Ducks

Flock Friday for November 20

Hey there. It’s Friday… Flock Friday. This week, ducks, chickens, and hummingbirds… and a rodent.

Here are some ducks on upturned-pot islands in the pond:

Ducks

In and around the duck house:

Ducks

On the pond:

Ducks

Hey there Betty:

Ducks

A rodent (rat, I think) has been visiting the duck house this week. Not welcome, due to possible disease concerns, though it doesn’t seem to be doing any harm, and I don’t know what I can do to stop it — it comes in via the pond pop door, and during the day too. Here you can see it under the ramp, with the ducks nearby:

Rodent and ducks

The ducks were very curious about it:

Rodent and ducks

Some pictures of the chickens in the veggie garden:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

In their run, coming to greet me on rounds:

Chickens

Leafy treats:

Chickens

More of the ducks:

Ducks

Going up the bank to the lawn:

Ducks

On the lawn:

Ducks

Ducks

A GIF of the rodent in the duck house:

Rodent GIF

I shared this GIF of dancing hummingbirds on my personal blog:

Hummingbirds GIF

And some pictures of hummingbirds, taken with me standing outside a few feet away:

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds

The ducks on the lawn again:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Some chicken eggs in a nesting box; we’ve been averaging about two or three per day of late, but occasionally have more:

Eggs

Finally, a couple more duck pictures:

Ducks

Ducks

Flock Friday for November 6

I can’t believe it’s Friday already; it’s been quite a week, eh? What is time, anyway?

Since I’ve been posting hourly photos on my personal blog over the last few days, to help distract me and others from election coverage, you may have seen some of these pictures… but there are some new ones, too.

On Halloween I gave the chickens a pumpkin:

Chickens with pumpkin

Chickens with pumpkin

This is what a pumpkin looks like after they’re through with it; just the barest of shells:

Pumpkin

Some pictures of the ducks on the pond:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

This week I let the chickens into the veggie garden (video):

Chickens in veggie garden

Lots of tomatoes:

Chickens in veggie garden

Those recently planted lettuces never had a chance:

Chickens in veggie garden

Digging in the potato planters is fun:

Chickens in veggie garden

Tasty kale:

Chickens in veggie garden

A wide shot of the whole veggie garden:

Chickens in veggie garden

I went to the feed store, as I was out of duck food. The new coop storage area is rather full at present:

Coop storage

More pictures of ducks:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Chickens in the veggie garden again, a few days later; not much left of the green pumpkins:

Chickens in veggie garden

Chickens in veggie garden

Buffy jumping for high kale leaves:

Chickens in veggie garden

Chickens in veggie garden

Chickens in veggie garden

Ducks:

Ducks

The old chicken coop:

Old chicken coop

And new chicken coop:

New chicken coop

The chickens waiting for me:

Chickens

I discovered a soft egg, just the inner membrane, without a hard shell. Unusual, but happens occasionally:

Soft egg

Ducks on the lawn:

Ducks

Ducks

Finally, a GIF edition of the time-lapse video I posted yesterday:

Ducks GIF

Flock Friday for October 30

Welcome to Flock Friday. This week, I am highlighting 20 chicken-related pictures plus 12 duck pictures, along with a summary GIF of 59 candidates.

What’s a more fun way to start the week than mucking out the chicken coop:

Mucking out chicken coop

Fresh bedding in the nesting boxes:

Mucking out chicken coop

And a pile on the floor for the chickens to scratch and spread:

Mucking out chicken coop

A duck interlude — Betty in the grasses:

Betty in the grasses

It’s a little warmer now, but earlier in the week it was freezing overnight, resulting in a frozen waterer:

Frozen waterer

The hose wand is actually dripping water to top up the waterer, which is what caused the big icicles (and helps stop the hose from freezing):

Frozen waterer

Frozen waterer

Frozen waterer

GIF of dripping icicles (as you may have previously seen on my personal blog):

Frozen waterer GIF

On afternoon rounds, the chickens waiting for me:

Chickens waiting for me

They then all rush into the new coop to wait for treats:

