You have no idea how happy the sight of this makes me. It's my new compost bin. It replaces this, our old compost pile. Well, technically, this is but let's not go there. It was another scorcher today, so me and hubby worked in the barn where it was a bit cooler and put the bin together before moving it over to it's new location later in the evening when it wasn't so hot. Hubby working the ground where the compost will sit. The new compost site is actually directly behind the old one on an "island" of greenery just off our driveway. Tomorrow I'll clean up the old pile and with the shrubs and trees surrounding the compost bin, it should look rather nice in there...for a dump site.
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We put up the chicken run today. It took all afternoon. It was hot. I'm beat. Therefore, photo post only today. Oldest building rabbit house for her bunnies. Children end the day with a sleepover in the barn loft.
A while back we finally decided on the location of our coop. I wanted it close enough to the house that I didn't have to trudge through two feet of snow to get to in the winter. I also wanted to be shelted from wind, rain, sleet and snow when collecting the eggs. The location we chose was the wood shed. It is a mere couple steps from our back door and has more than enough room to spare. I loved that the large fiberglass insert would provide lots of natural light. And best of all, we designed it so the entrance to the coop will be from the inside of the shed. The only main problem was that there is no floor in the shed. So that is where building has begun. But first, we needed to rearrange things to make room for the coop. When that task was done, me and the oldest were able to get started on the floor. While hubby and my other daughter (with a little bit of help from the boy) went outside and began hammering in the posts for the chicken run. Things have been moving at a snails pace even though the chickens are growing quickly. I'm hoping to have them moved into the new place in less than two weeks but will continue to post photos and updates as the coop progresses. Meanwhile, the weather has finally cooperated and we had a bit of sunshine and warmth today, so think I'm going to put up the chicken wire tomorrow and let the girls outdoors to play for the first time. The ducklings have been out inspecting it already and have given their approval. Speaking of ducklings, I had a horrible scare last night. Me and hubby were standing down at the pastures visiting the horses unconcerned about the ducklings as I had left them frolicking happily in a puddle near the barn. When out of nowhere, they came rushing past us and straight into the pasture. Chase reacted instantly. He begun rising up and coming down hard on the ground trying to stamp on them and kill them. They were leaping around in a panic in the tall grass crying out for me, while I was screaming for them to come back to me and hollering at Chase to leave them alone. The gate to the pasture was too far away and I had no way of getting over the wired fence. I was terrified. As were the ducklings. And if his behaviour indicated anything, so was Chase. He kept stamping the ground, and the ducks kept screaming. I thought he had killed them for sure. Then miraculously, they saw an opening and came flying toward me, out of the pasture and into safety. I immediately circled my arms around them and they literally curled into my embrace so relieved to be safe. As soon as I could though I stepped back and made them walk off to ensure no broken legs, wings or any other injury could be seen. Unbelievably, they were fine. It was shocking considering it was Chase who tried to kill them. He out of all our horses is not fazed by anything. Nothing frightens him. Accept, apparently, little ducklings.
My poor ducks though, I thought I had lost them for sure. But they were unhurt and lived to see another day. Which was a good thing because today was the day they decided it was time to learn how to swim. They have been perched on the deck looking out over the pond for several days now, and today, finally, was the day they decided they wanted to swim in it. Ducklings will only swim in water where they are able to touch the bottom. So this big step really showed how big my babies are getting already. Oh, and they loved gobbling up all the little tadpoles they could find (yes, the little buggers came back)! We have a total of 20 chickens. Fourteen in the large tub and 6 in the small tub along with 2 turkey chicks in the small tub. Obviously, things are bit crowded. And with the speed of which chicks grow so fast, I knew that 14 chickens in a rubbermaid tub just wouldn't do...let alone 8 baby chicks in an even smaller tub! These 20 chickens and two turkeys all reside in my kitchen. You can imagine the smell. Hence moving them out of my home became paramount. So while we were making plans for the henhouse, I included a designated area in the coop for a brooder. And since I was in need of that brooder now, I started with that first. I looked around the barn and was lucky enough to find all the material I needed there and was able to put a brooder together the same day. I'm pretty pleased with the end result, if I do say so myself. I measured it to fit nicely into one side of the henhouse when it's time to move from the barn to the coop. Sophie, our beautiful Brahma, is the first to check out the new digs. The girls have a bit more room and appear happier and more content in here. And the younger chicks and two turkeys are much happier in their bigger and roomy rubbermaid as well, until the day they can graduate up to the new brooder.
