building something similar. Thanks, also, for the goose info here. I ordered a pair of Buff Geese for April delivery and I'm excited but hoping they aren't total jerks. I plan to eat them if they are.

Rae said...

Hey there Karen. Thanks for the compliment, and congrats on the buff pair! Those really are pretty geese. Even with the geese that were jerks, they didn't bother me as much as a mean rooster. The geese really couldn't hurt me much beyond a nasty pinch if I was wearing shorts, or a mild bruise if they grabbed hold and smacked me with a wing. Minor stuff, compared to a 40lb turkey or rooster with gnarly spurs, ya know? I can deal with a sorta-mean gander. :)

Glad you like the hut. We tend to build things to last forEVER. Our chicken coop is framed more strongly than most houses, lol. Was really easy to build, sheet and a half of plywood and some cheapo 2x2s. I only bother painting anything that might get wet (thus the paint that doesn't really extend past the inside edges). If you want dimensions, I'd be happy to share. While I'd like the roof to be a bit longer, it works. I pretty much built it to work with the scrap piece of metal roofing in mind. Had to be a size where that scrap would cover the roof. lol.