Friday

This is the Katcsa and one of The Twins wanting to fight yesterday. Everyone had their fighting boots on yesterday, especially Speedy. When I let Speedy and the ducks out in the morning, Speedy runs after the ducks and wants to fight. I'm yet to see them actually fight but she wants to rumble. I'm going to try and film it tomorrow morning and then I'll put the link up. Its pretty funny. Yesterday I saw Speedy standing on the back of one of the girl ducks, I think shes been watching them mate one too many times.

I picked our first zucchini from the patch today, it was beautiful, well as beautiful as a vege can get. I was just glad the ducks didn't eat it.

Afternoon delight

I've had a hectic past two days. A second audit in a matter of weeks and the loss of a very large summed cheque so unfortunately there has been little time for the Babies. Lucky for me though the cheque was cancelled and the 2nd audit is finished so it was Duck time this afternoon.Here is Speedy, she is so cute, well as cute as a hand raised chicken can get. Her feathers look either green, blue or black depending on where the light is. I saw her sitting underneath a mandarin tree hanging out with Old Boy and another hen. Perhaps the chuck is finally becoming a chicken.

I took this photo of Old Boy this afternoon so you can see how badly he's lost his feathers. I'm really hoping his feathers grow back and he recovers from this lice infestation. Initially I didn't want to take any photos of him while he's like this. Its like an old person who is sick, you don't want that memory to be the last thing you have. But... he's just the best model even when he's practically featherless.

Have I mentioned I've been you tubing? Well I've been going off, some may say a little too much, but I like to think the clips are a great companion to the blog!

www.youtube.com/melbajh

Tuesday

Poor old Boy he looks so hagged. He appears to have lost all of his feathers around his neck yesterday. We will have to put that powder on him again this afternoon. He looks OK on his feet though so that's a positive. I was worried I was going to get lice as I put a feather of his in my hair. Which wasn't the smartest things I've ever done.

The babies are as cute as ever, I took this photo pre-fence so it was taken a week or so ago. Someone at the Larder yesterday threw out their scraps yesterday so I wasn't able to feed them any scraps today. Lucky there was some cooked bacon from the weekend so they ate alittle of that. Cuties.

Sleeping with the ducks

I got locked in the duck pen by accident this afternoon. As I was putting the girls to bed (Katsca included) I pulled the door with my foot so that the others couldn't escape. Turns out I must have pulled it too hard as when I turn around to leave i was locked in. I yelled out to everyone who was around but to no avail. I then told the boy ducks and Speedy to run to the house and get help. They didn't do that so I just sat with the baby girls and waited. As I realised it was starting to get dark and that I really should get out of the pen I found a stick I had placed in the pen a few days for Speedy to use as a perch. I used the small end to flick up the switch and got out.
It was pretty funny.

Duck-proof fence

So the fence is up. I finished it today and the patch was duck free today. I think this is the only fence in history that is about 20-30cm high. I replanted the cucumber (for the 6th time) and the zucchini (for the 3rd). Katsca is sleeping out of the pen on her eggs tonight. I went to lock them up tonight and could only find 4 ducks. I managed to find one of the girls but Katcsa is still missing. I hope she is ok tonight. I think she is punishing me for the lack of cucumbers in her diet, either that or she really wants a duckling.

I've been going off with the You Tube. www.youtube.com/melbajh

Lice-free

When I went out to the chicken pen yesterday to let them out Old Boy came up to me I noticed something on the back of his neck, it was a white and rounded, I thought it was a tick. We ended up catching him (which was rather easy) and finding that it wasn't a tick but an infestation of mites. The mites had created nests in his feathers that what the white things I could see. We pulled most of them out so now he is a little bald around his neck. Poor Old Boy, he'd been loosing lots of feathers lately but when I saw his back it was so bad. I called the vet in town and they told us the Co-op sells a mite and lice powder. After lunch we caught him again and put the powder on. This photo was taken a little while after we'd done it. I went over today to see how he is, and he's definitely not scratching so that's good. Plus he was hogging the food which is a great sign that he is feeling better.

Peking Duck

I was so excited this afternoon to see a flower on zucchini. This is our first zucchini plant, so I was very pleased. On further inspection it appears the zucchini had already been tampered with. I had visions of me picking the zucchini with the flower and taking it to the cafe, but alas the ducks had there way with it.

BBQ duck anyone? Nah just kidding, but I'm going to build a massive fence next week.

Old Boy

Old Boy's top beak is cracked and worn down due to the fights he's been in. Every June he fights with the other rooster, 2 years ago he killed one. Last year as I was here by myself I seperated them rather than have them fight until the death. I'm a little worried about them fighting this year as Old Boy is well, old. I'll have Young Boy stewed before Old Boy is killed.
Old boy is my favourite model out of all the animals. He is the only one that stands still for large amounts of time, that is until some skirt comes near them then he perks up like he's a teenager.

Here he is putting the moves on Speedy. At the moment Speedy just runs to the ducks for protection but soon enough she'll be lovin' Old Boys smooth ways.

Once I saw Old Boy with his wing around a hen whilst they were in a tree.

Evidence

We went from this..


To this....
Little rascals.

I took this photo yesterday after I went to check out the damage, I really need to get started on that fence as we have zucchini starting to grow and they will love that.
The didn't go in the patch today, I think the trick is to let them out later, which is great for me as I get to sleep in.

