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Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category

Failed Duckling experiment

Posted in Animals, ducks on April 24, 2013| 2 Comments »

With spring in the air, we have our share of broody chickens. Last spring we let them sit on eggs, but a friend of our is keeping us well stocked with her extra cockerels. We have been growing these out for food and have no need for our own

Instead, we decided to try and let them sit on duck eggs. Duck eggs do take 28 days to hatch, longer than the 21 days for chickens, but the chickens go by feel of the egg not an internal time clock. The hens know when to go on lockdown, where they don’t leave the eggs.

When the eggs hatched, the hens seemed unaware that the ducklings were not normal. They showed them how to eat and how to dust bathe. Things seemed to be going along pretty well for a few days, and then we started noticing the ducklings having trouble walking.

As we observed the hens and ducklings we found that the hens were stepping on the ducklings. It must be either the large feet or the large overall size, but the ducklings took too much damage. Currently we only have 1 of 4 still alive, and I’m not sure if the 4th is going to make it.

This was a rough learning experience. Although hens and ducks can live together in harmony, they cannot raise each other’s young.

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Rabbits

Posted in Animals, Rabbits on February 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The rabbits are a great addition to the garden, as long as they are not “in the garden”.

While watering this morning I found that I had let a cauliflower plant go way too long. It is great to know that nothing will go to waste, even if it won’t be served at my kitchen table.

These month old kits quickly devoured these cauliflower leaves. I can only imagine what they would do it let loose in my vegetable garden. There are only 6 in this photo, but we got a total of 8 in this litter.

I gave some to the chickens/ducks as well.

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Goodbye My Loyal Friend

Posted in Animals, Dog on February 10, 2013| 4 Comments »

We put our sweet puppy Bean to sleep yesterday. He spent many beautiful days out with me in the garden. After 12.5 years with our family, we will miss him terribly.

Today we planted “Little Buckaroo” in his memory.

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New Rooster

Posted in Animals, Chickens on July 2, 2012| 6 Comments »

Priscilla

Over the past few weeks we’ve had CRD (Chronic Respiratory Disease) spread through the flock. We lost Priscilla, our Light Sussex. She went in a matter of 12 hours. After this we started giving antibiotic shots to the chickens when they showed severe symptoms (difficulty breathing and rattle in the chest). Several of them also had goopy eyes, sometimes to the point of being glued shut. We tried to let their own antibodies deal with the illness, if possible. Several of them were able to do this, but more than half required shots.

Barry

On Tuesday Barry (our Buff Brahma rooster) started wheezing after a few days of minor symptoms. We gave him a shot. That day the weather hit 109 degrees. Between the illness and the heat it was too much. My daughter found him dead at about 3 in the afternoon. In hindsight, we should have brought him inside, but it’s our first time with chickens, and especially with illness. We were very sad to lose our rooster.

New Rooster

On March 6th of this year, our first chick hatched. We weren’t ready to deal with a chick so we brought it over to a friend of ours who raises chickens. She was kind enough to raise the little guy. After losing Barry, we decided to finally go pick him up. He’s not crowing quite yet and doesn’t seem to know he’s a Rooster, but he’s fitting in well. It’s nice to have Barry’s son as a replacement. He is half Buff Brahma and half Rhode Island Red.

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They Sure Do Grow Up Fast!

Posted in Animals, Chickens, ducks on June 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

We were gone for five days to Hilton Head and returned to find the ducklings and chicks all grown up. There were also two new chicks waiting for us.

Ducklings out in the yard with all of the full size chickens and ducks.

Maribel’s baby chick. Cutest chick ever!

Daisy Mae’s chick

Pictures of our 4-5 week old chicks. The mommas no longer pay any attention to them and the rest of the chickens seem to be ignoring them as well.

Our Roan is sitting on about 15 eggs. These have a week or so left. She has now completely buried the eggs. When she gets up all you see if a pile of leaves and dirt.