Chickens waiting for treats

Thusly:

Chickens with treats

Ducks in a leafy pond:

Ducks

Ducks

Also previously posted to my personal blog, photos and GIFs of ducks flapping wings:

Ducks flapping wings

Ducks flapping wings GIF

Ducks flapping wings

Ducks flapping wings GIF

Ducks on the lawn, hunting for worms and such (I like the peek of the white gazebo in the background):

Ducks on lawn

A bunch of pictures of chickens; they’re all pretty much done with their molting and feather regrowth now:

Chickens

Chicken

Chicken

Chickens

Chicken

Chicken

Chicken

Chickens

Pecking at my boot:

Chickens

More pictures of ducks on the lawn (the grass is a bit long, but I’m probably not going to mow again till next spring):

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

Finally, the aforementioned summary GIF, with the above and lots more photos from this week:

Summary GIF

Maple fall foliage

Fall is a colorful time of year, especially from the various maple trees we have around the homestead.

Here is a coral bark maple by the front of the shop, that turns all sorts of interesting colors; right now a sampler as some leaves are still green, some yellowing, and a few red:

Tree

A big maple near the fountain garden is well on its way to losing leaves:

Tree

Its leaves cover the ground all around it:

Leaves

Leaves

Plus decorating shrubby trees:

Shrubby tree

Shrubby tree

An October Glory red maple near the pool area; not a great picture, it can really glow in certain light:

Tree

As a bonus, some non-maple leaves covering the pond for the ducks to swim through:

Leafy pond and ducks

Leafy pond and ducks

Flock Friday for October 23

Fabulously freezing Flock Friday, friends! (The temperature was below freezing overnight.)

28 degrees F overnight

A shot from the new coop cam of three chickens on their favorite roost by the window:

Chickens

A GIF of a fourth flying from the other roosts, and knocking the camera off:

Chickens GIF

A freeze-frame of landing on top of another chicken, causing that chaos:

Chickens

The camera is magnetically attached to a metal plate wedged under the window screen; here it’s just hanging by its wire:

Camera

The ducks on the back lawn, rooting for bugs:

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

A time-lapse GIF of a chicken flying up to the roost and back down again:

Chickens GIF

Chickens hanging out on top of logs etc:

Chickens

A bunch more pics of the chickens:

Chickens

Chickens

Kiwi is still looking quite scruffy, but you can see the new feathers coming in:

Chickens

Ditto with Buffy:

Chickens

Chickens

I had a cunning idea, to make it easier to see if the pop doors are open or closed in the dark: I added reflective tape on the pop door:

Reflective tape on pop door

And on the outside:

Reflective tape on pop door

The old coop too (the horizontal one acts as an extra indicator, only being visible when the door is closed):

Reflective tape on pop door

Here are roosting chickens again, with the light on:

Roosting chickens

A little spooky after the light goes off (it’s on a timer):

Roosting chickens

As it gets darker, the night-vision of the cam turns on:

Roosting chickens

The pop door closed; now clearly visible via the reflective strips:

Roosting chickens

I can see the state of the door outside too, via the reflective strips:

Coop outside

In the old coop, door open:

Roosting chickens

Door closed:

Roosting chickens

The ducks have recently been hanging out on the bank to the left of the pond deck:

Ducks

Ducks

It started raining, so the ducks came up to the lawn to hunt for worms that come to the surface during precipitation:

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

A GIF of a Rouen running up the bank, using her wings to assist:

Ducks GIF

Sassa doing the same:

Ducks on lawn

She kept on going:

Ducks GIF

Exploring more of the lawn:

Ducks on lawn

Summary: building the duck house

I just added a project summary of designing and building the duck house. It is permanently available in my project pages, but here is a copy as a blog post too.

———

A project to build a house and feeder for ducklings and ducks on our pond. For weekly posts on the ducks themselves, check out the ducks category of the blog, and/or the weekly Flock Friday blog posts, that cover the ducks, chickens, and wild birds.

This is a summary of the plans, design, construction, and installation of the duck house, with links to the individual blog posts about it.

