Have Duck, Will Travel

Do you have any idea how many strange looks you get when you drive down the road with a duck in your car?... Or, go through the bank drive-thru with a duck in the car?  People were staring, laughing, flapping their arms like a duck, and other such silliness.  

Now, you might be wondering WHY we were driving down the road with a duck in the car.  A smarter person would have put the thing in a kennel of sorts during travel but Sierra is the one who loaded the duck in the car and she thought it was a good idea to hold it in her lap with a piece of cardboard under the duck to catch any "accidents".  Let's just say that was gross and at some point I was thinking we needed a diaper!  Yucko!  This bird was flapping his wings wildly some moments.  As I was trying to drive I was having to reach over and help her get the duck under control.  (Shaking my head!). 

It was re-homing day for this feathered friend of ours.  Last year when we purchased him as a wee duckling we were hoping for laying ducks.  Once we determined that both the ducks we purchased were males we knew we would not keep them permanently.  Fast forward to now one of the ducks died and we have kept this one out of pity for him.  The problem is that he is the only duck and is living with our chickens and turkeys.  There is no water for him to play in unless we fill small containers.  I think it is affecting his health to not be able to be in the water.  His eyes have had matter in them which I am hoping in a more natural, wet environment will clear up.  And, then there's the feed bill.  Ducks eat quite a bit.  Since he can't lay an egg he is just driving the feed bill up.  

We took him to a beautiful park locally that has other ducks and plenty of space.  There is a nice little pond that will be a wonderful new home for him.  Immediately, upon being released into the pond he flapped his wings and splashed around with joy washing himself.  It took to it very well.  Hopefully, we will see him when we visit the park.  Maybe he will find a mate and start a little duck family.  

Plans for Our Little Acre for Spring 2013

We are more of the hobby farmer/gardener/homesteader types.   I just want to be clear about that.  Sometimes what we are doing here might sound big, but really we are just beginners going through a lot of trial and error.  I would love to produce all our food right here on this little one acre in the middle of town and I know it can be done, but we are not doing that, yet.  In fact, I am pretty sure we would starve.  I grew up in the country.  All around me were corn fields and cattle grazing, but I did not grow up that way....  none of that sort of thing was going on at my home.  My daddy worked, my momma went the grocery store and bought what we needed.  End of story.  I can remember a small garden one time, but we were not really a part of it.  I don't remember that being a shared venture for the family.  My daddy bought three cows once to raise to eat.  He kept them a few months and sold them after deciding not to mess with that any longer.  I had a horse for a couple of years strictly for fun.  I lived on 11 acres.

Do you see the irony here?  Pretty funny because now I live on one acre in the middle of town and have limited space and now I want to do those things that I grew up with endless space for.  Ironic.  So, now without having any experience we are trying to figure it out.  Well, I have been.  Cody is just getting on board.  Last year he started taking part in more of it even though his interest is not really in it.  This year he seems to be interested.  I think it was good for him to realize how much we benefited from the harvest over the past several months.  I think he had to see some of the rewards to appreciate the journey.  So, this year we are plowing up more dirt and looking at it from a different perspective.  It is more about sustainability.  What would we need to be able to do if we ever had to provide for ourselves.  All the creatures we have now have to have more purpose than just ""science" for our kids and a bunch of eggs.  That's all fun, but I told my husband it is too much work and we are spending too much money on it.  This is the sort of discussion that led to the first culling of the duck flock.

All that being said, I will try to detail what we have going on:

I will start with the garden areas. 

• We are using what we learned last year about where the sun falls on our property and trying to plan with that in mind.  We have a small garden patch by our house that is currently planted with two types of potatoes, two types of onions, and a wheat patch.  The wheat is an experiment from some wheat that spilled and got dirty.  It is growing well and is already about 6 inches high after only two weeks.  
• We will be tilling up a bigger garden in our back quarter (that is the back of our lot that is a 1/4 acre that we purchased a few years back).  This will be a variety of vegetables.  
• I will be putting in a long narrow garden, as well.  
• I am considering doing a raised bed corn method that I saw at a local Expo.  
• For fun I am considering planting a long row of sunflowers that will also provide a natural boundary on one portion of our property.  We have some neighbors that are bothered by our chickens (and everything else we do), so we might add a simple fence. 
• I am trying to use all organic methods and heirloom varieties, as well.

 I will refer to this part as "Orchard Items".  That does not mean we are planting an actual orchard.  We just have one acre and it is heavily shaded and orchard items like sunshine. 

• Currently, we are working on adding various fruit trees.  I have seven blueberries (four different varieties), two apple trees (two varieties) , a plum tree, two pear trees (two varieties), three grape bushes (3 varieties), a peach trees, a nectarine tree, mayhaw, satsuma, and navel orange. Some of this should have some production the first year I am told, but much of it will require waiting for the second or third year.  

