Ducks

Flock Friday for July 2

A little later than usual for Flock Friday, as we were out all morning while the house was inspected. But I wouldn’t want to miss sharing the fun pictures of our chickens and ducks!

Let’s start with some chickens with a head of lettuce from our veggie garden:

Chickens with a head of lettuce

The pond, with ducks and a bird flying low over the pond, to dip its beak for a drink:

Pond, ducks, bird

Another shot of a bird diving for a drink, plus Sonja on the island sitting on several of her ducklings:

Pond ducks, bird

A couple of ducks enjoying some shade:

Ducks enjoying some shade

I love that shiny green head:

Ducks

Hot chickens; chickens panting on one of the really hot days this week (don’t worry, they have flowing water to cool off):

Hot chickens

Hot chickens

Hot chickens

Sonja and ducklings:

Sonja and ducklings

Ducks on and near the island:

Ducks on and near the island

Betty and her ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings, and more ducks on the island:

Ducks

Sonja and ducklings:

Sonja and ducklings

Ducks on the lawn; Betty and her ducklings on the left, others in the middle, and Sonja’s ducklings on the right:

Ducks on the lawn

Chickens roosting in their run:

Chickens in their run

Flock Friday for June 25

It’s Flock Friday. Did you see the announcement about us selling our homestead? These updates will be continuing for a little while longer, so enjoy them while they last!

An aerial view of the pond:

Aerial view of the pond

Sonja and her ducklings on an upturned pot island:

Sonja and her ducklings

Sonja and her ducklings

Chickens:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Sonja and her ducklings, with other ducks in the background:

Sonja and her ducklings

Betty and her ducklings wading in the waterfall stream:

Betty and her ducklings

Finally, a GIF of some of Sonja’s ducklings eating from the duckling feeder:

Ducklings

Sonja’s ducklings on June 19 and 20

So, remember when I said that most of Sonja’s eggs wouldn’t hatch, like with Betty’s? Yeah, about that… I was wrong; it looks like pretty much all of them did. She currently has 16 ducklings!

I say “currently” as it is likely that some won’t survive their first few days, and others may die for various reasons over time, but it’s still more than expected.

Here’s a GIF of Sonja popping out of her nest, with a squirming mass of ducklings:

Ducklings

Another GIF; so many ducklings:

Ducklings

Last GIF of overflowing ducklings:

Ducklings

This morning Sonja led her babies into the pond. Definitely a benefit of mother-raised ducklings, able to swim a day or two after hatching:

Sonja and ducklings

Here they are with some of Betty’s ducklings in the background; the latter are only three weeks older, but so much bigger!

Betty's ducklings; Sonja and ducklings

Quite the flotilla:

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja’s ducklings on June 18 and 19

I mentioned in Flock Friday yesterday that Sonja’s ducklings were due to hatch that day, based on when she started full-time nesting. Well, right on schedule, they did indeed; I saw the first duckling yesterday afternoon, and this morning there are several; a little too dark to count them, but I’m pretty sure I saw at least six.

Here are some GIFs of them, starting with the first one I saw:

Sonja's ducklings

Another GIF:

Sonja's ducklings

GIF of a duckling tumbling out of the nest, and climbing back in:

Sonja's ducklings

After dark GIF with several visible:

Sonja's ducklings

This morning, one of the boys was being too nosy, so Sonja led him away from the nest. The oldest duckling followed to the door, then returned to the nest (GIF):

Sonja's ducklings

While she was away, we get a better look at the squirming mass of ducklings in this GIF; see how many you can count:

Sonja's ducklings

For comparison, here is a picture of Betty’s ducklings; already much bigger:

Sonja and Betty's ducklings

Finally, several ducklings emerging from under Sonja:

Sonja's ducklings

Stay tuned for another baby duckling update tomorrow.

Flock Friday for June 18

Happy Flock Friday! We’re still waiting for Sonja’s eggs to hatch; based on when she started full-time nesting, they’re due around today, though could be a few days away.

Here is Sonja on her nest last weekend:

Sonja nesting

A peek at her eggs; I see 15 there, but there could be more hidden under the straw. As with Betty, probably only a few of those will hatch:

Sonja's eggs

Our pond, with Betty flapping her wings on the island, and her ducklings barely visible:

Pond

A closer look at Betty and her ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Did you see my blog post about adding more dirt to the island?

Ducklings and ducks on the far side of the pond:

Ducks

A snake taking a swim; don’t see them often:

Snake

Ducks on the lawn by the brown gazebo and grove of trees:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Sonja taking a break on an upturned pot island, along with Betty and her ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Betty and ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Betty and ducklings

They’re getting so big already!

Oh, I suppose I should include some token pictures of chickens too; the chickens are characters in their own way, but for some reason I take way more pictures of the ducks:

Chickens

Chickens:

Chickens

Chickens:

Chickens

Duck island: more dirt

On Saturday I added some more dirt to the floating island in our pond. It was floating a bit too high out of the water, and not looking as nice as it could be with a fairly hollow bowl inside, which also made it more difficult for the ducklings to navigate, as shown in the most recent Flock Friday post. So more dirt solved those issues.

Here’s a wheelbarrow of dirt; I added about two of these to the island:

Wheelbarrow of dirt

Rather than detaching the island from its anchor, I used a mucky bucket to transport several loads of dirt from the wheelbarrow to the island:

Bucket of dirt

I waded in the pond with the bucket (here it’s empty, floating on the surface):

David in pond with bucket

Some new dirt on the island:

New dirt on island

Me wading in the pond again, this time with a full bucket of dirt; it still floated, so easy enough to move, though the top of the bucket was just above the water level, so I was careful to avoid getting water inside:

David in pond with bucket of dirt

A picture Jenn took of me in the pond:

David in pond

That’ll do:

New dirt on island

The island with new dirt, floating at a better level:

New dirt on island

That evening, the ducks enjoyed re-exploring the island:

Ducks on island

It rained overnight, resulting in puddles on the island, settling of the dirt, and floating a bit lower from the weight of the water, but it’s still floating:

Puddles on island

Puddles on island

It’ll dry out again once the rain stops.

Flock Friday for June 11

Time to check on the ducks and chickens again.

Here are some ducks by the chicken coop, curious about me mucking it out:

Ducks by chicken coop

And on the lawn:

Ducks on lawn

Peeking at Sonja nesting, while refilling their food; her ducklings should hatch in a week or two:

Sonja nesting

Ducks on the path to the duck house:

Ducks on the path to the duck house

A token picture of some chickens:

Chickens

Betty and her ducklings on the floating island; they’ve been making good use of it as a safe place to sleep, which makes me happy:

Betty and ducklings on the island

Betty left to grab some treats, and the ducklings struggled to follow; I really need to add more dirt to fill in the interior, and make it sit lower in the water:

Ducklings on the island

A GIF of ducklings struggling to get off the island:

Ducklings on the island

Last one:

Duckling on the island

Looking down at Betty and ducklings below the pond deck:

Looking down at Betty and ducklings

Looking down at Betty and ducklings