Splash

Not much has been going on at the ranch. The ducks have been as cute as ever and I enjoy not being woken up to the sound of Derek crowing in the morning.

The camera I think may have finally have died yet again so I can't get the photos off it I took. Mainly it was just of them swimming. I love watching them swim and splash about in their pond. The girls like to play and jump in and out while the boys just wash themselves. Although this photo was taken a while ago, it looks like this every time. Lots of water and splashing about.

I caught two of the ducks down past our septic tank this morning. I'm not sure what they were doing down there, hopefully not frolicking in any damp area.

Glasses

It has been mentioned to me that Old Boy really is old. It was suggested today that he may be loosing his eye sight. I'm not really sure I agree with this diagnoses. Although that would certainly explain the photo I took the other day where his eyes appear very glassy. I'm not too worried though, he's still my favourite rooster. I keep calling Young Boy Dezza by accident. I'm really going to have to snap out of that one.

Monday

I haven't taken any photos of the animals since the big down pour last week. I like this photo of Mandy playing in the mud as while he is playing in the mud he actually looking very closely at another male duck (possibly Tommy).

I asked Speedy if she was OK yesterday and broke it to her that Derek hadn't left her, he'd just gone on holiday. Someone else also told her that Derek had gone on to his next reincarnation cycle. I'm not sure exactly what or who that would be. That was a bit heavy for me and Speedy so I like Derek is on holiday or camp. Or "he moved to Brisbane" as they say on Neighbours.

The brown hen with her two young babies spent last night out of the pen. Once I return to the ranch I will attempt to locate her and pen her up. Also, Speedy is still sleeping up in a tree, I'm going to definitely get her down tonight as if she's not in with the ducks she needs to be penned with the chickens. Plus I'm sure she is missing our 'mother and chicken time' at night.

Derek's flown the coup

Derek left the building some time this morning. I arrived home from Brisbane and when I went out to say hello to everyone I noticed both the chicken pen and the duck pen doors to be open. There was no crowing and when I came inside I saw the sharpening steel on the bench (always a giveaway). So I went to the ex-butcher and asked him if cock stew was on the menu last night, and while it wasn't, he explained that Derek had in fact left the building.
I'm not sure how Speedy is holding up, probably fine I guess, I'm sure she'll find anther cock to replace Derek. So now were down to two roosters - Old Boy and Young Boy. Goodbye Derek, no more early morning crows, no more Blue Steel and no more taking Speedy's attention away from me.

Speedy's Tug of war

Speedy has left me, she has flown the coup. I can no longer compete with Derek her boyfriend. Tonight as I was putting all the ducks to bed, Speedy was climbing up the mango tree to sit with Derek. I called out to her "Speedy come down here," "Speed you have to go to bed now, its going to rain tonight you'll get wet", and generally just called her name. But further up she climbed towards Derek, resisting my advances. I could hear Derek making his rooster noises calling her up. She's flown the coup, she's ditched me and the ducks.
Although she hasn't gone for long because as soon as this rain stops the snakes will start and that's when I'll get out a big stick and get her out of the tree that way. Derek can't compete with that.
I saw Old Boy mating with a hen today. I was actually pretty pleased as I didn't think he was capable anymore. I head some chicken noises so I looked over from where I was weeding and saw Old Boy at it. I actually yelled out "Good on you Old Boy, I didn't think you had it in you." The reason why I'm so pleased about this is I wont feel so bad about killing the younger roosters knowing that were still keeping one that mates. After all I've got to keep those sluts happy.

Crowing

Ahh Old Boy, what a rooster. Here he is crowing as he got let out of his pen yesterday. I think he was pretty happy as it got pretty muddy in their pen. Now that we have three roosters the are forever having crow offs. It is fine now in Winter, but come summer they start crowing at about 3am, which is just silly.

The baby girl who had the sore foot now appears to be better. Her foot got worse the weekend after I took her to the vet but then it just got better. I think she must have bruised it. Now I can't tell which duck is was as neither of the Twins have distinguishing features. They need to play under the car and get some oil on them again!

