Just six pictures of the new ducks today.
From last night, all of the ducks swimming in the pond:
Including using the new island:
Breakfast this morning:
Leafy treats:
Pond
More ducklings day 54: mucky night pot
Today’s no-longer-ducklings post includes some night shots, some meals, some treats, adding another island to the pond, and mucking out the duck house. What’s your day like?
Spotted on the repositioned mobile cam, the new ducks finally got hungry enough to go find some food inside the duck house, which I’m leaving open overnight currently:
Some older ducks hanging out by the house:
A GIF of a duck getting startled (I think Betty, hard to tell in the night vision); perhaps a fish nibbled her toes:
Ducks by their house:
Breakfast:
Eating mealworms tossed from the pond deck:
Comfy groundcovers:
Lunch:
New ducks on the ramp:
This afternoon I moved a large spare ceramic pot to the pond, to serve as another island for the ducks (yes, it was rather heavy):
I waded into the pond, and positioned it so it was at around water level. Here’s the new one in the foreground, near three others. The new one should be big enough for two to four ducks, depending how cozy they get:
A GIF of ducks swimming, recorded while I was standing almost waist-deep in the pond (in my waders):
Then I mucked out the duck house. Here it is after removing the waterer:
Since I was adding fresh straw every day, it had built up quite a thick layer, about four inches:
After hauling several loads of dirty straw to the compost bins, I came back to find food strewn over the floor; it seems someone had been by for some food while I was away:
Looking at the cam now — yep:
Fresh straw:
Much better:
Today I have two GIF summaries, since the GIF works better with uniformly-sized pictures. So first a summary of all of the camera shots I captured (except the last one above):
And a second summary GIF of the photos from my iPhone:
More ducklings day 53: a day outside
The new ducks all survived their first night outside (as expected, they weren’t at all interested in going back inside the duck house when they had the whole pond environs to enjoy).
Here are all of the ducks — old and new — on the pond bank when I did my morning rounds. Still separated, but together:
Betty and the new ducks were happy to accept some leafy treats (the others got some too, but weren’t as excited):
Sassa:
A couple of Rouens:
Betty and the new ducks on the edge of the lawn by the pond:
Rooting in the grass:
At the duck house, I removed the kiddie pool, since they don’t need it anymore, and moved the food dish into the run area, as a step towards discontinuing it and just using the feeder tube inside the duck house:
The removed kiddie pool drying off:
I also moved the mobile camera (that was watching the run) to a better position to watch the pond and bank:
This afternoon, they were still sitting on the bank:
Sassa having a good stretch:
This is becoming a pattern: a summary GIF of all 42 of today’s pictures (actually, the first few are from last night, after yesterday’s post); again, some of these that weren’t included above may turn up in next week’s Flock Friday, so enjoy the sneak peek and bonus pics:
More ducklings day 52: into the pond!
Today’s the big day: I removed a panel of the duckling run and opened the pop door, letting the ducklings into the pond. Which I consider their graduation to calling them just “ducks”.
I said yesterday that I wasn’t sure when I’d do that. One reason I decided to proceed was that one of the Rouens got out of the duck house last night. She pushed open the cupboard door from inside the nesting box, and hopped out:
(The cupboard doors are held shut with roller catches, so require a little force to open.)
Here you can see her outside the gate on the left, watched by others inside:
Here’s a picture of her when I went out there and discovered her outside; I opened the gate and encouraged her back in:
I felt that was a sign that they were antsy to explore more of their world, and since they’re old enough, decided it was time.
