Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

He's looking great! What color is he? I'm jealous that you get to go outside. I'm spending my whole day cooking a bunch of stuff in the kitchen. :/

Aw, sorry you couldn't be outside yesterday! :/ It's all rainy and overcast again today, so it looks like I'll be stuck inside today. Which I suppose isn't too big of a deal because when I was out there to get the chickens set up this morning, the mosquitoes were ridiculous!

Crashie and his parents are butterscotch call ducks.



And speaking of Crash, exactly one month ago today was when he came into the world! I have a bunch of pictures this morning to share, mostly of him being completely adorable, as if that's any surprise.

He will not pose with the Easter chick anymore, so here's the best I could do. Such a nibbler!

He's starting to get stripes on his face like his mom's.

The innocent eyes, as he flings water out into the fresh shavings.

I think this is the accumulation of his awkwardness for the week. He looks so grumpy in this picture!

This one turned out better. Just needed my hand there for support, I guess!

Seriously, what awkward phase?

His little foot in my hand. Ah, he's just too precious!

All of my birds are being especially loveable lately. My sweet Dorkings and I had a chat yesterday, with lots of cuddles, of course. Rangi and Roha, my Ancona and Exchequer Leghorn, are being sweeties and giving me lots of attention. And mon amour de poule, Frou-Frou, was being super snuggleable last night. She just sat down with me in the coop, stretched her neck out over my hand and soaked in all the love I would give her. And I gave Reuben some love this morning whether he wanted it or not, after which he had to stand all tall and manly and pretend that didn't happen. Ah, who could ask for more?


Oh, and as for the broodies, we still have Margaret hanging in there. So she got hugs this morning, too, because I could.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I jumped the gun on it and took pictures of Crashie Duck today, but he actually turns 5 weeks old tomorrow. He was being a cutie, though, so here we go!

He's getting so big and feathering in all over! He just has his wings and back to fill in, and he's practically a duck!

Speaking of wings, here he is stretching them out! They're such fluffy little nubs still...

Cuddle time!

I have a hand full of Crashie!

This picture, oh my goodness! The look on his face!! Can this count as his picture with his buddy even though he's not standing and posing?!

We're still swamped with mud and swarmed with mosquitoes, but hopefully soon, I can go get some pictures of the girls to share without becoming anemic! I think a few of them have gone into molt early, and others are looking scruffy from the general moodiness of said molting birds. Oh, and Marge is still broody!

We did finally start making some progress on some things. I may start sharing pictures as we work to rebuild the Guineas' enclosure. Right now, they are in deep mud, so we're hopefully going to expand out their pen so that they can get out of the mud, and then later convert the larger part of their aviary into a bigger coop for them. Their current coop is pretty much rotting away around them, so... :/ Yeah, this needs to be done as soon as possible.

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Wow look at those feathers. I love his face stripes. Is he going to live with his parents? Shouldn't your guineas be eating the mosquitos? Slackers.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

He will live with his parents if he turns out to be a girl, but if he really is a boy, he can't. Everything I've read about ducks says that having two drakes in a pen with a single (female) duck can lead to serious injury or death, either to one of the drakes or the duck. So if he does turn out to be a boy, we'll have to build him his own pen to live in to keep everyone safe. Or he'll live in my room. If only I really could have a house duck...


And yeah, the Guineas are definitely slackers! Even when they were free-ranging from dawn to dusk, we still had an abundance of ticks and mosquitoes on the property. Basically, they're loud and obnoxious freeloaders. But they do make it very clear when there's a predator or a strange vehicle on the property, at least, so that's something...

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

And now for the real 5 week pictures of Crash! I tricked him into posing nicely by the Easter chick again, yay!

Snuggle time!

Looking more like a duck every day! He's really getting his wings in now, lots of pins. I'm a little concerned for the possibility of angel wing, but hopefully we avoid that trial with him.

My little ducky.

On the topic of possible 2016 chicks, I think I've decided to get a Cochin along with my Dorkings if I do get chicks. Still thinking about one or two other breeds as well. I know someone in my state that has beautiful Bielefelders and I've been thinking about talking to her about getting a Biele or two next year to raise with the Meyer babies I would get, like I did with my sweet Violet. I've really been missing my big, grumpy, German huggy-bug lately...

