STOP PRESS!!!

I'm getting more ducks!!! YAY. We're getting them on Tuesday. They are going to be white and about a year old. A woman in Lismore has about 40 of them. As I'm going to be in Sydney I'll miss going to pick them up and seeing how Tommy responds to them. I bet he jumps on them straight away!

I decided to put Tommy's interests before mine and get the ducks as soon as possible. When I get back they should all be settled. I want to name one Ping, after my favourite child hood book.

We've put Old Boy back on the medication as we noticed his eye was mucky again. Here he is taking a nap.

Truce

I think I'm back in Speedy's good books as yesterday I rescued her from another hen trying to hustle in on Speedy's nest. This hen was begging for a rumble and Speedy was pissed. Because Speedy is lower down the pecking order than this hen I knew Speedy wouldn't win so I hung around and helped Speedy. This bitch kept climbing up the ladder to where Speed was nesting. Sure enough Speedy was sitting on some of her eggs too so they really had equal rights to it but I do love that chicken.
I could only protect Speedy so much and when I retreated to the house I heard the commotion of Speedy loosing the fight and this other hen laying her egg. I told Speedy I could kick her off but by then she'd already lost interest and was out eating the grass.

Shit Bitch

I tried to give Speedy a cuddle yesterday and she wasn't into it. Bitch isn't giving us the proper respect we deserve. Doesn't she realise we saved her from death? What happened to my chicken that loved a little cuddle and used to stand on my shoulder? She'll come back to me.... one day.

Where's Speedy?

Speedy is back to laying eggs, I found her camouflaged under some hay today. She was so cute but didn't really like me taking photos of her. I can hear her chirping away so she must have been close to pushing one out.

We went to the poultry sale today and it was crap. The chickens looked like hawks and were about 4-5 times the size of Speedy. They look like they wouldn't take no shit, they could just squash our chickens, so we decided against it. Plus they were asking $35 per chicken and that was out of our league. We asked about ducks but were referred to a carvery sale at Lismore. I responded by saying "What are they selling cooked Muscovy duck?"

Fluffy Duck

While it looks like Tommy hasn't moved from the last time I took his photo, I promise you he has. Here he is looking all white and fluffy. I noticed today some of his wing feathers are coming out so soon he'll be white all over.

I think Lucille 2 maybe a boy, as it looks like we only have one hen out of the five chicks we had. Not sure what will happen with all of the roosters. We (not me) normally eat them, but the butcher has become a vegetarian so I doubt he'll be wanting to spill blood on his hands. There's talk of maybe trying to barter them tomorrow at the poultry sale. Should be interesting.

New boy

This photo isn't very good but you can see just how many feathers Old Boy has lost around his neck. He is really old and as someone here said to me the other day "Every day is a blessing for Old Boy". We're going to put Old Boy on another course of antibiotics as his eye is still a little puffy. He also seems to have lost vision out of his right eye. Old age can be a bitch I guess.

I heard the grey young rooster attempting to crow yesterday. At first I thought something was wrong but when I came out of the patch I saw him and realised what he was attempting to do. It will be interesting to see what colour this one turns out as he is gray and blond on the top. I think I'm going to call this one New Boy.

Malting

Everyone is malting at the moment and it looks hilarious. Young Boy has lost his tail feathers so at the moment he just has a nub. He looks so much smaller and even off balance. Old Boy is malting as well but he still has his tail feathers.

My blogging has dropped off in March. With the death of the ducks I've realised that I actually used to spend a lot of time with them. Now that they've passed I'm doing so much more work. My productivity has gone up, i guessed about 20% but other people at the ranch think more like 50%....Boring, I'd much rather be out playing with the babies.

I'm going to try and go to the poultry sale this coming Wednesday, gee I'd love some more ducks.

Swim time

Tommy had his first bath in over a month today. The sun has been out for a few days now and while Tommy isn't still confident with coming out of the chicken pen, I decided he was.
With most of the mud dried up I set about making it muddy again by filling up the blue paddling pool for him. He watched me fill it up but wasn't interested. I think it was me, putting him off. Because when I came home I found him in the door way drying off.

Poultry Sale

So I go down to the poultry sale yesterday to pick myself up a little silkie when I realised we were there too early. The guy didn't start his sale until 10.30am. What sort of chicken sale is that? Chickens are up in the dark, he should have been down there setting up shop for an 8am start. I'm a farmer now I get up early. I couldn't wait around as I had a dance to work on, so the silkie will have to wait until the next sale in two weeks.
Everyone is fine, I left the door open for Tommy to come out of the chicken pen yesterday and although he popped his head out for a few minutes he retreated straight away.
Speedy is like a little torpedo with those five chicks (who now tower over her). I think she likes being up in the pecking order so she spends her day chasing them around. She's not really letting me pat her, I feel she blames me for her illness.