The ducklings

Here are all of Lexi's ducklings...

From left to right: Countess Darling von Darling, Bert, Betty Lou (back), Abby Cadabby (front), Zoe and Prairie Dawn

Spring update

Here are some recent photos from the microfarm...

Roma tomatoesApples starting to plump up

The latest gardening bed. This one will have spinach and lettuce

Our ceramic chicken Gertrude watches over the newly planted seeds

Meet Oscar

Oscar is not at all grouchy. In fact, while mom went for a drink, Oscar climbed out of the nest to see me and climbed right in to my hands. Mom was perfectly OK with it, unlike Chrissy was with her brood. I couldn't even LOOK at them without Chrissy losing her fluffy little mind. Lexus has a more laid-back parenting style apparently.

It looks like Oscar has a brother. You can't see him in this photo well, be he still looked a little wet and was busy trying to hide under mom. In keeping with the Sesame Street theme, my friend Abi has named the second one Bert. Still waiting for some girls though. We would much like to see an Alice, Zoe, or even a Countess Darling Von Darling.

The hatch begins

It look like Lexus has successfully brooded her first time setting a nest. I was seriously beginning to wonder if she was sitting on a pile of duds or what. I checked yesterday and there was cracked egg that was peeping at me so I carefully placed it back in the straw and covered it.

While I was checking the nest, Lexus ran out of the broody pen and hopped in the pool. No problem there. The problem came about later when, instead of getting back on HER nest, she tried to take the nest that Shelley had just started setting on. I chased Lexus off of that nest and back in to her pen and locked her in. I wasn't sure if she was going to return to her nest and finish the job, but within a few minutes she was back where she belonged.

This morning when I went to bring her water and her morning snack (a few pieces of dried cat food and some peas) she came out to greet me and a little peeping fuzz ball tried to follow. It's a boy :D and since her nest was built inside of a garbage can, his name is Oscar. 

After her breakfast she hoped right back on the nest and Oscar snuggled under her feathers. I went back in the house to get the cell phone so I could snap some pictures, but by then Lexus had turned around and Oscar had climbed underneath mom for a snooze.

I will try to get some photos later today or tomorrow. Hopefully Oscar will have plenty of sisters to keep him company at that point.

Flock Management

Animals coming and going is all part of farming, even on a tiny micro-farm like mine. Our maximum adult duck capacity is only 6, and with babies hatching you have to keep genetic diversity in mind.

In order to prevent inbreeding, several of us Welsh Harlequin owners are in the process of swapping drakes. Tweak just went to his new home in Northern Colorado yesterday. As thanks for raising him over the past year, giving him 4 adoring girl friends, feeding him treats and plenty of fresh vegetables, he got car sick all over the back of the jeep and pooped on my foot. Naturally I was wearing sandals. Next week a new little drake will be moving in. He is originally from McMurray hatchery and none of our birds of from McMurray now, so there will be plenty of genetic diversity in my line.

Chrissy also found a new home last week. She went to live here. Dorit, the owner, was looking for a good broody and Chrissy has already shown she is great at hatching and raising ducklings. After the clutch she recently raised, she was starting to sneak on to the nest of our other broody when she went for food and water. The broody-force is strong with that one!

Chrissy was never people friendly and at our micro-farm, we need animals that can be handled when necessary (checking them for health, moving them to other pens, etc..). That was NOT Chrissy. It took me well over 20 minutes to catch her and get her in to the travel carrier. In contrast, it took me about 10 seconds to get Tweak. She will now be living with a larger flock, and she will be free ranging when she isn't doing her favorite thing....sitting on a pile of eggs and hatching out more babies.

We have one more young drake from Chrissy's first brood for sale. We will be posting a craigslist ad today. He is in a teenager pen for now. Tweak, Wendy & Shelley were chasing him and we wanted him to be able to eat and drink in peace. He can still see and hear the other ducks, but they can't beat him up and take his lunch money anymore.

Lexus is sitting on a nest and we should have some hatching going on in the next few days. It is hard to tell exactly when this clutch is due because she seemed a little confused at first and didn't get really serious about setting for a week or so after we gave her a batch of fertile eggs. We thought she was ready because she was stealing eggs and piling them up, but this is her first time.

We have some more fertile eggs we are going place in another nest someone made in the little dog house we have in the run. Hopefully Wendy or Shelley will get that maternal feeling and set. Then we will be done with hatching for the year and my husband can finally make a descent omelette without having to break open so many tiny quail eggs.

10 little ducklings all in a row

The final count is 10. Not a bad hatch rate considering we thought she only had 8 eggs! It looks like 4 girls, 4 boys and two unknown. The mixed ducks have too many marking on their bills to tell either way. 2 girls have already gone to their new home in Colorado Springs. 1 boy and the other 2 girls will go to their new home in Manitou on Sunday. The rest of the crew are for sale as well. $5 for mixed breed and for little Welsh Harlequin drakes. The girls sell for $7 each and we should have more next month. Lexus has been showing signs of going broody.

A successful hatch

Well she did it. When I checked on Chrissy in the "maternity ward" this morning I saw she had company. I counted at LEAST 4. She has not left the nest yet so there may be more trying to hatch. You can see 2 in this photo clearly and one more behind her. It is hard to get an accurate count because she keeps calling them to go under her belly whenever she sees me. She never was the most cooperative duck, but she is just doing her job. Hard to fault her for that.

If these ducklings are from some of the pure-bred Welsh Harlequin eggs, it looks like I have at least 2 boys. I will try to get a better count later today.