Flock Friday for July 24

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:

Bert

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:

Waders, pot, duck

Me in my waders and garden work hat:

David

Me in the pond, adding the pot; it’s not particularly deep at that point:

David in pond

The expanded island (the pond is looking very green at present):

Island

Another view of the island; it’s closer to the pond deck than it looks in the cam shot above:

Island

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

Bert on the island overnight; I like the eerie glow off the duckling pool from the night vision light of the camera watching it:

Night pond

In the early morning, you can more clearly see Bert on the island:

Night pond

A night swim:

Night pond

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:

Chickens awaiting treats

Chickens

They got one of their all-time favorite treats this morning, cooked rice:

Chickens with rice treats

Chickens with rice treats

Chickens with rice treats

Ducklings day 50

50 days! 49 is seven weeks old, but 50 feels like a more significant number.

Morning everyone:

Morning everyone

Bert and Betty:

Bert and Betty

Sonja at the top of the steps:

Sonja

Bert and Betty again; I wonder if they feel some sort of breed kinship?

Bert and Betty

This afternoon, I noticed Sven and Sonja swimming (watched by Betty); unusual to see Sven in the pool:

Betty plus Sven and Sonja swimming

Cora (I assume) and Sonja on the steps, with Sven spreading his wings:

Cora plus Sven and Sonja swimming

Sonja on the steps, Sven and Cora swimming:

Cora plus Sven and Sonja swimming

Ducklings day 49

A few more days before free-range opportunity! Though I will be surprised if they all go out into the pond on the first day.

This morning, a wide-angle shot of filling their pool, while they cautiously wait:

Filling pool

I expect Cora and Sonja will be the first into the pond:

Cora and Sonja

Betty: why go after the treat that’s right there, when there’s one in the water?

Betty

Why not both?

Why not both?

Bert and Betty:

Bert and Betty

A zoom on some nice green feathers of a Rouen:

A zoom on some nice green feathers of a Rouen

Sonja, Cora, and a Rouen:

Sonja, Cora, a Rouen

Ducklings day 48

Only a few more days of duckling posts! It’s becoming increasingly a stretch to call them that; they’re pretty much just ducks now. My threshold is when they are allowed in the pond.

And I now have a planned date for opening the pop door of the duck house: this Sunday. The weather will be cooling off a bit later this week, but Sunday is forecast to be a high of 90°F / 32°C and low of 62°F / 17°C, so they’ll probably want to cool off in the water, and it’ll be warm enough overnight if they choose to spend the night on the pond (as I expect at least some will).

Here’s everyone; Sven on the left, then Betty, the two Rouens (Raoul and Rémy), the two Khaki Campbells (Cora and Clyde), and Sonja in the pool:

Ducklings

Cora and Sonja:

Cora and Sonja

Cora, Sonja, one of the Rouens:

Cora, Sonja, one of the Rouens

Bert watching… not long now, buddy:

Bert watching

Sven and Sonja standing side-by-side, a Rouen in the shadowy foreground, and Cora preening:

Sven, Sonja, and Cora

A Rouen, Betty, and Sven:

A Rouen, Betty, Sven

Bert and Betty watching me:

Bert and Betty

Duck(ling) names

A bit over three weeks ago I did a post titled “Duckling names”, where I included one picture of the ducklings, and listed their breeds and names. I thought it was time to do an update of that, now that they’re mostly feathered and grown. (Check out how much smaller they were back then!)

Here’s a picture from this afternoon that includes all seven of the new ducklings.

In the front we have the two Khaki Campbells. Cora is on the left, and Clyde on the right. They’re hard to tell apart, though Cora is tidier since she swims a lot (I’ve noticed that female ducklings are much more into swimming than male).

Behind them is our female Buff, Betty.

Behind her is the female Blue Swedish, Sonja. She is distingushed by the small patch of white on her chest.

Behind her are the two Rouens, Raoul and Rémy. They are both male, and I haven’t studied them closely enough to tell them apart.

Lastly, we have the male Blue Swedish, Sven. He has a larger white patch.

Ducklings

Ducklings day 47

Today I tried to take pictures of each of the ducks so I could state their names. Plus I gave them some mealworm treats.

