Homesteading for Dummies

Our worst hatching. Only two ducks and three CHICKS even hatched. (Never had chicks hatch before either.) Of those we have ONE chick left. No new ducklings made it. Last year we had nineteen ducklings hatch and survive. We are down to three Saxonys, one duck and two drakes. Not good. We're giving up on Saxonys. Love the eggs, the meat is good, but they are stupid. They keep getting killed trying to cross the road and since they can't fly they are sitting ducks, literally, for predators. We've lost several to racoons. I was going to give up on having any ducks but… I really love duck eggs. So… Today, for $25, we got thirteen new ducklings. Three-week-old Muscovys. We are hoping the recent mother will adopt them. Not sure if that's going to happen, but at least there hasn't been overt aggression toward them (knock on wood). The cute thing is the little chick keeps trying to join them. Muscovys are a much larger bird than Saxonys. Plus they have claws on their feet and wingtips. And they can fly, unless we clip their wings. We hope we don't have to do that. That should help with the predator problem. Supposed to be a much friendlier bird. Not as good at egg production but the meat has been compared to veal. Also the females are said to be really good mothers and can raise four clutches in a year if you let them. We shall see.

Yesterday some guys from church came to help us. Among other things one of them got the gate to the chicken run rehung. I had already pulled and replaced the rotted post. He drilled the holes. We supplied proper hinge hardware. Don't use the cheap gate hinges.

Tree dying from Emerald ash borer taken down today. Sad to see the tree go. But we have lots of wood for rustic projects.

Ducklings are three-weeks old. Their first time outside. We put them in the 'playpen' while I clean their water trough we use as a brooder.

We decided to move the nine-week-old New Hampshire Red chicks into the main coop last night. The brooder we built is really not big enough for ten growing chicks. Most we ever had in it before was six. So last night at bedtime in they went. This morning was their first taste of 'freedom'. We have attempted to keep them contained in the run and barnyard for a few days. Barn door is closed as is the barnyard gate. Ducks aren't happy. They normally have run of the property, and the Saxonys can't fly over the fence.

Stepped out the front door to this. Ducks love a freshly mown lawn.

Two, and counting… We ultimately had 19 hatchlings. (2022/05/08)

Two, and counting… (2022/05/08)

Congratulations! It’s a duckling! Happy Mother's Day. (2022/05/08) Scary. Last count there were at least 26 eggs between the two.

2021/05/25 The first hatchlings.

2021/05/26 Good morning. There’s definitely four hatchlings. Again she wasn’t moving and hissed at me when I put more starter crumble in and changed the water for the ducklings. I assume there’s more on the way since she’s still sitting. She had about twenty eggs in that clutch. We’ll be done when she gives up. Four out of twenty would be a lousy percentage but it’s her first time and I have no idea of what the norm is. She’s only a year old. I read that ducks can produce two clutches a year. Not sure if that applies to Saxonys or not. Wife informs me there were five last night. Somebody was hiding under Mom.

02/09/2022 Ducks are loving some snow melt.

2022/06/06 They’re getting big so fast. I let them out yesterday morning and they made a beeline for the freshly mowed barnyard looking for breakfast. Two weeks old. Only six now. We lost one a couple of days after hatching. Was in the nest without a mark on it.

2023/02/05 Ducks fall-in and march into the coop at bedtimie.

May 13, 2022. New batch of hatchlings means we had to open the kiddie pool.

Don't you hate it when you're trying to snowplow and the ducks get in the way?

2021/06/07 Yesterday we put the five-week-olds out. They are too big for what we use for a brooder. We couldn't be there every minute so our drake attacked one (we think the victim is a male) and was put into solitary confinement. The victim suffered head wounds and his back is pretty well plucked. You can see him on the right in the video. We treated him as best we could but I worried we might lose him to shock. This morning though everybody was still with us. The teenagers are enjoying the pool. The drake is still in solitary. He spent the night there. He's going to freezer camp if he attacks again.

Today was cleaning day for our little one-week-old ducklings. We changed out the bedding in their brooder. They need more water than the chicks did and we are trying something different to deal with the resulting mess. They got to experience the outside for a bit while we did this, eventually attracting the attention of our adult drake. Is he upset? Or just excited there are more ducks? Will we have a problem introducing the ducklings to the flock? Guess we’ll find out. He knows they’re ducks. He didn’t act like this with the chicks.

2021-05-27 First family outing. I think we’re done hatching. 7 out of 13 eggs. I better mow the chicken run for the little ones

2021/04/24 Today’s the big day. New chicks are going to join the flock. The flock has been confined to the chicken run for today and the near future. Don’t want to let the little ones free range yet. Assuming the chicks don’t hop out on their own we will throw them in the coop tonight at bedtime so the newbies know where ‘home’ is.

02/25/2022 Finally, the ducks found the pond. Now maybe they won't try crossing the road anymore. We lost one on Monday when they did that.

04/09/2021 First time outside the garage for the 5-week old chicks.

06/14/2021 Dora catches her first mouse. Like mother, like daughter. Momma cat was about the same age when she caught her first mouse. Dora didn’t get to eat it though. Momma cat came along and ate it. Greedy cat!

02/21/2021 I was shoveling the driveway and four supervisors showed up.

09/13/2022 Some mornings the chickens get special treats.