A pile o' meaties

- this year's Cornish X chicks- 

They're so darn cute... For like the first week. The pic was taken just after they were brought home and installed in their brooder. They pretty quickly piled up and went to sleep under the lamp. An hour or so later though, they were exploring their new home and kicking bedding into their water *sigh*.  As they approach the two-week mark this weekend, they're getting decidedly less cute. Another 10-14 days, and these little balls of fluff will go out into the chicken tractors. They'll be in the tractors til Memorial Day weekend, at which point we'll have our annual butcher party.

I'm a tuly attempting to keep track this year of how much they cost us to raise. We'll see if I can manage to keep up with keeping records!

They're so ugly, they're sorta cute. Muscovy ducks!

So, how does a trip to the feed store end up with us driving 45 min in the other direction to pick out a pair of adult ducks? Well, I'll tell ya.

Headed to town for our weekly trip for groceries, feed, etc. LJ mentions he heard a rumor that our local feed store has Muscovy ducklings. So, we had the entire trip to town and back to ponder adding Muscovy ducklings to our menagerie. Plenty of time to discuss how we could critter-shuffle... the rest of the pullets could go out in the chicken tractor with the others, ducklings could go in the little trough in the shop... and so on. We hit the feed store on the way home, and the gal that runs the place basically said, "Where'd you hear that we have Muscovys? We've never had those. We have some tufted ducklings, though!" (No thanks... freaks of nature) So, as chick and chicken chow was loaded into the truck, I could see that hubby was very disappointed that they had no warty little mud-demons. In that short ride to town and back, he'd already imagined a life with Muscovys.

Soooo... I suggested he check craigslist. He found a guy with ducklings and mature ducks and we set a time to head out. Ran the feed home, did a couple chores, and headed out.

The place was... Interesting. There were chickens free ranging, a huge house full of doves (or pigeons... I dunno), and a huge pasture full of geese and ducks. I'd driven by the place a hundred times and never knew it was back there.

Turns out the guy only had two ducklings... Yeah. That wasn't gonna work. So we went out to take a look at the birds in the field, followed by the bird-dude with a huge salmon net.

This is where things turned into both a new stock and a rescue operation. A number of the birds out there were gimpy. All of them were a bit ratty. There was plenty of shelter and feed, but if they had a pool or pond to bathe in, I didn't see it. We'd come this far, so we picked out the healthiest male and female we could find, both chocolate in color, with white heads. The guy netted them, and we carried them back to the truck. A little ratty, but bright-eyed, quick on their feet, and no bumble foot (we checked). $45 later, a pair of ducks in a dog crate in the truck bed, and we were headed home.

We were told that the female was about a year old, and that the male was about two. In both pics, the female is on the left. She's much smaller than the male, and has a smaller mask. The male is HUGE. I'd guess he weighs around 12 or 13 lbs. the female is maybe 2/3 his size.

These birds are like no ducks I've ever seen. They sorta remind me of turkeys, with their long tails. They are super quiet, hissing at most. They also raise the crest of feathers on their head when spooked. The meat is supposed to be outstanding, and I've read a number of articles where it was compared to veal.

Muscovys are also supposed to be excellent mothers, and that's our hope, as we'd like to have this pair produce meat birds for us.

For now, they're quarantined in one of the chicken tractors. We'll observe them for a while to make sure there's no obvious signs of illness or bugs. Eventually, we'll integrate them into the flock.

I gave them a tub of water, and they were in it within about 30 min, and turned it black with dirt. I think they spent most of Saturday preening/cleaning. Poor guys. One good sign... I saw the male mount his new lady-friend more than once. They settled in pretty fast!

Still debating names. Considered going "chocolate" themed, since they're both brown. KitKat (Kit and Kat) is in the running, as are variations of M&M (Mick&Maggie, Merle&Molly, etc).

For now, they're "the new ducks".

Just when we were feeling like hicks

 On Saturday we stuffed 5 hens in a dog crate, loaded them up in the truck, and headed to town. We were taking them to my friend Paula. Her first chickens!

We were getting lots of funny looks, and feeling especially hick-ish... Until we saw this.

Yep. That's a goat. A BIG goat.

Made us feel better. Lol.

POTO makes my Friday complete

Rocking out to the Phantom of the Opera 25th anniversary soundtrack today. Ramin Karimloo is a god. That man sure has an incredible voice.

I highly recommend the DVD (or bluray) of the 25th anniversary performance. Outfreakinstanding. In the top 3 of my favorite flicks EVER, and very possibly takes the number one spot. If you have Netflix, it's currently available as watch instantly. Check it out.

The soundtrack sure does make my Friday move a bit more quickly.

Big weekend ahead. Taking some chickens to my buddy Paula tomorrow. Looking forward to both thinning the flock AND getting Paula started with her first hens. Yay!


Happy Friday, all!

Hubby's weakness strikes again. Chicks!

LJ's weakness for cute little baby critters, and the simple fact that I didn't say no (though truthfully, I like em too!), and we have new chicks.

Instead of allowing the gals to set this spring, we're replacing culls, given away, and sold hens with new stock. Still gonna end up with fewer birds, which is the end goal, after all.

The little lady in the pic is, if I remember correctly, a blue laced red wyandotte. Also have two more marans (for the darker egg colors), two jersey giants (because LJ wanted them) and two egyptian fayoumi chicks (because they're tiny and weird, and thus hubby couldn't resist). Reading about fayoumis, I found this quote on Wikipedia... "...if left to their own devices on a free range basis they can fend for themselves in a nearly feral manner." Great. That could be good, or very bad. *sigh* So, once again, there are chickens in my bathtub. 

Upside of buying instead of letting the ladies hatch eggs... We know what we're getting, we don't have to feed useless roosters until they're up to some sort of butcher weight, and hand raising will get us new hens that aren't completely feral like the several of ones hatched last year. No joke, last year's gals are INSANE. If we have to catch them (because they're out AGAIN), they scream bloody murder and a couple of them BITE! Not pecking... I'm talking bite and twist. Stupid birds. 

Anyhoo, it's kinda nice to have babies in the house again. Feels like spring. :)

Duck duck duck goose... gander

Soaking up a little sun last weekend. From left to right, Crusty, Olga, Sven, Broccoli, and Beef(y). Goose Chalet and the new Duck Hut in the background. (My new duck hut is AWESOME... More on that later).

What happened to my goose babies

Bobcat. 

Gone are Affie, Baby Girl, and my big bitey jerky gander Bitor. I really loved him, for all that he was a bitey jerk. He had one hell of a personality. Sweet Girl passed a couple months ago, and we couldn't find a mark on her.  We figured there must have just been something wrong with her, but perhaps that had been a bobcat too.

Took precautions, weren't good enough. Damn cat came within 30 yards of our house. Don't know why it went after the geese instead of the ducks.  We ended up moving what fowl were left (the 3 ducks) to the pen next to the house.

Hubby went out and bought a furtaker's license and a bobcat card.  We'd determined it was a bobcat due to pics on game cams we'd set out.  Over the first weekend he had it, he got not one... but TWO freaking bobcats.  Both females.  @$#%@#$%#$  A friend of ours is a rather good hobby taxidermist, and we're gonna get his help to cure the pelts. 

I've decided that I won't have any more farm critters that are "pets".  We can't make our critter areas absolutely impenetrable.  Don't ask why or berate that I don't.  It's just not currently feasible, and I'll leave it at that. 


RIP my little goose babies.