Firstly, leafy treat time for the ladies, Sonja, Betty, and Cora:

Treat time

Raoul and Rémy reaching from the ground, and Betty at the top of the steps:

Raoul, Rémy, and Betty

Sonja loves to swim:

Sonja

Sonja has opinions, too:

Sonja

Sven in the back, and of course Betty again:

Sven, Betty

Cora and Sonja swimming for treats:

Cora and Sonja

Clyde and Sven:

Clyde and Sven

Raoul or Rémy; I can’t tell the two Rouen boys apart yet:

Raoul or Rémy

Cora and Sonja again:

Cora and Sonja

Raoul or Rémy making a splash:

Raoul or Rémy

Sven, Cora, Clyde:

Sven, Cora, Clyde

Raoul or Rémy looking at me:

Raoul or Rémy

Raoul or Rémy, Sonja:

Raoul or Rémy, Sonja

Sonja showing her feathers:

Sonja showing her feathers

This afternoon, I gave them some mealworms; the ladies really enjoyed those:

Ducklings with mealworms

Veggie garden irrigation addition

The other day I noticed that the soaker hose for one of the beds in the veggie garden had burst, as they are wont to do:

Burst soaker hose

Burst soaker hose

So on Saturday I replaced that hose with better irrigation, like I did earlier for a couple of other beds:

New irrigation

Veggie bed with new irrigation

Veggie bed with new irrigation

Veggie bed with new irrigation

Veggie bed with new irrigation

There is now one bed remaining with a soaker hose in the main part of the veggie garden, plus the ones in the berry cage. I’ll replace those over time when their soaker hoses fail. We’re slowly phasing out the soaker hoses; irrigation tubing and emitters work much better, as they are more reliable, and the irrigation can be more focused and adjustable as needed.

Ducklings day 46

For today’s duckling post, we start with a cam picture from last night, then sleepy ducklings, then treat time. I’m starting to use their names more, too.

From the cam, Betty spreading her wings in the pool; her feathers are coming in nicely:

Wings

Edit to add: a GIF of Betty dunking and flapping her wings:

Wings

Sleepy ducklings:

Sleepy ducklings

I had been plugging in the heat lamp each night, but now they’re old enough to not need it, so it has been discontinued. They still have the EcoGlow for now, though I’ll remove that in a few days.

Treat time:

Treat time

Betty and Cora (I think) heading in for a swim, with Bert approaching in the pond:

Ducklings with Bert approaching

Sonja:

Sonja

Betty and one of the Rouens on the steps, Cora at the top, watched by Bert:

Ducklings

Cora, I believe (I haven’t quite locked down the differences between her and Clyde, but I’m reasonably sure, if only because the females are more into swimming):

Cora?

Now that they’re mostly feathered out, and almost fully grown, I should do another duck name post. Once they’re in the pond, it’ll be harder to get as good pictures of them all.

Beehive tweaks in July 2020

Yesterday we did some tweaks to the beehives: adding a top feeder to the orange hive, a queen excluder to the hot pink hive, replacing the base of the turquoise hive, and replacing a few temperature sensors.

Here are the components we brought to the hives:

Hive bits

We replaced the Boardman front feeder on the orange hive with a top feeder that consists of four glass jars in a frame. The sugar water (1:1 ratio) can be accessed by the bees through a hole in the inner cover below:

Top feeder

The feeder is enclosed in a box; we use white boxes for feeders:

Top feeder box

Here’s the orange hive with the feeder box from the front:

Orange hive

As previously mentioned, we ordered a base for the turquoise hive, but it was the wrong size, so we got another one. Here’s the hive with the temporary base:

Turquoise hive temporary base

And with the new base:

Turquoise hive new base

From the front; much better (you can also see Jenn with her bee jacket, which will be relevant later):

Turquoise hive new base

We peeked at the yellow hive while replacing its temperature sensor, and noticed a little comb under inner cover; not approved, but not a big deal (this shows the inner cover hole like I mentioned above):

Yellow hive comb under inner cover

The hives:

Hives

Hives

Last night at sunset we added an anti-robbing entrance screen to the orange hive, since it is the weakest hive, and has the feeder. This screen has an entrance hole at the top, with a second one in the normal place that is closed. The idea is that this unusual arrangement prevents alien bees from invading the hive. We added it at sunset so the bees would be home, so they learn the new arrangement when they leave in the morning:

Anti-robbing entrance screen

Anti-robbing entrance screen

This morning Jenn cracked a couple of hives to add temperature sensors that had to be reset, and was rewarded with a couple of stings on her legs (as she was wearing the bee jacket, as above, instead of full suit). One of the joys of beekeeping.