Pet Harmony

I have the best dog, he's already so cool with the ducks, he just follows
them around and smells their many, many shits that are all over the place

Big step Today by letting Chui into the same area as the ducks with neither party restrained in any way.  I actually think my bud is a bit scared of them!  Which really, if you've met Chui probably isn't all that surprising; he's not the bravest creature in the world.  The ducks also don't seem to care much about him.

I'm still undecided on the ducks, part of me thinks I've bitten of more than I can or want to chew, but on the other side they are pretty neat and it's nice to have some more living things roaming around in the yard.  They make me laugh.

If this duck could hold and fire a gun I think he would kill me.  I noticed
that in every photo of the ducks, HIS eyes are always on me.
I think he may be evil, I should name him Damien

 I'm a bit flat on the garden right now, just not that excited about working in it.  I think the biggest reason is that my tomatoes are under some form of attack, it's unknown what is making them sick but they are dying off one by one.  On top of that my peppers look like shit!  Thin, sparse leaves, pale yellow coloring...  It's hard to be proud and enjoy working in the garden when things look so poor.  It's also that I don't know what to do to fix any of it!  I'm not letting myself dump a bunch of fertilizer on anything, people tell me to be patient and let the plants adjust but it's tough to watch things look so.... anemic, so poor

Duck Run

I intend to give the ducks an area about this size.
It's approximately 420 sq. ft.
That's just a temporary fence and I'm still working
on nursing the grass back

Keeping ducks is much more work than I anticipated, much more work.  I've been getting a little frustrated with the pekin' fear of me and how he will just about do anything to flee when I come to pick him up in his pen.  My patience finally wore out this morning and I just kind of plopped him back down with an "eff-you then!"  It bothered me all day, I mean he's just scared and I shouldn't be frustrated.  But I was and you can't really change that.

The plan I came up with was to get them out free ranging and roaming which was always the plan anyway.  I figured the daily routine of:

1. Moving their outdoor pen to a new location so too much poop doesn't accumulate
2. Rinsing the water bowl
3. Rinsing the food bowl.
4. Carrying them one by one (squeeling and squeeeking!!) from the indoor pen (which is soiled) to the outdoor pen
5. Fill the outdoor water container and chuckle as they all jump in immediately (good, a positive!)
6. Dump a scoop of food in their bowl
7. Say goodbye and continue with my day
8. regular life stuff, you know, work, bills, exercise, driving, cooking, etc.
9. Clean out indoor pen, wash food bowl, water collection tray and water bottle
10. Fill water bottle
11. Scoop out soiled sawdust (soaked with poo, water and pee)
12. lay down new sawdust
13. place bowls and fill with water and food
14. Grab each one by one (squeeling and squeeeking!!) from the outdoor pen (which is soiled) to the indoor pen (which is cozy)
15. Pause and look them and ask myself what I'm doing, maybe wonder if they will ever just let me hold them and not freak out
16. Light off, door shut - goodnight
17. Repeat next day

I mean shit, that'd get on anyone's nerves, right?  So Today I was finally tired of the little guy just not warming up to me.  I wanted ducks for pets, I want them to like me, I want them to follow me around and be social and at a minimum, NOT be terrified of me.

So back to the plan-  I will move them outside on a permanent basis, let them roam around, crap where they want, looks for critters, get exercise... you get it.  I figure this will reduce the repetitious labor and allow more time for enjoying them.

It worked, I think.  I came home and rather than resume with step #9 from above I just walked over, said some greetings and lifted their pen to let them out.  It was cool, they walked around and didn't run from me.  It took no time for them to head for my corn seedlings but they were easy to shoo away.  They spent the next 3 hours roaming around while I crafted and installed a quick temporary fence to define their new run.  I chopped up some veggies, took a seat on the ground and they came to me, I even let them climb up on my lap to eat.  The pekin was having none of this, but he wasn't war away either.  This is the kind of interaction I want to have with them, it was great!

I feel the key is just letting them be more free.  I will build a little house for them that they can go in at night, but I don't plan to secure it and attempt to keep them safe from predators - I'm gone too much to attempt to keep that up, I don't want the stress of "oh god, I forgot to shut their door Tonight!" followed by frantic calls to neighbors to ask favors...

I should mention that I left them out in the run Tonight, it's nice out and they are a pretty good size.  As I came in the house to catch up on emails it took about 30 minutes before I began to worry and resumed with step #9...

Early Father's Day - 2011

Very full day with the family Today - parent's arrived around 11:30 and hung out, helped me get some last minutes things picked up.  Sister and J, Cait, Ella and Molly arrived around 1:45 - everyone stayed until about 8 that night, it was a really nice day.


Girls met the ducks (Ella even hand fed them), well, everyone met the ducks for that matter.  Harvested beets which my Mom whipped into a delicious dish with avocado, apple and red onion.  Baked some Zucchini crisps and used the beat tops and chard for lettuce on the grilled chicken sandwiches.  We spent pretty much the whole time in the farm area and it was great, I loved having everyone there sharing my favorite space and views with me.

Duckage

Took the little bastards outside while I watered and did some small chores in the garden.  I'm excited to have them outside full time - they went right to work digging around with their beakshovels looking for bugs, eating grass, etc...  I'm sure once they start pooping all over the lawn in will grow real healthy, which of course will feed them so it's perfect!

You can't tell me they don't want to be in water!

This was the test to see how they handled being sprayed with the hose. I was told they enjoyed it and that it was one option to get them wet so they could bathe.  Sure enough they ran right into it and started shaking, grooming, fluffing and eating.

+1 Farm Status

I waddled one step closer to farm status Today with the purchase of 3 ducklings.  I had been kicking the idea around for quite awhile now and Today finally just drove over and picked some up.  I like the idea of being out in the yard working in a bed, harvesting, whatever and having animals around me.  Rumor has it ducks aren't as destructive as chickens, don't scratch as much.  They also allegedly attach to people more easily and are more pet-like.

I don't know the gender of them, apparently it's not easy to sex ducklings like you can chickens.  There is a 60% chance I'll end up with males which at first was a negative as I had hoped to have a couple duck eggs each day but after learning that duck eggs are too rich for frying and scrambling I didn't care as much.

Start with a clear space

I'm going to setup a run for them against the West wall and will post progress as I work on that.  I didn't want to purchase a cage or pen for these ducks, I'd much rather throw something together from scraps and extra materials.  The design I went with is very simply so I won't mind trashing it when I'm all done.

For now they are living in the potting shed, warm and cozy.  They will spend another month or so indoors until they are too large to be prey for hawks.  I'll also try to pick them up each day and make them used to me so we're all buddies.  Chui needs to get used to them as well which I'm told is accomplished through daily interaction.

Add stolen cardboard from work to insulate from the floor

Create small frame from scrap wood to contain the
shavings (somewhat) and also provide a base for the wire
mesh walls.

Bend some 4"x1" construction mesh to tightly fit within
the inside of the frame.  Careful, this junk is sharp!
I also trimmed it down in height to 2' so I can easily
reach them

Newspaper to facilitate easy removal of the wood shavings
It's not an accident that the paper fits like that, a little
forethought can make repetitious tasks easier to deal with

Sawdust for the poops (which are plentiful!) laid on top of
the newsprint.  When the sawdust is soiled I will roll it all
up and throw in the compost pile

Water - interesting... turns out it's not a good idea to give
them a big ol' bowl of water because they will play with it,
poop in it and general soil it so fast that you need to change
it every hour.  Instead the water dispenser is placed in a
house plant dish to capture the splashing.

Add ducks and you are all done