Speedy

Speedy left the nest again today. I think she must be over sitting on eggs, or no eggs the way her and Lady keep fighting of the three they have.

With the light outside it looked like Speedy has such blue feathers, I'm not sure if it translates into the photo though. I was pretty lucky to get one that was reasonable in focus. Speedy's mum always had blue feathers, she was such a good mother and layer.

Speedy will be three in December. Tommy is already three and Kitsci, Albie and Izzy will be one in January. How time flies.

Conversations with Papa

This morning I had the following conversation with Papa:

"Lady bit me yesterday" I said
"Where you annoying her?" Papa asked
"Well sort of" I replied.

I couldn't find her little housemate Speedy in the box so when I tried to replace the nest/box over her, I didn't want to squash Lady's tail so I proceeded to try to move her tail out of the way.
I'm not sure if you'd call that annoying her?

I am off to see Remy tomorrow and I'm just so lazy, I've got so much work today.
I think I will go out and film some footage of the animals to show her.

Spring is here

The brown hen in the pen has about 10 babies, I was feeding her yesterday as she is still sitting with her babies. Izzy is still nesting, but not on any eggs. The one black hen left the nest with the one baby chick she and Izzy hatched.

I noticed yesterday when I walked into the pen that every time I step past Speedy and Ladies box/nest Speedy makes a little noise. She's like one of those door chimes when you walk into a shop. I think I must have harassed her too much on the nest by patting her.
Speedy cracks me up when she's nesting as like all chickens, she goes into this "I'm nesting" zone, where she doesn't eat or drink or leave the nest. Lady on the other hand loves it when I give her food while nesting. Yesterday I put the seed bowl into their nest so Lady could eat some food, so she was tucking into it, and Speedy just watch getting jealous, and only after Lady ate did Speedy realised that she wanted to maybe eat a little two. Honestly I could just watch that duck and chicken for hours.

Both Tommy and Kitcsi have sore feet, I'm not sure what happened to either of them, its probably just a prickle, but I'll keep an eye on them. In the evening last night, Kitcsi sat up in his bed with his sore foot up hissing at Tommy while Tommy did the same with his other foot hissing at Kitsci. They never let up.

Special moment

What an interesting morning indeed. Well not that interesting but truly special.
I've been walking up to the water tank daily (well, when I can be bothered) these past few mornings. On Sunday when I walked through the rain forest part I thought to myself "I wonder if koalas live in here?" I've never seen one. This is true. The only koala I've ever seen on the property was one night and I watched it cross the driveway.
So this morning I was walking up after watering the finger limes and I heard a noise in the rain forest. At first I thought it may be a wallaby so I took a few more steps and crouched down. I was so excited when I saw a koala climb up a tree, it was obviously on the look out for the noise (me) as it kept looking around. I watched it climb right to the tree. It may sound a little Corny, but it was a real magical experience. So after I realised it was still looking for me, I stood up quite loudly and took big steps continuing my walk up the hill. I didn't look at the koala and I pretended that I didn't see it as I didn't want to make it scared.

I spent the day working in Brisbane yesterday only to return home to Lady completely freaking out. She was attacking any animal/person in her sight. She tried to attack me, but knew better.
I didnt really understand why she was so upset until I found out that someone (not me or Papa) brought into the house the two last eggs that Princess Speedy and Lady had been nesting on. I ended up having to throw them out as they had been cold for a while. I gave Speedy some replacement eggs last night after I found out her babies where stolen.

Baby news

Well as it turns out, I was over reacting (who would have guessed?) about Tommy. It appears that everyone has been feeling the heat, dust storms and lack of rain. I'm forever noticing small things about the ducks and all of them turn out to be nothing. I guess its better that I'm being observant/vigilant.

In more nesting news Speedy and Lady are not getting along at all, Speedy has taken her egg bitchiness to a new level and was attacking Lady yesterday. They fight over these two eggs it's hilarious as neither of them laid the egg. Yesterday Speedy left the nest and was sitting on someone else's eggs but then today she was back on them and Lady was off. I had to let Albie out of the pen early this morning as she was chasing Albie around the pen.

Izzy is now the proud share mother with a black hen to some chickens. Papa asked me the other day whether I thought Izzy would kill the baby chicks or raise them with the hen. I'm still not sure what will happen, but I was a little concerned as I saw a little dead baby chick on the ground near their nest. I think this must have been sick or something as I heard chirping the other day and finally saw one this morning.

I'm really not sure how this is going to work out, but if I can raise a chicken well then a duck can raise a chicken. I'll go out to the pen and take some photos. Here is a photo taken of Izzy and the hen a few days ago. I will go out there later and try to snap one of the chicks.

all eyes on tommy

While not wanting to panic anyone too much, me included. I noticed just before that Tommy is occasionally breathing through this mouth. I always get really worried when I notice a duck with his/her mouth open. Ducks are not like dogs and find it cooling to pant. While it is really hot here today, I'm just going to keep a close eye on Tommy. If I notice his breathing to be strained or laboured he's going straight to the vets in Currumbin Valley. I wont risk it taking him to here in Mullum.