Your daily dose of ducklings.
Good morning; looking damp as usual:
The daily top up of fresh bedding:
And water and food:
Hey Bert:
I added a dish for his food; easier to eat out of water than on the ground:
Berry cage bird netting
Yesterday I added some bird netting to the veggie garden berry cage fences.
When I built the berry cage, I used a fairly narrow gauge welded wire for the fencing, to keep birds out, without excluding bees, but it turned out that some birds could still squeeze through.
So, I added an additional layer of lightweight bird netting to prevent that. The roof doesn’t have the bird netting, on the theory that they won’t be able to go in that way as easily as horizontal access. Time will tell if I’m wrong about that too!
Ducklings day 11
Today at the duck house, Bert and I watch the ducklings again.
Good morning ducklings:
Refilled the water, topped up the food and bedding:
Let’s step in the water dish while eating:
Hey Bert:
Wide angle view:
Ducklings day 10
Today at the duck house, let’s all take a peek at the ducklings… including Bert.
Site note: I have tagged this year’s duckling posts as ducklings 2020, making it easier to see just the duckling posts (without the flock posts and such) for this year.
And you can even see them in chronological order (i.e. oldest to newest) via this link.
On with the show.
Let’s peek at the ducklings through a nesting box (look at that tiny wing nub on the Buff!):
Some fresh straw:
Wading in the dish; you can see droplets of water on their backs, as the fling the water everywhere. It’ll get even more damp in there once they have the paint tray pool:
Did you see the video of Bert trying to peek at the ducklings? When I did my afternoon rounds, I grabbed some spare bricks and added some below the maintenance door, so Bert could more successfully peek at the ducklings, which he did:
Cam view:
I think it’ll be good for all of them to see each other, so things go more smoothly when they can interact in the pond in a month or so.
Bert trying to peek at the ducklings
While I was spending time with the ducklings this morning, Bert came up to the door and tried to peek inside. Maybe I need a step for him?
Cat update for week ending June 13
For Caturday this week, 5.25 cabin pictures, 3.25 cat house pictures, 2 shop pictures, 1.25 outside and feeder pictures, 1 breezeway picture, 1 GIF and 1 still from that, and 1 picture out a window. Just some totally irrelevant numbers.
Three cats at the cabins:
Poppa and Pommie in the breezeway:
Cat snuggles:
Three cats in the feeder; the SD card in the feeder has stopped working (like the cat house one did recently); I don’t know if I’ll bother trying to fix it, so this might be the last picture from the feeder (though it is recorded by the Camect server, so probably not):
Porcini closeup with the cabin cats:
More cat snuggles:
Cat stalking a bird on the driveway, as it got away:
A GIF of that:
One of the twins in the lavender plants by our front steps, as seen from a window:
Pepper watching me closely in the shop; she wanted to get past, but that would have meant getting within six feet of me; she’s an expert at social distancing:
So she retreated and waited for me to depart:
Super-relaxed cabin cat:
Two cats snuggling, one looking out the door:
Four cats:
Screenshot of four cats (two in cabins, two in the house):
A startled greeting at the cabins:
Some symmetry, both in this picture, and with the first picture in today’s post:
Ducklings day 9
Today in the duck house, I added a small dish of water, which was very exciting for the ducklings.
Good morning ducklings!
I added the ceramic water dish (a bit foamy initially from the hose nozzle):
The Buff was first to hop into it:
But most of the others wanted to try it, too:
A duckling on top of the EcoGlow:
And the Buff eating from the tube, barely able to reach it:
Everyone wanted to hop in the water dish:
Buff eating from the tube again:
Flock Friday for June 12
This past week has been exciting with the baby ducklings, but I also got a bunch of pictures of the adult duck, Bert, and the chickens.
This post is about the adults, but let’s start with a check in on the ducklings; here’s them a week ago:
And yesterday; look how much they’ve grown already:
A picture of the ducklings and Bert:
I feed him his breakfast in this spot, as the food sinks to the bottom, and there’s a shallow ledge there, as more visible in the previous picture, when the water level was lower; it’s easer for him to eat from the water than on land:
Some pictures of the chickens while I was installing the compost bins:
Chickens and duck:
While I was refilling the feeder, Bert joined me:
Following me down the path to the duck house:
Breakfast next to the duck house:
An animated GIF of a heron taking off, when I went out there to chase it:
Bert drinking water accumulated in the paint tray that will be used by the ducklings next week:
He went up the ramp and tapped on the pop door. Sorry, that’ll stay closed for several more weeks, until the ducklings are old enough to go into the pond (at about 8 weeks old):
Eating again:
A bunch of pictures of the chickens:
I moved the log, and they enjoyed some tasty worms underneath:
A favorite dust bath spot under the pop door ramp:
Another day, I offered fun apple peel treats:
Bert was watching with interest outside the chicken run (I did offer some apple peel to him, but he didn’t want it):
Ducklings day 8
We begin week two of ducklings. They’ve grown noticeably already.
Good morning ducklings!
Topped up bedding, refilled water:
Assorted pictures of the ducklings:
Ducklings day 7
Happy birthday ducklings! They hatched one week ago today.
Here’s a capture from the duck house cam of the ducklings drinking and eating in the dark (visible with night vision):
Another fun fact: chickens roost and sleep at night, hardly moving, because they can’t see in the dark. I believe the night vision of ducks is better, though still not as good as humans, so they can be active at night.
Good morning ducklings:
