Tevye's Corner

[Tevyes Dad]

Hello all. I've been a member of this site for a while and when I was a "young dad" everything was new and exciting and I did quite a bit of posting. Now everything is "been there, done that", but still can be exciting, I'm just not so prone to post everything. This had lead to a long lapse in me posting anything and once in a while it is nice to post a pic and to touch base with all of you in Duckland.

So I decided since I really don't have daily events that I feel like posting a whole new thread for anymore, I would post a single thread for random ramblings and pictures and a place where people might find me. Also this will serve as proof that I am still maintaining my flock and did not give them to @duluthralphie to make dux stew out of.

I just updated my duck house with 4 new cameras (they are getting so inexpensive these days). Two internal, one into the kennel, and one into the area behind the house where the dux love to hide so they can avoid all the other cameras.

These are really handy on days like today where It is fairly cold outside, and I don't feel like going out and letting the ducks out yet. I can look at the cameras, and see that they are still in the house rather than having gone out into the kennel, and say, "Good! They think it's too cold to go out too, so I'll just sit down, have a cup of coffee and make a post on BYC." I'll let them out when it is a little warmer. I think they decide based on a balancing act between the sun and the wind... When the sun is warm enough to counter the wind, they go outside.

So here is a scaled down version of the two interior cams. They give me 100% coverage of the house and I can positively identify each duck (except for Tella and Ettie who I can barely identify in person).

And here is a full-size picture of the area where this thread got its title from:

I guess you could say this is Tevye and his circle of friends

Starting with Tevye and going clockwise, this is Entie, Kaine, Rhiannon, Mystique, and I think Ettie. That is maybe Tella and Noir in the upper right with them, and then in the other picture going from Mystique to the duck door, is Latte, Greta (standing), Roxette (lying down), Pocahontas (standing) and Dove in the corner by the door.

Well, I just checked on them again, they are still in the house but are starting to mull around the door, I'll go out and open their kennel and they'll start their day.

 

[duluthralphie]

Did you install an oven camera?

 

[bluemerle]

What a cute bunch! And yes, would love more info on your many cameras.

 

[Ratchnick]

Are your cameras just wireless security cameras?

 

[thumper650]

Sone really cool looking mixed ducks. I’d love some info on cameras too.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Are your cameras just wireless security cameras?

I use POE (Power over Ethernet) cameras. Unless you want to change batteries all the time, you have to run at least a power cable to a camera, so with POE, I run just one cable to the camera, and it is more secure and doesn't load my wireless space with lots of data (so I can use it for surfing or listening to music in the back yard).

What a cute bunch! And yes, would love more info on your many cameras.

The new cameras that I put in are some real cheap POE cameras I decided to try out. For the $ I am really happy with them:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PN6NKCY/?tag=backy-20

Sone really cool looking mixed ducks. I’d love some info on cameras too.

Thank you. We like the mixed flock because we can tell them apart easily and learn their personalities.

The majority of my cameras around the house are higher quality cameras, but I still capture at 1080P, but they have a little less noise because they are either 3 or 4 MP cameras, but still POE. They are similar to this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KZ2MFT7/?tag=backy-20

(Models keep changing as technology changes).

I run my cameras to a dedicated server computer (it does more than just security, but it is a 24/7 server run all the time.) Most security systems now use IP cameras and it is much easier especially if you have remote areas. My duck house has its own POE switch in it so there was only one run needed to go from the back yard (including backyard wifi and music system) to the house. I do have one WIFI camera though: it is in the ducky dome (their swimming structure in the back yard). It is a PTZ camera and when I put it in, I thought I might use it in various places at different times of the year. So far, it has just stayed in the ducky dome, but it works fine, so I'm not going to "fix" it.

I do all my capturing at 7fps. This doesn't give me beautiful fluid video, but it is quick enough to catch anything of significance and lowers the bandwidth and storage requirements (or extends the time I can keep on the storage depending on how you want to look at it.)

