Ducklings day 53

Today’s the day! Today I opened the pop door of the duck house. But it didn’t go quite as expected.

As mentioned yesterday, I didn’t expect them all to go into the pond… but I didn’t anticipate what actually happened: instead of the new ducks joining Bert in the pond, Bert joined them in the duck house!

We began the day the same as usual, opening up the duck house and refilling their waterer and pool:

Ducks

And the usual treats:

Treat time

Sven, Sonja, Cora:

Sven, Sonja, Cora

Then I opened the pop door, that little door that leads to a ramp into the pond; here it’s partway open:

Opening pop door

Looking in through the pop door at some surprised ducks:

Looking in through the pop door

Almost immediately, Bert hopped out of the pond onto the ramp and into the house. He really wanted to be with them. Here he’s to the right of Betty:

Betty and Bert

Bert in the duck house:

Bert in the duck house

Bert’s the one at the back:

Bert in the duck house

Bert in front:

Bert in the duck house

Bert

Looking through the vent of the duck house:

Looking through the vent of the duck house

Bert is on the ground, Betty on the steps:

Pool

He didn’t show any aggression towards them, or vice versa; they seem to have successfully gotten used to each other through the fence.

I decided to add more ceramic pots to the pond as islands, anticipating the new ducks sleeping outside (in due course); these are three spare pots:

Pots

I added two of them near the existing one (the square one on top of a concrete block):

Pots in pond as islands

And the third in a shallower part, since it was smaller:

Pots in pond as islands

While wading in the pond, I took some pictures of the ducks; here Bert is watching me from the pop door:

Ducks from pond

After lunch, back at the duck house, I noticed lots of bees drinking from the pond; it’s a hot day today (95° F), so the bees are extra thirsty:

Bees drinking from pond

The ducks still hadn’t ventured into the pond, so I opened the run fence on the pond side, to see if that’d help. Spoiler: nope:

Opened run fence on pond side

The ducks watching from the house:

Ducks in house

View from across the pond:

View from across the pond

As I write this, the new ducks still haven’t ventured into the pond. We’ll see if they do later, or maybe another day.

Video

Bert joins the new ducks

Today we opened the duck house pop door, enabling the new ducks to go into the pond, but instead Bert took the opportunity to join them in their house and run. (Bert is the duck closest to the pop door.)

Ducklings day 52

Today is the last day before the new ducks can go free-range; I plan to open the pop door and let them go into the pond tomorrow morning.

I don’t expect them all to take that opportunity the first day, though having access to the run and pool might make them more comfortable with going into the pond than the ducklings last year, who didn’t have that advantage. I’m very glad I hacked together the run this year:

Morning ducklings

Betty on the steps:

Betty

Cora shaking off water:

Shaking off water

I wanted to compare Clive and Cora; Clive has darker wing feathers, and Cora is more uniform, but their bills and feet are very similar. As mentioned yesterday, Clive will put on a bit more of a show in spring, and I think in the fall too:

Clive and Cora

An animated slow-mo GIF of Cora dunking and the water flowing off her back:

GIF of dunking

And a slow-mo GIF of flapping her wings; look at all those feathers:

GIF of flapping wings

Ducklings day 51

Today, I feel like I’m being watched, and I watch shimmery feathers.

Everybody looking at me in the morning:

I feel like I'm being watched

Just waiting for their treats:

Treats

I was fascinated by the green feathers of a Rouen:

Green feathers

Or are they blue feathers?

Blue feathers?

Green feathers?

Fascinating feathers:

Treats and blue feathers

By the way, the Rouens currently look like females, though I know they are both males. Apparently they only have the colorful plumage in spring; other times they have more female-looking feathers to blend in. Sneaky! Should be interesting to watch. I didn’t see that with Bert, as he stayed the Buff color year-round (though did get the characteristically male tail curl in spring).

Swimming for treats:

Treats

I feel like I’m being watched again; heads tilted to point an eye at me:

I feel like I'm being watched

Afternoon mealworms:

Afternoon mealworms

Flock Friday for July 24

This week will probably be the last Flock Friday without the new ducks — they should be out in the pond by next week. I plan to stop the daily duckling posts once they settle into their new routine, though may still have more frequent updates for a while, depending on how many interesting pictures I take; we’ll see.

