Month: September 2020

Cat update for week ending September 26

It’s now fall, and the trees got a head start. The rainy weather over the past week was most welcome, to help tamp down the nearby wildfires (which are getting under control, but still not completely out; I’ll do an update about them some other day).

This rainy weather makes the feral cats want to stay home, snuggly and warm in their heated cat house and cabins. So brace for some snuggly cuteness. I am including a summary GIF of 45 pictures captured this week at the end, like I did for yesterday’s Flock Friday. But here are 17 I particularly liked.

Poppy looking happy in a sunbeam on the cat house deck, while another eats:

Cat in sunbeam

Porcini and Poppy snuggling inside the cat house:

Snuggles

Porcini watching me while I attend to the small pond:

Porcini

As mentioned in my flock post, I’ve been going out around dusk to close up the chicken coop; one day I went after dark, and saw some eyes on the driveway, which was a cat watching me (I often see the cats watching me from a distance):

Cat at night

Pansy in the back of the shop:

Pansy

Pansy

Poppy and Porcini in their house again:

Two cats in their house

Porcini, a twin, and Poppy:

Three cats

Cabin twins (Pommie on the left, Spud on the right):

Cabin twins

Poppy, Bella, and Porcini (I always list them left-to-right):

Three cats

Poppa:

Poppa

Porcini having a bath:

Porcini

More Porcini and Poppy snuggles:

Two cats in their house

Screenshot of cams with five cats; two in the cabins, three in the house:

Screenshot with five cats

Porcini looking out the window:

Porcini

Can you stand more snuggles of this level of cuteness?

Snuggles

Stretch:

Stretch

The aforementioned GIF of all 45 pictures captured this week:

GIF summary

More ducklings day 45

Last night the maintenance door of the duck house didn’t latch securely, and a duckling pushed it open when squeezing past the waterer.

Here’s a GIF:

GIF of duckling pushing open door

They quickly took advantage of the opportunity to head out for more swimming:

Duckling pushed open door

I saw them on the camera, and went out again to close them up properly when I closed up the chicken coop.

This morning (and all day) has been rainy, which is fine with them:

Damp morning

Damp morning

Swimming:

Swimming

A Rouen playing with the bungee that holds the door open (in addition to the brick, which stops it banging in the wind):

Ducklings

Splashes:

Splashes

Looking at me from the tray pool:

Looking at me

Flock Friday for September 25

A big Flock Friday today, with 33 photos of ducks and chickens, plus a GIF with those and 31 more at the end, as if 33 weren’t enough. But I took lots of nice shots of the ducks, so wanted to share them.

Firstly, via the pond cam from while we were evacuated, a wild duck visitor:

Wild duck visitor

Our ducks with the wild duck visitor (left); much smaller than ours:

Ducks with wild duck visitor

The ducks discovered the other upturned pot islands in the pond:

Ducks on islands

Ducks eating:

Ducks eating

When we got home from our evacuation, I collected eggs. Several under broody Martha:

Broody chicken with eggs

And a bunch in another box:

Eggs

That would be about one day’s worth in the peak of summer, but they are slowing down for fall, so are from several days. Currently they’re down to about 5 eggs per day.

Chickens waiting for treats:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Yay, rice treats:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

We let them into the veggie garden while evacuated (after our mid-evac visit), and they denuded the kale, except for the high leaves out of their reach, though left most of the pumpkins and tomatoes:

Veggie garden

I’ve continued to have issues with the ChickenGuard pop door opener on the new chicken coop:

ChickenGuard opener

So have had to go out to the coop each night to manually close the door. Here are the four chickens that prefer the new coop at night:

Chickens at night

From outside (on another night):

Chickens at night

Back to the ducks, with a bunch of pictures; the males are putting on their colorful feathers now, so they’ve changed a bit since you last saw them:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

GIF of ducks during a rainy night:

GIF of night ducks

Betty has been hanging out in the grasses, maybe thinking of nesting, though a bit young for that:

Betty in the grasses

Here’s a GIF summary of 64 photos from this week, including the above and a bunch more:

GIF summary

More ducklings day 44

Yesterday was the first day of week 7 for the ducklings, which means they are in their last week in the duck house and run. I normally (in as much as having done so twice) let them into the pond in week 8. Basically I wait for them to be fully feathered, which they aren’t quite yet, but should be in a week.

