Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

OH MY!!! Way way too much fun to be had...that time of year to fly off the handle and be needing to do everything, everywhere...oh whee hee hee...

Rick put these amber lights on the new truck



And got all four mud flaps installed...WOOT!

Love it...in the midst of pen cleaning, can we say SPRING TIME! Whee hee hee...tired, sore, pushing energy levels and lovin' it! Never enough time in a day, never enough energy...never everywhere at once, but still trying...

Drowned RATZ...the Ruddies are in full spring mode...soaking themselves repeatedly and lovin' it!​

I cleared out the Ruddy's pen and one swan run, then next day (yesterday), I cleared out Pearl and Piper's house.

Lots of entertaining helpers in the midst of the work, eh
Talk about rejuvenation...laughing at the girls rough housing!!

So that means, Ruddy's are in summer home, as are Pearl & Piper.

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What happens as you get older...

You hopefully work smarter...note the two garbage cans in use...once inside the house, I find it more difficult going in and out of the house, so once in, fill TWO cans and come out and unload (dump in tote bag) TWO cans and then skuttle on back to repeat, repeat until...

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Cleared out pen now topped up with oat straw. The Ruddies love to perch on a straw bale, so you just hafta accommodate their cuteness...then the hen can shriek at us to her heart's content, up on a bale where all the world can see and HEAR her!

Took two cart loads of straw to do one side - course I had willing tag alongers!

The girls sure know how to make chores FUN!

April 19, 2017 - the rally rousing crew​

Not all play, inspections were completed too!

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Just finished filling kiddy pools and loving seeing them taking the plunge. Won't let the geese out... cripers with the steady rain we had all last night...they'd be drilling holes and making mud pies...but the more wild type waterfowl are much kinder to the land. The domestics are more diligent about destroying their quarters...so no goose roving. Two ponds filled and much fun was had!

The idea to use tote bags is fab...filled one tote on Wednesday and another on Thursday
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Great idea Rick! NO spillage...yee haw!​

We need some dry weather for Rick to run the tractor or the soft wet ground will get destroyed...meanwhile, I keep clearing out pens.

Apr 21, 2017 - Pear-A-Dice Goose pens​

Today, just one day after another in Pear-A-Dice - at the summer digs - something to FLAP about!​

Next is the Mandarin pen and then on to the geese too...


@AlbertaChicks

So you asked about the poultry coops that MY Rick builds (he's different than most Ricks...the "P" is silent...

) and here is why. Build long time ago and from above, you can see they are standing up to the test of time...wonderful to have, clean, use and repeat...seven years along now and still love the setup.

Nov 2009​

We began construction of the Eden Swan building in around 2009 and finished it in May 2010--means this building has been used for seven years, near enough as we approach May.

Rick pre builds the building, disassembles it and paints & stains it--doing the final construction AFTER painting...just like how I build birds.

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My colour mantra is:

"You can build the barn, but if you don't have the tint, you'll never paint her right."
Tara Lee Higgins - November 11, 2007

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You build the barn, sure, but you paint it BEFORE the final assembly! That way, you get the wood and stuff all protected. Properly! You build, assemble it, then unassembled and paint it (everywhere, eh!) and then build the barn. Then they last and last and look beautiful longer.

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I always laugh when they try to push that saying, "build barn and paint it last" as that is not how one goes about building or producing high end products, be them ducks or buildings!

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And I am not the only person that KNOWS this good info about birds...that we need the colour (variety) FIRSTLY before the shape (breed).

Yuppers...four JUMBO chicken egg sizer!​

Pearla Girla's eggs have increased from a first egg weight of 251 grams to 281 grams...and increase of 30 grams. To put this into perspective...a Jumbo chicken egg weighs 70 grams and her 280 gram egg (she weighs about ten pounds, so a large sized chicken) means every TWO days, that ten pound gal lays FOUR Jumbo Chicken Eggs...yup, and usually get about EIGHT eggs over a 16 or so day period. That is some serious egg laying! Now if we could get 225 to 250 eggs like an average good egg laying chook, eh!

Pearl and Piper are in egg mode...

Apr 21, 2017 - even a stroll out in the leaves and Pearl is reaching for leaves and building a nest...nesting totally gone that mode! ​

Forgot about all the FUN FOTOS I have of the wannies...the four Australian Black Swans have enrichened our lives so much.

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We sure love our swanny wannies...

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There was a small sized pair of Blacks at the auction...the pair sold for a thousand. There was also a one year old male, no idea what he went for.

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You be the judge of the quality of this pair...eh?​

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To help judge the size of these yearlings...look at the Ruddy Shel on the top right, compared to our swan pairs and our Ruddy pair below.

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Our Ruddy's are tiny compared to our swans...that is the way it should be, and often, too much inbreeding and no new blood results in smaller and smaller sized birds...sigh!

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Price wise...here's a scope of some Australian Black swans (Cygnus atratus), all in US dollars, not Canuck bucks.

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/australian_black_swans_breeders.html:

Tara, You did good again!
I was getting weak in the knees there for awhile, without food pic's.

Scott

And some more food to keep Scott from weakening...

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Dessert on the 18th...

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Supper on the 18th, pork parmesan and pan fried taters with peas & carrots.

