Almost time for freedom

While looking up info on ducks we found a great deal on some surplus ducks. The catch was they needed to be picked up soon. That gave me 7 days to get their pen and house built. Of course that is not what was planned for the week, so between work, prior engagements, and rain, I only had 4 days that I could work on this project.

The chickens are already on the one mostly level part of the yard. That meant my project started with making a 10x14 foot level pad to start the base. After doing that I think I know why my house is a split level house. Between the rocks and roots there is not a even a level rectangle that small to be dug out in my yard.

So after 3 evenings, 3 Home Depot stops, and 1 really long day this if the newly occupied duck home.

8x8x8 pen, 4x4 house, 4 ducks, and a real door. I'm quite proud of my door. It's square, it's braced, it swings smooth and level, and it has even clearance all around. The pen is sturdy and stable as I confirmed when I used an extension ladder to climb up the sides to secure the fencing across the top.

The 3 girls, They like to perch on the horizontal poles. They are not ready for hand feeding yet. I tried, and and the darkest one took flight, circled once and landed back on her perch. Thankfully I was not pooped on during the fly over.

Out handsome drake. When I cut out the door I didn't know how big they were going to be so I guessed a little.  At 12 inches at the bottom, 8 inches at the top, and 14 inches tall, the door is just big enough for him to squeeze through.  He does seem to enjoy the small door now. In the morning he will stand in the door  blocking the girls while he surveys the land before walking over to their little pool. And at night he will make sure nothing got inside, then ushers the girls inside, stands in the door way looking smug before going in to snuggle with his little harem for the night.

Though I did not get a picture of it, the secure of the pen was tested my an owl. We were taking the dogs out for their bed time potty run when and owl bounced off the pen. I heard the noise and looked just in time to see a gray colored owl flying off into the trees.

As we understand the process we are supposed to leave the ducks in their pen for a week or 2 to make the recognize the pen as their home. They've been in for week, so something this week we'll let them out and herd them a few feet down to the muddy mosquito breeding pit. Hopefully we are doing it right and we'll still have 4 ducks in the pen that night.

Next up - my new used wood chipper that I was given because it would start and it was just taking up too much space in someones garage.

Hey Ladies!

So the ladies are now about six months old and are producing three eggs a day very consistently.  I let them free range on the days I'm home to save wear and tear on their pasture.  It's also excellent natural bug control.  Just yesterday the ladies discovered and decimated a nest of carpenter ants.  All four of them got super excited when they found the egg chamber and I'm sure I saw one take off with the queen.  They also helped me move some stuff around the property and ate all of the night crawlers I uncovered.  Pretty sure they ate a frog, too.  They're like my little fluffy shadows when I'm working outside.

The downside to letting the ladies out is that they need regular management.  Especially after the fox incident, we want them to stay where we can see them.  We also want them to stay off out of the neighbor's lawn (though she loves them).  The ant nests they've been feasting on are right along the property line and they need to be put away before we let the dogs out or leave.

For me, it's easy.  I've raised them from one day old, they know me.  I call 'Chik-chick-chick' and they come running.  Problem is that Joe can't imitate my call, it's too high pitched.  So now I'm trying to teach them to come running when I call "Hey, ladies!", a la The Beastie Boys.  Mostly because I want to see Joe out there yelling that.



Of course I have to be nice to Joe, he's been working hard.  Our Muscovy ducks are arriving on Saturday and he's getting their pen together.  Three ducks and a drake so hopefully next year we'll have duck to go with the chicken in the freezer.  He also has to get the coop and pen together for the next round of meat birds that are arriving at the end of the month.  I'm not losing my sun room again!  We invested in a nice brooder for the first four weeks, then they're heading outside.

On the left is the start of the Muscovy pen, showing the area where we need them to manage the bug population, and on the right is the start of the meat bird coop, showing the pasture fenced in for them.

We also have four more laying hens on the way.  They're four week old chicks of assorted breeds, we're just waiting to see what we get.  We'll probably end up keeping the two we like the most and selling the other two.  Six hens will get us 4-5 eggs a day.  That's a lot of eggs.  We're already giving some away to our neighbor.  Joe was worried that just four girls in the coop designed for 6-8 will get cold during the winter.

I have my fingers crossed for Cukoo Maran or Silver Laced Wyandotte.  Easter Egger is also on the list of possibilities.  I adore my Barred Rock girls, but I want to try out some other varieties.

Fox in the Hen House

Today we had our first run in with a live Red Fox in the yard. Sorry no pictures.

The chickens were free ranging and feasting on garden critters and I was hauling stuff through the yard to take care of another brush pile. Then this cute adorable looking Red Fox comes rushing up out of the ferns, and through the garden on it's way to steal at least one of my chickens while it was hard at work.

I dropped the wheel barrow can run towards the fox to cut it off. You could see the fox was confused and considering it's life choices. Do I ignore the flailing bi-ped? Do I abort and run away? Maybe I can snatch one and run away with it? And while I'm running at it I'm thinking do I wring it's neck, or do I punt it. The fox decided to try to snatch and run, which meant I couldn't punt it without for sure getting the chicken it also chose.

So I'm flailing and yelling trying to get a grab at the back of it's neck. There was no way it was going to get a free meal off my flock after we just started getting steady eggs from them. The fox decided it wanted to live, and got off the chicken and ran like hell. Turns out foxes bounce. It didn't see the new fencing that was going up and ran right straight into it. He bounce straight back off the fencing and headed back towards me briefly. He decided that wasn't a wise direction either and choose a very wide loop around the back of the yard and slinked up the gully to where I think it's den is.

The poor chicken the fox grabbed is just fine now. She lost a couple of feathers and hid somewhere safe for a couple hours before coming back to join the flock in their run.

This fall fox goes on my menu. I'll be looking forward to breakfasts of fox and eggs, and bow hunting with a nice fox muff.