So it’s been awhile since I’ve posted here, but time of year being what it is and all , and all that needs to get done and all…………….

So quick recap from where I left off,

The ducks are not only IQ impoverished, but illiterate too…………the "lay the eggs here" dummy egg……………well we finally fed that one to the dogs, we were still fishing one a day out of the pond, and it took about 2 weeks to find the new nest for the others. So a massive amount of duck eggs of questionable quality later, we marked six of them as decoys ( dummies ) put them back in nest #2, and boiled up the rest for the other critters. 3 days later………….no new eggs in the nest, and yes we are still fishing one out of the pond every day. Give us a couple of days

and we find new nest # 3………………still more questionable eggs to deal with, but we have an active clientele for them so no worries, and the last dip shit duck that lays eggs in the pond has decided to follow suit and lay eggs on dry land with the other girls, but somehow they have managed to confuse a chicken.

All’s good for another week and then we have a complete overnight raid on all the eggs in the nest………….they are all dummies, completely marked up with permanent, probably toxic, marker, we used red this time as black seems to disappear in the massive amount of dirt a duck can put on her own egg. Anyways, ya damn coon, hope you get Salmonella, a seizure or something, because you have no idea how long it took to get these dumb ass ducks to all lay in one place…………and I know it was a coon, because now the shells are all in the pond. My poor pond, the one that was to be such a tranquil little oasis of running water, native plants and rockscaping……….ya whatever. I doesn’t much resemble that at all right now.

But, on the bright side, so far, so good, the ducks are still using the new, and did I mention, easy to reach, nest.

　

　

　

Easter Eggstravaganza....Wingnut style

It’s April already and Easter has just come and gone…….

With all the kids moved out, my Mom doing dinner and any remaining daffodils or crocuses that may have survived me and /or the landscaping project of 2011 being eaten by either squirrels or ducks………..there really wasn’t anything much Easter around here,

……….unless you count the new chicken that lays us green eggs.

It was basically going to be a work weekend anyway, cutting trees to let more sun onto the solar system and building my new and improved terraced garden, an unexpected and welcome by-product of the tree project.

Thinking that I was going to be working on the gardens, I did buy a new garden tool to replace the old and worn out one……………just a regular garden hoe, nothing fancy except for the lime green handle ( kinda Easterish I suppose ) but with the new project well underway it became obvious that I was not going to get around to using the new tool this weekend………………or so I thought.

Nice Hoe...eh



Raid, Vapona and Citronella
aka Huey, Dewey and Louey
aka Dumb, Dumber and Stupid

Seems our 3 remaining ducks, all girls, have their own idea about Easter. They came of age about a month ago and started laying eggs, and except for the first ones, which I figure might have caught them by surprise, they have laid 3 eggs a day in a nest which we found after it had about a dozen eggs in it. The nest they chose is under the chicken coop, behind a bail of hay, in a spot that is inaccessible unless you get down on your hands and knees and crawl into the spot with the least amount of clearance. But that’s fine, every day we collect 6 chicken and 3 duck eggs from the coop area and one chicken egg from the greenhouse
……….Helens new home.


Until Easter weekend arrives, and who knew that ducks were so into the egg hunt thing??

Just look where they have laid their eggs for the last 3 days…………..

This is where the first "surprise" eggs were laid, and they were still there, but now I have my new Easter colored garden tool turned egg scooper, and I’ve gotten some use out of it this weekend after all.

All the eggs retrieved, and the original ones too…………….2 fed to the dogs and chickens and one used as a "Dummy Egg" to put back in the nest to help them "maybe" get the idea that Easter is over and I really don’t need to make the trip to the coop every day with a basket ………and a hoe.

I hope they get the message.

Well it's not called Wingnut Acres for nuthin'

OMG, I can hardly keep up with the amount of stupid around here today.

A few days ago I posted about Little Helen, our blind chicken, who survived the latest hawk attack, but her eyesight didn't, how she's doing well, laying eggs again and how a barrier has been put in place to keep her and/or her eggs from falling out of the coop.

Seems the barrier should have been a bit higher because sometime on Tuesday, Helen managed to fall out, again, and no one noticed till that night when Bob the Builder went to lock everyone up for the night and discovered she was missing. An hour and a half of searching the woods for her with a flashlight............and no Helen.

The next day, I went out and searched again, but all in vain. Not even a feather to be found. Neither of the dogs seemed to understand the term "FIND MY CHICKEN....DAMMIT" so they were of no help whatsoever, but totally enjoyed a prolonged walk through the woods. I was actually hoping that some predator, maybe even the damn hawk, had found her and ended it for her quickly. Thinking that she was just out there, with no way to find food or water, was not sitting well with me at all.

By the end of the day, the Builder and I had to sit down and rework the numbers for the next chicken order, something that we were already working on, and up the amount of fencing that we need to purchase to keep them safe and yet still have them be able to free range.

We came up with the idea to get 5 more already laying birds ASAP, since the farm fresh egg supply was rapidly dwindling, and then order another 10 day old chicks.

..............apparently this is called chicken math. You start out wanting 4, and somehow you end up with around 24, and it's something that is quite common with new chicken owners from what I read. A couple of months ago I had just finished reading someones comment on BackYardChickens.com " you will get more, it's just a matter of time" and no sooner had I read that, when the Builder says " you know, I think we should get more chickens" !!

A quick search of Kijiji and we found someone who was wanting to sell trios, and low and behold, it just happened to be the same guy that gave us Ruckus the Rooster a few weeks ago. We already had a bottle of Maple Syrup set aside for him as a thank-you for that. So there we are, the chicken math has gone up by one again........6 instead of 5, and still order 10 chicks. As it turns out we went out there and he had already had lots of interest in the ad, with people coming on the weekend and could only spare 3 ( chicken math = original # minus 2 )

Three chickens rounded up and in the truck on the way home.

The plan is to put the 3 new girls in the coop, close off the run from the others so that the new ones can figure out where home is. Then tonight, have the new ones in the coop, leave the old ones in the run like they have been doing anyways since we locked them out that first night that Helen was injured.

And that's what we did. Three new chickens in the coop.

On the left we have Salt, an Australorp that went straight to work and laid us a green egg just minutes after getting here. In the middle we have Pepper, a Barred Rock. And the girl on the right is Ruckus' half sister, so I think the name Bobby-Jo fits for her. I just need to figure out how to tell her apart from Elvira......... not like it matters if I do or don't ;)

All is well in chicken land, the Builder is unloading lumber and fencing, I'm looking into placing the order for the chicks, when the Builder runs in and announces
....HELENS HOME!!!

As IF ?!?!?!!? we've had a bind chicken wandering the property for 48 hours and she's safe, has found home ( tell me that rooster is not doing his job calling her back...........better than the dogs, that's for sure !! ) and we just gave away her room!!!

Chicken math = original # minus 2 plus 1

So the new girls are pushed out into the run by the Builder, which means he has to get in the coop, while I hold Helen and close the door, so that they don't take the wrong exit. Meanwhile, I guess out of habit, I latch the coop door, and while I'm waiting, I start wandering about talking to Helen, when all of a sudden I hear "LET ME OUT"

So I now have the 3 old chickens happily doing their thing, one rooster watching over them, three new chickens waiting for us to just make up our minds about where it is we really want them, three ducks just being ducks and eating everything and pooping everywhere, two very jealous dogs whining and watching me cuddle a blind chicken.....and I've just locked the person that is supposed to be my better half in the chicken coop.

.............and THAT'S why it's called Wingnut Acres!!

Not Again

Another overly warm day for March, in this, the year of no real winter at all, and it seems the birds, after a relatively bug free winter diet, are totally focused in their search for more and more of the constantly emerging tasty little morsels. So unknown to us, they wander off down to the field, heads down and happily pecking away, no doubt following the pond run off that not only leads straight through the field, but is chock a block full of bird goodies as well.

the goody loaded trench that leads birds from the safety of trees to the dreaded field

.........and then it happened.....another hawk attack, witnessed this time, so NO, we are NOT crazy, that is what’s picking off our birds.

I'm inside when my phone rings, Bob the Builder on the other end, calling from the field and telling ( yelling ) for me to get down there quick because he needs help.......this is from a guy who notoriously does NOT ask for help, even when he should, so I'm picturing the worst.  

In a matter of seconds this blissful bug picking adventure has turned into a chaos zone. One of the as yet un-named chickens is injured, missing a load of feathers and hiding under a tree, either Joan or Elvira was last seen running for all her worth to the cover of the spruces with a hawk on her tail, Ruckus the Rooster and the other two girls are nowhere to be found. Bob's gotten a shot off and the hawk was diverted and flown off, but the chicken may or may not know that.

And the 3 remaining ducks have FINALLY found the river......we have been hoping that they would find the river someday and make that their new home, saving us the whole Duckponics issue, so I quickly abandoned the idea of getting them back, seems we finally had them just where we wanted them and they were joyfully discovering all kinds of goodies in the tall grass on the banks. So I was happy thinking there's some good in everything.

Injured chicken then proceeds to give me a really good run for for my money, through what little ( wet, heavy, slushy ) snow that remains amidst all the mud, trying to keep her from frantically running straight into the river, because I'm pretty sure that even though that river may be a ducks dream, it's got to be chicken hell, and I had NO intention of jumping in to get her even if I could catch her in that current. If it came to that, I would probably have better luck running all the way back up the hill from hell, getting in the car and scooping her out at the first bridge down the road with the fish net that I was really wishing I had brought down here right now. So I just kept running.........and so did she, in no particular direction, but all of them taking her closer to the river. In the end, she was captured, without the help of the fish net. So there I was, soaked and muddy from the knees down, sweating from the waist up, trying to get control of a flapping, hysterical chicken that was making enough noise to call in every predator in the township at that point. I finally calmed her down and I think the two of us just sat there wondering which one of us was going to have the heart attack first. 