January 2019

We have a nice large pond at the homestead, and enjoyed the occasional visit by migrating wild ducks. In January 2019 we decided we wanted permanent residents, and ordered four ducklings for delivery in May. So, it was time to get started designing a house for them. Here’s where it would be situated:

February 2019

My custom design for a duck house:

Starting construction, one of the first steps was to cut the floor and wall panels:

Lots of progress on assembling the walls and roof:

March 2019

A bunch of tweaks and trim work:

Building the doors, including the innovative four-part maintenance door:

Adding battens:

April 2019

Starting to paint the duck house:

Adding door hardware:

Roofing:

The house includes LED and heat lamp lighting and other electrical features, including Wi-Fi:

I added vinyl tiles to help waterproof it:

May 2019

With the construction complete, I next hand-excavated the location next to the pond:

Installing the floor joists:

Installation:

Some preparation for ducklings (and chicks):

Introduction of the first ducklings to the duck house:

June 2019

I also introduced a new weekly series on the blog, Flock Friday (that’s a baby Bert on the left):

(Check out the ducks category, or in ascending order, or the weekly Flock Friday blog posts, for more pictures of ducklings.)

July 2019

An addition to the duck house was covered in one of the Flock Friday posts: adding the feeder tube:

When the first ducklings were getting old enough to go in the pond, I made and installed a ramp for them:

That’s it for now. This page will be updated with any future enhancements to the duck house.

Flock Friday for October 16

Some hummingbirds, ducks, chickens, a jay, and even a cat. Plus some sad news. It’s Flock Friday.

Seven hungry hummingbirds on a rainy day:

Hummingbirds

Did you see the slow motion video of the hummingbirds?

A time-lapse animated GIF of ducks having breakfast:

Duck breakfast GIF

Ducks on the edge of the lawn:

Ducks

Sassa standing tall and stretching her wings:

Sassa

Ducks on the lawn; I love Rémy’s green head:

Ducks

On the lawn:

Ducks

A wide-angle shot of the ducks, with the brown gazebo and two chicken coops in the background:

Wide angle ducks

Sassa flapping her wings again:

Ducks

A cheeky Steller’s Jay in the duck house:

Steller's Jay

Ducks in the pond:

Ducks

Ducks

Concluding my recent saga on the ChickenGuard pop door opener for the new chicken coop, I bought and installed a replacement unit, so it now works reliably, at last. While this has been quite a hassle, I’m very pleased with the customer service of the manufacturer — they were very responsive in trying to help, and even sent a front panel (with electronics) and another motor, at no charge, even after I told them I replaced it, so I’d have a spare:

New ChickenGuard opener

Speaking of the chickens, here are some pictures of damp and scraggly chickens, still going through their annual molting:

Chickens

Chicken

Chickens

Chicken

Chicken

Chickens

Merida in a nesting box:

Chicken in nesting box

Back to the ducks; you may have seen some of these on my personal blog:

Ducks

Ducks

Clara showing off her wing:

Ducks

Ducks on the lawn:

Ducks

Sven stretching:

Ducks

Heading back to the pond:

Ducks

I mentioned sad news… it’s Sven. I discovered him floating dead at the back of the pond yesterday morning. Looking at my cam footage, it looks like he died on Wednesday. No sign of injury or attack, so my best guess is that he may have choked on something. So now we’re down to 12 ducks; 3 male, 9 female. We have that many to allow for attrition, but it still makes us sad when we lose one.

Think seven hummingbirds was a lot? How about ten:

Hummingbirds

A GIF from that Live Photo; can you spot all ten?

Hummingbirds GIF

I moved one of the cameras in the new coop:

Coop cam

Did you see the time-lapse of a day in the coop from that vantage point?

Ducks in the rain:

Ducks

Paladout investicated the duck house:

Cat in duck house

Eww, that isn’t food:

Cat in duck house

The ducks were very curious too:

Cat in duck house

Finally, a summary GIF of 116 photos from this week (excluding the GIFs and a few others). Including as a link instead of embedding, since it’s fairly large.