Miss Muffet's excursion

Miss Muffet doesn't seem to be showing anymore signs of the Botulism. I took her to the vet today and her temperature and breathing all appeared to be normal. The vet remarked that she was a very timid Muscovy, but that's because she's sick. She was on her best behaviour and I received comments on what a nice name she has. Time will tell tomorrow how she is.
As we were leaving the vet's I told Miss Muffet that the vet said "she was the prettiest Muscovy he'd ever seen". The person who was driving me remarked " did he really, that's amazing" when I said "no, I'm just trying to make her feel better".
We've bonded now Miss Muffet and I, hopefully she'll pull through this.

Here we go again

I noticed this morning that Miss Muffet is sick. She was limping yesterday and it seems that the biting thing that Lady was doing to her yesterday is like "come on get up" not "I want to have sex with you" as I first presumed.
She was limping a little yesterday but I just thought that she'd hurt her foot as she is quite the explorer. But today as I've gone to feed them I noticed that she is worse and unable to flap her wings. We've checked her for ticks and couldn't find one, but both Tommy and Lady seem to be fine.
I've just booked her into the vet's at 3pm so I'll find out then.
I just realised, I think it's Botulism. She was fine yesterday morning and then in the afternoon she was limping. Now sometime yesterday her and Lady found the "pond" which is green and has not much water in it. I thought it was so cute as they were having a little swim yesterday, but now I'm thinking that that's what has made her sick. I wonder if Lady will get it.

Love Games

I patted Miss Muffet today, I was very excited. She was in sitting on her nest so I went in there and gave her a good pat and we had a little chat. "Do you love me Miss Muffet, could you learn to love me," I realised how much I sounded like Old Gregg when I asked her if she wanted a Bailyes? I thought she wouldn't let me pat her and would be like Katcsa and try and bite me.

I was watching Lady today and she was biting Miss Muffet around her head and wings (sort of what boys do when they want to mate with them). So now I'm back to thinking that Lady is indeed a Fela. She is growing bigger, but not really big like Tommy, but could be a petite LadyBoy. What do you think?

Bloody Mother

Look what one of the young roosters did to the other mother hen. Arsehole, his head will be on the chopping block soon. When went over to the chickens this morning I noticed that one of the young roosters was sitting and that his face was a little bloody. I just thought that the fight was between two roosters, but I couldn't see the other injured rooster. I then went back over there and saw the mother hen all bloody. Poor bitch, I think I would have ripped the roosters head of myself if it was Speedy. What is happening (I think) is that the young roosters are approaching the hen to mate with her and she isn't into it and thinks they are coming near her babies and she attacks them. I've never seen a rooster beat up a hen before. They are out of here, they will be Hungarian stew in no time.

Saturday

There were zero casualties from the snake last night. I couldn't find the snake again last night, so I was somewhat pleased about that. This morning I went over to the chicken pen and sealed up this one huge hole in the fencing so no snakes can get in there. It was funny, while I was doing it Miss Muffet kept coming into the pen and watching me.
She's a cutie, it looks like both her and Lady have put on weight since being here. I'm glad as they looked so small when we got them. Lady's mask is also coming out a bit more. I think Tommy will like her once she puts out.

Snake fest 08 resumes

I saw what appeared to be a brown or maybe a tiger snake tonight in the shed. It was about a metre long and I think very poisonous. It was brown (red/brown) with a checker board type stripes with a lighter mocha sort of belly. I've never been much of a snake spotter so I've been googling away trying to find out what sort of snake it was and I get a little scared.
I told Speedy and the ducks to be on the look out tonight, I've been out a few times and everyone seems to be ok - if anything, annoyed because I keep waking them up.
I'm about to go out there again, fingers crossed everything will be ok.

Friday

Ok, so I think Lady is indeed a Lady. She still hasn't hit it off with Tommy, but I just have a feeling she is female rather than male. There just isn't any 'spark' between them (which is strange for a Muscovy male).
Speedy is out and about with her babies. She now has 4 black and 1 brown chicks. At one stage she had 5 black but I'm pretty sure she's sticking with the ones shes got now. Its funny when the hens first jump down from their nests the babies are confused as to which mother is theirs so they just stick with the ones who's closest.
Miss Muffet is laying eggs, I'm pretty excited about getting back into making pasta. At first I thought that the young brown hen was laying eggs as they were so small, but when I cracked the egg you could tell it was a duck egg. I thought it would be ages before they started laying, so its good to see Miss Muffet is settled in.

Rainy days

The ducks spent most of the day out frolicking in the rain today. They seem to be getting more used to me which is good.
I worry about them playing in the mud/rain, hopefully it doesn't stick around too much longer as I'm going to have to pen them so that they don't contract Botulism. I'm a little worried about that now (Botulism), as I'm not sure if it was a one off thing or something I need to think about.
We now have a drainage system so that the water is no longer sitting stagnate in a pond if front of the duck pen. We received so much rain today and it pretty much all drained away so that's a start. Basically i just don't want to make the same mistake as last time, and have them die on me.

It's mandarin season at the moment and no one is interested in eating them (the animals that is). "I wish Mandy was still alive" I told the ducks as they just looked at the pieces that I threw at them. I'm guessing that the mandarins are just a tad too bitter for them at the moment and that's why they aren't eating them. Fussy eaters.

Introducing....

We had our first little photo shoot today and the chicks were like a duck to water. Speedy is a natural, of course. Speedy appears to have 5 chicks - 3 black and 2 brown. The other hen has about 6. I found a chick that was still chirping in an egg and tried to give it to the other crazy hen, thinking that maybe she'd take it and claim it as he own but instead she just killed it. So now tomorrow I have to go and move this little chicken from crazy ladies nest. I'm not sure what happened to the eggs we gave her to sit on, when I checked the other day she only had one left. Crazy hen has been sitting for months now.