We are considering selling off all of our rabbits as our children seem to have lost interest in them and they were really just for pets for us.  We are not rabbit eaters. If we were hungry, yes... but we are not, so they are our pets.  We usually sell the baby rabbits, but this has never actually been a profitable thing considering all the feed that the rabbits use.


The "birds":

• We currently have nine ducks left in our flock.  They are messy and eat a lot of feed.  Overall, they are not the best choice for raising for meat.  We have enjoyed the experience, but we are going to cull the flock.  We might keep one or two, but likely they will all go, so we do not have to deal with their messes.  They house nicely with all the other birds, but they make messes by trying to swim in anything they can which keeps the chickens water nasty all the time.  
• We have nineteen chickens for the purpose of laying eggs.  Really, we were not ever supposed to have this many, but my husband was not ready to kill the chickens for meat.  Our hens are "our ladies" and we have grown quite fond of them around here.  I am considering isolating some of them for a few days and seeing which ones are laying and which are not to consider culling some of them because we really do not need this many.  The feed bill needs to be lowered and I am not really one for selling the eggs because I would rather bless others with them.  I am uncertain of our plan for "our ladies".  They are not a bother, so it is not urgent to decide either.
• We recently added turkeys to our flock.  We have a Tom and two gals.  They are all full grown and about three years old.  I thought we were getting them to butcher, but Cody is the one that got them.  He says we are raising turkeys now.... so we are raising turkeys now.  Once they start laying we will let them hatch out their eggs and raise the babies for the meat.  The Tom is beautiful I must say.  It is quite interesting to watch him protect and guard his ladies with his feathers all spread in the air.  
• I have been trying to convince Cody that we should be raising chickens for meat, but he has not been easy to convince.  Our most popular meat in our home is chicken.  It makes sense that we should raise our own for meat if we are raising chickens.  So, I was sitting here one night and just for kicks I was looking at Murray McMurray's website and IDEAL Chicken Hatchery's website and IDEAL had a sale on Straight Run Black Broiler chicks for 90 cents a chick.  I told Cody and he said to order them... REALLY?... really.... so I ordered 30 and shipped and everything was $34.  That was just too good of a price to pass on.  We received 31 chicks, but have lost four... still a bargain.  They are about two weeks old and are growing really fast.  We will plan to butcher them in May when they reach full size.  They are supposed to be ready within 7-8 weeks, but I have heard that they take a little longer and I am okay with it take a little longer.  I also am considering keeping one rooster and a couple of hens from this flock to use for raising our own broilers without having to order.  We will determine that after seeing how well these birds do for meat chickens in the end.
• Our most recent addition was quite accidental really.  A lady in my Sunday School class mentioned that she had three roosters to give away and I made a mental note of it, but told her that since we live in town we were not going to have a rooster that would make noise and bother our neighbors.  One of my neighbors sent me a message wanting to know if I knew someone that had a rooster and I told her I would check for her.  I contacted the lady with the roosters and she said she had one and he was a friendly Buff Orpington.  Hmmmm... I have two female Buff Orpingtons and so now we have a rooster.  I have separate area in our chicken coop and so I have put the three Buff Orpingtons in there to mate and hopefully hatch out their own eggs.  I must admit I am considering pulling the eggs and putting them in the incubator because the hens have over a dozen eggs in there and they are not sitting.  These chicks will be raised for meat or sold as hatchlings.  

I think that sums up our Spring 2013 plans.  

Culling The Flock: Ducks and Rain Delays

Our adventure with ducks has been fun.  We have enjoyed them thoroughly; however, I have not enjoyed the incubating experience... which I think I have mentioned in an earlier post... pardon the repetition.  Just last week I had one of thirteen eggs hatch out.  ONE!!  Honestly, I was not wanting to deal with baby ducklings, but it is just depressing to me.  I waited a few days to dispose of the extra unhatched eggs and their were about eight fully developed eggs that just did not hatch out.  This is quite common.  They die just before they should hatch.  I don't understand it at all.  Maybe it is the water in the incubator running out.... some people say it is because they get disturbed in the last phase of incubating... I have to take the egg turner out and this time I waited until one was begining to hatch....whatever it is that makes them die I can not seem to figure it out.  In spite of all the unsuccessful hatches we have fifteen ducks.

Did you know that ducks eat a LOT.... way too much if you are buying feed.  I say it is as if they hold their heads back and open their mouths and you pour the feed in with a funnel.  They seriously eat a LOT.  In their defense they do grow really fast.  By about sixteen weeks ours have reached full size.  They seem to double in size weekly. 

Sweet baby ducklings (Pekins... they will grow to double the size of the black ones below)

Cayuga ducks enjoying a mud puddle.  This pictured does not show the beautiful green sheen on their heads and feathers.

A gorgeous young Pekin duck that was nearing full growth. 

