We're getting in the swing of things with her egg production. Though she continues to insist on using the bushes as a nest, she doesn't mind me lifting her to get in them (they are in a raised bed). When she has to lay, she paces her fence, so I know she needs to go out. She's been going at all hours, so I've had to pay attention. I let her out and she goes right to the spot, I lift her, and she checks the babies she already put there, rolling them and uncovering them. Then she lays. It is taking less time each time. I watched today. So cool! She's been pretty constant, one egg every other day, save for one time she laid two in a row.
I think I know who the daddy is, and I don't think it's Ferdi. Darn you, Arthur! I've seen Ginger purposely "get in Arthur's way" quite a few times when he was doing his flirty dance. Of course, Ferdi's gotten into the act too. Once they both were working on it. My my! X-rated goings on on the pond! Little trollup.
If she decides to set, these will be some interesting Buff-Chinese somethings. I really have no idea what will come of it, as she's been serviced by both guys, as far as I can see. I don't know if she will try to hatch them. She's been pretty serious this time around, covering her babies after she lays, laying in the same spot, making the nest comfy, but she's not even a year old, which is young to be a mommy. It's not unheard of though. We will have to see.
When Ginger last laid here, she buried the egg and went on her way. That was Sunday. She never looked for it yesterday. I figured she'd just dropped it and forgot about it, so I picked it up and kept it safe in the house (at room temperature, just in case). Today, she had another egg ready, so she was looking for a place to lay it. I had moved the nest box to her "side" of the yard, away from the ducks, I had refilled it with fresh hay, and I had put a fake egg in it to help her decide.
No dice.
She took one look and sniff at it, buried the egg a little, and went right over to the fence to get out of her yard. I couldn't buy her off with hay or lettuce. She was determined to get out, so I opened the gate. She went right over to the area where she had made her nest and looked for it. She couldn't decide where she had put her nest last time, but she was close. I helped a little. I picked her up and placed her back in the spot she had chosen last time. She immediately began to look for the egg she had left and re-make her nest. I wasn't going to win, so I went inside and got her egg and placed it underneath her. She rolled it right back under her breast and went about laying another one.
An hour later, she's still there, and now the nest is a proper one, lined with leaves and a little bit of her feathers. I think she might be serious this time, so I won't interfere. If she means to do this, she can do it. I'm pretty sure that the little ones will be some odd combination of Buff/Chinese or therabouts, but she wants her babies. Who am I to stand in her way?
Oh, and if you were wondering where Ferdi is in all this...
He's right here. He knows I'm no threat to him or her. He was not upset at this moment. In fact, I was just stroking him when I took the picture. I can easily walk up to Ginger and stroke her too, but I won't. She's got work to do, and I'll leave her to do it.
The real threat Ferdi's protecting her from??
The five week-olds. They do look shifty, don't they?
It was a slow start, because I felt pretty overwhelmed by the list of things to do, but now I've got a little momentum, and I'm working down the list. To date I've finished:
1. line waterfowl path with item 4
2. trim path with stones
14. Plant grass and clover (you can't see it yet--use your imagination)
6. Roof shingle goose roost
7. Fix goose roost shutters
9. Plant raised beds for geese
I put in the only thing they won't eat--junipers
17. Build raised beds for chickens--yeay for that playset we took apart. So much good wood!
32. Build bee hive ( I also painted it, but I didn't take a picture. A beehive's a beehive)
12. Replace door on duck house
I also did part of #10 here--I puttied, but did not sand yet.
In the spirit of things I have done part of, I have torn up part of the grass in the front garden, #33. It's going to take a while.
Ok, so let's tally up. Out of the 41 things on the list, I've done.....
Because this is a first year farm, this is the year we add most of our stock of the feathered persuasion. We started off with 10 chickens and 2 geese. We got one more goose from a neighbor, bringing us up to 3. We thought we found his mate, and that brought us to 4, but then discovered that the "mate" was a boy and a bad, bad boy at that, so we were back down to three.
This year, we will add 6 ducks, 6 geese, 18 chickens, and a couple of guinea fowl. The window to get all these animals through here in order to have them producing within a reasonable time frame (ie; before the days get short) is relatively small. So, there's some overlap when not everyone is out of the brooder and new stock comes in. I thought I had planned it pretty well, but......I was pretty well wrong.
Might be good time for a head count.
First, we have the Pilgrims and duck accompaniment. They are Oliver, Maybell, and Caroline, who are a little over 4 weeks of age, and Benjamin and King Charles the duck (or goose, as he would believe), who are just over 3 weeks. The Pilgrims are flat out beautiful. I thought Ferdi and Ginger were good looking when they were growing, but these guys have got them beat. The boys have beautiful blue eyes and the girls deep brown. The feather patterns that are just coming through are really something on the girls. I am starting to see their masks and I am excited to see how beautiful they will be. They are gentle and calm and sweet and a pleasure to be around--King Charles included.
