Flock Friday for August 23

For Flock Friday, let’s check in with the ducks first, as usual.

The ducks enjoy resting in various spots on the edge of the pond; this is one of their favorites (some fish visible, too):

Ducks and fish eating treats:

Next to their house, watching a landscaper trimming a tree:

Ducks in the pond:

Early this morning, the alien gray cat (“Paladout”) visited the duck house, when they were on the bank on the other side of it:

The cat approached the duck house, and the ducks slowly swam into the safety of the pond:

Speaking of unwelcome visitors, I saw a pair of raccoons in the chicken run in the pre-dawn morning (when the chicks were all safely closed in the coop):

Here one is peeking at the camera, before climbing the fence:

The new run does have a bird-netting roof, but there are big gaps due to snow damage. One thing on my long list of homestead projects is to replace that with welded wire; I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

One more visitor, a cheeky squirrel in the coop:

Chicks on the roosts in their run:

Flowers self-seeded from the old hanging baskets above:

Some more pictures of the chicks in their run:

They’re getting quite big, but still not fully grown, and still peeping instead of clucking. Here you can see the new and old chickens in their adjacent runs:

They’ll be kept apart until after the new ones are fully grown and start laying. In the meantime, they can get used to each other through the fence, which will make integration later a little easier.