So we now have one chicken headed for the coop to hopefully recover, Elvira is MIA, Ruckus and the 2 other girls were found hiding in the garage and 3 ducks finally in the river.

3 hours later...........injured hen is getting severely picked on by the others, so they are all locked out for the night, injured has the coop, the rest of them have the run, good thing it’s warm out, but who knows where tomorrows eggs are going to be. MIA chicken managed to sneak back home without anyone noticing, and she seems just fine. All is calm again, just hoping that injured chicken makes it through the night.

AND THEN THE DUCKS CAME HOME.........................I really think that sometimes they just pretend to be stupid.

TMI ( too much information )

When we started on this bird adventure, our only source of information to start with was the internet which we surfed endlessly, followed by some emails and visits to others that were already doing this........I mean these are living creatures and for sure we want to do everything right for them. So with what we learnt we built them the Chicken Hilton which, we were told if we were to be doing this egg adventure in the winter, would need to be insulated, so we did.

There was lots of information about the lighting shedule required for them to lay eggs, so lights with timers were installed. This being Canada and the temps having the possibility of falling well into the negatives ( well not this year....2012, the year of the non-winter, regardless ) we installed a heat lamp with a thermostat. Of course providing food and water is always a given, and we have adopted the deep litter method for the coop, with a good coop scooping to happen in the spring.

In our mind we provided them with everything a chicken could want ( except a rooster ), and we did the same for the ducks too, including a pond.

So as winter sets in everything is working fine, the ducks have abandoned the run of the Hilton in favour of living either in the pond or underneath the Hilton. The spring is still running madly so water for them is not an issue. The lights and heating in the coop are working fine, eggs are getting laid, and we haven't found a chicken frozen solid yet, so the heat must be working, and we know for a fact that the hydro bill is working just fine.

Not having a rooster has been a problem as the girls are not following the standard information that we recieved about "free run" chickens that they just simply go home at night. This has resulted in the loss of a few birds, in particular Little Lucy, so they are now being locked up much to my dismay and more so theirs.

.......so our only issue so far is that the water still freezes up rock solid overnight and the chickens are thirsty in the morning. We have an automtic waterer for them in the summer which obviously will not work all year. We tried the chicken waterers and surfed again to find all kinds of elaborate ways to make them stop freezing up, all of which would require more wiring and $$$. In the end we chose to go with a dog waterer instead.....the kind that has the one litre pop bottle attached, pop bottles bought for this reason only BTW. Things were still freezing up overnight so we moved it a bit closer to the heat lamp...........which promptly melted the darn bottle. So now instead of just taking a replacement out to them, we have to run back and forth with the one remaining bottle, not really an issue except that someone decided to put the chicken coop downhill.

And then one day all things changed..........we got a rooster!!!

How does a rooster stop water from freezing you ask, well he doesn't, but the "old hand, I've been doing this for years, lets take the simple approach to all of this" farmer that gave us the rooster, also gave us the biggest, most useful, piece of advice yet by simply saying..............

" I just give them a bucket of snow"

REALLY!!!..........it's so stupidly simple that it makes total sense.
It makes you realize that sometimes you can just overthink things

It's so stupidly simple that it makes a person feel like an idiot for not figuring this out themselves........I'm just glad it wasn't one of my kids that came up with this.........then I'd feel really stupid!!!

Soft Hearts get pooped on.

So there's nothing like a garage full of bird manure to remind a newbie that they really are livestock, not pets.( Shhh, don't tell the insurance company that I'm admitting to this) 

Yesterday was our first really cold day this winter, minus 24 C with the windchill, the day before it was plus 5 and pouring rain, as it was for quite a few days before that. So this is the first real winter experience that the birds have had, being born in July and all. And this was the first time that the ducks were showing signs of feeling it.......I mean really feeling it, windchill and all. They were all set to run for the food as usual in the morning but could only make it a few steps without having to hunker down and stop. A few more steps. Stop. A few more, another stop.

So with the weather being as goofy as can be this year, I mean really, one day it's like April and then the next day it's like Arctic..........I'm not sure if the birds have had a real chance to acclimate to all of this.

And that 's where Soft Heart kicked in, and not just mine BTW, Bob the Builders too, and for the first time we didn't shoo them out of the garage. Heck, I even donated an old comforter to the cause because they were, all 9 of them, trying to sit on one little old rag that fell off the workbench. And have I mentioned that their combined IQ is in the negatives, because after that they still all tried to use the rag instead of the comforter!!??