I started this morning the same as ever, with fresh straw and leafy treats:
Then I removed the run fence side by the pond, letting them into it; Betty came over to say hi, as she often does:
The new ducks on the edge of pond:
And entering the pond for the first time:
Sassa was the second one in:
Some pictures of the new ducks in the pond:
The two groups kept mostly separate, though interacted a bit:
Betty seemed concerned about Sassa; at one point I saw her nudge Sassa when she was having a little difficulty in getting onto the pond edge (something she got better at with practice):
Sassa still looks messy, but that should improve with more swimming. As expected, her gimpy leg wasn’t so much of a problem when in the water:
The new ducks spent a while hanging out in the shallow end by the waterfall (which is currently off):
And on the bank by the waterfall:
This is by the duck house:
Betty spent some time hanging out with the new ducks on the edge of the pond by the waterfall:
After a while, Sassa went back in the duck house for a rest and preening session:
A couple of hours later, looking much better:
Some new ducks and older ducks hanging out by the waterfall:
Here is a big GIF summary of 72 pictures from today (it might take a while to load); some of these will probably appear in next week’s Flock Friday:
We now have 13 ducks on our pond; Bert from the first batch, six from the second batch, and six more from the latest ones.
As before, I’ll probably continue the daily “More Ducklings” posts for a few days, then save up pictures for the next Flock Friday.
Newest ducks first swim
I let the new ducks into the pond today. This is a couple of clips of their first swim.
Flock Friday for October 2
Alrighty, today’s the day: some of the ducklings seem keen to explore beyond the duck house and run, so I’m going to let them out today. We’ll see if they take advantage of the opportunity. Stay tuned for tonight’s duckling post!
In the meantime, one last Flock Friday without the latest ducklings. In next week’s post, they’ll be all together.
Firstly, did you see the video of the hummingbirds last weekend?
Here are the older ducks having a meal:
Hey Betty:
On the pond amongst fallen leaves:
Boys’ club; the four male ducks (aka drakes):
Since the pop door opener on the new chicken coop is malfunctioning, I have to go out and reset it each evening, so I added a hook-&-eye to hold the hatch open while I do so to make that easier:
The manufacturer is sending me a new motor, which hopefully will fix that issue; we’ll see.
The four chickens that prefer that coop always look startled when I turn up around sunset:
Exploding chickens! It’s molting time, so there are feathers everywhere:
A totally normal thing at this time of year. They stop laying while molting, though, so we’re down to only about five eggs per day, instead of the 12-17 we were getting in summer. Which is still plenty for us, we just can’t give them away for a while.
This is nifty; if you look closely, you can see her third eyelid half closed:
More pictures of the chickens:
A favorite dust bath location. Though Buffy looks embarrassed; “don’t look at me, I’m hideous!” It’s okay Buffy; you may look messy while shedding your old feathers, but you’ll grow fancy new ones:
Back to the ducks; the ducklings watching duck butts in the pond:
Let’s all go this way:
What’s that strange red thing in our food dish? (It’s a tomato, which I haven’t offered them before; they prefer green treats.)
Hanging out on the path, and Sonja flapping her wings:
In the pond; Rémy showing his shiny green head:
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:
Our ducks with the wild duck visitor (left); much smaller than ours:
The ducks discovered the other upturned pot islands in the pond:
Ducks eating:
When we got home from our evacuation, I collected eggs. Several under broody Martha:
And a bunch in another box:
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:
Yay, rice treats:
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:
I’ve continued to have issues with the ChickenGuard pop door opener on the new chicken coop:
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:
From outside (on another 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:
GIF of ducks during a rainy night:
Betty has been hanging out in the grasses, maybe thinking of nesting, though a bit young for that:
Here’s a GIF summary of 64 photos from this week, including the above and a bunch more:
Flock Friday for September 11 (plus evacuation update)
As you may have seen, we had to evacuate our homestead due to some nearby wildfires. We are safe at Mom’s place, three hours north, along with our dog Rory and pet cats Pippin and Paladin, and the six ducklings.
The rest of the animals are still back at the homestead. The older ducks have their pond, so plenty of water of course, and can root around for bugs, though they may get a bit hungry. I’m more worried about the chickens.
