Beehive treatments and feeders

Today we added mite treatments and top feeders to all of our beehives, preparing them for fall and winter.

I didn’t take many pictures today, since we were doing the same thing to all of them. Here’s a top feeder (the white box); it contains a trough where sugar syrup can be added (1:1 sugar and water currently, with a health additive); the bees can access it from inside the hive via a mesh in the middle:

Adding feeder to beehive

Behind the scenes:

Behind hives

All hives with the top feeders, ready for fall and winter:

All hives

All hives

Cedar, Hot Pink, and Orange hives:

Cedar, Hot Pink, and Orange hives

Purple, Turquoise, and Yellow hives:

Purple, Turquoise, Yellow hives

More ducklings day 25

Hey duckling fans! Some different angles today, plus a GIF of snuggly ducklings.

Looking down into the duckling run:

Looking down into the duckling run

Treats:

Treats

In the house:

Ducklings

The “little brown duckling” (Khaki Campbell); really should decide on names soon:

Duckling

The Blue Swedish duckling:

Duckling

Pool time:

Pool time

The Khaki Campbell again:

Ducklings

Both of the non-Rouens:

Ducklings

More pool time:

Pool time

A cute GIF of a Rouen joining her sister on the end of the concrete block:

GIF of ducklings snuggling

Cat update for week ending September 5

As any good calendar will tell you, the day after Flock Friday is inevitably Caturday. Weird how a day of the week is named after cats, but they were treated as gods in ancient times, so who am I to argue?! Makes as much sense as naming a day after a ball of gas.

Anyway… here’s Porcini:

Porcini

Paladout:

Paladout

Two cats inside:

Two cats inside

Comfy Poppy:

Poppy

Poppa:

Poppa

Spud jumping up to the breezeway cabin:

Jumping up

Porcini relaxing in the kitchen garden:

Porcini

A closer look:

Porcini

A few minutes later, I wanted to go out to close up the duck house, and Porcini was sitting outside the door:

Porcini

(I cracked the door, and she retreated.)

Spud emerging from the breezeway cabin:

Spud

An animated GIF of Spud stretching and heading off to work:

GIF of breezeway

I put a spare camera in the back of the shop to watch Pansy’s food and litter boxes; this is when she first saw it:

Pansy

Poppy:

Poppy

Bella chilling:

Bella

Pommie, Poppa, Poppy, and Bella (left-to-right) by the cat house:

Pommie, Poppa, Poppy, Bella

Pommie, Poppa, Bella, Poppy; Poppa was feeling a bit ganged up upon, but the girls were just saying hi; I continue to be amazed how well they get on with him:

Pommie, Poppa, Bella, Poppy

Queue for food:

Feeder

A GIF of that time, with Bella, joined by Poppa, then Poppy, and Pommie:

GIF of cat house

Pansy waiting for her dinner on the white bed in the center of the picture:

Pansy

Food dispensing, she pops up:

Pansy

And comes to eat it:

Pansy

Finally, Bella and Spud hanging out in the kitchen garden (with some reflections from the window):

Bella and Spud

More ducklings day 24

Another hot day, though not as hot as yesterday. I restrained myself on the duckling pictures, though.

Tasty mud:

Tasty mud

Pool time:

Pool time

Pool splashing:

Pool splashing

Treat:

Treat

The Blue Swedish duckling sitting in the duck house, ready to doze off:

Duckling

More pool time:

Pool time

Again I used the misting setting on the hose nozzle to cool them off, which they quite enjoy:

Misting

Misting

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 waiting for treats

Chickens with rice and strawberry treats:

Chickens with rice and strawberry treats

Chickens with rice and strawberry treats

Chickens with rice and strawberry treats

Koi in the pond, with some floating duck feathers and straw from the duck house:

Koi

Ducks with leafy treats:

Ducks with leafy treats

Duck butts:

Duck butts

Aerial views of the pond and ducks (did you see my post of aerial photos?):

Aerial view of pond and ducks

Aerial view of pond and ducks

The first time I’ve seen one of the new ducks on an inverted pot island (I think it’s Cora):

Duck on island

Night ducks:

Night ducks

Chickens waiting for treats again:

Chickens waiting for treats

Chickens waiting for treats

Chickens waiting for treats

Betty by the ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Betty and ducklings

More ducklings day 23

It’s a hot day today, so I went out to the duck house a few times to refresh their pool water… so I ended up with 40 photos. And just for fun, I’m going to share all of them! But don’t worry, I picked out the better ones as usual, and put a GIF of all of them at the end. So you can look through the better ones and skip the GIF, or jump to the GIF and skip the rest, or enjoy both. Or skip the whole post if you like. You do you.

Leafy treats:

Leafy treats

Leafy treats

As I showed in a video this morning, today I held the kale and let them pull off bits, which worked out well:

David feeding treats

Crouching like that for quite a while wasn’t super comfortable, so on my next visit I added a concrete block with a kneeling pad to sit on, while I refilled their pool and spent time with them (the kneeling pad is mainly to protect my clothing from duckling poop; I don’t leave that in the run):

David filling pool

Ducklings in the pool:

Ducklings in pool

Duckling in pool

Ducklings

A moth on the duck house:

Moth

Lots of splashing:

Ducklings in pool

Later, when the temperature was over 90° F, I used the misting setting on the hose nozzle to help cool off the ducklings, especially the Blue Swedish, who doesn’t go in the pool:

Misting ducklings

Here’s that GIF of all of today’s duckling pics:

GIF of duckling pics

More ducklings day 22 (start of week 4)

Today is the start of the ducklings’ fourth week, which is when they get to go out into the run (which I did a day early), and can have a bit deeper water in the pool, though still only the shallow paint tray one. Next week they’ll get the kiddie pool.

They seem comfortable with the run now. They headed out even before I finished opening the doors. They’re definitely less skittish than the previous ducklings; they don’t scamper when I open the run gate and crouch down right next to them. Which is nice, though not a great survival instinct; hopefully they’ll be more cautious with raccoons that approach them in the future.

Tasty mud:

Tasty mud

A duckling, plus several ducks visiting outside the run:

Duckling and ducks

Hey Betty:

Hey Betty

Leafy treats:

Leafy treats

Leafy treats

Leafy treats

Leafy treats

If you look closely, you may notice the start of some feathers on the Rouen:

Ducklings

Flapping wings:

Duckling wings

Duckling wings

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:

Ducklings

They’re tall enough to peek over the edge of the doors now, so may have spotted the older ducks from a distance:

Ducklings

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):

Gate panels

From the other side:

Gate panels

And rearranged into a fenced duckling run:

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:

Duckling run

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:

Ducklings leaving duck house

They had fun drinking the muddy water in the drain channel:

Ducklings leaving duck house

Ducklings

The ducks came over to investigate, and they saw each other for the first time:

Ducklings and ducks

Getting a bit muddy:

Ducklings

Having fun splashing in the paint tray pool, while Betty watches and quacks at them (did you see the video?):

Ducklings and ducks

Ducklings and ducks