Larder

I felt like Santa today when I returned from the cafe with heaps of scraps for the chickens and ducks. As you can see from the photo Old Boy got very excited and jumped right in the thick of it. I have a feeling that he thinks all the ducks are like George (his old duck mate). The ducks weren't too happy about sharing but there was enough to go around. Old Boy is so funny he always wants to eat what everyone else is eating. If you feed everyone an eggshell he wants someon elses eggshell, even if its belongs to one of the ducks.

As you can see I've got a camera back at Hydrorancho so I'll start taking more photos. The photos aren't very good today as my hands were covered in Larder scraps.

We've had no more snakes, but I've had a report that there's been a sighting of a carpet snake tonight in the shed. I'll have to keep an eye out. As you can see from this photo the chicks are getting pretty big now, we don't want to loose anymore.

Yesterday I was watching one of The Twins and Katcsa swimming in the pond. They were jumping in and out, chasing each other. Aside from being very cute, I saw Katcsa do a head first flip into the water. Now that would have been a good video for You Tube.

Sunday

There's no real news here at Hydrorancho. The sun has come out after a few days of being overcast and the animals love it. There have been no snakes at night, but I still go out and check on them every few hours. One of the Twins was nesting yesterday, but she's not anymore. That's about it really.

Its all very relaxing on this last Sunday in April.

mandy

Its Mandarin season here at Hydrorancho. All the ducks love them, especially Mandy. I was picking some yesterday for the cafe and gave a few to the ducks as well. Old boy likes them as well, but I have to open it up and practically peel it for him.

So many photo opportunities no camera.

This is was taken when they went through the 'hanging out near the back door' phase. It didn't go down to well with the other inhabitants of the house, but they were so cute I couldn't resist.

update

The chickens were snake-free again last night and with each day it gets easier putting them to bed. I saw Ralphy earlier today, you always hear him as he sits at our back window singing for some food. I don't see him as much anymore , with two adult kids and one wife he's one busy magpie.

I saw an owl on the road the other day. As I attempted to move it off the road I went quite close to it. It had a really good look at me and I at it. Even when I walked around it, it followed me with its eyes. I got quite close it it, but not too close as its beak looked like it could take off a pinky finger. It looked like a muppet or Furby. It was really cute. After about 5 min of asking it to move on, it finally flew away. It really did look like a muppet.

Robin, the vainest bird in all the land woke me up this morning. For some reason it chose my bedroom window to bask in his/her beauty in the reflection of the glass. I have to get a mirror and put it away from the house.

Anzac day

I penned the chickens up last night with a little difficultly. As you'd imagine they were a little reluctant to sleep in the same pen after the snake incident of last night. But I penned them up anyway and promised them I'd keep an eye out for snakes.

Earlier in the day I think I managed to find the hole that the snake had entered in through and blocked it up with some bricks. I made about 5 or 6 trips over to the chicken pen, we crappest torch here at Hydrorancho. Its a rechargeable and you get a good 30 seconds of light out of it before it goes flat. So by the time I get to the chicken pen its flat. Which is not much help if I manage to spot a snake. But I didn't and every time I went out to the chicken pen I woke them up, the ducks as well. I ventured out there at about 4am as I could here Young Boy crowing, I thought he was perhaps warning me about a snake, but he was just crowing.

Speedy and Young Boy definitely have a thing going on. She didn't even want breakfast this morning, instead she stood on the other side of the chicken pen door. I warned Speedy that I didn't approve of her taste in boyfriends, but as it was mentioned to me yesterday perhaps Old Boy is a little too old for her. I guess you can't choose your kids partners.

Snake-fest 07 resumes

I want to say my camera went to LA yesterday, but that would be incorrect, so the camera went to LA yesterday so alas I'm photo-less at the moment.

Which really sucks as this morning we had a snake in the chicken pen. I know this because when I went to feed them it was suck in the door. It had eaten two of the baby chickens and was now too big to get out of the pen. I got quite a large shock so I ran back to the house to request back-up Stat. We ended opening the door and it slithered away. I let the chickens out early today as I'm sure they had quite a rough night last night. So much for a snake-proof fence. Damn you Grey Bitch Memorial Fence. So now we're down to 2 brown babies and one smaller black one. I'm so glad that Speedy still sleeps with the ducks as their house is a compound, no snakes getting in there.



We have a new friend here at Hydrorancho, I'm not sure what sex it is nor type (its small, black and with a white tail), but its a bird and we've named it Robin or Robyn if its a girl. This bird loves to look at itself in every window of the house. He's very cute and when the camera comes back I'll attempt to take a photo.