So, now we need to cull the flock.  It has taken my husband a while to get to the point that he would kill them.  He has enjoyed them, but while he was on his Christmas vacation time he realized how much food they are consuming.  Finally, he is on board with killing them.  And now it rains... yes, and rains... and rains.... preventing the culling of the flock.  Funny!  Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks we can cull the flock. 

Successful Duck Hatchlings!

In my last post I talked about our lack of success with duckling hatching.  I am so happy to say that finally we had a successful batch of incubated eggs!  Out of six eggs we had four successful hatchlings.  The two that did not hatch consisted of one that did not have any development and one that was fully developed and had began the process of breaking out, but died before completion.  It still baffles me why this happens, but I will dwell on the success instead. 

The kids went to bed with one hatchling breaking through its egg.  We actually awakened Savannah (well, not really... the child does not go right to sleep when we put her to bed... she has always been a night owl) after the duckling broke through.  We noticed that several of the other eggs had cracks in them, also.  Knowing that the process can take a while we decided to go to bed and leave the eggs alone.  All night long I heard flopping and chirping.  Yes, ducklings chirp like baby chicks and they are quite noisy.  Also, they flop around quite a bit and in a styrofoam incubator that is pretty noisy.  We awoke to a total of three baby ducklings hatched out!  Wow!  That's what all that noise was! 

After all the kids got out of bed and we had shown them the ducklings we proceeded on to breakfast.  Of course, none of us could resist checking the eggs to see if another was hatching.  Suddenly, I noticed that one was making quick progress and had gone from one little crack spot to a line of cracked spots about an 3/4 of an inch long.  I called the kids in and we watched the duckling work a circle of cracks all around the egg.  After that it began to press outward and tiny feathers emerged from the cracks.... precious tiny feathers.  We were all amazed.  After several minutes the little thing had pushed of the top of the egg and had most of its upper body out of the shell.  It laid down its heavy little head and went to sleep while still halfway in the shell.  That sweet little thing slept for about half an hour.  After its nap it emerged completely from the shell.  We all marvelled at the wonder of it all.  Those little ducklings are now a little over a week old and have tripled in size. 

Duckling Hatchlings

One word... depressing!  Oh how I have loved our little Science projects in our homeschooling journey.  We have had a difficult time following "curriculum", so we pretty much do natural Science most of the time which has led us to raising rabbits, chickens, ducks, and goats (goats were a short adventure).  We have loved it!  And it has not all been perfect.  We have many animal death experiences, but by far the successes have outweighed the failures.  Well, such has not been the case with the ducklings.  Out of MANY eggs we have only 3 little ducklings and one has a club foot.  And it is so sad to see the little thing hobble around.  Truth is... he knows nothing different, so he seems fine and happy, but it depresses me because I feel like it is something we did.  And I feel we have messed with the natural order of nature. 

This duckling thing really has me baffled.  I have not assisted and when I have seen that end with a death I have done some that I have attempted to assist; hence, the three living ones.  It racks my brain.  I can't sleep at night wondering if our little babies are dying while trying to break free of their shells.  Just four nights ago one died in the night.  And I just do not get it!  They are developing fully, yet they are dying at full gestation.  I have tried many things to change it thinking our problem may be moisture levels and such or improper turning even though I have an egg turner.  It is what it is.  But if I had it to do over again I would have not done this little Science venture. 

We have had some benefit.  We have learned about the development of the egg and the reproduction system of a chicken.  Interesting fact.... they have two ovaries, but only one is functioning.  We have learned about the layers of an egg and sadly gotten to see fully develop specimens (non-living).  We have learned that a hatchling can have a hard time standing and their little heavy heads will slowly droop to the ground as they fall asleep standing and that they sometimes have weak little legs that have them doing the splits for the first 48 hours.  Oh how we have worried, but oh how we have rejoiced over the three living ones that are thriving and doubling in size every few days. 

Thinking About Ducks....

It is hard to believe this picture was taken only a couple of weeks ago because these ducks are FULL sized now.  We learned the hard way that ducks grow about TWICE as fast as chickens.  That is no exaggeration folks!  I had been told that "ducks will eat you out of house and home" and now I know why.  It is because they are growing at an alarming rate and they need the calories.  I do hope they will slow down eating now that they are grown.  They have some because we are allowing them to free range with the hens.  And they house with the hens now, as well.  Interestingly, the hens stopped laying eggs in their chicken run nesting area when the ducks moved in on them.  Now they lay in a nice little nesting area near our rabbit cages.  Anyway, back to the ducks before I venture off topic...

We didn't really have a plan when we got the ducks.   It was one of those things where we were going to the feed store to buy chicks and they had ducks.... four little ducklings.  So, as I walked around pondering whether to buy a couple (notice that... that mean TWO) the kids were so excited at the prospect of a new creature at the house.  So sure... let's do it!  The cost was $3.75 per duck.  So, the lady asked how many I wanted and I said I was thinking about TWO.  She said, "If you buy three, I will give you the fourth one free."  Hmmmm... I thought about it briefly and said, "Okay."  ;)  Yep, a lot of thought went into duck ownership.... Ha! 