Friday

I had to pen one of The Twins this morning, she alone was in the patch eating at the cucumbers. At the moment they are in penned in with the chickens. I'm a little worried about Old Boy he has his left wing down a little. It doesn't sound like much, but I've found that when chickens use their wings as a crutch its over in a few days. I've put another clip of the animals up on You Tube, today its Old Boy having a nap.

Thursday

Our beautiful cucumber row, which is now no longer. I went into town today and purchased yet another packed of cucumber seeds. As I only just replanted the first half of the row last week I'm going to wait a week or so before I replant. I picked off the main vine about 6 cucumbers which they had eaten, naughty little babies.
I think I've replanted that row about 5 times now. I've lost count to be honest.
We lost a baby chick last night. I have a feeling a snake got into our chicken pen as there was a hole under the fencing. I took some time this afternoon to get some dirt and bricks and patched it all up. Hopefully they will be safe tonight.
So now we have 2 brown and 2 black. The two remaining other hens are now sitting on eggs so during the day it's just the two roosters hanging out. Hopefully some of these new chicks will actually survive and raise our chicken numbers.

Babies

I really should be working on my audit but instead I thought I'd try a little You Tube.

Post-cucumber

I let the babies out like usual today. Yesterday was the first time (since they were very young)they have been penned up during the day. They ate most of the row and quite a few cucumbers from the massive vine yeasterday. I was very dissappointed in them. It seems that everytime I tell someone that they know not to go into the patch they go and do so.

While I've read that you can't train ducks, I'm pretty confident they know they can't go in to our vege patch. If I see one entering I can yell out to them from our kitchen and the turn and look at me (or in my direction) and then walk out. Its all about tone, mostly I talk to them in a rather high pitched voice but when I'm annoyed its very low and loud.

Mind you, I think the main reason they don't go in during the day is because its in full sun, yesterday it was rainy and overcast.

We still have five baby chicks which is great, last night two were stuck outside the pen. I attempted to resuce them and to put them to bed. I managed to get one, but the other brown one remained outside all night. I managed to corner one around the side of the shed in really tall grass. I walked into the grass with my torch (as it was getting quite dark) to follow the sounds of the chirping. I looked with the torch in the area of the noise and I thought I saw a snake, it looked like the anaconda one. Anyway I thought I'm chest high in grass in the dark, and there is a huge snake. So I just ran out, left the chicken to let nature take its course.

Turns out it was fine and there near the pen this morning.

Trouble

The babies have been put to bed early today. I found them out in the patch eating the cucumber, very naughty babies.

Water cooler

I read on the net that Muscovy ducks are 'silent'. Although they don't quack as such, they are far from silent. Most morning after I let them out they congregate down by the water dish and have a big chat. This was taken this morning. I'm yet to work out their language so I can't really chat back. Sometimes after I pat one of them they will congregate and have a big chat, when they do that I like to think that they are fighting over me. But I doubt it.

Rainy day

The ducks are so cute, they stand so still when it rains and then when its over they dry themselves off. I took this photo about 5 min ago after the last down pour. Speedy sometimes stands out with the ducks in the rain, but she was undercover for the last one. Unlike most other chickens Speedy is often quite happy to pose for the camera.

This is our cucumber vine. Now you can see how worried I am about the ducks eating the cucumbers. This is the same vine that I took a photo of back when I started the blog. I keep getting reminded how good it would be if we had a whole row of cucumbers like this one. But I like to think that our cucumber intake is staggered.

chicks

I've done a head count this morning and we have three brown baby chicks and two black ones. The hens were out of the nest feeding this morning and left three of the babies up in the nest. Silly ladies. I enticed the black one back up to the nest with a cob of corn so now she is up there keeping the babies warm.

Its been raining here the past few days and when it rains the ducks go into the patch.
I found them this morning very close to the cucumbers and they got a little too close to the shallots. The evidence was in their mouths. Needless to say I chased them out. I don't think they will go in there again for a while as they are still catching their breath. They should fly but they run, its so cute.

baby chicks

We finally have baby chicks. I noticed two of them this morning when I went over to the pen and fed the chickens. I've been back three times and there are two brown and one black. The black hen is down sitting next to the brown one, while they share responsibilities. I wonder which one is the mother of this one? When I went over later they had moved off the remaining 10 eggs, hopefully they are smarter than that and keep sitting on them.

Crazy eye.

Here is more of the crazy eye. Surely those hen's are going to have the chicks soon. It feels like they have been sitting on those eggs for nearly a month now.

I've been in Brisbane for a day now and am ready to go home. While I do have someone at home putting them to bed and letting them out in the morning so thats fine. This is one of the baby girls as she met me in the back yard. They are so cute the way they waddle up to when you open the back door.

I woke up this morning to the sound of what sounded like hundreds of rosellas and other assorted birds nesting in the tree aboove our office. I felt like I was sleeping in the Currumbin Wildlife Park. I guess its better than listening to garbage trucks and junkies.

Under the mangoes

Under the mangoes is the new place for the ducks to hang out. The mango trees are so large now they create such a large awning and it's much cooler. I love watching it when they walk in a line.

I was thinking about getting a 'ducks crossing' sign but when I heard myself saying that I wanted to get a sign, I decided that I just sounded crazy and have decided against it. That's too close to those people with the 'baby on board' signs on their car for my liking.

We have two hens nesting at the moment, the top one has crazy eye. When the brown one gets up the black one sits on the eggs. I think the black one thinks they are sharing, while the brown one thinks it's her eggs. The top one sits and sleeps on that black tray all night and day. There was another goanna in the pen earlier today. Again I tried to get a photo but when I saw it coming I ran. One day I'll get a photo.