2019 Spring Ducklings are here!

[WannaBeHillBilly]

@WannaBeHillBilly have you hooked up the neon transformer as a electric fence charger? What type of grounding did you or your neighbor use?

No grounding! - Which makes this setup very, very dangerous if you accidentally zap yourself:
For the duck-house, i connected one output of the neon transformer to the chicken wire around the duck house. The other output was connected to a wire, attached criss-cross on insulators at a distance of ~1½ inch on top of this. So a predator must touch a wire and the chicken wire to get zapped.
The other neon transformer was hooked up to a metal plate on the ground in front of the chicken-pellets and a piece of chicken wire inside of the tarps, covering the bags of food. The idea was that the Raccoon would stand on the metal plate, try to chew through the tarp and make contact with the other pole. - It worked, there was a charred spot in the tarp where some teeth had gone through…
Warning: You are dealing with very high voltages if you are using a neon transformer! The voltages are equally high with an electric fence, but only in pulses. A neon transformer produces a permanent current that will cause burns, muscle spasms and can stop your heart if you are not careful. I use a pair of silicone oven mittens if i have to fiddle with the wiring while the transformer is running. Common work gloves are no protection at all!

 

[SailorNoMore]

@WannaBeHillBilly Thank you! I will use landscape pins to hold chicken wire to the ground around the base of the duck house and run the other chicken wire around the lower four feet of the house with a 7" spacer board between them. That should surprise a dog smelling or peeing on their enclosure.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

@WannaBeHillBilly Thank you! I will use landscape pins to hold chicken wire to the ground around the base of the duck house and run the other chicken wire around the lower four feet of the house with a 7" spacer board between them. That should surprise a dog smelling or peeing on their enclosure.

OMG! I just pictured that peeing dog's face!
As teenagers we dared to pee on those electric cow-fences, boy was that uncomfortable!

 

[SailorNoMore]

@WannaBeHillBilly, Thank you! for your insight and training with this thread. Here are my four two day old ancona received from cackle hatchery this morning.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Congratulations @SailorNoMore they are precious!!

 

[SailorNoMore]

@Miss Lydia Thank you! They are on the third water dish, I made the first two out of milk containers with smaller holes each time that I or wife caught them inside their container. I swear the last holes weren't much bigger than the large postage stamps. A quick trip to the store bought a conventional water dish. Now I need to learn how to flip it over without losing water into their brooder.

 

[Miss Lydia]

You could also try something like this. Mine haven’t gotten into these and they work great

 

[SailorNoMore]

On their third day of life they were pretty close to together in weight at: 135, 138, 140 and 141. Two of them already slipped off their leg bands that I put on,

so more work tomorrow. They enjoyed their time together in plastic cake display topper in the bathroom sink before being dried off and back to the MHC for more nap time and warmth.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are so precious !

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

@WannaBeHillBilly, Thank you! for your insight and training with this thread. Here are my four two day old ancona received from cackle hatchery this morning. View attachment 1796373

@SailorNoMore - Sorry for the late reply, i was occupied the whole week with a tricky installation on a customer's computer at the other end of the country (time-zones!), had to clean the duck-house yesterday and our house's gutters today, racing a severe thunderstorm that never showed up…

Beautiful ducklings! I think i made a mistake with my Magpies. I like the Ancona duck's pattern so much more. Maybe next year…
Please: Pictures, videos !