The newest ducklings are now starting their second week. Other than the introduction of straw (which I did a couple of days ago), and reducing the temperature by 1° each day, the only other change due this week will be to add a ceramic dish of water for bonus drinking and stepping in, as a prelude to the paint tray pool. I’ll probably add that dish tomorrow.
Peeking at the ducklings in a nesting box, through the cupboard:
Some more duckling cuteness:
Your daily dose of ducklings. Plus I went to the feed store to get more food for them, since I was almost out.
This is the non-medicated start & grow food I give both the newer ducklings and older ducks. They have this from day 1 until they’re old enough to start laying:
(As the name implies, there is a medicated variety, that I feed to baby chicks, but ducklings don’t need that medication.)
Yes, this is chick food, but suitable for ducklings too, supplemented with some brewer’s yeast for the niacin ducklings need, plus some rolled oats to cut down the protein:
Today I introduced the ducklings to straw bedding, and raised up the feeder a little, since they’re getting bigger.
The new ducklings are noticeably growing every day; they’re already starting to get a more duck-like shape:
I raised up the waterer a little today, to compensate for their growth. I’ll probably raise the feeder tomorrow.
On Friday we harvested honey from our beehives.
We currently have two Flow honey supers, which are a special kind of honey box and frames where one can crack apart the frames and pour out the honey without disturbing the bees.
Here Jenn is using a big metal key to start the flow:
Three tubes open:
Honey starting to flow:
Meanwhile, we swapped out the jar-style top feeder on the Orange hive for the trough-style, as the jar-style didn’t really work well, since it wasn’t possible to refill the jars without bees coming out, while this trough-style can be topped up without a bee suit. The white stuff is some frozen sugar water with a supplement added:
We also removed a couple of other honey supers. The bees for one of them had been a bit over-enthusiastic in their building, resulting in broken honey comb attached to the queen excluder; you can see what the inside of a honey comb looks like:
Nice frames of honey for us:
Checking in on the Flow again; we had to keep an eye on it to swap out the jars as they got full, and rescue bees that decided to go for a swim:
(We keep talking about a solution involving a bucket with a lid and flexible tubes, but keep forgetting about it until it’s too late.)
A sticky bee, having been rescued from falling in a honey jar:
We stacked up the removed honey supers, with a bee escape on top:
The bee escape lets the bees leave, but not go back in:
Next I added shelf brackets to the Yellow hive:
The shelf brackets installed:
The door of the Flow hive then becomes a shelf:
Jars and tubes in place:
A couple of tubes flowing, and one more just starting:
Even while the honey is flowing out, the bees are safe and happy (if a little confused) inside:
Honey flowing:
Bees are attracted to the honey. Some are clever like this one, perched on the end of the tube, sipping some honey:
After removing a tube, a little honey leaks, so a cleanup crew takes care of that:
Some bees are not so clever, trying to fly into the stream:
Another clever bee:
We also added entrance reducers to the hives, to make it easier for them to defend against robbing by other bees:
The hives now have had their honey supers removed in preparation for fall and winter; the bees have completed their service to us, and now can work on building up their stores for the winter. We left the queen excluders out so they can scavenge honey from them:
Super stack:
Harvest total: about twelve quarts of honey from the two Flow supers, plus eight frames from the other super:
The next morning, we suited up again, and went back out to collect the supers, now that most of the bees have had time to leave:
We put the box of honey frames in the shop freezer, to kill any bugs that may be lurking, and store until we decide how to extract the honey (e.g. via a spinning extractor, or cut into comb honey):
Yesterday was very hot, so the bees were hanging out outside:
And drinking from the pond:
Today the high temperature reached 94° F (34° C) which is a bit warm even for brand-new ducklings.
Via the duck house cam, I spotted two Rouens on the EcoGlow in the early morning:
Hey ducklings:
I feel like they’re watching me… because they are:
Standing on the over-full feeder:
Did you see the video of them eating?
Ducklings in nesting boxes:
Since it’s so hot today, I turned off the heat lamp, and partially opened the vent, to maintain the optimal floor temperature of around 90°; with the vents closed, the duck house gets quite a bit warmer than the outside air, which is good overnight, but not so much with such a hot day:
Watch our newest ducklings eating and drinking while peeping, with the older ducks quacking in the background… then cut to the older ducks eating, which is quite the contrast.
This week on Caturday, a bit of danger with raccoons, that fortunately was uneventful, and various other cat pics.
Two cats relaxing in the shade under the bushes on the left, while one drinks:
Cats eating and drinking:
Silhouette of a cat jumping down from the breezeway cabin:
Scratching a tree:
A cat about to jump down over another inside their house:
Three comfy cats inside their house:
A family of raccoons visited the cat house (no leftover food for them):
Two cats were inside the house at the time, which could have been rather bad if a raccoon had gone inside the house, but fortunately none did:
The cat house has a back door for escape, but a design flaw was that there is no emergency exit from the upper level. (There are several things I’d do differently if redesigning the cat house, most around better protecting from raccoons.)
If a raccoon had, the cats probably would have been okay; they can defend themselves very well, and could defend the high place against a raccoon, but there would be some risk. I’m glad that didn’t happen.
Finally, three happy cat loaves:
The ducklings are all doing fine today, so enjoy the happy cuteness.
The Blue Swedish duckling under the EcoGlow, and others gathered near the waterer:
In the corner:
Drinking and eating:
The Blue Swedish and a Rouen look like they’re hugging while watching me:
Eating and watching me:
I caught a Live Photo of a Rouen jumping off the EcoGlow; here is a GIF that:
Droplets of water on ducklings; they can’t help getting water everywhere:
In a nesting box:
As with the previous batch, I will post separately about the newest ducklings. These Flock Friday posts will include the older ducks and chickens.
Before I closed up the duck house for the new ducklings, the older ducks had only been going in their house to eat:
Down the ramp:
They are now being fed in this temporary food dish; they’ll have access to the house feeder again once the new ducklings are grown:
Ducks on the pond:
Chickens heading to bed:
Ducks on the pond again:
And on the pond bank:
GIF of a Rouen flapping his wings:
Sleeping on the pond:
And sleeping on the pond bank:
Chickens with treats:
Stealing lettuce I’m holding for the ducks, while I’m crouched to take pictures:
Duck treats:
Under the shade:
Ducks eating from the temporary food dish:
And some food scattered on the ground:
GIF of ducks eating:
Submarine duck:
