When the Garden is Done

The garden that produced so much for us and is still actually producing some stuff is finally winding down. Last weekend we started to pull up plants, harvest Sunflower heads, clean up some hardware and then let the feathered creatures come in and enjoy some gleaning.

For weeks, I had been trying to get Walter & Leona to come into the garden and root around for stuff. They had a chance to come in a few weeks ago, but found it too intimidating I guess because they wouldn't follow me in.

This was the one and only time this summer that we had waterfowl in the garden:

At that time they just hid out behind the Three Sisters corn and when it was time to get them to go, they showed how stubborn they can be, very stubborn.

The geese are so veggie-centric that I KNEW that they would have to stay out. Until now.

Gus & Greta can't believe their good fortune

When they first walked into the garden, they just stood there not understanding what they should do. Then they saw the bean plants and that was it...they started to nibble on the leaves. This is a surprising thing about these two, they are not 100% into the bean leaves, but they LOOOVE the beans. Lenny was the opposite, loved the leaves and couldn't understand that the bean was food too. Since the weekend they have been able to come and go into the garden whenever they please. Of course that is available while we are home.

The other day I suggested to Tom that they be corralled into the garden when he has to leave for an extended period of time. That works out well because it is a sad sight to see them in their house and when they are in with the ducks the ducks are unhappy. This is the perfect solution. Well, until the garden is planted again.

The only thing that I will put in the garden this fall is the garlic when it finally is delivered. The season between the fall stuff and getting the spring/summer crops in can be a little on the longer side. This way we won't have to put the chickens in the garden...not just yet anyway. The chickens do great at tilling and spreading things like compost around.

I do like to put tarp down over the garden to smother weeds that have come up and give the garden a chance to recover during the late winter, so the critters will have to stay out. I might put down some cover crop after all of the plants are out, but I haven't decided for sure just yet.

Anyway, the feathered critters have been enjoying their smorgasbord of leftover beans and some sunflower seeds and corn stalks. The geeses REALLY like the corn stalks. I'm not sure what it is...maybe they like the feel of the leaves. They are so weird...they try out everything!

All of the waterfowl including Betty

Betty and the duckies she hatched

There are a couple of Butternut squash still on the vine, so I'll have to wait until they are appropriately ripe before pulling up the three sisters plants. I would like to dry the corn stalks and maybe line the rest of the fence with them. We'll see.

This time of year is always a little sad, but I still try to grow something during the Fall and Winter. Then I'll start planning my 2020 garden!

Farm Life - growing food for people and animals!

Fifty Percent

The Magnificent 7 resting in the shade

I have noticed over the last week or so that the ducks are starting to form their own little groupings.

The first grouping would be of Lenny & Shelly and Shelly's little girlfriend Phyllis. They are almost always together. Although there are times when Phyllis decides that she wants to hang with the other Magpies, but she tends to get bullied a little - so then she usually makes her way back to the hooligans.

Grouping #2 would be an unnamed duo who is usually off by themselves (except at meal time). They do not have names because I haven't had any inspiration where they are concerned.

Group #3 - well, this is an interesting group. This group includes the remaining ducks. At first I only noticed the ONE drake. He doesn't sport a cap like most of the others, but a smaller spot toward the back of his head. Anyway, I thought "Wow, this one has three girls..." Oh, and I named this one. Tom was reading about Tropical Storm Gordon and I thought - YES...for some reason the name Gordon fits. It's an old name and we do have Leonard, Sheldon and Phyllis, so not really out of place. So, I thought he was the only other Drake. 

Until....

We were out taking care of the critters before dinner last night and I saw Group #3 and then I spied the telltale sign...

This curved feathers means something

A curved tail feather. This is the identifier for a male duck.

And one of the three that I thought were all girls ended up being another Drake.

Oh fine. 

So, of the Eight Magpie Ducks that we have, which includes the patriarch Shelly, four are drakes.

Sigh.

OH well, Farm Life with waterfowl is the Best Life!

Love Connection?

