Hello All!
Time for me to waffle on about my little bunch of feathered friends. For those of you who dont know I have ducks & turkeys.
I have 4 white Cherry Valley Ducks-Shpoopie, Tee, Cherry and Coconut, 1 Magpie Duck-Pye, 1 Trout Indian Runner Duck-Plum, 1 Dark Khaki Campbell-Sausage and my White Campbell Drake-Campbell (yes thats his name)
And 6 Turkeys, 4 Bourbon Reds 2 boys-Virgor & Gorgon, 2 girls, Zola & Sector. 1 (maybe a girl??)mystery black one-Lemon and 1 (maybe a girl?)Slate Grey-Keith. (I was supposed to have 2 reds & 3 greys...)
SO, I went on holiday for a week and my parnters little bro looked after them for me-very well too!
Sausage has been strange for a while and when I came back from holiday I went to greet her to say hello and I was welcomed by hissing, heavy breathing and anger......nice. But its good because she has gone super broody! She is crazy broody. Comes out and gets herself in the pond and does some weird "belly wetting" then scamps back in to the eggs. She covers them all over when she isnt there, she has collected everyones and is sat on them. Poor other ducks now dont know where to lay their eggs. so they are back scattered all over the place-found 2 of Plums eggs in the pond...nice.. Campbell is generally being a horrible raping boy at this time of year, he has his favourites and his least favourites. Poor Cherry and Coconut he seems to hate, if he is in the pond and they come for a drink or a splash he chases them off, then poor Shpoopie has a bald neck from his raping. Tee, Pye & Plum seem to be his "wives" as he is very nice to them and doesnt chase after them trying to bonk them all the time. Sausage is out the question as she is broody now. So the pitter patter of little duckie feet soon! 2-3 weeks as Im unsure when she started sitting as I was away. Cherry has had an ikky eye poor thing but is on the mend!
Turkey babies....well what naughty little things-well they arnt really babies anymore, they are quite huge! No where near fully grown though! They eat EVERYTHING, I let them out and then they grab mouthfuls of my vegetables, so I have barricaded the way from their pen to the grass & trees as they are beside my veggie patch. They love being up a height, Virgor decided he wanted to be in the tree-the branches on the walnut tree are rather low, so 1 turkey in a tree branch, then....all other turkey babies are hurling themselves at the branch-turkeys on the branch are now on the floor, feathers everywhere, chaos, I was giggling my pants off, check out my facebook for turkeys in a tree. They arnt very agile and have what seems like zero balance, they they plop out all the time then scramble back up with a mixture of flapping and clawing. Poor turkeys who have made it into the branch then get shoved off by a friend. This isnt just the tree, we have a bench, Gorgon jumped up then 2 seconds later, all turkeys flying at the branch! Suprisingly they do fly rather well, they get all excited when I let them out and flap around, they can fly about 5 foot into the air, with no sense of direction-3 flew over the fence into next door and "couldnt" fly back, they just ran backwards and forwards along the fence making their weird barking noises. So I had to climb the fence and chuck them all back over the wall, they think its great fun to rung towards me, then run away when I try and pick them up, they dont like being picked up but its something they shall have to deal with! I dont like being eaten by them but I put up with it. They love a lettuce or cabbage hung up for them to peck at for hours until they destroy it. Lettuce lasts around 2 minutes, cabbages are a bit more sturdy! Ducks also like cabbage, even though they turned their beaks up at me when I first offered them it. I hung it up then it was the best thing ever-they much prefer lettuce though, I think its easier for them to eat.
I have woodchipped around the pond so they dont get it so muddy, they seems to like it more! And they are super clean now!
I shall be getting some chickens soon as I dont like buying chicken eggs, feels so weird after having chickens for so long then no eggs (for those of you who dont know I lost my other boy ducks and my chickens to a £@$&@?£ fox.
Maybe some Buff orpingtons or rocks? I dont know I want some that lay OK and something that I can breed the chicks to sell also. Any ideas??
I fancy some little bantams too...but need to bribe the boyfriend to make one of those little triangle arks that we can put a couple in and move around the garden, then I can sell their babies. Maybe Pekin bantams-the black & white mottled would be nice!
I was going to get a new husband for Sausage since Belle my hansome friendly khaki campbell got taken by the fox (RIP Belle my beautiful boy :( ) which I was going to get when I came back from holiday-but since she has gone broody, I think i shall have to wait a while since this definatly isnt the right time for her!
Well I think thats enough waffle for now.
I hope all you are well and your little feathered friends are healthy and happy.
xxxx
Farming Friends Forum » Ducks
Update on the featheries...
(3 posts)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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Thanks for the lovely updates on your menagerie!
Good luck with the nesting mama, and with your quest for chickens. It sounds like a lot of great things going on!
Dottie
Posted 1 year ago # -
awww lovely :)
Posted 1 year ago #
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