Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Our water fowl

We have 16 ducks and 2 geese here on the farm. They have been so much fun so far. They sleep right next to our house and keep one eye on the living room window waiting to see if we are headed out side to feed them. We have Muscovys, Runners, Campells, Blue Swedish and a Wild Mallard. The geese are Toulouse which I was told are a good pet goose, so far yes they are.

7 Muscovys
Here is one of the 5 drakes, Daddy calls him baldy because of his white head. You can also see our Indian runner and 1 of the hen muscovys on the left.

Here you can see our 2 hen muscovys and our hen Indian runner is right there in the middle looking pretty at the camera. I think she started laying this week I found a shell less egg in the yard and she was the only duck not sleeping.

This is a good picture of our pack leaders the Toulouse Geese. They are fun to watch when the dogs come around them. They put there heads down and charge at them scaring the dogs away from the group. We have a pair so a boy and a girl, I can't wait till she starts to lay and we will have babies!

My proud boy, so handsome.

Here are the babies 3 Black Runners and 2 I think are Blue Swedish. They are about 2 months old. The Runners are so funny they always look like they are trying to walk on their tippy toes.

Daddy let them out in the yard for the first time yesterday, they loved swimming in the pool!
and sleeping in the grass!
Miss duckie is our Wild Mallard. We saved her and 3 other siblings from being eaten by crows, and being chased by children. The 3 others died on the way home, the chasing was to much for them. The same day we bought some chicks from the feed store so duckie went into the brooder with them. She thinks she is a chicken so she lives in the pen next to our house with my banties.

We also have 2 Khaki Campbells, I'm not quite sure if they are hens or drakes. I'm hoping either hens or 1 of both! (pictures soon to come)

Not everyone has a name yet, I like French and Saunders for the geese. So that is still a work in progress.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Chicks, chicks and more chicks




So my January babies started laying the last week of June! That was just about the age of 21 weeks old (5 months), pretty early, they must be happy! On the 4Th of July we noticed that 1 of the hens seamed like she was going broody (going to sit and hatch eggs). Sure enough she was in the same spot on the 5Th so I put 6 more eggs under her for a total of 7. Around the same time I noticed that miracle baby had been missing for most of the day. We would see her about once a day out eating and drinking water. So I counted out the days till the hatch was due... the 25Th! Sure enough there was a cute little brown chick under my banty hen. Then the next day she had 3 more and the last day 1 more 5 total. Then they day after that I caught sight of miracle baby and a Bunch of little chicks running around her feet. There were 14 all together! We caught her and she screamed as we caught the chicks. Then we put her into our playhouse coop so they could move around with out being bothered. Our friend gave us a huge metal outdoor dog kennel and we put the play house in there giving everyone lots of room to roam. So so so much fun!

Miracle baby and her chicks





My Banty Hen and her chicks