After a few frigid days (including wind chills that drove the temperatures below zero), the temperature has shot up into the upper 50s; at this exact moment, it’s 60 but feels like 57 due to the wind chill. Almost shorts weather again. Well, not really…but it was warm enough to wear just a shirt under a rain jacket this morning.
It rained overnight and is forecasted to rain throughout the day; as a result, it’s soggy and squishy out, just the way the ducks like it. The ground has thawed, so they can dig their bills in, looking for tender shoots and bugs. They’ll be walking around with mud masks on, afterward, leaving large, muddy holes in their wake. Are those groundhog holes? No, just duck-drilled holes Continue reading “Today’s Weather Is Wet, Weirdly Warm, And Windy”
The new duck family (Indian Runner mom, Pekin dad, and 9 mixed ducklings) have been here for 2 weeks and are doing well. They were initially living in a tractor with a coop inside, but we recently started letting them free range during the day with the flock of chickens and Muscovies. So far, everyone seems to be getting along.
While we are enamored of our Muscovies, we love duck eggs and the girls, being seasonal layers, have stopped laying entirely. We’d been researching duck laying breeds and had narrowed the possible choices down to Indian Runner, Khaki Campbell, or Welsh Harlequin…but the front-runner was the Runner, with its upright posture and penchant (surprise, surprise!) for running upright. What’s cuter than that?
We’ve had many integrations this year: several groups of chicks as well as ducklings. Integration isn’t easy – the older animals aren’t nice to the younger ones (think freshman and seniors), and it’s new and stressful for the young ones. Eventually, though, it has to happen. The last group of ducklings has finally been integrated into the main group – hooray!