Here’s Bert watching them:

Bert

You may recall that we have an inverted ceramic pot in the pond as a small island for the ducks. I wanted to make it a bit bigger, so got a spare wider pot to add on top. Here are my waders and the pot, watched by Bert:

Waders, pot, duck

Me in my waders and garden work hat:

David

Me in the pond, adding the pot; it’s not particularly deep at that point:

David in pond

The expanded island (the pond is looking very green at present):

Island

Another view of the island; it’s closer to the pond deck than it looks in the cam shot above:

Island

Sometime I’d like to make an even bigger island, since only two or three ducks would be able to fit on that one. Perhaps a floating platform or something. It’s fairly low on my priority list, since the ducks can sleep floating on the pond, but I’ll re-evaluate once the new ones are out.

Bert watching me, with the waterfall and filler hose going:

Bert

Bert on the island overnight; I like the eerie glow off the duckling pool from the night vision light of the camera watching it:

Night pond

In the early morning, you can more clearly see Bert on the island:

Night pond

A night swim:

Night pond

I hadn’t taken any chicken pictures this week, but I wouldn’t want to deprive the chicken fans amongst you, so I took some this morning. Here they are awaiting treats:

Chickens awaiting treats

Chickens

They got one of their all-time favorite treats this morning, cooked rice:

Chickens with rice treats

Ducklings day 50

50 days! 49 is seven weeks old, but 50 feels like a more significant number.

Morning everyone:

Morning everyone

Bert and Betty:

Bert and Betty

Sonja at the top of the steps:

Sonja

Bert and Betty again; I wonder if they feel some sort of breed kinship?

Bert and Betty

This afternoon, I noticed Sven and Sonja swimming (watched by Betty); unusual to see Sven in the pool:

Betty plus Sven and Sonja swimming

Cora (I assume) and Sonja on the steps, with Sven spreading his wings:

Cora plus Sven and Sonja swimming

Sonja on the steps, Sven and Cora swimming:

Cora plus Sven and Sonja swimming

Ducklings day 49

A few more days before free-range opportunity! Though I will be surprised if they all go out into the pond on the first day.

This morning, a wide-angle shot of filling their pool, while they cautiously wait:

Filling pool

I expect Cora and Sonja will be the first into the pond:

Cora and Sonja

Betty: why go after the treat that’s right there, when there’s one in the water?

Betty

Why not both?

Bert and Betty:

Bert and Betty

A zoom on some nice green feathers of a Rouen:

A zoom on some nice green feathers of a Rouen

Sonja, Cora, and a Rouen:

Sonja, Cora, a Rouen

Ducklings day 48

Only a few more days of duckling posts! It’s becoming increasingly a stretch to call them that; they’re pretty much just ducks now. My threshold is when they are allowed in the pond.

And I now have a planned date for opening the pop door of the duck house: this Sunday. The weather will be cooling off a bit later this week, but Sunday is forecast to be a high of 90°F / 32°C and low of 62°F / 17°C, so they’ll probably want to cool off in the water, and it’ll be warm enough overnight if they choose to spend the night on the pond (as I expect at least some will).

Here’s everyone; Sven on the left, then Betty, the two Rouens (Raoul and Rémy), the two Khaki Campbells (Cora and Clyde), and Sonja in the pool:

Ducklings

Cora and Sonja:

Cora and Sonja

Cora, Sonja, one of the Rouens:

Cora, Sonja, one of the Rouens

Bert watching… not long now, buddy:

Bert watching

Sven and Sonja standing side-by-side, a Rouen in the shadowy foreground, and Cora preening:

Sven, Sonja, and Cora

A Rouen, Betty, and Sven:

A Rouen, Betty, Sven

Bert and Betty watching me:

Bert and Betty

Duck(ling) names

A bit over three weeks ago I did a post titled “Duckling names”, where I included one picture of the ducklings, and listed their breeds and names. I thought it was time to do an update of that, now that they’re mostly feathered and grown. (Check out how much smaller they were back then!)

Here’s a picture from this afternoon that includes all seven of the new ducklings.

In the front we have the two Khaki Campbells. Cora is on the left, and Clyde on the right. They’re hard to tell apart, though Cora is tidier since she swims a lot (I’ve noticed that female ducklings are much more into swimming than male).

Behind them is our female Buff, Betty.

Behind her is the female Blue Swedish, Sonja. She is distingushed by the small patch of white on her chest.

Behind her are the two Rouens, Raoul and Rémy. They are both male, and I haven’t studied them closely enough to tell them apart.

Lastly, we have the male Blue Swedish, Sven. He has a larger white patch.

Ducklings