I'm fully aware that gendering a duck is not the proper term, but rather than having the gazillion scammers and perverts who scan blogs that use the s-word, I opted for this term instead. When I bought my 3 ducks, my breeder had thought that the two black and white ones (called Snowy Call Ducks) were females and the brown one a male. Sounded good to me. However, not knowing anything about keeping ducks, I hit the library and took out books on raising ducks. There was a section on how to determine the gender of your duck. So following these directions I went out and studied my ducks. At this early stage it is still too early to really tell the difference next to having a professional check their vents. But my ducks are getting older, and some of the signs listed are beginning to emerge. The snowy ducks I've got 90% pegged. Firstly, males are bigger than females and have prettier plummage. Though the difference is suttle in my snowy ducks, I would say that the one in the back has the darker feathers along with a black crested head. The one out front has less black feathers and has a brown head. And though it's barely noticeable, the duck with the black head is slightly taller and bigger than the other. Males also have green bills where females have orange or dark bills or a combination of orange and dark bills. The black-headed duck who I will stop referring to us as the black-headed duck and by his name instead of Donald, has a bill that is starting to turn green. The brown headed duck, aka Daisy, has a full dark bill. But the sure fire way of telling the gender of a duck is by their quack. A male has a soft, almost high pitched squeal whereas the female has a loud deep very definite quack. Only female ducks quack. And Daisy quacks. I've yet to hear a quack out of Donald. If you haven't heard your duck quack or not sure which one quacks, you can perform an easy test. Grab your duck by the tail and it will let out either a quack or a squeal. Now as for the brown duck, aka Daphe or Daphne, I had actually thought it might be a female because of it's colour. The father of these ducks is a beautiful green-headed mallard call duck. The female version of mallard ducks have plain brown feathers. But this duck has me still guessing. Her bill remains dark however, she is beginning to grow a beautiful white ring around her neck similar to one found on a male mallard. And it's plain brown feathered coat revealed spots of colour in it today while the ducks were frolicking in some puddles. But most importantly, she failed to quack in the quack test. So, in conclusion, it's still a waiting game with Daphe/Daphne unless of course it's all a bunch of hogwash and I have no clue what gender of ducks I have and will have to wait until they are laying eggs or killing each other for the attention of another.