As they began to grow explosively I began to try to find out the breed of ducklings and the sex.  I did not find out the breed.  As far as I can tell there is really no way to know for sure and that is okay really.  [Update: I believe we have Cayuga ducks].  The main reason I wanted to know the breed was to determine the sex of the ducks.  For most ducks you can tell the sex by the color of their feathers and by the colors of their beaks.  With these they are solid black and have solid black beaks.  There are areas of the feathers that have a blue or green sheen to them, but you only see that if you are looking closely.  At the stage in this picture we thought that two of them might be Black Runner Ducks.  Now, I don't really think so.  Alas, we can not use the beak coloring or feather color to determine sex, so the breed is not a big deal to us at the moment.  I have been able to determine sex by the quack method.  The females actually "quack".  The males attempt to "quack", but it sounds more like the baby ducklings chirp and you can hardly hear a sound.  By this method we have one female and three males.  I was so hoping it would be the exact opposite.  Females could produce eggs and more ducklings.  Clearly, we only need one male to fertilize the eggs.  {Sigh} 

So, now I am really trying to develop a plan.  All animals are costly to keep and I don't mind some costs for pets, but there is a point when you have to evaluate each animals purpose.  These ducks need to have a purpose.  They are quite beautiful and that is a good purpose, but I know that I need to know what our plan is for them.  If keep them for a year or so and then decide they need to go, I know that they will not be at their "prime" for butchering.  I am not certain when is the best time to butcher a duck, but I would suspect it is early in life while they are young and tender.  My guess would be around 14 weeks or so.  If anyone knows or has thoughts on that, please share that information.  I am thinking that we will keep the female and one male and butcher the other two males.  It is a difficult decision... and they are so beautiful....

I truly hope that our other two ducklings are females, or one male and one female.  And as quickly as ducklings grow I know it will not be long and we will know....

"Mean Gals" on Our Little Acre

 These sweet little darlings have been subjected to some "mean gals".  It started with the pullet (female) bitties that they share housing with.  We were given these two little yellow ducklings by a friend.  We needed to figure out housing for them on the spur off the moment.  Originally, they were to have there own cage until we took in a wild rescue bunny the same weekend these little darlings arrived.  The bunny arrived first, so it got the cage.  When these arrived we decided to put them in with our smallest baby chicks.  They were doing well for almost two weeks.  They even seemed to all like one another until this weekend....

Then, the pullet bitties decided to peck out all the little ducklings' tail feathers leaving bloody sores behind.  I think the Buff Orpington bitties are the ones that did the pecking (I saw one of them do it.)  One of the Aracauna chicks has some of the back feathers missing.  We had to do some rearranging to get the ducklings to safety.  We had to resort to dragging out the dog kennel (extra large size), but after one night of mess making ducklings in there I came to the conclusion that neater birds need to house there since I do not have extra time to spray out a dog kennel daily.  Ughh... those "mean gals"!  So now the small chicks (pullet bitties) are in the cage alone.  The ducklings are in the cage beside them.   The larger chicks (which are all feathered out now) are in the dog kennel.  The rest of the birds around here are in the large chicken run (four large ducks and seven laying hens).  Problem solved!  Right???  .....

Well, it seems we have more "mean gals" around here.  Aside from the normal "mean gal" things such as the older hens establishing the "pecking order" and keeping everyone in line it seems that the large female duck is a "mean gal", as well.  While these two sweet little ducklings were trying to innocently splash around in the water puddles we have had lately, our large female duck ran over and jumped on top of the little ducklings pushing them under the water completely.  We had to come to their rescue.  It was so heartbreaking.  I guess I expected a female duck to mother them... not try to drown them!  Ughh! 

These are by far the sweetest birds we have had here.  They run to us for safety and follow us around when we are near them.  And we stay near them to keep them safe for obvious reasons.  They know we are there to protect them.  When we pick them up they are content to be held unlike our other birds.  I dearly hope the are females and they will not turn into "mean gals" themselves. 

Frugal Farming Solutions

Well, I was about to write a post about my little feeder I made and when I started looking for a pic I needed I realized I had quite a few "frugal farming solutions".  Wow!  I am even more frugal than I realized!  Ha!  ;)

First, I want to start with heat lamps and such.  My husband purchased a few large heat lamp bulbs for

 about $5 each and I grimace with pain at the very thought.  Especially, since all you have to do is bump those things and they blow out.  Yikes!  A simple cheap light bulb will do the trick in most circumstances and you can pick a 4-pack up at Wal-Mart for under $1.  And while I am on that topic a simple clamp style shop light for about $5 will do the trick to screw that ligt bulb into.  We use these indoors and out, but do take precautions regarding safety.  Don't let cords dangle unsafely on the ground or in water.  Point the shop light downward, so water does not go into it. 