So yesterday Speedy was nesting on the eggs (and one duck egg) well last night it was the opposite. As I was putting the ducks to bed there was a ducks sitting in Speedy's box on her eggs. Speedy must have passed her a batton while I wasn't watching. I took all the eggs this afternoon, I can't risk having another chuck.

Thurs

It's still raining today and probably will continue into most of tomorrow. While the pond in front of their house has dried up it's become rather muddy - which the ducks love, perhaps even more.

I noticed this morning that Speedy was in her box sitting on her eggs, it seems she listened to my warning yesterday. There is only one (minor) problem. One of the ducks laid an egg in there this morning and now Speedy is incubating it. Imagine if she'd hatched a duckling, it makes me laugh but I wouldn't let it happen. I can just imagine her nesting and then I see this little white duckling from underneath her wing. If she intends on sitting on the eggs I'll be sure to remove it. Her eggs are about 1/3 the size of a duck egg so it wont be hard to find.

Katcsa

Here's a cute photo of Katcsa playing in the mud today. Such a cutie.

I took Speedy off her nest earlier tonight, she had about 9 eggs there. It was like she was in a trance. Although she didn't peck me she let me take her off the eggs with little fuss and then she stayed in this fluffed up stance. I told Speedy, "I don't mind you sitting on your eggs, but you need to do it in a pen. A snake or a fox will get you here and I'm not ready to lose you." I moved her eggs into the pen but she isn't sitting on them.

Waterworld... still

I took this photo through a particularly dirty glass door. It was far too wet to go outside. There is now a puddle in our backyard and the ducks are taking advantage of it. I love that they have a bath when its pouring rain.

Last night the puddle in front of their house had gotten so bad they had to swim into their pen and retreat to the rear where there was a small dry area. I didn't need to fill their water up as all they had to do was walk to the front of the pen and have a drink. I tried to usher all of the ducks into the chicken pen as it wasn't flooded in there, but they weren't having a word of it. I nearly fell over into the pool of water trying to give them fresh hay, I stopped after that.

I managed to take this photo of some hen standing in the water. I've never seen a chicken stand in water like this. If only it were Speedy, not some slut.

Wet chicken

Speedy is the only chicken that is soaked, all of the other chickens have retreated to their pen. Instead I saw Speedy out in the big puddle looking for stuff in the water. Never have I seen a chicken leg deep in water before but I saw Speedy in there. I ran inside to get the camera but I missed it. Its still raining pretty hard here, and while we aren't flooded in (yet) the ducks are about to. As we speak there is a dam building out the front of their house.

Its raining ducks

Well ok, its not raining ducks and this photo isn't even recent but you get the picture. The ducks are dirty and very wet. Its been raining since Sunday and I think the ducks are over it. I checked out Speedy today and she was just as dirty and wet as the ducks. Its that chuck thing rubbing off on her. I feel like I need to towel her off like a dog or something.
So it seems the camera is back to working (again). Once the rain stops I'll take it outside and get some fresh photos.
The little baby chicks have hatched in the chicken pen. I saw at least two this afternoon and they all appear to be brown. Tommy is still sleeping in with Beaker. Tonight he ran into the pen and kicked one of the girls off her eggs so he could sit on them. We think that he sits on the eggs so he doesn't get beaten up.

Sunday

Its raining here at the ranch and the ducks are loving it. Well sort of loving it, I think its a new experience for them as it hadn't rained here for about 7 weeks. They stand so still and then the preen themselves. This morning I let them out really early as Tommy was penned in the duck pen rather than in with the chickens. Last night when I was putting them to bed he ran in to the duck pen to check one of the baby girls nest. He went up to check on the eggs and noticed that they were gone and sat down. It was like he's clucky over the eggs, it was rather cute. I felt bad that I took the eggs. I watched that Beaker didn't attack him and warmed Tommy that I was locking him in. I told him I'd be back early morning to let him out. When I let them out this morning I just opened the door and went back to bed. I couldn't really sleep as I had a feeling that I left the gate open to the vege patch. Sure enough when I got up 40 min later there they were having a chomp on the zucchini. I didn't have my glasses on so I couldn't really see the damage. On second thoughts, perhaps there was none if I couldn't see any.

