The Thing about Geese

 Having happily kept ducks for a dozen years, I figured I have an affinity for waterfowl and adding geese seemed to be a reasonable thing to do.

Since geese eat grass, they are allowed to free range for most of the day.  The ducks, being smaller, are more vulnerable to predators and are not given the free-range option. 

Geese don't seem sensitive to the ducks' feelings about that, thus the ha ha ha-ha-ha strut.

The New Duck Pen

 Last spring we redid the duck pen,  

replacing it with a fully covered structure, as arial predators were a real threat with the old set-up.

The ducks accepted their new home.

However, the older gals did some reconnaissance outside the area just to be thorough.

 

As you can see, it didn't take them long to beat down the grass.  

Well, ducks do that.

Down Come the Rainbarrels

 The rain barrels must be taken down for the winter.  Frozen water doesn't flow.  My routine is to put them up around April Fool's Day and take them down around All Saints Day. 

These pictures are from August.

Sometimes the trail camera takes pictures of wind.  Rain is a little easier to see.

This runoff bucket is the reason the trail camera was positioned there.  My hope was that the camera would catch the culprit.  You see, every now and then this bucket is found lying on its side.  Who is doing it?  Alas. There are no pictures of anybody caught in the act.  Not even the wind.

Suspects abound.

Ducks like water but it's probably not them.

Not highly likely.

Other suspects:

Unlikely, a bucket is not her style.  She'd rather lick dew off the side of the rain barrel.

 

Maybe

Maybe

Don't know

Perhaps

Possible

Likely

We may never know.

BDR Update

 Here it is August already at the Bad Dog Ranch.

In addition to our regular flock of ducks, we've added a couple of geese.   Here they are at about three days old.

Here they are a couple months later.

They don't have their grown-up feathers yet but are molting, so they're working on it.

The groundskeeper/flock manager reports that it is true that geese have a different attitude than ducks.  She handled the geese when they were very young so that they would be used to her getting into their personal space (she does this with the ducks too).  Now the geese follow her around!  

These ducks, raised in the brooder right next door to the geese, do not follow the flock manager around.

These are Rouens.  They will look like stocky Mallards when fully grown.  

Like the geese, they don't yet have their grown-up feathers.

Meanwhile, the elder ducks are taking the invasion of youngsters in stride.

More Ducklings

 

Khaki Campbells and Cayugas!  This group is a week old.

Last year's plans to invigorate the laying flock were thwarted by covid restrictions.  Hopefully, there will be more ducks than drakes in this batch.

Ducks typically continue to  lay eggs when they are four, five, six years old.  Trouble is, they slow down and as we have found with the older gals here at Bad Dog Ranch, their egg shells become thinner with age.

I can be a bit of an oaf, but I like to think after having done it a few times I can manage to handle eggs without breaking them.  In the past couple months, I've broken three or four eggs just picking them up and putting them down.  The shells are not as hard.  They just aren't.

For the squeamish in the audience, we won't get into what happens to ducks who don't lay well anymore, just as we don't mention what happens to excess drakes.

I have a mantra:  they are NOT pets... they are NOT pets... 

 In addition to the mantra, it is also helpful for my tender heart to remember that the birds in my care are given the very best life I can provide.

Baby Ducks!

We interrupt our April alphabet to look at two-day-old ducks.

The dark ones are Cayugas, the light ones are Khaki Campbells.

The Evolution of Duck Eggs

Here at the homestead, the youngsters born this spring are now laying eggs, just like the grown ups.

It takes a few tries to pull off the perfect egg, however.

 Start small, work your way up is one method.

For scale: a small Kong and an extra large Kong. 

Another method, somewhat unnerving to observe, is an egg that looks like a regular egg in every way except the shell is soft and almost translucent.

 There will be no photos taken of these egg monstrosities for their appearance is, well, icky.  There is often a tail of white material hanging from the egg like the umbilical cord of an alien creature.  Happily, the Freakish Eggs are much more rare than the Mini Eggs.

Before long, the ducks start laying nice uniform eggs that are pretty as wild flowers.

You done with those Kongs yet?

Worries on the Line

Duck keepers are always concerned about duck safety.  Some things you can't control, some you can, some you hope for the best.

Ducks love to thrust their beaks into the dirt and hunt for bugs and worms.  I don't worry much about stale worms or even how the ducks are trashing the lawn.  I do worry about predators.  Fences keep the ducks from wandering into the tall grass or woods to be taken out by a fisher or fox.  Locking them in a sturdy house at night keeps the raccoons and other nocturnal riffraff from getting to them.

Sounds good.  But what about danger from above?  The house keeps owls away at night but what about diurnal birds of prey?

I've tried netting.  It's the stuff you use over blue berry bushes to keep the birds from eating all the berries.  Trouble is, the netting twisted and tore every time it had to be moved.  Then I read (I think in Grit magazine) something that an old chicken farmer has been using for years. He runs a few strands of fishing line from the bird house to the fence in a sort of  sliced pie configuration.  The theory is that raptors, with their keen eyesight, see the strands and avoid them.

Dipping into my tackle box, I rigged up a multi line gizmo and set it up. 

I worry though.  How do we know if it works?

Some April Stuff

About five weeks old, the ducklings are beginning to feather.  They're looking pretty scruffy, but that scruff is enough to brave the outside.

These dogs wandered by looking for a drink of water.

Meanwhile, there's another batch of youngsters here at Bad Dog Ranch.

These Pekins are just three days old.

Pekins are said to be rather mellow.  There may be something to that.  They don't rush into a clump till you place your hand in their enclosure.


.

The Campbells tend to clump up as soon as a person comes into view.

Interestingly, dogs don't seem to cause much clumping.