 It was cool and flooding when we got these little gals, so they got to live in our house for a couple of weeks.  I am sure it stunk a bit, but nothing some bleach and a mop couldn't fix.  Again I say, thank God for tile floors!  ;)  If you look closely you will see three baby food jars in the bottom left corner of the cage.  At this time we had an older set of chicks outdoors that had our chick feeder and waterer occupied.  These little baby food jars work perfect for holding feed.  Do NOT use them for water, though.  I learned the hard way after we found a drown chick that a baby chick can drown itself quite easily.  After losing one of my sweet little Aracaunas I used a plastic peanut butter jar lid for their water dish.

As these gals began to grow they became more and more MESSY... and for some reason this little flock liked to EAT their newspaper.  I think it was because the newspaper was getting wet with the Chick Starter on it and they started eating the paper and all.  I had to come up with a solution to keep them from making as big of a mess.  I did not really succeed fully, but I did come up with the idea to use a milk jug as a feeder (shown in pic) and that is what they are using now still (about 3 week old).  Also, the bottom of plastic soda bottles, juice bottles, etc. can be cut off and used as water dishes.  If you look closely in this pic you will see one and a red peanut butter jar lid as well.  It is not glamorous, but it has saved us money and been a great way to re-purpose some garbage. 

Milk jugs can serve as great little baskets for gathering eggs or holding feed.  Simply cut away the top as shown in this pic:

As we empty a milk carton instead of putting it in the trash I do a quick rinse and cut the top off.  If I have one in the kitchen I also collect scraps from mealtime in these sometimes.  When we head outdoors we have a nice way to carry our scraps to the chickens.  We mostly use them for carrying feed or gathering eggs, though.  When working in the garden they are perfect for using as a little carry-along to hold set packets and tagging supplies.  And I am certaion they are going to be great for harvesting food from the garden.  You can see where there are endless uses for these little milk jug totes. 

And I am not done with those milk jugs just yet... They can be used as scoopers, also. Simply cut away the bottom as shown in this pic (leave the cap ON):

Flip it over and you have a milk jug Scooper !  This works pretty well for scooping feed from our large feed containers into smaller feed containers.  They are kind of flimsy, but useable.  The best homemade scooper I have made has been from a plastic vinegar bottle because it is sturdier plastic.

Cutting at an angle makes a wonderful little vinegar jug Scooper.  And my latest discovery is large Vegetable Oil jug Scoopers!  You cut away at an angle just like the vingar jugs:

I also made our chicken feeders from potting pots that plants come in.  You know... the black plastic temporary pots.  We had some that are probably about three gallon size.  They originally look like this:

Ours were like the larger ones, but about twice the depth.  I used a jigsaw to make the drain holes on the sides about three times as wide and they need to be about 1 1/4 inches in heighth, also.  I purchased galvanized dog feeding pans at Wal-Mart.  Yikes!  I actually spent some money on this project.  Ha!  But spending under $3 a piece on 2 pans for each feeder is way less than buying a commercially made feeder at over $50.  After you have your planter pot ready set it into one galvanaized dog pan and fill with feed.  The other pan will be your lid.  You may have to use your jigsaw to cut away the edge of the planter pot to make the "lid"(pan) fit.  The only other thing to note is that this feeder needs to be set somewhere that stays dry.  If it is in a henhouse you will have no problems.  Ours sits on the ground in the chicken yard and I had to add a concrete pad under it to keep water out during super heavy rain.  If anyone needs better instructions on the feeders, let me know.  I can take some more pics if this does not make sense. 

Also, I use empty plastic ice cream buckets in my refrigerator for egg storage.  The rectangular ones work well.  Other plastic containers are great for this.  I do not use egg cartons because they take up way too much space. 

For tagging my plants and seeds I use large yogurt containers.  I cut down the container in strips about 1 1/2 inches wide and cut across the bottom.  I just trash the bottom piece and sometimes use the lids for paint pallettes.  On the unprinted side of my plastic plant tag I write the name of the plant and date with a permanent marker.  I am uncertain how well the marker holds up and I will try to update that later.

 For now that is all I can think of.  Being frugal comes quite natural to me, so I do not even realize I do this stuff.  I also keep the little containers my tomato plants and such come in and re-use those.  Old cups and yogurt containers make great shoveling cups for dirt. 

