The Duck Dilemma

 

Hormones are a horrible thing.

Since March my 2 beloved male Silver Appleyard ducks have been attacking and irritating all my hens.  Their male hormones have been raging OUT OF CONTROL, as nature intended this time of year.

My 6 hens have duck wounds on their shoulders and missing numerous feathers everywhere on their bodies.

The flock has spent most of their days hiding up on the back porch, away from the mate crazed ducks.

The porch got messy, the hens egg laying abilities deteriorated and the 2 ducks turned into little monsters.

I penned the boys up in a special duck area, but they continued to escape by climbing up on top of each other to boost themselves over the fences. These ducks are too smart.

I also had to trim their wings to prevent them from using the wind to aid them in their escapes over the fences.

When the ducks did escape, the hens screamed and ran with the ducks chasing them til they caught them and then I would be running after them with a broom to keep them off the hens and then trying to herd the testosteroned twosome back to the coop to lock them up.

They didn't get to free range and forage anymore as they were obsessive about raping the hens.

They were miserable.

 I was miserable .

The hens were miserable.

They needed female ducks.

My 4 female ducklings never arrived in April and there is a backlog of orders so I imagine my order will eventually get canceled.  With this in mind, I knew I had to find some adult female ducks for the boys.

I put an ad on craigslist and within an hour I had a reply from a woman who had 2 white pekin ducks that were suppose to be a male and female pair...but the male turned into a female.

She wanted two males.

So with a heavy heart I decided she could have my beloved boys.

She drove right over from New Hampshire and picked up Rudy and Agnew.

It was love at first sight.

 

Into the duck transport cage they went.

In less than an hour the boys would be married and settled.

A few days after they left, I got several photos of them at their new abode.

They were swimming in their pool with their new mates and looked very content.

All is calm here, finally.
The hens are off the porch.
Egg production has increased.
Their wounds are healing.
I no longer have to gallop across the lawn, screaming, with a broom.

I miss the boys, especially when I see snails invading my garden.

But I know they are much happier where they are. *sniff*
~

A Day With Ducks

A friend of mine took me to meet a new farmer in the neighborhood.

Alex is raising an assortment of livestock and plants.

He is an aspiring wine maker and has started a vineyard.  I will return for that tour in the future, but today was about meeting him and checking to see if his bovine was pregnant.

When we arrived he was in the process of taking down a shed and moving it to a larger area for his heifer.

Alex purchased Bella as an Open, unbred, heifer last fall. She is an Irish Dexter/Jersey.

 When the artificial inseminator came to synchronize her, he discovered that she might already be pregnant. 

The purpose of this farm cow is to produce fresh milk for cheese, yogurt and ice cream as well as have a calf every year.

Bella watched me as I neared the fence.

She looks pregnant to me.

Alex gladly went and got her so I could take a closer look at her "working end."

She is bagging up a bit and getting some vaginal floppyness, so I was guessing she will have a calf by May 1st, and my official guess was April 20th.

What do you think ?

The average gestation for a cow is 280 very long days.

Some go longer, some shorter.

I think Bella is going to be a little longer.

 

 After we made our predictions about Bella's future we headed over to see the new 8 week old Yorkshire piglets.

Full of comical energy, they ran over to great us.

 

These natural rototillers are being used to help clear the land.

Last years pigs did a great job and this group will continue to root and dig so Eric can expand his pastures.

 

They have a wonderful pig house with a beautiful view of the mountains plus a 1 acre playpen to run around in.

As we bid the hogs adieu, we ambled over to the duck house.

There are 15, 1month old Silver Appleyard ducklings here.

They were all taking a nap in the corner of their large pen.

How I love looking at beautiful ducks, especially these.

They were hatched by the same wonderful woman who hatched my 2 notorious drakes.

We seem to all be related through our cows, or our ducks, up here.

The next stop on our tour was the chicken coop.

Alex builds really good animal shelters. BIG and heavy duty.

Every coop should have coop signs and this one was no exception.

 

Including a handmade one.

The nest box doors pop out so egg collection is very simple.

This Americana hen was in the process of laying a colored egg. Alex found her and another hen running down his rural road one day. They had no feathers and were in poor shape. He captured both and brought them home to join his pampered flock.

Inside the coop was a brooder with 2, 5 day old Silver Appleyard ducklings. 

Alex is also preserving the breed, and is going to use the excess drakes for meat.

We left the coop and went over to the official Duck Yard to greet the vocal flock of adult Silver Appleyards and Khaki Campbells.

They had lots to say.

The darker brown ducks in the back are the Khaki Campbells.

The female Appleyards are Squirty, Gertie, Cinnamon and Hermione.

They gave me a full inspection.

Plus a lot of bowing.

The females did all the chattering while the males stayed silently in the background.

A few posed for photos.

These are really gentle, kind ducks.

Eventually the males, Duke and Ebony, came over to get some acknowledgment.

When you talk, they listen.

 

If you bend down, they bend down.

The color on their wings usually changes, depending on the weather.

Blue means a cloudy day, with chance of precipitation.

It rained that night.

The Khaki Campbells are a medium sized, calm, quiet, heavy egg laying breed. They lay around 340 eggs per year, which is more than most chickens!  

I had never seen one before.  Here are the 3 he has. I really like their size and brown feather pattern.

Laying all those delicious duck eggs is a BONUS!!

Chickens are nice, but ducks are sooo much better. They do not scratch the dirt up and they eat many more bugs and garden pests than chickens do.

Ducks are cold hardy and will come out of the coop and explore when it is raining, sleeting, hailing and snowing. Hens will not.

I love the look of this particular duck.  I do hope that my 4 Silver Appleyard ducklings that will arrive in the very near future, will grow up to look like this female.

The other great benefit of ducks, is that they are always watching you.

 

 Giving me "eye" approval.

While I was looking for info about the egg laying capabilities of the Khake Campbells I found some

unusual facts about khaki campbells and what they are used for and called in China.

These ducks do have a reputation.

What kind of ducks do you have and how many eggs do you get a year ?

Do you hatch out ducklings ?

Do you plan on getting ducks ?
______________________________________________________

UPDATE:Bella had a nice solid male calf on May 6th.

Here are 2 Alex photos

Bella the happy mom and Thomas the bull calf




Alex's 4 year old son named the calf "Thomas" after his favorite book--Thomas the Train.



Barnyard happiness....priceless.

~

The Saturday Vermont View

There is another snow storm coming.   It is supposedly going to be a "mini Nor'easter."
Never heard of such a thing.   Supposedly going to get only 6-8 inches of snow this time.
The Weather Channel hasn't given it a name yet, which is a good sign, however, the animals and my old farmers joints, are telling me something different.

The sky is dark and every creature great and small are scurrying around to get food and drink before we get bombarded with another windy blizzard.

The third sign of deep snow coming: ....the cows were cranky this morning.   I won't elaborate.

Here are two of the better behaved ones--Google and her still un-named 2012 heifer calf.  I have been alternately calling her Gouda and Giggles.  Both names suggested from some really creative name suggestions in the comments section (thank you).  Which name do you prefer ? Got any other suggestions ?

I did errands this morning. Clicking my camera as I went.
It got darker and darker by the minute, so I rushed through my long list of tasks.
Chicken feed, chick starter, chick grit, salt blocks, parsnip seeds, dog food (big sale!) a veggie book that I didn't really need, but I saved so much on Mavis' dog food I figured it was a cheap bonus gift for my diligent task doing.  I need to grow more food this year than ever before, both in my own garden and in the community garden that a small group of us are trying to develop, so this book will be well used and well borrowed by all who need it.    Big print, simple diagrams and easy methods.   Anyone read this book yet ?

I continued on my errands, my headlights on and the snow coming down lightly at first and then bigger flakes greeting me as I drove by old farms and fields. 

 

I stopped at the neighboring town's library to see an amazing art exhibit (will post it next week!) and then took a long, slow ride home thinking the entire way about my storm plan and how I would do things differently for this storm.

When I arrived home it hadn't started snowing up on my mountain road yet.

The flock came out to greet me and demanded some snacks.

 

I dropped my camera on the ground as I was emptying out my truck with groceries and it took this pretty cool photo.

 

As I watched the flock I saw the snow clouds heading our way.

 

The flock started grazing what little grass and dirt the plow man had exposed last week, and got right down to business.

Ziva, the Alpha hen, demanded her favorite scratch feeds and some left over squash and cauliflower.

She walked me over to the front door of the house to make sure I went in and got what she wanted.

This hen is more demanding than the entire herd of cows.   I kid you not.

 

Inside my home the smells of freshly baked Vitality bread filled every room and corner.

Wonderful with a mug of hot tea and honey butter.

As I sat and enjoyed my tea and Irish Vitality bread I gazed out the kitchen window at the snow that had just started coming down gently.
 The flock was still power grazing and one of the many downy woodpeckers was enjoying the fresh beef suet I had hung up.

 

Most of the birds have already been here today and almost emptied out 2 of the bird feeders.

The woodpeckers come early and stay late, enjoying every morsel.

The big snow starts later tonight and by then, hopefully, every hungry creature up here in CowVille will have a full belly and be able to hunker down for awhile.

Hope you all fare well in this new storm.
Any predictions on snowfall ?
~

In response to your many requests for the bread recipe
The Vitality Bread recipe is here

We add lots of other ingredients like Vermont Maple Syrup instead of honey and potato flour (King Arthur) to make the bread denser and cut easier.

Its the potato flour that makes it Irish.


Let me know how it comes out for you!