Old Boy

Look how good Old Boy looks. Most of his feathers have grown back around his neck, as well as around his tail, chest and legs. He was so close to dying so I'm glad he didn't. Check out his spurs, they are about an inch long. These days he mainly just manages to spur leaves on the ground rather than other chickens.

Rusty

I found one of the baby girls laying eggs in Rusty's house. We've never owned a dog, nor built a dog house; it came with the mortgage. Now its a duck house. The baby was so cute, sitting in there on her eggs. When one duck lays an egg here at Hydrorancho all other ducks come and watch - no privacy here.

Speedy the chuck

Speedy is growing up so fast, here she is posing in front of the lemon tree. Sometimes I think her chuck days are over but then she'll turn around and do something only a duck would do.

This morning I saw her playing out in a water puddle. So cute. I never thought a chicken would be cute, but Speedy is.

busy

I've been a tad busy lately, well i wouldn't call it busy as such, more socialising.

Anyway everything is good with the Ducks and chickens. Old Boy is perking up and his feathers on his neck have mostly grown back as well as his tail ones. The baby chickens are maturing and growing up fast. We still have 4 chickens to the two mums and the one black one to the brown hen. As I mentioned before I've been quite busy, this is me with my new helper friend Sabina. Sabina and I patched the duck fence and she fed them, changed the water and did many other assorted animal tasks.

The duck fence had created a little bit of problem before we managed to patch it. The babies were getting in and unable to get out. They would come to the fence and wait to be let out (after eating many cucumber and zucchini, of course). The day Sabina and I patched the fence we played a trick on the ducks and moved the car so that the ducks would think that we'd gone. Then we hid. The ducks then proceeded to show us to the location of the entry point into the batch. crafty little things.

This morning I saw Speedy making a nest for herself next to one of the Twins. I wonder when she'll push out her first egg.

update

Everything is all good in the chicken pen; not that I'm at the farm tonight, but it was fine today.

All chickens, roosters and ducks were accounted for.

Speedy is really starting to fight with the baby girls so I'm going to try and separate them. All its going to take is for Speedy to have a go at one of the boys and she'll get put in her place. But at the moment all she goes for is the boys. She's so cute though.

This is an old photo of Katcsa, I thought she looked like Wolverine.

Goin' down

So something has gone down today at the chicken pen. I heard some pretty major bird noises earlier and ran out. We grabbed the banana knife and went to investigate. My initial thoughts are always with the ducks, but as I could see them I knew it must have been the chickens. I thought it was one of the mother hens protecting her babies, but after about 4 hours all mothers and babies are accounted for. The only chicken that isn't is Young Boy. I think he got a whipping from Old Boy and is sulking. I'm not convinced that Old Boy has still got it in him, so I'm thinking an animal or something. I've looked around and can't see any feathers but I'll be sure to be on the look-out.

I re-patched the duck-proof fence this morning as have managed to sneak in through a few holes. Actually I just heard Young Boy crow, so I'll go and investigate further.

Blues Fest

I busted the ducks going to the blues fest on Friday. I think they must have been going to Ziggy Marley. Anyway this is their first blues fest and they didn't realise it rains every year. It started to rain really pretty hard so they got stranded and turned home. This is them walking back up the driveway.

I really must subscibe to Bay Fm for the babies as here they were sitting listening to the radio this morning. Catching some sun and listening to jazz.

babies

This is an early photo of the babies. I just thought I'd put it up as they were so cute and I have so many photos of them.

I was away from the farm yesterday and when I got home I was bombarded with reports about Speedy attacking the baby girls. I think she's going to have to start sleeping with the chickens. While I have attempted to film her, she just runs so fast I can't keep her in frame.

A new edition

We have a new edition to the chickens, I noticed it yesterday. I have a feeling she was sitting on some of the left over eggs from the other mums as the chick looks like it belongs to a black hen. Its all good, I'm just glad our chicken numbers a getting up again.

I'm yet to film Speedy attacking the ducks or the chickens as she is pretty fast on her feet so I can never get the camera ready in time. I think she has the hots for Young Boy. I noticed this, this morning when I was inside the chicken pen feeding them and she was on the outside, with only a fence separating them. I told Speedy that Young Boy is bad news for a good chicken like her. Not too sure if she listened or even knew what I was talking about.

The babies were hanging out near out near the Hangi this morning. I told them to be very careful as people would happily wrap them in foil and stick them on the heat.