Back in April we picked up our ducklings - and now they are pretty much all grown up. At what point do we stop calling them ducklings anyway?

A couple two three weeks ago we moved the girl Magpies closer to the chicken enclosure and the hooligans became aware that the 7 girls were here to stay - as if they didn't know it before. So once I figured out that they were kinda sorta interested in them I suggested that we let them co-exist in the same space. It was touch and go for the first week or so. Neither were in any great hurry to make friends.

Well, it has taken a couple of weeks, but I do believe that the girls and the hooligans are okay with being with each other and have figured out who is in charge - that would be Lenny, just by his size really, but we know that Shell-Bell is the one in charge.

THEN last week I was observing the ducks and Lenny together and was noticing that there was one duck hanging close to Shelly. Tom had already mentioned that Phylis (she has a crazy feather tuft) and Shell had been pal-ing around together. However this is the first time that I saw them together.

After a minute or two I watched as Shelly started to pick on Phyllis and kind of attack her. I wasn't really understanding what was happening until I saw him trying to mount her...

WHAAAAT?! She is only three months old!! I don't believe he was successful, but they do hang around each other. A LOT.

It must be her crazy feather tuft on her head.

Since then I have noticed that she will follow him around and not hang with the rest of the ducks. Not all the time, but more often than not. Even when it appears that he is ignoring her she'll stay near both him and Lenny. It's almost like Lenny is their chaperone.

Lenny, Shelly & Phyllis from L to R

This makes me happy, I'm glad that there has been a connection and that maybe in time there will be others being accepted by our little Romeo.

We have some time until the ducks start laying eggs. I think what I read was as early as 6 months, which would be October. If they don't lay at all, that would be fine with me. I'll have extra time to figure out a proper little area for them to lay eggs in. Maybe one day we'll have ducklings!

Farm Life is the BEST Life!

Three Months!

The Magnificent Seven are 3 months old today!

That's it. There's is nothing else for today. The girls get little attention these days. They are fairly low maintenance and only act up when they are hungry. 

If we could make this their very own special day we would, but they don't understand - So, a photo will have to do.

Farm Life is the Best Life!

It's Only Wednesday?!

The days have gone quickly, but the week seems slow. That's probably because I'm doing regular work and not the kind of work that I enjoy - working on our farm.

Progress on the Chicken Tractor has slowed down to almost a halt, but not really. Tom has been working on cutting the pipe that we have already bent and using them to make proper angles and not curved angles. Somehow that makes sense to me - and definitely to Tom's engineering brain.

The solution:

Tom was able to use some old copper pipe that he had stored away from a past project and did some magic to make the copper pipe fit into the other pipe. Then some soldering and BOOM we are good to go! One down three to go! Actually, I think there are is one more thing that needs to happen to attach this to the frame. I am hoping that we can get this done before the girl Magpie ducklings arrive so we can get the Javas out of the brooder!

Another thing that I have been on the hunt for is a shelter of some sort for when the Javas go out into the chicken tractor - in a couple of weeks they may be big enough to not need a shelter. We'll see. Anyway, there was a dog house for FREE on Craigslist and I thought that it would be perfect for our needs. I tried several times to send a text as the person wanted and I never got a response. So I decided to forget about it. I didn't think about it much more until yesterday and I decided to look again and see if there was anything else available.

THERE WAS!

I saw that it was located much closer to our home and contacted the person that listed it. After some emails back and forth I got the address and found out that they only live not even a 1/4 mile from our house! The other thing that made this a much better deal is that this one has a roof!

$25 later and we have ourselves a nice (and light) shelter for our feathered creatures.

The best part of the evening would be our duck! What a little clown! He definitely has bonded with Tom and whenever he "appears" outside Sheldon immediately jumps into action. He ALWAYS wants to be let out of the hen pen and play with Tom - if you can imagine that. He likes me and all, but he is ga-ga over Tom for sure. Always under foot and always "talking" while trying to steer Tom in the right direction - which would be to race in the driveway.