Critter Adoption

Over the last year we have taken in a few orphan critters.  And we have truly enjoyed it.   I think our first "adoption" was a squirrel we rescued that had gotten away from the nest.  He was soooo stinking cute and so sweet.  He loved for us to cuddle him up and take care of him.  Unfortunately, our little Nutsy was accidentally released from the cage and our doors were open on that beautiful day.  We lost our little Nutsy that day, but have not forgotten that little one.  He had us wrapped.  And lately I find myself thinking about Nutsy because last week someone dropped by our house asking if we would take a wild baby bunny.  Oh.so.sweet!  This little guy is probably about two weeks old and totally dependent on us.  At this age baby rabbits are still nursing and at first this little guy refused to drink from the dropper of milk.  I am sure he had no idea what was happening to him, but since he would not drink I forced milk in him a little at a time.  We had recieved him Friday morning and he finally decided to started sucking on that dropper by Saturday evening.  I can hardly believe he figured it out before he dehydrated and died.  I have been so surprised by this little guy.  A rabbit taken from his momma is so rare to survive.... and yes, I realize that we still have a long way to go, but he is growing and seems to be thriving.  So here is our little guy, "Easter".  Caden named him that since it was Easter weekend and we recieved him on Good Friday.  And I could not resist this cute Easter basket picture...

You can really see how tiny he is in amongst those plastic eggs.  I really think rabbit babies are one of the cutest babies on this earth!  It amazes me how they transform those first couple of weeks right before your eyes and suddenly there eyes open and they look like a miniature rabbit.  They start out looking like rats and at about day 2-4 they look like little puppies.  And this little guy looks almost just like Nutsy except Nutsy had a tail, smaller ears, and slight differences in his body shape.  It really fascinates me how so many of God's creatures start out looking very much the same.

Over the last year we have also adopted (and I am not counting critters that we sought out... only ones that were needing a home) 4 Lop Rabbits, although one got sick and died.   Now, this little rabbit came to us this past Friday and today a friend deliverd two little yellow ducklings to our home. 

This is NOT our ducklings, but they look just like these.... just to show what they look like.  I just borrowed this pic of the iternet.  So, they are the typical little yellow ducklings and there is no telling what they will look like in a few months.  Super cute little guys!... well, hopefully gals... We are pretty sure our other four ducklings are one female and three males*, which is pretty much the opposite of what we were wanting.  ;(   Maybe these will be females.  Either way, we are having lots of fun adopting critters!!!

* Note: Our guessing the gender of our ducks is based on internet research.  Apparently, females "quack" and males sound "hoarse".  One of our 7 week old ducks has a definite quack while the other three hardly make a sound.  They actually sound like young chicks to me chirping hoarsely. 

Watching Things Grow

I love watching things grow!   Yesterday I discovered a birds nest in our backyard with 4-5 tiny little eggs in it.  So, today we had little "field trips" in the backyard.  Sienna was content playing in the dining room, so I told the older four that I would take them out in pairs for a little backyard field trip.  This would leave one older child watching over Sienna while we were outside.  I took them out and showed them the little nest and eggs and also, I took this time to show them the progress of some seeds I planted on March 19th.  It is so neat to see things springing to life and pushing through the dirt.  I am not sharing pics at this point because really you would be looking a little patches of dirt with tiny specks of green.  It is not quite photo worthy in my opinion at this point.  The most remarkable growth (and this one is actually photo worthy to some degree) is the Morning Glory seeds I planted.  Those seedlings are actually already 3-4 inches in heighth and the leaves are about one inch long.  I had no idea they are such fast growers, so if you are wanting your kids to see some action in a hurry I would highly recommend planting some morning glories.  It might be a long time before blooming and full maturity, but you do see quick growth early on.  In addition to that I have dill, oregano, basil, and chives sprouting up.  All of those are super tiny, but definitely pushing there way into the world.  I also have a pot that I planted a full packet of Cosmo seeds in and they are sprouting up quickly, as well. 

Each day we are going to continue to watch for growth in the backyard.  I can not wait to see those little baby birds hatch out.  And the kids are so excited to take our daily little backyard field trips.
 
This Saturday I think we will try to do some planting of our veggie garden items.  I tend to get ahead of myself and buy lots of seeds, so I am all ready to go.  I really want to get out of my box and just start planting things and taking a chance on how they do.  Sometimes I think I need a well planned garden, but I am starting to think that I need to just start marking off some little areas and poking seeds in the ground.  I need to take that chance and see what will just grow easily here.  I think we tend to make it more complicated sometimes.  I would love to look up one day and have growth all over out little acre here in town.  I want to use this acre... really use it.  I am thankful in many ways that I do not have several acres to manage, because let's face it.  Most of us aren't even "using" the acre we have.  If I can learn to manage this one little acre well, then one day I hope to add more.  I grew up on land.  My parents had eleven acres... and for the most part we were the only things growing on it.  I loved the large piece of land, but honestly I think I can grow as much right here where I am at.  Of course, I am not going to have any livestock that would have odor issues here in town, but we can choose other things to do.  I want to continue with raising chickens for eggs.  I would like to raise ducks for eggs and hatchlings.  The rabbits will always be just a fun project for our kids, I think.  Selling the babies is not profitable for us, but we never meant for it to be.  I would like to raise chickens for meat, but first I have to convince my husband to kill them.  He likes them.  I do, too.  He does not like the idea of killing them... so, I guess I need to find some ugly chickens for the cause.  I want to learn to garden.  I can grow flowers well.  Surely, I can manage to improve with the veggies and fruits.  The first step is getting it in the ground.  Then, we can watch it grow.

