The Ducks New Home

 

After moving the quail to the greenhouse, so they could have more sunshine, I thought their old pen would make the perfect duck pen. It's safe from predators, plenty big, and it becomes a huge mud-pit in the rain. Perfect for ducks!

Farm Updates, and NEW Chicks!

It's hard to believe that it's already May!

We've had some very busy months recently, but I am going to try and post some farm
updates in the upcoming days.  

For starters, we have some new chicks and ducklings, hatched from our incubator,
with our own eggs. The chicks are all barnyard variety, and the ducklings are Pekin/Cayuga mix.

Cordelia and Her Drake

After our duck population dwindled down to just one Rouen hen, I decided we better get some more so she wouldn't be so lonely. I found an ad on Craigslist for a couple of ducks in need of a new home.

Meet Cordelia, a Cayuga mix:

And her drake, a white Pekin:

Unfortunately, we lost sweet Cordelia to a possum attack, but thankfully we'd incubated some of her eggs shortly after acquiring her. We have some beautiful ducklings from her, to now keep the Pekin drake company, as he was quite sad without his Cordelia. Here they are:

Incubator Overview

Our incubator is Rite Farm Products' Model #3600 Complete Pro Digital Incubator Kit. It was just under $100 and has proved to be pretty reliable. I do use an additional thermometer and hygrometer to make sure my levels are just right.

One of our first bigger hatches was a combination hatch with quail, chicken, and duck eggs. We had decent results, but it was difficult to give the ducks as much moisture as they needed, without drowning the other eggs. Check out the video on that hatch:

Here lately though, I've been sticking to just uncubating quail, and I generally get

around a 70% hatch rate with them.

Farm Update

Day to day life has definitely got me busy and just a bit too occupied for blogging. So here's a quick rundown of all the things we've got going on right now....

Above and below: Built new rabbit hutches. Love them!

Below: Ducklings are getting big! 

First cucumber!

Baby I loves the sweet and gentle Barred Rocks.

Refrigerator pickles! Yummm.

First time processing and eating our quail. It was very easy and pretty tasty too!

Love our homegrown v-6.

Lots of predator problems lately! We have to reset our traps constantly!

Cleared out the "spa room" all the way down to the bones.

Getting back into my old hobby of making miniature leather saddles.

More baby quail!

First haircut for this little one.

Mealworms are doing fantastic!

First eggs from the black copper marans are so dark and pretty!

Baby bunnies!

Pallet furniture. Love this table for the family room.

Rainy Day

I'm pretty sure it's been raining for a solid 36 hours. We have water standing everywhere! In fact, I'm certain the ducks would have loved it if their pen was moved a couple feet over. They'd have a lot of fun in that puddle!

We got a good start to our rainy day with this delicious egg scramble, made with Thrive sausage crumbles and chopped onions. It was so quick and easy throwing this together, and I loved that I didn't have to mess with raw sausage or chopping onions.  

  Having such a delicious, quick breakfast, ensured I had plenty of time to give our Lucky boy a hair cut. It was long overdue! The poor guy was so good while I was trimming him and he looks so much better now. It might not be a professional job, but it works for us!

Little Quackers!

We happened to spot some day old chicks and ducklings at our local feedstore the other day. We'd been talking about getting ducks for awhile now, so figured we'd better get some while they're selling.

While they started out being super cute and tiny, they are fast growers and oh, so nasty! They already poop as much as our adult chickens do, and its impossible to keep their area clean and DRY.

I will be moving them outside just as soon as the weather allows it. We got nine altogether, three each of the following breeds: white pekin, Rouen, and Indian Runners. Assorted genders.