Duckling Diaries: the Life and Times of a Welshie Trio

[BantyChooks]

Did you think she had actual snow down there south of the Mason Dixon?

Nah.. definitely not.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Did you think she had actual snow down there south of the Mason Dixon?

RALPHIE! Merry Christmas!
How about a story now? Any story will do. It doesn't have to be about Hoover.

 

[duluthralphie]

I just told the latest story on the Mn thread...I am storied out now.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I just told the latest story on the Mn thread...I am storied out now.

I saw that after I posted over here.
That poor turkey.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Ha ha didn't think of it that way. may have been a poor choice

That's cute. But don't think a sweet little bear would eat Opie I bet he'd taste rotten since he is spoiled rotten.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Wow! I absolutely LOVE the pics of Chrissy and Opie!!! Nice job shawluvsbirds! I just snuck in for a bit... Real life has been very full the last year... Good, but full so I haven't been around the forum much, but I think of you and your flocks frequently (mostly when I am with my own flock and far away from the computer.) As several of you may be aware, I took about 1/2 a year off in 2017 to fight the fight against throat cancer. I am doing well and so far everything looks great. Both Yvonne and I have been focusing a bit more on our health and things have been going well. I hope you all had a merry Christmas and all goes well in 2019!

The flock has done well as a whole. We had to put Allie down. The arthritis in her knee got much worse and when we got her some pain medication, it just made things just enough better that she became more careless and ended up in even more pain. We could see life wasn't great for her, so we made that tough decision. So my current flock is at 13:

Drakes:
Tevye & Kaine

Ducks (in order of appearance):
Tella, Ettie, Roxette, Greta, Pocahontas, Entie, Dove, Rhiannon, Mystique, Noir and Latte.

Last winter (2017/2018) Tevye decided he wasn't going to take any more bullying from Kaine. There were a few fights between them but Tevye is bigger and with his mind made up, he absolutely was able to dominate Kaine. This turned out to be a double edged sword and is a good illustration of flock dynamics for those out there who might be trying to decide if they want any drakes. In the old flock (before Tevye assumed dominance), Kaine was the supreme undisputed leader who ruled with an iron wing. He put up with no nonsense and the only real drama was Kaine being overly aggressive with Tevye and Greta (so much so that he spent about 80% of the spring/summer/fall in ducky jail so the others wouldn't get injured too much.) The pecking order was well established and if any of the girls wanted to fight, Kaine made sure they figured it out quickly and that was the end of it. Now that Tevye has beaten Kaine, Kaine is just another drake. Tevye is much more benevolent and doesn't pick on Kaine much but lets Kaine know when he is out of line. Likewise Tevye doesn't really interfere with the girls much either. Basically he now guards the entrance to the house at night and then does his own thing. Because of this, there is now much more in-fighting between the girls to the point that we got our first injury. Apparently in one of their scuffs Noir got her eye pecked so badly that her lower lid was twisted a bit and her eye was a bit red and she squinted a bit. I isolated Noir for a couple days and put some ACV in her water that she could wash her eye with and in less that a week she was back to normal and her sight seems fine in both eyes. Can't really feel too sorry for her though because she is at the bottom of the pecking order, but she acts out all the time and instigates fights with the other ducks that she ultimately loses... Can't fix stupid. So anyway, I found it interesting, that as bad as Kaine was, the welfare of the average duck was probably better under his tyranny than it is now in with their freedom being ruled by the benevolent (apathetic?) Tevye. The only ones that seem to benefit from Tevye's rule are Tevye (not getting beat up anymore), and Kaine (less personal drama and not in jail.)

Ok, Banty, I'm returning your thread to its regularly scheduled programming...

 

[BantyChooks]

Wow! I absolutely LOVE the pics of Chrissy and Opie!!! Nice job shawluvsbirds! I just snuck in for a bit... Real life has been very full the last year... Good, but full so I haven't been around the forum much, but I think of you and your flocks frequently (mostly when I am with my own flock and far away from the computer.) As several of you may be aware, I took about 1/2 a year off in 2017 to fight the fight against throat cancer. I am doing well and so far everything looks great. Both Yvonne and I have been focusing a bit more on our health and things have been going well. I hope you all had a merry Christmas and all goes well in 2019!

The flock has done well as a whole. We had to put Allie down. The arthritis in her knee got much worse and when we got her some pain medication, it just made things just enough better that she became more careless and ended up in even more pain. We could see life wasn't great for her, so we made that tough decision. So my current flock is at 13:

Drakes:
Tevye & Kaine

Ducks (in order of appearance):
Tella, Ettie, Roxette, Greta, Pocahontas, Entie, Dove, Rhiannon, Mystique, Noir and Latte.

Last winter (2017/2018) Tevye decided he wasn't going to take any more bullying from Kaine. There were a few fights between them but Tevye is bigger and with his mind made up, he absolutely was able to dominate Kaine. This turned out to be a double edged sword and is a good illustration of flock dynamics for those out there who might be trying to decide if they want any drakes. In the old flock (before Tevye assumed dominance), Kaine was the supreme undisputed leader who ruled with an iron wing. He put up with no nonsense and the only real drama was Kaine being overly aggressive with Tevye and Greta (so much so that he spent about 80% of the spring/summer/fall in ducky jail so the others wouldn't get injured too much.) The pecking order was well established and if any of the girls wanted to fight, Kaine made sure they figured it out quickly and that was the end of it. Now that Tevye has beaten Kaine, Kaine is just another drake. Tevye is much more benevolent and doesn't pick on Kaine much but lets Kaine know when he is out of line. Likewise Tevye doesn't really interfere with the girls much either. Basically he now guards the entrance to the house at night and then does his own thing. Because of this, there is now much more in-fighting between the girls to the point that we got our first injury. Apparently in one of their scuffs Noir got her eye pecked so badly that her lower lid was twisted a bit and her eye was a bit red and she squinted a bit. I isolated Noir for a couple days and put some ACV in her water that she could wash her eye with and in less that a week she was back to normal and her sight seems fine in both eyes. Can't really feel too sorry for her though because she is at the bottom of the pecking order, but she acts out all the time and instigates fights with the other ducks that she ultimately loses... Can't fix stupid. So anyway, I found it interesting, that as bad as Kaine was, the welfare of the average duck was probably better under his tyranny than it is now in with their freedom being ruled by the benevolent (apathetic?) Tevye. The only ones that seem to benefit from Tevye's rule are Tevye (not getting beat up anymore), and Kaine (less personal drama and not in jail.)

Ok, Banty, I'm returning your thread to its regularly scheduled programming...

Look who the cat drug in!! I'm so glad you're doing better.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Hi Banty .

 

[Miss Lydia]

Tony so good to see you!! And awesome how good you and Yvonne are looking!! Not that you didn’t look good before but your new healthy has really paid off. Very sorry about Allie.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Hi Miss Lydia.... You know I am really appreciating your current avatar (Runnerthhhhh) Hope all is going well with you, your dh and your mini-farm.