Flock Friday for July 12

Let’s start Flock Friday with the ducklings:

I’m still not completely sure of the duckling genders, but the left Buff is now quacking, and the right one is making a much quieter vocalization. Fun fact: generally only female ducks quack, which suggests that the left one is female. So I am fairly confident that the left Buff is Gert, the female, and the right one is Bert, the male:

Treats:

Here are the Cayuga ducklings:

And some sad news: the little one died Monday evening. I’m not sure of the cause; the size could be a factor, since it hasn’t grown as much as the others, perhaps due to some health issue, or something else. It wasn’t as active as the others, and looking at the video footage, it just sat in a corner for some time, then keeled over. Very unfortunate, especially after losing some chicks a few weeks ago. All part of the experience of keeping animals, though. I just hope we don’t lose any more any time soon.

Anyway, it was time to install a feeder tube for the ducks. So I removed the barrier closing off the nesting boxes:

The ducklings were excited to explore their expanded accommodations:

A duckling in a nesting box, as seen from outside — there’s a gap below the cupboard shelf, to reach in to eventually collect eggs, if they deign to lay them in a box (ducks lay anywhere):

In the cupboard, a jug of food tops the feeder tube, providing several days capacity:

The tube goes through the shelf on the edge of a nesting box, resting on a support:

The tube in the duck house, and a duckling eating from it. The yellow cap on the end can be removed to clean out the tube:

Ducklings hoovering up rice:

I also added a feeder tube in the chick coop. I was going to make a new — larger diameter — one like in the duck house, but decided to re-install the old tube for now. I might redo it later, when the chicks are bigger:

The chicks didn’t take long to figure out the feeder tube:

Chicks eating rice from my hand:

Chicks:

A chick in the hand:

On top of the nesting boxes:

On the nesting boxes center bar (the nesting boxes are still closed off, till they’re ready to lay eggs):

Synchronized chicks on the bar, and others eating from the tube:

Finally, on to the older chickens. Here they’re watching Jenn work in the veggie garden:

Me adding some dirt to a tire, for them to use as a dust bath:

Camilla the escape chicken; she has always been the best flyer of the chickens, and flew onto the chicken coop, and out, then spent the night outside, and met me on the path to the coop in the morning: