Wednesday, October 26, 2011

More ducky catch-up...

I'm trying to clear out the backlog of cute ducky photos so I can catch you up to the present day and, oh, I dunno, maybe post about something other than the ducklings!


They were so small back in September! That's little Amy looking at the camera, with her cracked beak.

Here she is a couple of weeks ago, healing nicely!



And here she is last weekend, not only very well healed (slightly deformity in her beak end) but suddenly sporting a lot of grown-up duck feathers! She's a nice greyish-brown with a white ruff on her chest and neck.




But back to catch-up. Here are two of our English game hens (known as "muffs" because of their excess facial feathering , although there are a lot of rude double-entendres down in the coop because of all that name!) The four of them like to escape through the top of the chicken run and mingle with the ducks, or just hang out on the netting. They don't much like the other chickens and they are very fast and wily!



The ducks all love treats (as do the chickens!) Here they are, stripping down a handful of kale.



"Nummy num num!" say the ducklings.



They also enjoy their "infinity pool."



I took the pool out last weekend. It will be freezing up soon, plus Muscovy ducks don't need to swim, particularly in winter. Not that they'd be swimming in THAT pool in winter, unless I put in a heater! I was thinking maybe they'd like their own hot tub.




Since I took these photos, we've put up permanent fencing for the ducks and enlarged the run.


Spot the interloper! The ducks don't seem to care about the chickens.



They LOVE scratch feed. They vacuum it up from your hand in no time.
The temperatures have now dropped to the normal range, so we're not wearing shorts anymore. In fact, I had to put on gloves this weekend. I nearly cried.

And here is one of the little girls enjoying a bath:



And yesterday we got another duck! Warren, the sole surviving Upper Canada Village duck, has come to spend the winter here. I've been told Warren is 3-1/2 years old and great-grandfather to our own ducklings! He's a beautiful grey guy with a twisted wing (something happened to it some time back.) He's fitting in very well and I will take some photos of him today. He was chowing down on the organic feed yesterday and seemed to approve of his new lodgings. He definitely seems to be boss, though, and MacGregor is chastened!



10 comments:

  1. The muffs don't like the other chickens? Do the bigger chickens give them a hard time? What about Charlotte? The last I heard, she was hanging out with the muffs.

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  2. Ahab, the other chickens aren't overly fond of the muffs! And the new young red Sex-Links chase them around a bit. But the muffs are really fast and noticeably smarter than the other chickens.

    Charlotte is doing well and she does hang with the muffs up in the rafters. She went through a moult and looks great!

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  3. It's amazing how much they've grown. Perhaps one should be called Topsy!

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  4. We can never have too much of the ducks. Keep it coming!

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  5. "Dang, they are cute!"

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  6. Anonymous11:45 pm

    Love the pic of Mama sitting on them. Too cute!

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  7. another month an they will be driving you absolutely nuts!!!!!
    xx

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  8. Uh, John, dare I ask in what way?
    Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have turned away that order for a Christmas duck!

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  9. Wow, Amy's beak has heeled up nicely hasn't it?

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  10. LBM, I'm amazed. I figured she'd be scarred for life but she just has a little malformation at the end of the beak.

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Thank you for all your comments, which I love to read!