Duck Integration Information Overload

[Aunt Angus]

I bet that was nasty.
I had a pet goat many years ago and it never got the scours thank goodness. I guess it would be hard to know what may have caused it since they will eat just about anything
Glad she is over it.
What breed? do you milk?

I have 4 mutts (Nubian/Boer/Nigerian Dwarf mixes) who we keep for brush clearing. I may end up milking eventually, but I'm terrified of kidding, and I hate the idea of my precious baby girls being violated by a stinky, nasty buck - lol!

Cricket (herd queen in the making)

Nudge

Sunshine

Weezy (the scours-afflicted goat)

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are so pretty. Funny what you said about the girls being violated. Oh my gosh we did that to our poor goat and man did she come home stinky. But she gave birth to the cutest little thing.
Wish I had pictures I'd share.

 

[Aunt Angus]

They are so pretty. Funny what you said about the girls being violated. Oh my gosh we did that to our poor goat and man did she come home stinky. But she gave birth to the cutest little thing.

And then there's THAT, too. How would I part with the darling little babies? Lol!

When we first moved here, it was high fire season. Our insurance company was insistent we clear a big part of our woods. Well, several thousand dollars later, we were in compliance. Blackberries and Scotch Broom are invasive plants that grow EVERYWHERE. Can't compost them. Can't throw them away. Can only burn them, but with wildfires being the massive threat they are, there are very few times throughout the year that you can do that. If you cut them back and leave them for a burn day, they'll just propagate.

Get goats, they said. Five goats will make quick work of all those blackberries, they said. So we got 4. But the way these girls eat, 2 would be plenty! But the gal we bought them from was just going to sell them at market if we didn't take them all. Couldn't let that happen, so here we are.

It's a good life for a goat. They literally eat for a living!

 

[Quatie]

I'm unable to do much work in the coop today. I'm prepping for Thanksgiving because I just found out I'm expecting more people tomorrow, so that means rearranging furniture. I have a small house now that 2/3 of the kids are gone. Only thing is, when they leave, the next time they visit, they often have significant others. And one of goat has scours. That's never fun.

Anyhoo, Julep continues to adjust. She's already learned which chickens not to harass. And she's decided she doesn't like the rooster. Can't say I blame her. He is a bit high strung.

Here she is chilling with the other ducks:
View attachment 2908141

Julep looks pretty happy with you. I can definitely tell she is a pekin now. It is amazing how little she looked next to bantam ducks . I would have thought she would look like a giant next to them.

 

[Quatie]

And then there's THAT, too. How would I part with the darling little babies? Lol!

When we first moved here, it was high fire season. Our insurance company was insistent we clear a big part of our woods. Well, several thousand dollars later, we were in compliance. Blackberries and Scotch Broom are invasive plants that grow EVERYWHERE. Can't compost them. Can't throw them away. Can only burn them, but with wildfires being the massive threat they are, there are very few times throughout the year that you can do that. If you cut them back and leave them for a burn day, they'll just propagate.

Get goats, they said. Five goats will make quick work of all those blackberries, they said. So we got 4. But the way these girls eat, 2 would be plenty! But the gal we bought them from was just going to sell them at market if we didn't take them all. Couldn't let that happen, so here we are.

It's a good life for a goat. They literally eat for a living!

Uhh scotch broom is pretty annoying. I use to volunteer at a reserve and we would take pliers and pull the young ones and an extractigator to get rid of the big ones. If you don't get rid of most of that tap root they come back. I have seriously thought of having my neighbors goats come over to eat the vinca, but it would be hard to keep them away from other plants.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Uhh scotch broom is pretty annoying. I use to volunteer at a reserve and we would take pliers and pull the young ones and an extractigator to get rid of the big ones. If you don't get rid of most of that tap root they come back. I have seriously thought of having my neighbors goats come over to eat the vinca, but it would be hard to keep them away from other plants.

We just let them eat everything. We ser up their fence where all of those really annoying plants like to grow (there's ivy and poison oak, too). It's the steepest part of the property. We can't use it much anyway, and the goaties do well on the uneven terrain. It's worked out well. And the few neighbors here in the valley love my goats.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I would love to have goats again we could use them here on our property but fencing in mountain land is way expensive. And with coyotes around sure can't let them free range.
It's sure amazing what all they eat and usually without any side effects. lol

 

[Aunt Angus]

I would love to have goats again we could use them here on our property but fencing in mountain land is way expensive. And with coyotes around sure can't let them free range.
It's sure amazing what all they eat and usually without any side effects. lol

We use electric netting because the goats are in the ravine. We have that thing juiced up to stop bears, but we live in the territory of a mountain lion. Nothing we could do to stop him if he decided to stop by for dinner. I lock my goats up at dusk. There really is nothing the average person could do to stop a mountain lion outside of building 12 ft walls...

 

[Miss Lydia]

We also have mountain lions although they won't actually come out and say. Bears are another threat but so far they have only gone after the wild bird feeders [which I have to bring in at dusk] or trash cans which dh had to build a heavy wooden box to keep the cans in. I love the wildlife we just have to make sure we protect what's ours the best we can. I saw a picture of a barn that a bear tore into to get to feed and that place wasn't too far from us, So I am thankful my coops are right here at the house too hopefully that makes one think 2X about coming close. Although they have come into our back yard for bird feed. lol Actually they tore down our welded wire fencing so we had to put up no climb horse fencing to keep them out. So far so good.

 

[Aunt Angus]

We also have mountain lions although they won't actually come out and say. Bears are another threat but so far they have only gone after the wild bird feeders [which I have to bring in at dusk] or trash cans which dh had to build a heavy wooden box to keep the cans in. I love the wildlife we just have to make sure we protect what's ours the best we can. I saw a picture of a barn that a bear tore into to get to feed and that place wasn't too far from us, So I am thankful my coops are right here at the house too hopefully that makes one think 2X about coming close. Although they have come into our back yard for bird feed. lol Actually they tore down our welded wire fencing so we had to put up no climb horse fencing to keep them out. So far so good.

We've been fortunate. We actually don't live far from the highway, so I think that helps keep the larger wildlife away (except for coyote, of course). The bears are usually after trash in this area. We keep our trash in a shed.

In the valley next to ours is a hoity-toity housing community. They don't bother bear proofing, so they have way more problems than we do. I hope they never learn!