Duck Nest No More

     Miss Grey Duck started out with 12 eggs.  She layed on them so well for at least 2 weeks.  What happened to one of the eggs I don't know.....and then she slowly started leaving them longer and longer.  The morning I felt them and they were all ice cold I knew it was all over.  She was such a good mother last year!  Maybe none of the eggs were fertile.  I opened one...rotten to the core.  Elton is pretty old..... but, Nine of Nine should have been able to fill in no problem.

     So now we start all over.  One problem.  The ducks aren't laying any eggs right now!  All winter they layed so well, but the day I turned off the light that was keeping their water from freezing they were done.  That was a month ago.  Not an egg since.  Did I wear them out over the winter?   Bottom line....no ducklings for a while. :-(

.....dr momi

Fox Food?

     I hate it when this happens. I'm in bed, almost asleep.  Suddenly, I'm wide awake with the thought;  "I forgot to close the ducks in."  I now have two choices.

1)  Snuggle back down into those warm covers and try to convince myself there is no way the fox will show up tonight.  Or,

2)  Get up, go out into that cold air and close the door.  That cold air is guaranteed to keep me awake for at least another  hour.





.....you know what I did.

  .....jean

Linked To: Homestead Barn Hop

Beef Jerky Recipe

2 # ground lean beef or venison
1 # ground chicken, turkey, or duck
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

You can certainly use all beef or venison.  I mix it really well with my hands.  Fill the jerky gun, and use the "ribbon" fitting.  Fill the dehydrator trays.  (Three lbs. of ground meat fills the four trays of my dehydrator.) 

(Where's the "cure" you ask?  If that's the main reason you haven't been making jerky, well, come on down!  I hate sodium nitrite.  Imagine my surprise when at my Master Food Preserver Class, Barbara Ingham, Wisconsin's Extension food scientist and our teacher, said I didn't have to use it!  There was a catch.  Without cure in it, you will store it in the refrigerator.  If you are going on a camping trip, etc., it will keep for 2 weeks out of the refrigerator, but not indefinitely.  This more than covers me for a day long shopping trip, or Rick for a day of pheasant hunting.)

After filling the dehydrator, set it at 145 - 155 degrees for at least 4 hours.  Then place the dried strips on a baking sheet and bake in a pre-heated 275 degree oven for 10 minutes.  This last step makes sure that bugs such as Salmonella and E. coli are killed.  Jerky should not end up "crispy".  When you bend it, it shouldn't snap in half -- that is the kind of jerky you chew, and chew, and chew.

Done jerky will have fibers that still hold together when you bend it.
If it snaps -- overdone.
You now have a traveling piece of protein!

 Linked To: Homestead Barn Hop


.....jean

Beef & ? Jerky

  

If you have a dehydrator you MUST make jerky :-)
It's way too easy and tastes so good.  Pick up a jerky gun...about $15.00,
and then it's "have protein, will travel".
Beats a soy protein bar any day.

Four trays of jerky drying as I speak.

.....jean

Garden Invaders

     I tried that video tape fencing.  It sure does shine and shimmer, and make a noise in even a slight breeze.

     It did not break or stretch, and was easy to put up.  I only used two old video tapes I bought for 25 cents each at a rummage sale.    ..............but,.....and it's a big but,........it sure doesn't keep out the ducks!  Chickens were a bit more cautious, but give them time and I'm sure they will be in the garden too.  Looks like I will be buying net electric fence to keep them out. (all ducks and chickens are back in  their pens for now....awwhhh.)

    Look who else has been in the garden......

....a wild turkey.
Rick says it's a hen.  She probably has her nest close by.
Oh yeah....I'm sure she'll be bringing the babies around soon.

.....and a deer (or two or three)



.....and the fox.
I'm sure she is making a round every night.
Never know when I'll leave that chicken coop door open!

  I may put my small experimental fence up on the other side of the garden and see if it does anything with deer, turkeys, and fox.......not too hopeful.