Linking up to Farmgirl and Farm Friend Blog Hop. I was going to post about how to sex a duck, but am putting that blog subject off until tomorrow as I wanted to share an incident at the farm that happened the other night instead. But first, I need to tell you that our german shepherd, Dakota, was hit by a car a few days ago. Now before you think the worse, let me assure you she is fine. Remarkably, unbelievably, truly a miracle fine. She is approximately 11-12 years old (she was a stray we adopted so never knew her exact age) and is definitely showing her age. We are fully aware that her days are numbered and are prepared for that. So when I was down by the road gardening the flowerbeds at the end of our driveway and heard the familiar tire squeal, thump and cry of a dog, I figured her day had arrived. When I spun around and saw the rear wheels rise up and back down onto the road after driving over my dog, my memory flashed back 13 years ago when we lost a dog to the exact same way. But then unbelievably, Dakota simply got up, shot the vehicle an angry glare and walked off. Then mad as heck, she chased down the very next car. I couldn't believe it. So for her own safety, we tied her up to a shaded tree behind the barn. That is where the incident begins. Because Dakota was tied up at the back of the barn, she was not able to do her duty of guarding the property. She is constantly barking. Admittedly, it drives us crazy. What we sometimes forget to appreciate is all the critters who wonder over from the animal sanctuary across the road and who are scared off our property because of that bark. Which explained the sight of a raccoon down by the drive shed. It was the first wild animal we spotted at the farm (not counting the dead raccoon stuck in our pasture fence). And I knew it was here because Dakota was not there to scare her away. We ignored the raccoon as it couldn't harm anything near the driveshed and at supper when I went out to feed the animals, I heard Dakota barking like mad from behind the barn. I knew she had spotted the raccoon and was going ballistic because she couldn't chase after it. So I untied her and the moment I did, she shot off in the direction of the driveshed sniffing the ground like she was a police dog hunting down the narcotics. I'd never ever seen her do this in the 10 years we've owned her. It was impressive admittedly. She suddenly veered back to the barn sniffing the ground like mad. I was right behind her sure we'd find the raccoon in the barn. Dakota went wild in the barn sniffing, even going up on her hind legs to smell the air above her, but there was no sign of the racccoon. I sighed with relief, doubled checked my ducklings were okay and no raccoon had them for dinner, then left the barn, shutting the door behind me in case she decided to come back. About ten minutes later, my oldest headed out to the barn, opened the barn doors then suddenly slammed them shut. I happened to see this from my window so went out to see what was wrong. The raccoon was in the barn, feasting on cat food...right next to my lovely ducklings. I couldn't believe it. I had checked ever single corner of that barn. There had been no raccoon. Then as I entered the barn, Dakota who was right on my heel, came charging in after the raccoon. The damn thing didn't run away as I had thought. Raccoons are fighters. She stood her ground and took on Dakota. A nasty fight ensued. I took a single photo, but was too preoccupied with the fight so it didn't come out very clear. Admittedly, I was terrified. I had heard that raccoons can be nasty little buggers, but I had no idea they were fearless and would challenge a german shepherd. Me and daughter grabbed some sticks and began banging the posts, cages, anything that would make a loud noice and try and scare it out of the barn and off our dog, but it refused to go. When it finally did run, it was to up here. (This explained why I hadn't seen it earlier, I was looking on the ground not overhead. Dakota, however, had known the scent had ended above as you recall I mentioned she began sniffing the air. We again began hollering and making loud noices trying to scare it down and out, but it just would not go. Now the reason I'm telling you this, is not to give you a lesson on how to remove a raccoon from your barn because I have no idea, but to warn you how difficult it is. We spent an hour trying to remove the critter. I hosed it down, through rocks and cans of cat food at it, jabbed it with a pitch fork and a wooden stake (it was 8 feet long so no worries I got that close) but still it refused to leave. I didn't know what to do. If I had a shotgun I would have seriously considered shooting it cause I figured that was the only way it was leaving my barn. We eventually were able to move it toward the front of the barn and the exit, but he only found something else to climb up. (The wooden stake is below him, it's the yellow looking pole). We were able to knock him off the ladder and with the help of the pitchfork and Dakota, finally maneuvered him outside. As soon as we did, we shut the barn down and closed my ducklings and baby bunnies safely inside. Dakota kept close to the raccoon (behind her hiding behind the tree) as if she was personally escorting it off the farm. But since we had gotten it out of the barn, I didn't care so much where it went. I figured it would saunter on back down to the woods now that it no longer had it's food source. I checked Dakota over and remarkably, she didn't have so much as a scratch on her. I couldn't believe it yet again. She had just come out of a nasty fight with a raccoon and didn't have a mark on her. Two days and two incidents and the dog walks away harmless. My daughter says she is immortal. I, however, know the power of 3's. You are given two warnings and then it is the 3rd that matters. I'll be keeping a close watch on her. As for the raccoon, she wasn't done exploring our property. We went into the house but noticed it shortly afterwards walking around our backyard. Since all my critters were safely locked away in the barn, we simply watched with interest from the back window...until we spotted May, our barn cat that just had her litter a few days ago. We had prepared a bed for her and the kittens in the woodshed but she had rejected and had taken the kittens to some unknown location. My daughter wanted to track them down, but I figured we'd see them again when they were big enough to follow mom to our back door for food. Anyway, May's back suddenly arched, then in a bolt she fled to a pile of logs lying beneath a pine tree. We knew then where the unknown location was. Hubby grabbed a thick stick to ward off the raccoon while daughter went and fetched the kittens. We brought them into the house and placed them back in the bed we had prepared. It didn't take much persuading May to follow. We set up a kitty litter next to the bed in the front room where it is nice and quiet, and she and babies have been there ever since. May has always been very nervous and skitterish around us, but she's really coming along quickly and learning to trust us. We did notice one at least kitty is missing. It was one of the little black ones. Of course we were disappointed but relieved the others have survived and that no raccoon was having them for dinner.