Lady Boy

Yep, I'm pretty sure Lady is a boy. Tommy really doesn't like Lady. At first I just thought that Tommy was being a gentlemen and waiting until she got a little older before he tapped that ass.
But I now think that Lady is indeed a boy. Tommy is getting very protective of Miss Muffet and doesn't like it when Lady follows her around. I'm not sure what I'll do with the name Lady if it turns out to be a boy.
In the event that lady turns out to be a boy, we'll go and get some more females. We can't have one female to two males.
In other news Speedy has some babies. I saw them this afternoon. They are pretty cute, I didn't go too close to her as I didn't want to scare the babies. But I will tomorrow, tomorrow will be their first photo shoot.

Tuesday

I'm not entirely convinced the Tommy likes Lady. Those dirty foot prints remain absent from her back, unlike Miss Muffet, who is black from Tommy standing on her.
Miss Muffet is quite the little explorer, she wandered much further today than she has done before. Today she was down at the studio door having a poke around as well as venturing into the patch.
I watched today as Miss Muffet came running down the hill, followed closely by Lady and sure enough about 2 minute later, down came Tommy. He must really be out of shape since the other ducks died. Its so good to see him walking around and not stuck in that chicken pen all day. Gee he must have been sad. I didn't think he was too bad until it was mentioned to me by an outsider that he was depressed. And depressed he was, but he seems to have pulled through.

It wont be long until Speedy is a mum again, as I heard cheeping under the other black hen today. How exciting, hopefully she'll be a little more attentive this time around.

Miss Muffet and boyfriend

It seems Tommy has been getting some tail after all. I noticed a few feather missing from the back of Miss Muffet's neck which is the tell tale sign of he's getting some.

Lady

I've noticed Lady standing up here a few times now. I bet she scares the hen underneath the black box which she's standing on. I was able to get quite close to her without scaring her enough to fly away. It will be great to see what she looks like when her red mask develops more.

Mango tree

I saw Tommy sitting out under the mango trees yesterday. It was a wonderful sight to see him just chilling underneath the tree. Lady and Miss Muffet were walking around eating grass and other assorted things while Tommy just watch from the shade of the mango tree.
This was the baby girls and Beaker and Mandy's usual haunt so it great to see Tommy there again. It felt like and I'm pretty sure right, he's starting to finally heal over the loss of the other ducks. My camera arrived back from Cairns yesterday so I'll get snap happy today and post some pics later today.

Friday

It feels good to be back on the blog! I went to take some photos today but sadly the camera has gone on tour and is in Cairns. But you'll be pleased to know that I have many in my back catalogue. Here is one I took of Speedy the other day, this was taken before she got her own eggs. I wonder if she'll be any more maternal with these hens instead of the last lot. She turned GOB and Luciele 2 out in the cold when they were only a few weeks old.

Lady and Miss Muffet

Ok so I've been a little slack on the blogging front but I've been busy getting to know the girls and catching up on some much needed work.
Everyone is settling in well and the girls are really starting to feel at home. Its been raining here since Saturday and the girls have been out playing in the mud and even encouraged Tommy to leave the pen. Miss Muffet is getting a little bossy in the pen letting the chickens know she means business. Yesterday I saw her grab one of the young roosters tail to tell him not to get in her way. I've been trying to take photos of them but they just seem to be blurry so I'll wait until I get a good shot.
I named the other duck today, her name is Lady. I was looking at her today as she is much younger than Miss Muffet and it just came to me. Plus I love that Fela Kuti song 'Lady'.
Speedy is now sitting on about 5 eggs on a new nest I created for her. That bitch chicken was sitting on the nest and Speedy was just waiting for her to leave so she could sneak in there and steal them. She did so and I just so happened to be in the pen when the other hen was returning to the nest. Speedy would have lost the fight and so to spare her the heartache I grabbed a few eggs and put her down on them. She's now the cluckiest chicken, but still loving a pat.

Our four young roosters have all started crowing, its quite funny listening to them as it sounds like their voices need to crack. I've named one of the roosters -(the grey one with the blond on its head) Blondy Bear. His blond on top reminds me of Spike from Buffy so Blondy bear it is. This will probably be the only rooster we don't stew as he's very different looking from the others (Sorry Lucille 2, who turned out to be a boy anyway).

Meet the family

I came home today and finally met the babies. On the left is Tommy, in the middle is Blacky and on the end is Miss Muffet. These names are temporary until we get to know them more.

Blacky is younger than Miss Muffet who is just beautiful. Her cheeks are fuller and definitely more daring. They came out of the pen today for the first time and enjoyed eating grass and bugs. I've been told they didn't have any grass in their original home so they were very happy. Tommy still didn't really come out of the pen, but he appears to be enjoying the company.

I will take more photos of them tomorrow.

Hydrorancho update

As I'm still in Sydney here is an update from Poppa back a the ranch

"Tommy is really cute and he is fully protecting the girls when I go in to the pen. He'll stand in front and they will hide behind him. He is such a gentlemen, yesterday when I got them he came running up and I swear he thought it was Katcsa and Baby Girl at first, then when he realised it wasn't he slowed down. I'm sure too that he had a tears in his eyes when he was getting to meet them. They are so cool they just hang out together now and they all slept together as I put fresh hay down."

I so can't wait to get home.

mumma duck

I'm a mum again!!! Poppa went to Lismore today and rescued our two new babies. He said it was like something out of Mad Max. The ducks were all dirty and I shudder to think what it was like. I think I would have come home with a lot more than just two had I have gone to pick them up. You'll be pleased to hear that Tommy was a perfect gentlemen and didn't jump their bones straight away. They had a bit of a chat and catch up. I'm sure he'll be taking them down to the pool in no time.