Next, we have the ducks, who should not be here. They are darn well old enough to have moved out, and did for a time--3 days. Then Ophelia and Suzie went lame and seemed to have a cold. I brought them in to take care of them. But bringing in just those two did not sit well with the other three, Fawn, Phoebe, and Jane. Their incessant quacking for one another was enough to wake the dead. All five were joined in the little hospital box and peace was restored. Therefore, they are still here.
Next, we have the two new additions that I went to pick up today from the feed store. Meet Audrey and Delilah, who are African female goslings. These two were meant to be mates for Arthur and Emmett. Since Emmett is no more, it seems Arthur will have a harem. Good for him. They are cute and fuzzy and noisy as heck. They also are trying to jump out of the brooder, though I haven't yet had a goose who didn't make the attempt. I think it's in their blood. Fun!
And is that it, you say? Could there be any more?
Yes, yes there could.
These are three unnamed Ameraucana chicks, also from the feed store. No, they were not an impulse buy. They were supposed to arrive in June. However, the feed store had some left over from the previous orders that weren't picked up, and told me I could have them. Since the ladies in the feed store were wading through the brooder boxes to pick orders out from all the different types of chicks, and they had already brooded these three an extra week, I was not going to argue. They had enough on their hands. I took these girls home.
They are, by far, the quietest ones.
And so, is that it? No, no it's not. Because of my awesome planning skills, the week after next there will be more chicks joining the queue. Not 3 or 4, but 15. I'm going to need more brooder boxes, and my head examined.
But for now, I leave you with this. It's not quite the noise that I get greeted with every day, but it's just about there.
Sam, like his brothers, is a house cat. Sam, unlike his brothers, likes to argue that fact by escaping every time someone opens the door. With spring now arriving, Sam likes to do this all the time, and usually right behind your feet where you can't see him.
Many times I will be outside working on something when I'll hear Sam complaining from somewhere in the yard. He's usually looking to go right back in. I'm not sure why he feels the need to go out in the first place, but there you have it--he's a cat.
Last night, I went out to check on the animals, like I do before I go to bed. Sam pulled another one of his sneaky disappearing acts and must have gone out the door behind my feet. I did not see him. As I wasn't spending any notable amount of time outside, I did not hear him. Poor Sam.
Seems Sam spent the night under the deck in the rain. This morning, when my husband got up, he asked me if I knew where all the cats were, because he heard meowing outside the bathroom window. I did a quick tail count, and it had to be Sam. I went outside in my nightgown with a flashlight to find him. Luckily he came to me, because I didn't see him in the dark.
I brought him back in, and gave him a nice flea bath to welcome him home.
His real name is supposed to be Heinz, but it just doesn't fit him.
King Charles, if you remember, was the little fluffball who accompanied Benjamin on his journey to our little farm. He was the companion duck, who, after being placed in the brooder with the three other goslings and Ben, decided to take them all on by nipping repeatedly at their noses.
He's come quite a way since then.
I will be the first to admit that when King Charles first came to us, I dismissed him as "that duck". The five ducklings we already had were such a nusiance already, always running away and being nervous and getting sick, that I figured he'd just be more trouble and I wrote him off. I figured that if he was content to live with the goslings and they all got along, so be it, he could do whatever he wanted to do and that was that. Luckily, ducks and geese have similar nutritional needs in the brooder, so there was no issue, and I'd not be endangering his health to live with the goslings.
And that was that. I was sure that he was eating and drinking, and that they all got along fine, but I never really thought about his having much of a personality. Silly me.
Turns out Charles has quite the personality. We've been working quite hard around here lately, and there's been lots of digging and planting. Every time there was a pile of dirt, Charles would climb on top. I really never thought of why, he was just in the way. Then the other day, I noticed that my little friend is looking for worms.
And he's good at it. If there's a worm to be found, he will find it, even if I can't see it myself.
It became a sort of game then, digging up the dirt, and then waiting for Charles to come and inspect it. I never have to wait long. Usually he's right near the shovel, so I have to be careful. Then the game became how many worms can we find Charles, and he was greatful for those as well. He stuffed himself with so many worms in the last two days you could see his front pouch grow during the day. Saving the morsels for later, I suppose.
This is where King Charles discovered my son's apple juice, and that he really liked it.
Since then, I can't dig the dirt with Charles around without him waiting for me to offer him a worm. When he sees the shovel, he walks right over and cocks his head to the side, as if to ask, "So? Got anything for me?" I give him whatever I find.
Yep, he's a funny guy alright, and has made me start to rethink my outlook on ducks overall.
Of course, it probably helps that he thinks he's a goose. I've got a soft spot for them.
After years of talking the talk, I'm finally walking the walk--and have the boots to prove it.
Living on a beautiful piece of land in a small house, we are turning to the earth to provide for us and others. I am a "jane of all trades", working the land, tending to animals, and doing things that many people just don't do anymore. Teaching our children to be good stewards, and relearning the skills ourselves is our goal.