Now if Rational Brain had of been able to over-ride Soft Heart, the conclusion would have been made that we have already built them a $1000.00 Quacker Box that they have decided to sleep under instead of in. We have since Typar-ed three sides of the underneath part and laid down a good layer of straw for them in what can really only be called swamp, and yet, that's where they prefer to reside. Rational Brain would have said that's plenty, let them deal with it ............Rational Brain would have said that the bottom of the Quacker Box with the windshield and the straw cannot possibly be any colder than a slab of concrete in the garage.

But OH Noooo............. Soft Heart won that argument, and an absolutely ridiculous amount of duck doo in the garage later..........I've come to the conclusion that Rational Brain needs a good talking to about becoming a little bit more assertive.

NOT NICE

So it’s Christmas Eve and we have my parents over for turkey dinner.

Meanwhile our 6 chickens, Lucy, Elvira, Joan and the three as yet un-named teenagers are still "free ranging" and the ducks, well, they are probably happily pooping in the pond. Both dogs and the cat are in the house hoping for fallout out of Christmas cookies on the carpet for later cleanup.

Somewhere between dessert and dishes, Bob the Builder goes out to lock up the chickens and finds that there are only 4 in the coop.

Not long afterwards, the neighbors drop by for drinks.

A couple more trips to lock up the chickens and there are still only 4.

After a few hours, the neighbours head home, and a little while later, so do my parents.

Still only 4 chickens in the coop, 9 ducks pooping in the pond, 2 dogs cleaning the carpet, one cat cleaning himself, and there may or may not be a partridge in my pear tree, but that’s way down in the field and I’m not going down to look. More worried about where these 2 chickens are.

Midnight, still only 4 chickens, We go to bed, but leave the hole to the coop open just in case.

Next morning, Christmas morning btw, and here comes one chicken, chicken jogging down the driveway, like the kid that stays out too late and is trying to sneak in before you notice. ...........so, did she go party with the neighbours last night ??

So five chickens accounted for, one that would be grounded if it was one of our kids, and one still missing.

Not long afterwards, Bob the Builder finds the answer to the missing chicken under a big grove of Spruce trees, closest thing we have to a Christmas tree this year, and very close to the house. Somewhat ironic that while we were enjoying turkey, something else was enjoying chicken for Christmas dinner. Poor little girl, she’d never even gotten a name yet and had just laid her first egg that morning.

I just don’t understand how this can happen with 9 slow moving, flightless, IQ challenged, can’t give them away on Kijiji, perpetually pooping, pieces of coyote bait right there out front. Not to mention 2 large dogs on the property………….oh, yeah, well, there was the Christmas cookie crumb distraction for them at work.

But I must be getting better at this as I didn’t cry this time or get all sick feeling about it.

Maybe that’s because this is the chicken that had me running around in the mud the other night till I cornered her in the garage to take her back to the safety of the coop and realized that she was not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Or, maybe I’m starting to realize that it’s not all fun and games out here.

Soooo the wrong footwear

OK. so, tested and proved ( like there was ever any doubt )

CROCS are SO NOT the right footwear for winter, no matter how short the trip is supposed to be, cuz once you set out there in them……….it’s going to be an uncomfortable and much longer trip than you expected.

Never mind the obvious………. holes on top that scoop snow down into your toes, the same holes that scoop top soil into the same place all summer, but between them, and the "who decided to put the chicken coop down hill" factor……………yup, slide ride it was, missed the duck pond, landed safely at the bottom, sporting a muddy butt and snowy toes.

So this was supposed to be just a quick trip to let the chickens out, but now I’m at the bottom of the hill, wearing pretty much a pair of highly ventilated jelly beans on my feet and I still have to get back up……….apparently, among other things, to dig out my ever so fashionable (NOT) heavy duty grippy soled winter boots from summer storage.

So when I do get back up there, I start to wonder ……….why do I own these things.

I mean really, they are not at all attractive, the grippy soled snow boots put them to shame in that department. Summer or winter, something is falling through those holes to wedge or melt between your toes. They come in the most ridiculous colors, mine are purple……mauve if you want to get all fashionista about it…and if that’s the case, your whole fashion sense needs to be evaluated.............. by a therapist.

If you do wear them for a full weekend, they give you the silliest sandal tan…….a week of polka dot feet. The same holes that did that, I know what they are supposed to do, but they don’t, your feet still sweat like a pig………well not in the snow I guess, but freezing is just as uncomfortable, if not more.

So why do I own them???

Well they are pretty much go anywhere, don’t need to stop for a footwear change, into the river, out of the river, across the field, into the garden, go scoop manure,  indestructible, and if you do destruct them, who cares, kind of shoes. They also work well in the kitchen as a built in stress mat.

Other than that…….they suck, but I’m keeping then anyways.

A comedian once said about them "there are people all over the world wearing fanny packs that are laughing at you"

I think of that every time I put them on, and make damn sure I take them off before I leave the property.

　

　

As for the ducks..........

Nut Date…… Oct 18,2011

As for the ducks.....................well Holy Sh*t !!

.........pardon the language, but that’s all we are getting from them.