It’s leafy treat time, with Betty outside the run enjoying one too:

Ducklings

A Rouen eyeing me before hopping in the pool:

Ducklings

You can see the growth of the feathers on the brown Khaki Campbell; it’s fascinating how the feathers grow as white pins then sprout from their tips:

Ducklings

Here, let me zoom in on her so you can see better:

Duckling zoom

Betty is often fascinated by the ducklings:

Duck

Swimming duckling and ducks:

Ducklings

Four Rouens:

Ducklings

More ducklings day 42

A focus on food today for the ducklings.

But first, I opened up the duck house and topped up water (the paint tray pool goes in the duck house while it is closed up overnight):

Ducklings

Ducklings and ducks watching each other:

Ducklings and ducks

This morning I gave them some leafy treats as usual:

Leafy treats

Then after lunch I gave them some partially-frozen peas; ducks love all sorts of green treats:

Peas

Peas

I also refilled their food jug. They are fed a mix of brewer’s yeast (for niacin), raw rolled oats (to reduce the protein ratio), and non-medicated start & grow feed (until they start laying eggs, then will be switched to layer feed like the chickens):

Food

Adding some oats and yeast to the jug; I add a couple of large scoops of feed, then oats and yeast, then more feed, and so on, to mix them together. This jug normally goes into the top of the feeder tube, though I’m also using it to dispense food into a dish for the older ducks until they can all eat from the duck house again:

Food

Finally, some ducks coming around the side of the duck house to say hi to the ducklings:

Ducks and ducklings

More ducklings day 41

Today for the ducklings, some stretching of wings, fun splashes, and a GIF.

A Rouen stretching her wings; still some feather growth to go, but getting there (with the older ducks visible in the pond):

Wings

Like water off a duck’s back:

Like water off a duck's back

Water again

A Rouen stepping on up to the pool, and Betty stepping up to the fence from the pond:

Stepping on up

Splashes:

Splashes

The Khaki Campbell flapping her wings too; a little behind in growth, but also getting there:

Wings

An animated GIF of three ducks swimming in circles:

GIF

More ducklings day 40

The first day back in the duck house and run for the ducklings, with the kiddie pool.

Good morning:

Ducklings

Today I set up the kiddie pool again for them:

Filling kiddie pool

Treats to encourage them to investigate it:

Treats

Treats

I tweaked the steps to be easier on their short legs:

Steps

It didn’t take long for them to hop in and start swimming:

Swimming

Some preferred a more direct serving of treats, though:

Treats

Three ducklings swimming, plus ducks in the pond:

Swimming

Swimming

Swimming for treats:

Swimming

Swimming

Dunking:

Swimming

Four in the pool:

Swimming

Shaking her head after getting out:

Swimming

(Did you see the video of swimming?)

Beehives re-treatments and feeding

We did a quick half-hour visit to our beehives today, to swap out the mite treatment strips and add “bee juice”, a syrup of sugar water to help the bees build up their winter stores, since there aren’t many flowers blooming at this time of year.

We were a little concerned that the bees may have evacuated from all the wildfire smoke, but they’re all still there. They may have eaten a bunch of their honey stores, though — fun fact, that’s why beekeeping smokers work; the smoke makes the bees go down into the hive and eat honey, in preparation for flying away from approaching wildfires. I guess they decided the wildfire smoke wasn’t intense enough to justify leaving, for which we are glad. Or maybe their scouts told them it was just as bad everywhere.

Here are a couple of pots with 1:1 sugar water and health additive (we should switch to 2:1 next time; that’s a lot of sugar):

Sugar water

The old treatment strip, about to be removed:

Old treatment

The new treatment strip (it’s pretty smelly stuff):

New treatment

The top feeder, with the fresh bee juice (and some floaters; sorry about that):

Feeder

That’s it for this time; we just swapped out the strips and added juice for all six of the hives.

We shouldn’t need to open up the hives again till next spring, other than adding more sugar syrup as needed.