Duck and Chicken Pictures...

Here are a few current photos of the flock. Enjoy!

Hot Hot Hot!

Record heat yesterday. It was 105º where I live. Yuck! Have you ever seen ducklings pant? It is cute and sad at the same time. At least ducklings can take a dip in their "swimming pool" to cool off. Poor chickens just have to scratch a cool spot in the dirt to try to get some comfort.

Thankfully we finished building the ducks' new home right in the nick of time. Poor Greg has been working extra-long hours just about every day, and has had to work the past two Saturdays on top of that, so I really hate to ask him to work on my projects in his very limited free time, but there is just no way I could have done it without him. I consider myself to be a fairly talented individual, but carpentry is not one of my skills. I am a total spazz when it comes to building stuff.

For some reason, this project ended up being one of the hardest things we've done. Actually, I know the reason. I didn't want to buy any materials unless absolutely necessary. We have a pretty significant wood pile going, overflowing with all of the extra boards and scraps from previous projects. I wanted to save money first of all, but also use up the pile of wood before it got all yucky and spider-laden. Respectable goals, for sure, but it hampers the design and execution of a construction project when you are trying to make due with random sizes and lengths of boards. It got built, but it was an ugly job and it's an ugly structure. But it's safe and comfortable, and lucky for us ducks aren't that picky about looks. You can't really tell how ugly it is until you are standing right next to it. From across the yard it looks perfectly fine.

So the ducks got moved into their new home, and like I said, not a moment too soon, especially with this heat wave. They needed some space. Their wire pen kept them safe and it sure was easy for me to clean out, not like the cardboard chicken brooder, but it was getting too small too fast. The ducklings are growing like mad, much quicker that the chicks, at least that's how it seems to everyone here. I thought chicks pooped a lot but ducks win that contest hands down. Now that I've phased out their starter crumbles, they seem to poop a little less but for a while there I had to change their bedding twice a day, it was that bad. Just one of the many differences between ducks and chickens...

They grow up so fast...

Cute fuzzy chicks and ducklings don't stay that way for long. In fact, they grow up so fast that they are considered full grown at just six weeks old. Wow.  Our little duckling flock has just about outgrown their wire pen, so it's time to get on the ball and build their permanent living quarters.  Poor Greg has been working more hours than ever, and now has to put in a half day on Saturdays. I hate to ask him to do chores in his very limited time off, so I may attempt this project myself. Fingers crossed! Carpentry is not one of my proven skills to say the least.

Although our baby ducks are no longer little fluffy ducky balls,  they are still very cute. They are slimming down and their necks are getting long. When they hear my voice, they just know something good is coming, and by that I mean food, so they start peeping like mad. They are food obsessed. Way more than chicks. I used to throw away so much chick food, I think at least half of it ended up in the trash. Not so with ducklings. Those lil piggies practically lick the dish clean. Unlike chicks, ducks will eat more than is good for them and fat ducklings could cause laying problems later on. At least, that's what I read from one duck 'expert'. Other sources say they will self regulate. So far, I have found that my ducklings will eat everything in the dish and peep for more, so I am regulating the amount of feed they get. They are also fed lots of chopped up greens. I don't think they can get too many calories from greens, but I limit those too because I don't want to upset their digestive systems. Like I mentioned before, there is not a lot of information out there regarding backyard ducks and much of it is conflicting. Therefore, I am taking it all with a grain of salt and a lot of common sense. All I can say is that the ducklings seem healthy and happy, so I must be doing something right.

Duckling Pictures!

Baby ducks are super adorable, in case you didn't know that. They are actually cuter than baby chickens in my opinion. I mean, it's a pretty close contest, for sure, but ducklings have the edge. And they are easier in some ways than raising chicks, They are not so fussy about temps, which is a really good thing because the ceramic heat lamp that I just bought in June is acting up. The first night in the brooder I could not get the temp up above 72º.  The ducklings will only need to be in the brooder for about 3 weeks, as opposed to 6-8 for chicks.  Another key advantage to raising ducks is that we can keep a male duck in our flock for breeding ducklings (fingers crossed).

A definite disadvantage with baby ducks is that they are even messier than chicks. Chicks make a bit of mess by throwing their food around and pooping in their water, but ducklings throw water around like mad and can turn an ounce of food into a pound of poop. I exaggerate slightly, but they are little poop machines.

Here are some adorable pictures to get you through the day...

that is 15 minutes worth of poop right there...

two days old

learning to drink water

Something New!!

I have been slacking in my blogging duties in part because I've been working on getting certified in MS Excel 2007 (which I did. yay!) but also because I was sitting on some fantastic news. Five baby ducklings have joined our flock! They arrived last night, but not without some drama.

They were scheduled to be shipped Tuesday the 7th, due to Monday being a holiday, and since the hatchery is in California, I expected them to arrive Wednesday. Wednesday morning came and went, and no call from the Post Office telling me my babies had arrived. That sucked, but no big deal. I chalked it up to the holiday mail delay and planned on picking them up Thursday. Thursday morning rolls around and I'm feeling pretty anxious. I really want to play with my ducklings! And I knew this was holding up my blog. Remember how I told you I'm very methodical? I already had it in my mind that my next blog would be about ducklings and nothing would change that. But mostly I was worried about those poor little birdies. If they were shipped out on Tuesday, they haven't had anything to drink for 2 days. Fortunately we were experiencing unseasonably cool weather here in SoCal. 8:30...8:45...9:00...I told myself I would wait until 9:05 before I called the P.O. and convinced myself that everything was fine, I'll call and they will say, "Oh yes, they are right here. So sorry." But they didn't say that, instead they said they had no birds and they had received all of their inbound shipments for the day. Gasp. Now what? I called the hatchery to see if maybe they didn't get shipped out on Tuesday as expected, but they had. There was no way to track them, so i just had to wait until the next morning.  I was devastated. That bit of news ruined my day. I just kept picturing my poor little ducklings languishing in a tiny box somewhere and it was breaking my heart.

About 4:00, my phone rang and I didn't recognize the number, but I have been applying for jobs every day so I was hoping it was a call-back. Even better! It was the Post Office distribution center! They had my ducks! Oh happy day! They wanted to know if I wished to pick my package up or wait til the morning and get it from my local PO. Heck no I don't want to wait! My babies are thirsty!

We got them home safe and sound and seemingly healthy. I dipped their beaks in water and offered them some chopped up greens and they went to town. Two and a half days in a box is a long time.