Since the new ducks didn’t avail themselves of the pond when I opened the pop door yesterday, today I “encouraged” them (I basically shoved them out the door). The three females went first, and Bert showed them around the pond, then the boys joined them.
This video contains five clips from their first swim, from different vantage points around the pond.
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:
And the usual treats:
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:
Looking in through the pop door at some surprised ducks:
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:
Bert in the duck house:
Bert’s the one at the back:
Bert in front:
Looking through the vent of the duck house:
Bert is on the ground, Betty on the steps:
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:
I added two of them near the existing one (the square one on top of a concrete block):
And the third in a shallower part, since it was smaller:
While wading in the pond, I took some pictures of the ducks; here Bert is watching me from the pop door:
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:
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:
The ducks watching from the house:
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.
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:
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:
Me in my waders and garden work hat:
Me in the pond, adding the pot; it’s not particularly deep at that point:
The expanded island (the pond is looking very green at present):
Another view of the island; it’s closer to the pond deck than it looks in the cam shot above:
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 on the island overnight; I like the eerie glow off the duckling pool from the night vision light of the camera watching it:
In the early morning, you can more clearly see Bert on the island:
A night swim:
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:
They got one of their all-time favorite treats this morning, cooked rice:
I recently turned on the waterfall for our pond. Here are three clips of the waterfall, cascades, and pond.
For this week’s Flock Friday, a few pictures of Bert, and a bunch of chicken pictures.
Here’s Bert by the edge of the pond:
Spending time with the ducklings earlier in the week:
On the ramp, with undercoat fluffs on his bill:
A few pictures of the new chicken coop. Sometimes I just go in there and marvel that I designed and built it. The fun chandelier, looking rather cobwebby:
The inner door and recent addition of a straw loft above the outer door:
The open vents and pop door:
The nesting boxes:
Chickens sitting around in the run:
Fascinated by my boot:
Some raspberries growing through the fence, too high for them to reach; I picked some and gave them to the chickens:
A chicken with a raspberry:
Today at the duck house is a bit different: to give the ducklings more space, I assembled a little run for them using some spare gates.
They’re getting bigger, and are old enough to go outside now, though about three weeks from being ready to go free-range in the pond.
My initial idea was to use some posts and spare fencing wire to make a run, then I remembered these metal gates. The two poles even have concrete still on them, making them more stable.
These gates used to be on a fence between the field and the rest of the garden, that we removed years ago.
Here’s what I assembled. It’s just held together with bungee cords, but is secure enough — and is only temporary; I’ll remove it all once they’re allowed in the pond:
The gate on the top probably isn’t necessary; it’s mainly to keep other animals out. The ducklings can’t fly that high (or at all yet).
I can slide the top gate off if desired, and can swing open the left gate to access the run.
I’ll get them to go back inside at night, and close up the duck house. This run is just for daytime use.
Here’s a shot from the duck house cam, with the doors open:
The first duckling to step slightly outside:
Starting to explore:
Bert was very curious:
I moved the mobile camera from the beehives to watch the duckling run:
Bert:
Peeking at the ducklings from above:
From the other side:
Some pictures from the mobile cam (before I changed the cam label):
Look at those wings!
Back inside for a nap:
Afternoon run time:
Sitting around:
Let’s check on the chickens, Bert, and Jack. (Who is that? Read on.)
Chicken treats:
Hey there, Bert:
Jack is, of course, the frog living in our pond deck box:
Another day, more chicken pictures:
A couple more of Jack, sitting on top of the fish food container, and on the side of the box:
Let’s check on Bert, the chickens, and fish.
Bert went onto the pond deck:
Perhaps looking for the mealworm treats and koi food I keep in a box on the deck… guarded by a resident frog:
Bert watching the ducklings:
By the duck house on a rainy day:
Bert looking over the pond:
Chickens enjoying one of their favorite treats — rice:
Lettuce is ignored when there’s rice available:
It’s been hot this week, so I opened all of the chicken coop vents and windows. Here you can see chickens on the roost by the front window:
Another day; a whole lettuce plant, tomatoes, and corn cobs for the chickens:
Looking down from the pond deck at Bert and koi:
Smaller koi:
Restocked duckling and chicken food, with a messy floor from straw stored above the door:
As you may have seen on my personal blog, a jumbo egg:
It’s been a while since I flew my drone over our homestead. I felt an urge to do so today, so did, and took a few pictures. I thought I’d share some.
Let start with a top-down view of our flowerbeds, pond, back lawn, veggie garden, and driveway:
An angled view of the flowerbeds etc from lower down:
Flowerbeds, back lawn, pond:
Flowerbeds:
Back lawn and pond:
The two chicken runs, the veggie garden, and greenhouse:
A closer look at the veggie garden:
And the berry cage:
Finally, a glimpse of Mount Hood:
It’s Friday, so let’s check on the adult birds, in a weekly series I call Flock Friday.
Let’s start with the chickens enjoying some kale treats, while Bert watches and waits for me outside the run:
Bert then followed me across the lawn:
And down the path:
That was cute; let’s have an animated GIF of that:
Bert watching the ducklings:
Another day, Bert meeting me by the compost bins again:
At the chicken coop:
Bert watching the ducklings again:
And watching me:
A GIF of a couple birds flying over the pond:
And a still pic:
Let’s finish as we started, with more chickens enjoying treats (kale and lettuce grown in our veggie garden):