Preparing Animal Housing

Everytime we add another creature to our little acre around here we have to give it great thought.  We have to consider it's affect on our small area and on our neighbors.  What we don't really do well is plan ahead too much.  We get the "creature" and then, worry about it's future housing.  We always have and immediate housing plan like small cages, but not the long term housing ready.  Part of this that if we get a creature that is not a wise choice we have not invested a lot of time and money for something we are going to get rid of. 

So, this is kind of how it has gone....

We had three rabbits and two small cages (3' X 3' X 3').  That worked until we had our first baby rabbits born and suddenly we had to put daddy rabbit in our old dog kennel temporarily.  The search and planning HAD TO begin.  I was making calls to check wiring prices and surfing the internet to plan making our cages.  Ultimately, I got an "easy button" on that one.  I found someone locally that was selling cages for cheaper than I could build homemade ones.  We were able to purchase two sections of caging with five caging areas in each (also referred to as a "five hole").  Rabbit caging problem solved.  Also, at some point we have adopted some lop rabbits (one for free and then, added the other three for $30 complete with cages, etc.), so we also have some other small cages here.

We decided to try out having chickens and we ventured off to the feed supply store with no idea how many we were coming home with.  I thought a couple chicks would be good.  I asked my husband and he said a dozen.  With little thought I basically just got two of each breed that was available that day and that made it ten little chicks.  We brought them home and put them in ONE of our first cages we had used for the rabbits (3x3x3).  We knew we needed a coop, but we did not have one ready, yet.  As the chicks started growing they were getting very crowded, so we put the two cages together to form one cage.  I went to planning, again.  And I want to share a link with you that is great for seeing a huge variety of options and plans for housing chickens.  It is www.backyarchickens.com .  Being that we live in town I wanted to go simple.  I did not want to build a big coop and find that we had to get rid of the chickens later.  I decided on building more of a temporary chicken run that we could later add to.  So, I had my little plan all sketched out until I ran an errand one night and drove past a furniture store that had some large wooden frames (used for shipping couches, etc.) out by their dumpster.  I told Cody and he hitched up the utility trailer to the van and went to look.  He agreed that we could make it work and brought it home.  We were able to attach the frame pieces together and cover it all with wire for a very simply, but efective chicken run with a nesting area.  Now that we know that chickens work well for us we are planning to build a better coop this summer.  Meanwhile, they are continuing to enjoy their chicken run (approximate size is 6' X 10').  They free range during the day and spend their nights in their run. 

So, as Spring approached we decided to add a few more chicks.  I went to see what was available and came home with six more chicks and four ducklings.  Again, we used the little cages (3x3x3).  One has the six chicks and the other has the 4 ducklings.   And this is why I am writing this post.  Those four ducklings are growing very fast!!!  And guess who did not plan on that?!!!  I am trying to figure out what the solution is for them.  I was thinking that we would give them the chicken run and the chickens would have their new coop, but it is not going to be able to wait until Summer.  And the six chicks will be needed room soon as well.  I think we will end up having to make another smaller temporary pen of some sort for the ducklings. 

And I must add that I have tiny chicks in a smaller cage in the house.  I wanted to add Aracaunas to our flock, so I was thinking of ordering those until I found out our feed store had some scheduled to arrive. We anxiously awaited those and when they were in we got six Aracaunas (one drowned in the water, so we have five) and two other chicks.  So, we have stages of fowl that need proper caging and no definite plan.  LOL!  It will all work out, but I have got to get on it! 

My thoughts are mainly on the ducklings.  I have no idea really what is the best solution for them.  Maybe once they are grown they won't even need their own caging.  They might be able to just join the chickens in their housing.  I mean, now that I think about it I have never heard anyone talk about their "duck coop".  LOL!  It is all a learning process and I really did not consider too much about it on the day we bought the ducks.  I'm smart like that!  ;) 

Since this post is about Animal Housing and not just the feathered friends we have, I want to include that this past Fall (2011) we were given two male goats.  We had the idea that they would just join in with our two dogs (rat terriers) in their pen.  That pen is very large... I am guessing that it is 12' X 20' and has three dog houses in it.  That space was fine.  I would suggest having more space for goats, but they would have been fine in that much space.  We decided to get rid of them because they made it stinky.  We could walk out the back door and it smelled like a livestock barn.  I asked the neighbors and they said they did not smell it, but I am sure it was just a matte of time before they would have.  It was yuck!  I don't think this would have been an issue with females, but once the males hit maturity the odor began. 