We have named the ducks. The two white and black ducks are Donald and Daisy. And the dark one is Daffy if it's a boy (or Dinner as I joked if it's a boy---can't have too many drakes!) or Daphne if it's a girl Yes, I know, we lack creativity. And, yes, we do like to name all our animals. That's part of the fun! How do we know the sex of the duck? It's still a guessing game at this point, but will post tomorrow on how you can tell the sex of a duck.
It's May and our farm is swarming with flies and mosquitos. Usually, I'm not a baby when it comes to mosquitos and can tolerate them pretty good. But this year seems to be worse than any other. At first I thought it was just our farm being across the road from a swamp, but the mosquitos are everywhere. We were attacked at my son's soccer game, in the drive thru at Tim Hortons, in the parking lot of the grocery store...they are relentless. My poor horses are being eaten alive. So I decided to get some ducks with the only thought of using them to rid of these pesky bugs. I read on other blogs people who loved owning ducks. I couldn't fathom the attraction. Sure they are pretty to look at, but I've seen enough ducks at local parks and didn't find anything exciting about them. Other than their ability to lower the bug population. Then we brought our 3 ducks home. First of all, aren't they just so cute?! I only wish we had bought them as day old ducklings. After I did my research, I decided on Call Ducks because of their friendly personality. I knew my boy would be playing with them constantly, so I wanted a duck that would not become aggressive toward him. However, while we were at the breeders and I was talking to her, she told me they are indeed great pets but not very good at catching flies. Muscovy ducks were the way to go if you want to rid your farm of them. So we ordered some baby chicks from her but she had these 3 call ducks that my boy begged and pleaded with me to bring home. And so I did and he is loving being their "mommy"! We originally threw them into our shower stall as we weren't set up or prepared for them coming home. I took some time out of my day yesterday to set them up a shelter with a small bathing tub in the barn. But before they moved over to their new home, we took them outside to enjoy the sunshine. I grabbed the big fishing net not knowing what to expect but prepared in case they decided to make a break for it and fly away, or run all over the place in a frantic. Remember, I've seen many ducks at parks before and they usually avoid humans like the plague. But, I assume, because they have been separated from their mother, they have adopted us humans as their parents instead. They follow us around dutifully. Truly, they make the best pet! No leash required! They are easy keepers and in order to keep them tame and never leave the farm, we are not to leave food with them in the pen. Instead, we feed them at certain hours and when they see us approach, they associate us with food. Let them get a bit hungry before feeding and they appreciate you even more. And of coure, handle them lots and let them get to know you. That won't be a problem at our farm. My boy is in love with his ducks and gets a kick out of his new role as Momma duck.