We are heading to the weekend and looking forward making the most of the time we have to work on projects and play with the duck and the Goose!

Just My Luck

Pekins and Mallards(?) at Wilco last night

We might have a problem on our hands. Yesterday we made a trip out to Wilco to see if there would be any Magpie Ducklings arriving this spring. NOPE. 

WHAT?! 

They had pretty much EVERY other breed arriving at some point this spring, but no Magpies. 

Our plan for this spring is to add a few girls for Mr. Sheldon. Not only so that he could have some of his own kind to be friendly with, but also for the eggs. Also, I just like ducks. They have great personalities! And our little Magpie is a NUT! A little spazzy, but totally fun. He is so willing to just goof around with us and that just irritates the big guy (Lenny). A small flock of Shelly's is sure to drive Mr. Lenny crazy!

Back when these two were probably less than a week old

I did a search of the local feed store in our area and the other farm supply stores also, and nothing. It would figure that I would pick a duck that is rare. In fact according to the Livestock Conservancy website our little Sheldon's breed is on the "Threatened" list. Swell.

So, the next best thing is to find a place online where I can order these little girls. The only problem with that is that there is a minimum order - which I understand. Even if the minimum for any one breed is 5 that doesn't mean that would be considered a full order. Most places want at least 15 or 20 and up. So, there is the other problem. I am not in the market for adding a lot of ducklings or adding different breed. Let's face it there aren't many people in my circle of friends who want ducks...so I couldn't order for other people.

We are already pretty much a spectacle. We are a novelty as far as the "neighborhood" goes. It's bad enough that Lenny is SUPER loud, but he is just doing his job really. It would be hard to imagine a few breeds of ducks running around.

Not sure how we got them to stand still long enough for a photo shoot - this was their "homecoming"

As I write this I have been in contact with another feed store in our area - they are checking into maybe...possibly adding a small order of magpie babies for one of their shipments.

I'm hoping it will be possible...please oh please oh please. The final answer will come tomorrow!

This duck would be so happy with his own kind to play with! 

Who wouldn't want a small flock of these cutie ducks running around?

What The...

These two dudes are 10 months old today!!

I cannot imagine life on our little farm without these two goofballs! 

We have figured out that Mr. Lenny is the kinda serious big brother. Mostly because of his size and not his age (they are afterall the same age).  He is quick to alert the group when snacks are being delivered (from neighbors) - which means he "yells" at everyone to stand aside while he goes through what has been offered. Once he has decided he is done with the treats he lets the other have what's left. He will also jump into action if he feels that there is discord in the Hen Pen - mainly when Thor is doing his thing. He really like the pullets...not sure why, but he just likes being around them. Also, he loves his human momma. He will cry out...very loudly whenever I come onto the scene. When he starts his honking I feel bad for the neighbors who have to listen to him. And since he is a bird, he doesn't understand "SHHH....BE QUIET." So we must endure until he gets over the fact that they are going for a trip out of the pen or that we are just passing by. I don't know why, but he was my favorite as a gosling...more so than Shelly. That might be because Shell was so darn squirmy as a duckling.

Shelly - he is the clown for sure! As a duck his main concern is digging around in the swampy areas around the property or in the dirt, grass, etc for the soft squishy snacks known as worms. Last week I decided to start digging in the beds for worms and he understood very quickly that the treats are coming...so we hunt worms together. It's all a very exciting time....for Shelly. The other thing that is so very funny is when he "races" Tom up and down the driveway! The one thing about Shelly is that he cannot be without his big brother. If he gets left behind when we are walking away, when he finally realizes that he is alone he will literally sprint behind me, Tom or Lenny until he catches up. All the while looking for snacks along the way. He has his priorities straight you know.

It's hard to say which has the bigger personality. All I know is that they are loads of fun to have as part of the flock. How could we have ever known how much fun they would be? 

There is something special about a mud puddle in the driveway!

Happy 10 Months of Life to the two hooligans!

If you want to see more of these two go to @the_goose_and_the_duck on Instagram.