Dead cock walking

I've seen two snakes in two days here at Hydrorancho. I wonder how long it will take them before they enter the chicken pen? The pen needs to be patched up again as during the winter season its been inundated with rodents. Hopefully that will ease up now that the snake season has started.
The time is ticking on the two roosters, the are now on borrowed time. Someone here will be cooking up two cocks for stew any day now. My pick is Derek and the new Young Boy are going to be eaten, perhaps a curry or a Hungarian dish of some sort. Who knows, but we can really only have one rooster and Old Boy isn't going anywhere. Old Boy has still got it in him, I saw him chasing around a hen the other day, sure he stops after a few seconds, but he's won my heart over. I can hear him crowing now, its so high pitched. I even saw Old Boy chasing around the new Young Boy, or as someone called him the other day, Young Old Boy. But that just a little confusing for me.

Ralphy

Much has been happening with the magpie Ralphy and his family. Him and his wife Ralphetta have been nesting lately and in the past month they kicked Ralphy Jr and the other sibling out. This is the third year in a row Ralphy has had kids. Ralphy has been here at the ranch, probably longer than we have, but only in the past few years we have gotten to know him.

I managed to take this photo of Ralphy Jr just before he was booted from the family nest. He's a little portly like his old man, hence the name Ralphy Jr. The only time I've seen Ralphy swoop is when he's fighting the kookaburra's for food and when he wants the kids to leave the nest.

Cherry tomatoes

The ducks have found my secret stash of cherry tomato plants. It's taken them months to find it and now whenever I look out the backyard there they are walking up over the tomato mound.

I was surprised it took them so long as its right next to the pond. Here they are having a chat amongst themselves.

Mandy time

Here is Mandy having a chit chat, its so good to see him talking again. It dawned on me the other day that most people don't know how I tell my ducks apart. My mum calls Speedy a duck so obviously I'm not describing the animals well. Mandy was named after mandarins, at that stage he was the only duck that would just eat a whole one. I could never tell which duck it was until I brought out the mandarins and he would run forward. At that stage I didn't know sexes of of the ducks. Mandy now has the most red on his beak and is the whitest male duck. He is missing his middle toe nail on his left foot and has ripped both webbing on his feet. He also likes walking on the beach at sunset.

paw paw

The digi camera has officially died (again). I was trying to take photos of the ducks eating paw paw but it wouldn't focus. Not to worry. The ducks love paw paw, I used to feed it to them when they were babies, they eat the skin and everything.

I didn't really get to see the ducks today but when I got home from the larder I fed them lots of scraps. They sure do love bacon, they also like silverside. I don't think they're fussy with meat, they will eat any type. Here is Beaker when he was a baby. I mostly took photos of Beaker as he was the only duck that looked any different with his black beak. Back then I thought he was a girl though. Previously I mentioned I named Beaker because of his black beak, that was incorrect, I'm not sure why I said it. He was named Beaker because he used to sound like Beaker from the Muppet's.

Mousekeeter

I was pulling a piece of sheet metal back away from the ground today near the duck pen. To my surprise i revealed about 10 small mice, they all scurried away for cover. However the mice didn't count on me having my little hunter Speedy with me. She got all excited and jumped in there and caught one. She thrashed it a little and then ran away to eat it. I followed her because I was just so proud of her and then one of the baby girls went to what the excitement was about. For some reason at that very moment the baby girl wasn't scared of Speedy and she snatched the mouse away from her and ate it.
I couldn't believe Speedy caught a mouse, I told her I was very proud of her. Now if only she could catch all 50 million of them that live around the shed that would be great.

Friday

I penned Derek up in the duck pen so that Old Boy and the other assorted chickens could wander around. I kept Young Boy penned up in the chicken pen as I don't like his way with women, plus he really scares Speedy. Speedy really likes Derek, she is what Grey Bitch was to Old Boy. However she does like her Independence, plus she does love those ducks.