.....dr momi

Nine of Nine

     Just because I let the Mama Hen hatch out some ducklings, didn't Miss Grey Duck go broody on nine eggs.  She sat faithfully until 8 eggs were hatched.  The last egg took another day and a half until I saw the first crack on the egg.   .....but Wed. it was 97 degrees outside.  Miss grey duck just couldn't sit any longer, and rounded up the rest of the babies to find a little shade.  She didn't go back.

     I brought the egg inside and set it under a light bulb.  By early evening I helped it out of the egg, because I knew if it didn't get back under Miss Grey Duck, it's chances weren't good.



Just out of the egg.



About 1 hour later.



He/She made it!

      I named him Nine of Nine, he was very weak, but when I put him down by his mom you should have seen him struggle to get to her.  This morning he was still alive.  His legs are weak and he seems half the size of the others, but he's going to make it.


Nine of Nine is in the back.
.....there's another duckling on the other side of Miss Grey Duck.
These ducklings are truly Heins 57 Breed.



......is this the cutest thing or what?
This one has a crest just like his Papa.

 .....dr momi

Duck Prisoners

      The duck have been confined.......and they don't like it one bit!  They have been allowed to roam free all day long since early spring until just last week.  That's because the garden is just starting to pop up.  In about a month, I'll let them back out to roam.

      Rick (my husband) is always in charge of the sweet corn and potatoes in the garden each year.  I weed and take care of tomatoes, cabbage.......well, everything else.  Last year, Rick would come into the house after checking the garden and say things like, "some of that corn didn't germinate, I need to reseed some spots" and "dang, those 2 buck fawns are nibbling on my corn".

     I was clueless too, until one day when I watched the ducks go down the corn row just feasting away!

     I never told him.  :-)     (Sssshhhh -- quiet!)

Sunflowers for an appetizer.

     Two days ago he said,  "the corn sure did germinate better this year than last year!"   :-)
   
      When I do let the ducks out, I'm going to try that "video tape" fencing that I read about in this month's Mother Earth News.  Otherwise I have an awful big garden to try to fence in.  :-)



Pumpkin for the main course.



.....and corn for dessert!

P.S.  ......check out a time the "prisoners" did escape.  http://homesteadingatredtailridge.blogspot.com/2011/03/duck-escapees.html

.....dr momi



Baby Duck-Chicks

     I have totally confused the grandchildren.  "Why is the chicken on the baby ducks?"  "Because she's their mama."     ?????? -- comes up on their face.

     The banty hen hatched out the duck eggs -- 28 days sitting.  She did a good job.  However, I have a little to learn yet.  Of the 5 eggs, she has 3 ducklings -- because of me.  The first one to hatch in the chicken coop in the bucket evidently was trampled upon (or pecked to death) by another hen who layed an egg in the bucket. (With the ma-ma hen in it yet.)  The duckling had a cute "tophat" just like Elton.  Perfectly healthy one minute, and dead the next time I peeked.  Uggh!

     I quickly moved her bucket and all to a new outside pen, laying the bucket on it's side.  She hatched out 3 more ducklings.  Then I decided to pull the bucket out as it was rolling about some.  I was careful to pull the whole nest out of the bucket, they still were in an old dog house for cover.  The unhatched egg was in the middle of the nest.  She then proceeded to take up caring for the other 3, and quit laying on the egg.  Uggh! ....and it was ready to hatch.  It wasn't a dud.
    
     Lesson learned -- once I get that broody hen going next time, she has to have her own little pen -- and no disturbing her!  I'm sure there would have been 5 ducklings if not for me.



Grandsons Ryan and Riley holding the new babies.



They love her and she loves them.  :-)



.....dr momi

Getting All My Ducks In A Row



Literally I guess too.....
The ducks love "bug finding" in the woods.

     Today "Miss Grey Duck" (she doesn't have a name :-) went broody.  She wanted to sit on the 5 eggs in her nest.  I wasn't ready.  Not enough pens for broody hens -- chicken or duck.  And the chicks growing in the garage needed to get outside.   So, the garage chicks got moved to the duck house today, of course then the ducks needed a  new pen.  .....and I still don't know where the duck can go broody and not be bothered by the others.  I'll have to keep picking up eggs until I'm ready to figure it out.