There's also someone selling off his mottled Orpingtons and he's really close by. Y'all have no idea how tempted I am to buy one! But I'm pretty sure I'm not ready to bring in another new bird right this very moment... It's a hard choice!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

The Bieles look beautiful. I would also be tempted to get the mottled Orp. Do you know what Crashie ' s gender is yet?

 

[lightchick]

The Bieles look beautiful. I would also be tempted to get the mottled Orp. Do you know what Crashie ' s gender is yet?

x2

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

No idea. Every time I think I know, something happens to make me doubt it again. I figure it'll be at least a couple more weeks before I can know for sure. I'm trying not to go nuts second guessing myself on it!

In the mean time, he's being extra cute--except tonight when he managed to nab my lip while I was looking at his wing pins. He didn't do it maliciously, though. He just likes to nibble and I wasn't giving him my full attention. Oops!





While I was out with the girls tonight, getting thoroughly chewed on by mosquitoes while waiting for the set of dawdlers to go to roost, I saw one of the Partridge Plymouth Rocks, She Who Sleeps Standing Up, shake her feathers out--and a few of them went flying! I guess after her several broody spells, she's decided to molt rather than go back to laying. Bum!

Margaret is still stubbornly holding onto her broodiness, unlike her usual spells of a few days trying and then giving up on it. :/ And now it looks like Kit is going broody again. Ugh! She gave me the grumble treatment from her nest as I reached in to hoist her out. The good news is I've started getting pretty, dark brown eggs from Georgette after her long fight in the broody brigade!

Speaking of our little broody, I had to grab Reuben because he gave chase to Margaret as soon as I opened the gate for the girls to go pecking in their free-range space. That's where I've been putting Margaret during the morning rather than put her in the little pen for broody busting, and as soon as the gate opens, she makes a break for the nests. Well, Reub pursued her into the coop, and I couldn't see what happened then, but Margie came running back out with him right after her. So he got carried around on his back like a baby and hopefully put down a few pegs. Why do all roosters have to go through this phase?!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I've asked the fine folks at the call duck thread about voice sexing call ducklings, and from the replies I've gotten, it's entirely possible that Crash is a girl! I think I'm going to keep referring to him as 'him' until I'm beyond a doubt sure, but there's hope!

Speaking of him, I gave him some shredded grass in a little water this morning. He pretty much stood with his beak in the water for 5 minutes, until he had sucked down all the water. The grass, he nibbled, but I'm not sure if he actually ate any. Picky little squirt!

He had to approach it with caution at first, of course.

Time to dig in!

He looked up part way through his treat with this little piece of grass on his beak.

"More please?"

Then it was lap time. Serious face.

Cuddles!

I was scritching the top of his head and he was fluffing out his feathers and holding his head up like this, almost like he was saying, "Ahh...."

My little ducky.

In other news, there may be hope for Reuben yet! I was carrying Margaret out to keep her off the nest, and like I always do I also grabbed Toes in his carrier to take him to his pen. Well, Margaret doesn't like being held, and occasionally she will freak out on me and try to fly out of my hands. I reacted quickly and grabbed her by the feet, which freaked her out more, and I ended up having to put her down carefully and then pick her back up properly.

Reuben heard Margie freaking out and he came running! He couldn't see Marge, who was on the other side of Toes's carrier at the time, but he could see Toes. I think he thought Toes was beating up on Margaret or something, because he went at him! He started circling the carrier and jumping at it from all angles, trying to get at Toes. He was defending his lady! I had to shove Reub away and quickly get through the gate to make him stop bashing into the carrier and trying to fight Mr. Toes, who, as far as I could tell, was completely confused as to what was going on.

So Reuben may be harassing Margie lately, but apparently he's very protective of her as well. Hopefully this means he'll be a good flock defender--once he's finally proven to the girls that he's a man, I mean.




Edited to fix something...

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Aww. I think he'll turn out to be a great rooster. Hoping Crashie is a girl for you.
Do you have a separate pen for your call ducks? Separate from your chickens I mean. Because... I was planning on getting two more chickens for my flock, but someone I know has way too many call ducks and said they'd sell them to me. So, I might be getting two calls if I can acclimate them to my chicken flock. Just wondering if you know how difficult it would be?