Baby girl's foot is a little better today, or maybe its not. I think I just didn't watch the ducks as much today as I did yesterday. I like Beaker being the boss of the ducks. I think its good for the girls as they are only mating with him, rather than all three boys. I read somewhere that you you should have 3 female ducks to one male Muscovy.

Thursday

I'm a little concerned that baby girls leg/foot is not getting better, or even that I don't know what's wrong with her. While she does do a lot of walking around, today I saw her fall over because she couldn't put pressure on her foot. I keep asking her what's wrong, but I get any response.
Also, all three ducks are sleeping in separate areas. Tommy in with the chickens, Mandy up on his top bunk and Beaker in the main area. I hope this doesn't keep up but at least they are not fighting in the morning. Poor Tommy when he's locked up with the other ducks. They are like piranhas going in the for the kill.

Mirror Mirror

I purchased some mirrors yesterday as I thought the ducks would love to see their reflection. Turns out I was wrong. It was mainly the girls trying to pick a fight with themselves. That is Katcsa and Beaker above. The ducks thought that the new ladies were coming in on their turf. Beaker just sat down admiring himself from a distance. Tommy was too scared to look as he just thought it was another duck who was going to beat him up.

Egg warmer

The brown hen is sitting on eggs at the moment sometimes she gets up for some food or to stretch her legs I guess. This black hen then comes in and keeps the eggs warm for her. Problem is the bitch doesn't like to get off them.
I'm beginning to think that Speedy will never sit on her eggs to have babies. Perhaps its because she never had a mother, who knows, maybe she's just not maternal yet.

Mandy

Have I mentioned that I love Mandy. He's great and a fabulous model at that. Although I'm a little concerned about Tommy now, he's at a low point right now. I had to pen him in with the ducks but I think its time he started sleeping in with the chickens. Beaker was chasing him around the pen and Mandy was egging him on from the top bunk. Why can't they all just get along? I've got the neighbour letting them out tomorrow morning, I hope they don't fight too much in the morning. I felt pretty bad locking Tommy in the pen tonight. The night time is generally ok, it's once the sun is up is when they fight.

Excursion

I was so worried about Baby Girl's leg or foot today I decided it was time I take her to the vet. I booked her in and took her in Speedy's box. I'm not sure how much she enjoyed the ride but I was very proud of her. Turns out there is nothing wrong with her leg, well nothing the vet could see or feel. He asked me if she was lame and I said no but then asked what is that? and when explained that it meant she limped I said yes. Initially I thought "Whose duck you callin lame?" but yeah she limps. Now that I know its nothing I call it a swagger. I also thought that maybe I took the wrong Baby Girl, afterall they are twins. But sure enough as soon as she was out of the box she was swaggering again.

I was so proud of her, she didn't even try and fly away. What a cutie.

How's the serenity?

Just another day at Hydrorancho. Watching Old Boy sleep makes me feel calm and relaxed. I had Derek penned up so that Old Boy could wander around, but he ended up staying in the pen catching some rays. I think the new Young Boy is going to become stew, he is really rough with the ladies and Speedy is really scared of him. He was chasing her all over the ranch yesterday trying to mate with her. She ended up following me as she knew I'd protect her. All the feathers on the head were on end. The thing about Young Boy is that he even chases the oldest hen we have, to mate with her. (This hen's toes are all wonky and look broken. I think she may be a little inbred.) I'll take a photo of her feet, she is a precious chicken, but I've warmed to her since Grey Bitch died. I never thought I'd say this but I'm beginning to warm to Derek as I really dislike this new Young Boy. Speedy loves Derek so maybe I should find it within myself to like him too.

Sunday

Beaker with his ladies. I'm not sure how long it will last, him being at the top. But I'm sure he's enjoying it.