The chicks are now in the duck shed/pen which is rather open,
so, a garage sale $10.00 dog house is now their brooder.
  It's suppose to be cold and rainy the next few days.

The ducks are now in a temporary pen between the
 "chick shed" and the chicken run.  They don't have a shed but they
always sleep out in the open anyway.   I'm just hoping the fox doesn't make
a trip through the place tonight.

This is how I like to shore up the coop walls so
fox don't try to dig under.  The chicken wire is layed
 on the ground about one foot, and then up the posts.
Unfortunately, I don't have enough rock to shore
up the duck walls for tonight. (I've used a little bit
of "everything else" -- I hope it's enough.)

     When I moved the water tank that the chicks were in, I found the missing chick.  The store didn't miscount....It must have flown out and then got caught in a mouse trap.  Uugghhh.  It was one of the pullets.  The meat chicks wouldn't be able to fly that high. 

     Five ducks, twenty-three meat chicks and 5 pullets (will be layers) all in their new housing.

.....dr momi

Pure Duck Heaven

Melting snow makes my ducks h-a-p-p-y :-).

.....and I figured out how to get a video on my blog!  That makes me h-a-p-p-y!

Duck Escapees

     I think the ducks have "Cabin Fever".  I just did the morning chores late. (it's middle afternoon -- my bad)  I left the duck coop door open a bit like I always do when I bring the food and water, and instead of waiting for me to be done, they all made a mad dash for the open door!  Uhhggg!  Now, they are happily going from dog poo pile to dog poo pile chowing down!!!!  My husband said, "what Lucky Ducks!"  All I can think of is whether I want to eat tomorrows eggs!

     It is not going to be easy getting them back in.  First of all they don't want to go in, and second of all there are 4 foot drifts out there that they are walking on top of and I will sink in! 

Redtail Ridge Ducks



The ducks of Redtail Ridge. 
 Elton has a wild
hairdo -- I think he is a
White Crested/Swedish cross.

      I never planned on ducks.  We have no pond or close water.  They just sort of "happened".  A friend of my husband got 3 cute baby ducks for his wife's birthday.  He had them for a year and a half, and truly couldn't handle how much work they were any more.  He asked if I wanted them.  As a favor I took them.  He had one condition....I couldn't butcher them.  So, Donald, Elton, and Daffy (yes, he named them) came to live at Redtail Ridge.
     Ducks are weird.  Not like chickens really at all.  Over this last summer I did fell in love with them though.  Nothing makes you chuckle more than ducks "puddling" in a puddle on a rainy day. It's right up there with baby goats bouncing off walls, and kittens chasing a piece of binder twine.
    Donald and Daffy laid eggs. (We call her Doni now)   They were not very good at hatching eggs.  They kept moving them around and leaving half of them out of the nest.  (They should have been separated)  Then one day my daughter asked if I wanted some baby ducks that had hatched at her place.  I took five 2 week old baby ducks and put them under Doni who was still trying to sit on eggs.  She loved them immediately :-)  We kept all the hens, so now my flock consists of 4 hens and 1 drake (Elton)
    When they start laying eggs this spring I want my daughter to try the duck eggs in baking.  My grandson is allergic to chicken eggs, but I have heard that sometimes duck eggs will not give the same reaction.  I'll let you know how that works.  I will bake with duck eggs also, everything  is more tender and fluffy with them.  I can't eat them scrambled or fried though --- it's a really different texture.
     I will also let my banty hens hatch out some duck eggs.  I heard chickens are better duck mothers than ducks are :-).  My small flock of ducks eventually will have a bigger job.  They will have run of the orchard (or at least part of it).  The goal is for them to help keep down the population of apple  maggots, you know, the insect that leaves the "worm holes" in the apples.  I'm not sure I'll have fencing up yet this year, but it will be coming.  (I'm looking into natural hedgerow fencing)  It won't have a top on it, too big of an area, but the ducks seem to be very "hawk wise".  We'll see how it goes.