I’m kicking myself that in our rush to evacuate, I didn’t take a few minutes to top up their food dispensers, or at least toss a bag of food in the coop. So they will likely run out of food from the dispensers sometime around now or the next day or two. They also have a couple of partial flock blocks (compressed blocks of supplemental food), which should keep them going another day or two. After that, hopefully they’ll subsist on the eggs they’re laying. If we’re away too long, they’ll probably start eating each other — chickens are vicious little dinosaurs.
They should have enough water for a while. The power is still off; if it comes on, the outdoor waterers would refill, but the water supply requires power, as it’s a well. I suspect the power will remain off until after the evacuation order is lifted.
Depending on how long that takes, we may go home to dead chickens, which would be unfortunate. But not as unfortunate as if the fire reaches our homestead. So far, it’s a couple of miles away, so hopefully won’t get closer. Here’s a map of the fires in the county. And a state-wide one; the “Riverside” fire is the main threat for our homestead. (I don’t publicly post exactly where our homestead is for privacy reasons.)
As of now, that fire has burned over 130,000 acres (of mostly trees), destroyed 33 houses and 20 other structures, and is 0% contained. Not great. But at least there haven’t been any fatalities from it so far.
So, that’s where things are at currently. The main thing is that we’re safe; much appreciation to Mom and her partner for providing a refuge for us, our pets, and the ducklings. Read the duckling posts for more on them.
Let’s enjoy some pictures from before all this went down. Here are the chickens:
I feel like they’re looking at me in an accusing way, as if they could foretell the future… but that’s just how they normally look:
Two ducks on an upturned pot island:
Ducks in the shallow end of the pond:
Sleeping in the shade under a shrub:
Ducks and ducklings:
We were visited by some quail recently:
Yes, the bird feeders will run out too… but they can fend for themselves.
A scrub jay getting some of the last peanuts:
GIF of scrub jay getting peanuts:
Bert flapping his wings:
Ducks on the pond:
Two ducks on the island again:
Betty in the grasses, others at the edge of the pond:
Betty on the rock:
I hope the ducks and chickens all survive this trying time.
Flock Friday for September 4
Time has no meaning at present, but the all-powerful overlord CAL-N-DAR informs me it is Friday… so time for pictures of chickens and adult ducks.
(“CAL-N-DAR is a reference from the Six Colors member podcast that I’m sure none of my readers will get… but it amuses me.)
Chickens waiting for treats:
Chickens with rice and strawberry treats:
Koi in the pond, with some floating duck feathers and straw from the duck house:
Ducks with leafy treats:
Duck butts:
Aerial views of the pond and ducks (did you see my post of aerial photos?):
The first time I’ve seen one of the new ducks on an inverted pot island (I think it’s Cora):
Night ducks:
Chickens waiting for treats again:
Betty by the ducklings:
More ducklings day 21
An exciting day for the ducklings: this morning I reassembled the duckling run, and let them out of the duck house for the first time. It was also the first time they and the older ducks have seen each other.
The day started like every other, with fresh straw and (after this) treats:
They’re tall enough to peek over the edge of the doors now, so may have spotted the older ducks from a distance:
Here’s what the gate panels looked like before I rearranged them; they were basically just acting as a morning shade for the ducks (but there are plenty of other shade options):
From the other side:
And rearranged into a fenced duckling run:
Last time I had the roof panel resting across the whole space, which was annoying, since I had to slide it off to access the duck house. So this time I attached it at an angle, so I can access it more easily:
This makes it a bit less secure from wildlife, but the ducklings will be secure in the house at night, so the main risk during the day are birds of prey, and hopefully that won’t be too much of a risk. I am thinking about adding T-posts to the panels (for more height) and attaching bird netting, to make it more secure, though I’m not sure if that’s worthwhile.
Ducklings leaving their house for the first time:
They had fun drinking the muddy water in the drain channel:
The ducks came over to investigate, and they saw each other for the first time:
Getting a bit muddy:
Having fun splashing in the paint tray pool, while Betty watches and quacks at them (did you see the video?):