I guess that was part of the original plan, $3.00 duck, bug control and free manure, so far they are holding up their end of the manure part NO PROBLEM... as for the bug control, well they have just now found the field that holds the bugs that are eating hundreds of dollars worth of fruit trees, good timing, the bugs are sleeping for the winter, it’s Canada........... and all summer, rather than eating the slugs that attack my $13.00 Hostas, they ate the Hostas……..bug problem there solved, in their minds anyways.

So they stopped sleeping in the $1000.00 Quacker Box we built for them months ago, preferring the pond, spending the night floating about with their head tucked under one wing, looking really cute, but apparently filling it up with manure ALL NIGHT LONG. I’ve heard they have no sphincter at the south end, and I now don’t doubt that at all.

The reality is, that despite our best efforts at creating a nice calming eco – friendly, self sustaining pond, we now have to run hydro to pump it out. $$$$

So let’s just tally this up,

nine $3.00 ducks… $27.00,
bag of feed, $16.00 / month
Quacker Box with heat and lighting ( hydro ) $1000.00 +++
Pond pump, $30.00 ( I think, probably way more )
Pipes to access fresh spring water……….$ ??? another $30, let’s just say
Rental on mini excavator to dig hole for fresh spring water ( that was stuck in the mud for most of the rental, but did in the end dig the hole ) ..$50.00
Pond liner, sand, gravel, rocks, plants……salvaged, reclaimed or recycled from other jobs.

The whole system of sand filters, spring water and plant filtration, all for a duck pond, working wonderfully, till you make the fatal mistake of adding ducks………… freakin’ PRICELESS !!!


<><> <><> <><>

Don't they all just look sooooo happy !!!
merrily pooping away

I’ve since learnt that this issue is called "Duckponics"

Whodathunkit??

Duckponics is actually a word. ??!! Well, probably not according to Webster’s ( yet ), but to anyone who owns a duck…………..it’s not just a word, it’s a reality that needs to be dealt with,
and to my relief, I’m not alone.

There is some comfort in numbers I guess.

Damn Hawk

Nut Date..........October 14, 2011

So I guess the plan was to write in here every day..............seems I didn't do that.

The reality is that I was busy taking pictures of these little goofs, and also that we had a rude awakening to the realities of life, which kind of put me off for a bit.

We learnt the hard way that just because little chickens love being outside, and we were anxious to start the whole "free range" thing, brutal truth of the matter,.......little chickens shouldn't be outside. Our two blonde chicks got taken by a hawk, vulture, whatever. We didn't see it happen but Rob heard it. Something got them from above, two at the same time. We found one, wet, so we did suspect our Little Miss Wannabe Mother, but then we figured out that there was no way she could catch 2 at the same time, and that she probably found the one before we did and was licking her. Good try on her part but it didn't help, the blonde ckicks were gone.

Consequently, all the other birds have, ever since, decided to not come out in the open too much..................unless of course there's a ripe tomatoe in my ( NOT YET FENCED ) garden, then they don't seem to care, and waddle off for lunch they go, to hell with the threat from above.

Which brings me to the real reality of the whole "let's get some ducks" idea..............

What were we thinking, how wrong could the internet info be...............
Lots wrong, that's how much.

Camera instead of keyboard

Apparently I took some time off from the keyboard and picked up the camera to keep track of these little guys...............here's a small photo log of their growth.

And as crazy as it seems to want to take pictures of your chickens.............. I'm not alone with that, and here's someone that is way better at it than me........I just can't get them to stay still long enough and fight off the dogs for attention to do any better than this.





see, we can all get along



stop wiggling...........



get down funky town



it's a big world out there when you're  this small



oh look............a bath!!



see now, if BatGirl would just stop lickin her lips like that, we'd let her go in



more dog patrol



you're still wigglin'



food, food,.....food............food, food



dog patrol on the newer bigger better bath



oh it really is a big world.............we'll have to mow this down!!!



Hosta.....I smell Hosta!!! food, food ......food........



sometimes being a teenager is not the best lookin time in your life



food, food......oh crap, we already ate all those hostas



Little Lucy.............tough decision, food or socialize



Citronella



and the boys are finally showing their colors



Day 3

Nut Date..............July 8, 2011

2 dogs, a cat, somewhere around 40 fish................and only one dog even just remotely cares about these birds. Which I guess is a good thing and she is still showing signs of just wanting to mother them...................but they are so small, and she is so big, so the wait is on.