Yesterday was a day for babies on the farm. First up, May was not done having hers. She ended up having 4 more babies. And since there was no more room left at the Ritz, she had to find another secluded spot not too far from her other kittens. She chose this spot at the bottom of a wood pile. It didn't take long however for her to realize her mistake, when one too many visitors came to see her and babies. She took off, abandoning her babies. Since it wasn't the safest place and was easily accessible to other critters, we set up a bed in a corner of the shed surrounded by plywood sheets with food and water for May, and moved the kittens there while May watched from the beam above. And it was a good thing we did. For some unexplained reason, the pile of wood directly above where she had been, collapsed later that day. We popped in periodically after that to check on them and though there was no sign of May, the kittens appear healthy and content. I just hope she comes for them during the night and doesn't leave them to freeze. Yesterday, as it turns out, was a day of baby arrivals on the farm. Though the kittens were the only ones actually born here, we went over to our favourite breeder to pick up our remaining chanteclers and while we were there we visited with all her other animals and new mothers. And ended up going home with 2 turkeys, 2 rabbits, 3 ducks, and the 3 chanteclers. The chanteclers checking out their new home and new family below. The turkey's....which daughter discovered their reputation of not being the smartest chicks on the block rang true, says we should name dumb and dumber, haha! But which my son has wanted since our last visit to the breeder's where he met their pet turkey, Walmart (named for his love of greeting visitors to the farm). I had wanted ducks in the hopes of helping to eliminate the fly population on our farm. When I did my research, I chose Call Ducks because they are the friendliest and with my boy always wanting to play with the farm animals, I thought they would suit us best. However, on talking with my breeder in further discussion about ducks, she recommended we get Muscovy as a) they are the best fly catchers and b) have the best edible meat. So we've ordered some babies from her who should be born any day now. The call ducks above will only be for pet value as she said they won't catch a whole lot of flies. I couldn't resist taking them home though when she showed me their mother. A beautiful black and white duck. I've never seen one that colour. Two of the ducklings above should turn out with the same colouring. We took the third one because he was the last of the litter and came with his sisters. Of course, when we brought them home we had no idea what to do with them. We aren't set up for baby ducks so have put them in the upstairs shower stall until I can figure something out. Then finally, before we went over to the breeders she told us that her rabbits had another litter of bunnies and that one of the litters were safe to breed with Odette. You know, just in case we were interested, haha! We had wanted a male rabbit ever since Odette came home in February with the hopes of breeding her. He was even named at that time. Meet Phoenix. Now the problem is, he shares the same parents as Odette, so no breeding. (Apparently it is not safe to breed siblings, but you can breed parent to child.) So after much debate and finally unable to make a decision, we picked up another male from a different set of parents for breeding purposes. He remains nameless at the moment but he quickly found his way into our hearts. So much so that we are thinking of buying a female from the same litter so that we can cross breed the two litters. I foresee a lot of building of shelters and runs this summer!
Talking of babies, and as an update, the tadpoles in our pond have completely disappeared. We haven't seen our Koi as well in the past week or so. We stopped feeding them in the hopes they would help themselves to the tadpoles. I think the plan worked. There won't be any toad invasion on the farm afterall! May, one of our barn cats, has had a litter of kittens making this the first birth on the farm. Back when she went into heat, she attracked many tomcats which resulted in many cat fights with our own beloved tomcat, September. We crossed our fingers that September was the victor. He has a wonderful personality that we would love to see duplicated. Yesterday, while I was in the wood shed, I heard that familiar coo of newborn kittens. I knew May, who was far more timid and nervous than June, would find a birthing area that would be very secluded. The spot she selected was here, in this birdhouse. Now, if you are wondering how the heck she got in there, the birdhouse actually opens on the other side into the woodshed off the end of a beam, and is nice and roomy. Daughter wanted to move mom and babies into the barn as she was concerned how weak and skinny May looked but I told her to leave them where they were and bring food and water out to her instead. We were unable to see the babies, but I could stick my lense into the hole of the birdhouse and got a slightly blurred image. There appears to be 3 to 4 kittens with mom's colouring and some with black coats. So yippy, looks like our September is a daddy!
Hooking up to Farm Friend Friday and Farm Girl Friday Blog Hop. |