These are our "bigger chicks".  They are approximately 4 weeks old.  We took them out to have a chance to free range a bit under our close watch.   We won't do that much as they hard to catch. 

These are the "baby chicks"... Buff Orpingtons are the yellow.... Aracaunas are the brown.

These are the "baby chicks" in their caging in our house.  They almost made it one week in here, but today I moved them out.  The weather is forecasted to be in the 80s with no rain.  We were having flood situations when these little gals came home with us, so in the interest of their survival I put them indoors.

Our ducklings in the 3x3x3 caging and under a tarp due to flash flood weather.  They like this little nesting box, but they outgrew it within a week.

The nesting box also proved to be a place that there poop could accumulate.  Yuk!  These birds are super messy and they require that their cage be washed down about every other day.

Stinking birds... I mean, sweet little ducklings...

These are the 3x3x3 cages on the simple stands we made out of 2x4 boards.  These cages are not glamorous, but they were $10 each and we had the lumber to build the stands.  These cages have served us well and have been very useful for muliple purposes.  We even had a rescued squirrel in one for a while.  Also, the flooding issue has made a fine mess and quite a stinky situation.  This is not normal, so it usually looks a little better than this.  The tarps were necessary for the excessive rain even though the rain still got these poor little birds.  They look pretty sad after that storm.  They are all better now.  If you look close you can see one of our adult Barred Rocks under the cage. 

This has nothing to do with "housing", but this is the first time our ducks got to play in the water.  We had a "pond-like backyard" due to the flooding. 

These are the "Bigger Chicks".  We had placed them in this cage to carry them to an area that was suitable to test them out with free ranging.  The orange ones are New Hampshire Reds.  The two speckled ones toward the bottom are Barred Rocks.  We already have two adult Barred Rocks and I liked them so much that I added two more to our flock.  Not sure this was wise, though.  One of these little ones keeps trying to peck me!  The two other black chicks pictures are Silver Wyandottes. 

Our Little Acre

We started out here on this little lot of land in the middle of our small town with 3/4 of an acre of land.  Being that we live just a few blocks from the old town square 3/4 of an acre is actually a pretty large piece of land.  Now, I grew up on 11 acres, so to me it is not large, but for town life it is a nice size lot.  There was a 1/4 acre vacant lot behind our property that was not being maintained, so after some research I found out that there were debts owed to the city for a house demolition and several years of back taxes owed on the property.  After a couple of years I called the owner and offered to pay his debts and an additional $2, 000 to him for the property.  This was a generous offer since I could have pushed the city to confiscate his property and I would have probably gotten his property for much less.  Mostly, my husband wanted the property and I knew that this was the best approach to assure we got the land.  So, we did it and now we have 1 full acre making us the only ones in this area of town to own half a city block.  Seriously, it is a big deal and we are quite in love with it. 

The only problem is.... I fear we are gonna get thrown out of town for all the creatures we have started keeping in the last couple of years.  Hahahaha!  It was a big joke when we moved here over ten years ago that I had come from the country and might dare to have chickens here.  I honestly thought I would NEVER have chickens.  Fast forward to the present... and we do have chickens.  And more creatures.

We started with dogs.  Pretty simple... pretty normal.  We had four, but have had some deaths, so now we have two dogs... rat terriers.  They have such sweet personalities.

Over a year ago we added rabbits.  In the Fall of 2010 we got two California Rabbits and one died right away of heat stroke.  We returned the other for fear of it dying.  A friend gave us another rabbit her kids did not want anymore.  Within a month or so we purchased two more rabbits.  By the early Spring of 2011 we had over 30 rabbits!!!  Oh my the way they multiply!  We upgraded to a 10 cage system  and we now have lops and regular rabbits. 

In the Spring of 2011 we also added eight chickens for the purpose of laying eggs.  In the Fall of 2011 a friend gave us 3 bantam chicks and we have one that has survived.  Actually, we found her first two eggs today!  Woo hoo!  They are so cute little tiny eggs.  Anyhow, this Spring (2012) we have added six more chicks and four ducklings and we intend to add a few more chicks next week. 

Last Fall (2011) we were given two male goats that we were going to raise with our dogs, but that did not work out because once the goats hit maturity they began to have a strong scent.  It smelled like a livestock barn here.  Stinky!  They had to go. 

So, right now on our little acre we have:
8 laying hens (2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Golden Sex Links, 2 Black Australians
1 bantam hen (Duck Wing Bantam).... Ooops!  Update:  It seems our banty got in the dog yard... It's a gonner!  :(
6 chicks (2 Barred Rocks, 2 New Hampshire Reds, 2 Silver Wynndotte)
4 ducklings (Uncertain of breed)
4 lop rabbits (1 baby)
16 mix rabbits (9 babies)
2 rat terrier dogs.

LOTS OF FUN on our little one acre!!!!