Everything we have read on the internet, seems to be either labour intensive or not really what the birds want. They seem to do just fine, and totally enjoy being on plain straw. And we're thinking the poop might just fall through and then off to the composter. Chicks like duck starter feed way more than chick starter. Chicks and ducks seem to get along just fine, the chicks are actually more animated when they are with the ducks and they all cuddle up together for a sleep.
The temperature control thing has been an issue for us as we have had 10* swings in a day, depending on outside temp, garage door open or closed etc. ..................and yet they all seem healthy and happy. I'm feeling that they are much tougher than the literature reads. Tomorrow they move to the Chicken Hilton, on plain straw, and all together, but I am planning on segregating the chicks for a good part of the day with the medicated feed that we got talked into and don't really understand the need for.............and if they don't start eating it, it's for sale on Kijiji. Oh, and they all love cooked rice with yogurt, broccoli and chopped Romaine....................a mix of leftovers that I did for the dogs. Actually they like it more than the dogs, because it was strawberry yogurt. Of course Ol Fart will eat anything, but little Miss Mom aka Bat Girl, 100% mutt raised on pure meat...................well, she's being fussy about this mix........so at least the birds like it.

Day 2

Nut Date...................July 7,2011

The ducks had their first swim today, it was hilarious. Somewhere on the internet I found a site that said that paint trays work well for ducklings to start swimming. Mine graduated from the paint tray ( which I bought just for this ) in about 20 seconds. Oh, and we have an extra, not sure how we missed it till today, but we have 9 ducks....................so this one will be Citronella.
In the last 24 hours I have learned............
Ducks poop ALOT
Ducks drink ALOT ( 7 litres today................chickens, 250ml )
Ducks are hyperactive.
Ducks are shy, more so that chicks
Duck doo is VERY wet...............3 room service calls for bedding changes for them alone today.....................chickens, one since they got here.
You still can’t tell them apart.
Little Miss Mom has spent another 2 hours guarding dirty sheets and is now missing, so is the cat, who still needs to meet the new residents.

The package has arrived

Nut Date...............July . 6, 2011


The package has arrived. They are so cute, and I know full well that they won't stay that way. I've gotten them home and settled as much as possible after a full day in a 12" square box on a truck.

We have 13 birds in all, 5 chicks and 8 ducklings

the ducks are here for bug control and fertilizer, and there is, at this point, absolutely no way on earth to tell them apart.............
I know your thinking Huey, Dewey and Louis etc. but NO. It's

Raid
Off
Vapona
Muskol
Deet
Repel
Slugger
and
Guano

for the chicks we have 2 brunettes, 2 blondes and a redhead

so they are
Lucy as the redhead
Elvira and Joan ( as in Jett ) for the brunettes
and just to complete Bobs' fantasy of twin blonde chicks
Mitzi and Bambi as the blondes.

　

so 6 hours into it, I have learned.................
　

- ducks poop waaaaaay more than chickens.

- duck water dishes need water dishes under them, and then something to absorb the water............it’s a splash factory.

- they are friggin cute...........poopin like crazy, already chasing bugs and passed out for the night.

So 7 hours into it I have learnt

• they are not passed out for the night

The dog that is peeing, may actually be going through a " I need to be a mother " thing............she just spent 2 hours guarding a dirty sheet that I had out to dry.................but at least she's not peeing in the house anymore.......well for today anyways.

Tomorrow, I think the ducks need to have their first swim, I need to find out what little miss Mom is really thinking, new babies, or dinner. And then we need to introduce the cat to the whole scenario.

More Duckumentary

Nut Date ..............June 27, 2011

3 more trips to the lumber yard, and another one looming for tomorrow, so we have now decided that the "free eggs " might be free in the year 2020.

Other than that, construction continues to be perfectly crooked, somewhat planned that way way to accomodate drainage for when we have to do full clean outs. It's looking good and I'm getting excited.




The Chicken Hilton aka The Quacker Box in it's infancy
for the totally well crafted inspiration for this
click here 

this is a good picture of the "pond" in it's original state

the pond that sounded like such a good idea when we started,
only to find out that it was just the begining of the whole
Duckponics saga.

Duckumentary, part 2

Nut Date..................June 25, 2011


First trip, of many I'm sure, and we have just established that the
"free" eggs and manure, will be free in about 4 years, if we're lucky.........................the materials for the coop has cost us an additional $600.00, above the leftover lumber from the deck.

Bob the Builder started on the project and while the beginings look good from far, they are far from good, but it's a chicken coop right. Chickens and ducks will not know just how "perfectly" unsquare the building is. Or maybe we will just end up with "perfectly" lopsided eggs....................I don't care as long as there is something inside them.

Not that it's all Rob's fault, the area we have chosen to do this in is less than ideal for building straight structures, but it is totally ideal for chickens and ducks. It's on the part of the property that probably has the highest bug population that we are trying to fix. It has a steady supply of running spring water that we are hoping to harness and feed straight through the coop so that there is always fresh water available. This will probably not work for the winter, but cuts down on chores for the better part of the year. It has hydro already there, and the hose reaches there, but best of all, it has the beginnings of a really cool duck pond. The coop is being built on stilts so that the birds are not going to get damp from underneath, and this will also prevent unwanted nighttime visitors from digging through from the bottom. With luck, when the springs are harnessed and directed to the coop water trough and then out to the duck pond, the surrounding area will dry up some. Meanwhile, it's a bit of a sloppy mess to try to build things straight on.