Dirt bath

Speedy and her little dirt baths, she just loves them. It was funny Old Boy just came over and watched, sometimes they would stop and just stare at each other. Speedy used to have these dirt baths when she was half the size of my hand. As I was her adopted mother I used to do some of the things that I knew I mother chicken would do to her babies. We used to stand under trees and I would scratch around the leaves with a stick for her to forage. While I never knew what she was looking for occasionally I'd turn up a worm for her. Other times I'd take her over to the holes in the ground where there are permanent dirt baths and she'd know exactly what to do. It was so cute, she was so small (about the size of a tennis ball). She was all wings, dirt flying and just fluffing about in the dirt. I always had to stay and watch her, I wish I had of filmed it. If I ever get another orphan baby chicken I will definitely film it.

Saturday morning

I took this the other day when Old Boy was guarding his turf against the ducks. The rock that Beaker is standing on is top spot in the chicken pen. This was taken back when Tommy was at the top of his game. Sadly he's now at the bottom of the rank. I let them out of the pen a little late this morning and they weren't too impressed with me. They like to be out of the pen by 8am at the latest, but I just do it when I wake up.

I'm not sure where the ducks are at the moment, normally I can hear them chatting away at each other. I think baby girls foot is a little better. Sometimes it's hard to tell if the ducks are limping or waddling, which they are fond of. Speedy is currently laying eggs in her box in the pen. I haven't taken the eggs away as I thought she might like to sit on them and have babies. I thought now would be a good time before Spring comes and Snakefest 07 resumes.

Survivor

I think Mandy has been watching a little Survivor on television as he has managed to break the alliance between Tommy and Beaker. The fight is on at the moment to be the top duck. Tommy now sits at the bottom with Mandy chasing him to fight, then Beaker chases Mandy. I'm a little worried as I think Tommy is injured, I can see him limping. But when isn't a duck of mine limping? I think they'll be fine, I'm not sure what the sleeping arrangements will be tonight. Perhaps Tommy can go in with the chickens. I'm sure they will work it out themselves.
I didn't end up taking baby girl to the vet yesterday, while her foot isn't 100% I think she'll be ok. She still manages to walk all over our property and she was just in a fight earlier. With the temperature rising her so are the ducks libidos. They are at it all the time, it's a non-stop duck sex fest at Hydrorancho at the moment. So they had a 2 month breather for winter and now its game on.

Duck Wars

While I don't normally condone violence for some reason whenever I come outside to check on the ducks I find myself egging Mandy on. "Get him Mandy", "you can take him Mandy", "you don't scare us Tommy" " Kick his ass Mandy" etc. I don't even want the boys to fight but its just the anticipation of them fighting. All day they have been walking around, wagging their tails and making their throaty noise. Its just gone dark and they were still at it, and no doubt when I let them out tomorrow they will pick up where they left tonight. I think Mandy must taunt them from his top bunk at night.
One of the baby girls, it wasn't Katcsa, it could have been Danny, I'm not sure. (Maybe Danny as a name wont stick). Anyway she has a sore right foot. I had a look at it today and well me not being an avian vet, nor any sort of vet I had no idea what I was looking for. She has been limping most of the afternoon but I think it has been sore for days as she has been standing on one foot. I'll keep an eye on it tomorrow and if it gets any worse I'll take her to the vet. Poor little baby girl.

Fighting

Word on the ranch today is somethings going down. As I mentioned yesterday Mandy was running away less and talking more to the ducks. At the moment tension is running high between him and Tommy, as I think that Beaker is the boss and Mandy needs to work his way back up the ladder. I ran out of the house about 30 min ago because I could see them fighting, well it was lots of wings and feathers. When I pulled them apart I saw that Mandy on top of Tommy so I stepped back and told Mandy to 'get him'. Now I'm not sure if that was right, but Tommy got away and Mandy chased after him.

I think its going to be like that for most of the day. You see the thing is, I know Mandy is a better fighter than both of the other boys, but he's a nail down so I'm not sure how he'll go. But he's certainly got the desire to get back on top.

The girls are starting to fly again as most of their feathers have grown back. The look so cute when the fly. Now don't everyone go getting worried that they are going to fly away, they wont. They just fly to the food quicker in the morning. I can tell winter is slowly leaving as the ducks are walking around a little more. Perhaps its just not so windy anymore.

I love this photo. I took it in January, its just so cute, I thought I'd post it again.