If you get a security system that doesn't directly support POE, or already have switches that don't support it, you can get injectors that will put power on the Ethernet cable near the source so that you can still take advantage of only having to make a single run of cable to each camera. To me, that is the way to go.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Good to see you! You have some very special ducks!

As do you A little birdie told me it was your birthday Hope it was a happy one!!!

 

[Tevyes Dad]

I put my ducks in last night, or rather I should say they put themselves in while I secured the fort. They are such good ducks. I figured they haven't gotten much screen time lately so I would capture their good behavior

They get the run of their kennel and house at night. The kennel has the strength of the chain link fence. The protection of hardware cloth around the bottom 3' and 1' under ground. The deterrence of 3 lines of 7000V electric fence around the kennel and the entire thing is cover with a net surrounded by no-perch wires to keep owls/hawks/eagles away. The house and kennel are sewn together with steel wire so that nothing can squeeze in the area around the doorway between them.

Once it gets dark, they usually (in the winter) choose to go into the house for most of the night (two or three times a night, they go back out to hang around the "water cooler" and chat, then they go back in.)

Here are a couple pictures of a "water cooler" party:

In case you were wondering, my backyard is not lit up. The "lights" you see are the IR lights on the cameras inside and outside the duck house. The viewing camera sees the opposite camera as a bright light. The only visible light back there is the red bulb that indicates the fence is on.

 

[DuckyDonna]

I put my ducks in last night, or rather I should say they put themselves in while I secured the fort. They are such good ducks. I figured they haven't gotten much screen time lately so I would capture their good behavior

They get the run of their kennel and house at night. The kennel has the strength of the chain link fence. The protection of hardware cloth around the bottom 3' and 1' under ground. The deterrence of 3 lines of 7000V electric fence around the kennel and the entire thing is cover with a net surrounded by no-perch wires to keep owls/hawks/eagles away. The house and kennel are sewn together with steel wire so that nothing can squeeze in the area around the doorway between them.

Once it gets dark, they usually (in the winter) choose to go into the house for most of the night (two or three times a night, they go back out to hang around the "water cooler" and chat, then they go back in.)

View attachment 2036262

Here are a couple pictures of a "water cooler" party:
View attachment 2036270
In case you were wondering, my backyard is not lit up. The "lights" you see are the IR lights on the cameras inside and outside the duck house. The viewing camera sees the opposite camera as a bright light. The only visible light back there is the red bulb that indicates the fence is on.

View attachment 2036271

that is very cool. Boy, I'd kill to have that sink in my duck run! Craig's list, here I come!

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Hello all. I logged in to do may annual profile maintenance and thought I would drop a line. I updated my options since I am not on here very often anymore - TBH, not spending much time in front of the computer at all anymore - always doing something IRL - so all is good

Last summer, we lost Tevye, it was fairly sudden and caught us by surprise. He was everyone's favorite, and we were very sad. Because we keep the yard as clean as we can of screws and such and none of the other ducks were experiencing any issues, I decided not to try to autopsy him - ether he ate some random bad thing, or perhaps had some health issues we wouldn't have known of. I doubted I would find anything that would make us change the way we do things so decided against it.

The flock is will be 8 years old this April (Tella and Ettie are about half a year older) and Latte is the baby who will only be 6 years old in March. They are getting old enough that This will probably start to be a more frequent occurrence. That and they are all starting to show their age. Some have more trouble getting up after a long rest. As someone who has my own knee issues, I can relate. Not quite enough to write off quality of life yet, but we will have to start watching for when the fun of being a duck fades.

We have already made arrangements with a local friend who raises chickens for meat that they will take any healthy, but suffering ducks in the future. We don't mind if someone else eats them at end of life - we enjoy duck, just not ours, with names.

OK, enough Debbie Downer... We will hopefully still have several years to enjoy our flock and will ensure while they are in our care they will be the most spoiled ducks around. They have a long weekend ahead... Time for kiddie pools