Duckumentary, Part One, a tale about free eggs and Sh ( poop )

Nut Date…………June 24, 2011

Day one of our newest and quite possibly the craziest new venture we have ever embarked on. The order is placed, and tomorrow we're off to the lumber store to start construction. Hoping to use up of the leftovers from the still unfinished deck to complete this project, we have a plan and a location decided on. The parcel arrives on July 6th, not the best timing in the world with Pitfest ( 30+ people with dogs and kids welcome ) being on July 9th this year, but that was our last chance for delivery this year. We're expecting 5 chicks of a
"layer variety" ( that means we have no idea what we are getting ) and 8 Rouen ducklings.............the domestic version of a Mallard, and flightless, like and Emu.

Chickens lay eggs, and poop. Ducks eat bugs of all kinds and poop. So the idea is to have free fresh organic eggs, fertilizer and bug control. Not to mention that the ducks are going to give the dogs some entertainment that they may not be expecting.


So, many hours spent on the internet to find answers to many questions. We've got some of it figured out but there's alot of confusing info out there. The jury seems to be out on whether you can raise chicks and ducks together, but hey, we've already got 2 dogs, a cat and fish, so why not add a few birds, just to mix things up a bit. In the end, and true to form, we will be breaking alot of the rules and muddling through this on a wing (pardon the pun) and a prayer. We figure by this time next year we will have it figured out as to how it should have been done.

So first clue as to how green we are at this,

..........this morning I go to get 2 of the farm fresh eggs that I've bought at a farm I visited, just to get a handle on what's involved and whether it's worth the effort. The woman there was very helpful and friendly, gave me some great tips, but her English was not the best yet and I'm sure if I'd brought a Polish or Ukranian friend, I would have gotten alot more out of the visit. But never the less, the hen house was much quieter than I expected and the smell was not nearly what I was dreading. $3.00 a dozen and the eggs are amazing. Did have an issue trying to crack the first one, seems these farm eggs need a bit more muscle to get into.

............anyways, back to the morning breakfast adventure.

I go out to the fridge ( we are keeping this dozen in the garage fridge because I already have a full tray in the kitchen fridge ) and I open up the carton, and there are 4 perfectly shaped, cracked and empty eggs in there. They were in the door of the fridge, so it's possible that it fell out and we broke them, but where's the mess ??? These things are totally clean, I can't figure it out. So I cook up 2 and eat them while surfing for ....."can chickens lay empty eggs" and no surprise, some people say they have had that happen and others say it's impossible. But everyone who says it can happen has found them in the chicken coop, not the refrigerator. So part of me wants to join the forum and say...."hey, yes it is possible, I just found 4 of them in the egg carton that way", part of me wants to go back to Polish lady and say " hey, you sold me 4 duds" and part of me is saying oh never mind, just forget about it. Luckily that last part was speaking loudest to me. When I got home from ordering the chicks, I mentioned this "strange phenomenon" to Bob the Builder. He looks at me like I'm an idiot and tells me that he put them there because..............HE COULDN'T FIND THE KITCHEN COMPOST BUCKET !!!!!

I mean really, I almost crabbed out the nice Polish lady, I almost went on the net and said it really does happen, I wasted an half an hour looking this up!!! Who the hell puts empty egg shells back in the carton looking like a full egg???? is it not natural to put the two empty halves inside themselves???.............removing all doubt that the chicken may have laid them with nothing inside???? all this because I left the compost bucket in the garage to air out!!! Oh, I so hope the chickens make more sense than the man..LOL

Timing is everything

So the plan for the spring of 2011 includes installing a tracking solar system that will be connected to the grid in hopes of getting an income, the reconstruction of the deck to make that more user friendly, and because both of these projects will result in the massive devastation that just is heavy equipment to any of the landscape that we haven't already managed to destroy in anticipation of this , I guess we will have to redo the grounds as well..........including, of course, a new and improved vegetable garden.

So in the middle of all this deconstruct and reconstruct, with all the sand, dust, ruts and mud that accompany that, all of which is being lovingly brought indoors by 2 big dogs and a cat, here's me trying to save, identify and relocate any plants worth keeping, and it's springtime, so of course I'm buying more still. So I now have a house that needs sweeping at least 3 times a day, numerous plants in waiting, in various locations throughout the property that need water , a veg garden that needs planting, a truck load of lumber that needs to be stained, a retaining wall to be built and a railing that I need to build too.......all of this with a deadline of July 9th weekend, our annual weekend long Pitfest camp over party which this year is doubling as Bob the Builders Birthday Bash..........so planning for that needs to occupy some of my grey matter as well.

Maybe it was the heat..........or sheer exhaustion.........or possibly one well deserved beer more than required..........but somehow, in the midst of all this we decided........

THAT WE NEED TO GET CHICKENS!!!????

....and let's get some ducks too ( in hindsight, I can say that this was probably the beer talking )

Anyways, long before the idea of this blog ever existed, I started to keep a journal about this new adventure in livestock, and remember.....I have No experience with this chicken thing AT ALL!!

So I'm going to post the journal entries with dates, which of course will not match up with the posting dates of this blog.............you're just going to have to deal with that because the other thing that I never got around to doing was taking the Blogging 101 course.

Move in Day

Passing the Torch

So with the move to my This My Parents Old House looming in my future, I manage to hold the folks off for 4 years before their actually move, on April 1 no less…………..ya what a joke that was.

With my 2 kids, "#1 son" and his brother "#1 just a little later", gone and out of the house, and another new one just moved in, the school bus is still an issue, but here we go anyway.

So who’s coming along

Well me, the official Wingnut for giving in to this

Bob the Builder, who 4 years later I still want him to make another move with me

His daughter, my stepchild, so the pet name is Evil, and it is reversible back to the step-mother………..which would make me the Evil Wingnut…………very flattering!?

His cat, which, hey, it’s a cat, so Cat fits.

My big old 110lb black, scare the crap out of silly people that can’t see past his bark to his tail waggin’, dog, affectionately known as Ol Fart

And ALL the fish, the entire cast of Finding Nemo in one tank, and Oscar and the gang in the other not so salty tank.

Once we are here, our first big decision,……….. we need another dog. This property just needs another dog. So we get Little Girl, aka Bat Girl

Now you do know that all of us have real, more flattering names, except the fish. We really do have a Nemo and Dory etc, and Oscar is an Oscar and just like most of them is named Oscar, and I’m pretty sure the fish don’t give a hoot if I write about them on the internet, but for privacy reasons, the rest of us are going with the much more suitable ( but should never be placed on an official document ) names, that I have listed above.

So that ‘s the cast of characters that comes along for the ride.

3 years later, we added

Lucy
Elvira
Joan
Mitzi
Bambi
And 3 as yet un-named chickens ( I’m working on that and might need your help )

Along with the ducks…

Raid
Off
Vapona
Muskol
Deet
Repel
Slugger
Guano
and our little surprise …. Citronella

and this is when things start to go really wacky.
　

　

So how did this all start……

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My Onkel, aka Father Goose, circa  1970

Years ago, my Onkel, at the ripe ol’ age of twenty something, found this 100 acre property, got his heart set on it and off he went to the lumber camps, saved his pennies and returned to buy it. Being a bachelor at the time, he built a small cabin and proceeded to aquire his flocks and herds and eventually a family. It was a place that as children we loved to visit, especially at Easter because the egg hunt covered a ridiculous amout of property. I have some very vague memories of him hatching eggs in his oven at the start and I seriously remember the day that we were to have a family outing to his homestead to help process the ducks, .............the thing I remember most about this was pulling out every procrastination skill that I had, just so that we would be able to arrive after the actual killing was done. And much later, as a teenager, with a summer job that required me to cross his field every afternoon to return home, I distinctly remember his crazed horse Rhubarb would catch sight of me at the far end of the field ( I always had to figure out where that stupid critter was and plan my approach accordingly ) and then he'd start all the cows into a stampede headed straight for me..........me that was running madly to reach the far side and very ungraciously launch myself into the bush in true WingNut fashion. It's no wonder that I always excelled at the 100 yard dash, or maybe excelling at it is why I am still here to talk about it.


But the reality now is that this is the total extent of my experience with anything farmlike or livestockish.


A small corner of the acreage was severed off for my parents when I was 16, and the building of This My Parents Old House began………….and like any true teenager…………I was soooo NOT paying attention to how beautiful this property is or anything else except for the fact that by the time we were moving in, I was 18 and there was NO PHONE. A year later I was off to colllege and I never lived in the house again.

So 6 years ago, my parents were straddling the 80yr old mark in their lives and they announced that they wanted to "talk"……………..you know this is going to have an impact of some sort, you just don’t know what.

We had just months earlier moved to a new house and were literally going through boxes in the garage to find the dishes to pull off this dinner and "talk". I was bracing myself for health issues.

I so did not see it coming when my, "I love my land, and healthy as an ox", Dad said that they had come to a point in their lives where they want to move to town…………...and they want the property to stay in the "family".

Frig!!!, I’m an only child, "family" would be me !! There are no brothers or sisters sitting at this table that I could turn to and say "you do it" There were so many thoughts going through my head at that minute, they all came together, crashed, exploded, rolled down my spine and regrouped in the pit of my stomach to make me feel physically ill…………..and we hadn’t even started to eat yet.
　

I mean, really, who in their right mind would want to live way out there, in a house that is reminiscent of an episode of The 70’s Show, with 2 teenagers in high school, 45 minutes away by car, 2 hours by bus. I mean really, who would want to do that,

I lied…………..and said, yes, I would.

And I’ve never looked back.