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Apr 17, snacks...


A fun genetic colour question for you keeners...ignoring the bibbing which can be recessive or dominant in ducks of Mallard descent (my Call ducks have recessive bibs, not sure Runner ducks bib inheritance...not quite yet, eh!)

If I go about crossing a chocolate drake...

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On a black hen...

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The offspring are gonna be gender coloured...!!

Chocolate male x Black female:

So what colour will the female ducklings be? - CHOCOLATE or BLACK

What colour are the male ducklings gonna be?- CHOCOLATE or BLACK​

So uh yah...gotta fly, got so many thing a ding dongs to get done up...has the snow of winter begun to fly yet, nope, away we go then...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[scottcaddy]

It's good to see that Rick is doing things again!
Thanks for the food pic's

Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Thanks Scott, yes Rick and I are doing lots of interesting things.

Went to a movie (gone to maybe two others at a theater in our lifetimes together) last night...thoroughly enjoyed it. Hated the price of popcorn and a drink but past that, was fun!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_in_Style_(2017_film)

Movie was fab...topic, totally relevant...wanna rob a bank anyone?? LMBO

Apr 21, 2017​

Been fun weather...spring, winter, spring, winter...

Now all the snow you see below, is gone again, till next time (maybe this week again?)...

Apr 23, 2017​

Apr 23, 2017​

Girls love fresh snows...can reach down and get a cold drink anytime!

Manners, manners Lacy?? UGH!

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And makes the dawg battles soft landings

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Tres happy...the pair of swans have slid right into the summer digs...third egg and likely another today or tahmorrah!

April 21, 2017 - Taj cleaning​

Cleared out half the Taj Mahal.

Perching TREE duck...​

New duck ducks are happily adjusting to new digs.

Apr 21, 2017 - spring?


Apr 23, 2017 - winter?​

Took work truck in for its first service.

Apr 22, 2017 - up on hoist​

Now off to get bus back from semi-annual...need to ensure the "wheels on the bus, go round and round!"

I am very sure I musta been plumb wicked in a previous life...busy busy busy! Hee hee...not lazy in this one tho!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[BantyChooks]

Beautiful ducks, Tara! I feel you on the spring, winter, spring, winter -- makes one wish Mom Nature would take her Midol already, eh.

 

[CanuckBock]

Beautiful ducks, Tara! I feel you on the spring, winter, spring, winter -- makes one wish Mom Nature would take her Midol already, eh.

Thank you and glad to put up purdy pics and clicks to amuse the masses...there are lots of beauty critters here...just have to pause more often, admire (click if I am packing my camera) and move along...har har. Could in reality get nuthin' dun here if I sucked in too much.

April 25, 2017 - Same day!

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Impossible to know WHAT season it is here...you blink, you wake up and then go to sleep and you could be rising and retiring in either spring or winter. Hilarious or what!

I "know" the one above is morning and the one below,
evening because I brought Rick a pallet to load up bricks
when he redoes the fish pond!! ​

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Got an egg, egg from a species we have NEVER EVER had give us an egg...most exciting...anyone wanna guess the contributors??

Guess who gave us this one!!

Pearl has given us five total eggs now.

April 25's egg from Pearl​

inside their summer digs with the first egg laid​

Out and about...

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Hilarious footprints

Swans...​

Who left these ones??

????​

Went for my first swim session on Monday. Was delish! Swam for 50 minutes and did thirty laps...half a lap butterfly near the end because I needed to know that I still CAN. LOL

Enjoyed it thoroughly and going a second time again this week. Wonderbar and so appropriate it is major scary. How could I EVER have known...

Find out that Rick's sister (who is MY age!!) had a heart attack on Tuesday! Yikes...my thoughts turning towards, "need to get my cardio up and running more" is eerily very apropos you figure?? Good GACK! Rick went to see her in the hospital yesterday and she had a stent put in. Ninety percent blockage...she was very, very lucky. Women have heart attacks but different than men's. Hers, she said was like indigestion, shortness of breath and a burning sensation...yeh. I am ever so glad she is going to be OK...and she is going to have to change her ways majorly, and selfishly, a reflection and nod of approval for myself...get bouyant and bobbing...twice a week and try for more laps, less rests between and work up to maybe a full hour and a half...that would be AWESOME!!

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Another thing for my health...been cleaning pens for my entire life (nearly, eh) and now, figure time for my lungs to rest a bit. Bought a hepa filter and will wear it during cleaning and re-stocking with oat straw and sands. Yup, why wait till the docs tell you you got "hen lung" disease. So playing it safe. Taking all this medical (I am full up this spring on medical and dying and all that crap...I scream UNCLE, I am FULL!) stuff to heart and doing something majorly positive about it. I think taking negatives and making them positive influences is how one embraces the bads and makes them the goods! Yuppers...greet the day like the girls do...with a big old BITE!!!

April 25, 2017​

Nothing and nobody knocks one down without us getting up and biting back, eh!

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The girls have the best attitudes...snows, enjoy it!

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Day before, no snow, enjoy it!

April 24, 2017​

Some food...

Apr 24, 2017 - two kinds of salad, beef heart, bison heart and beef liver​

Heart and cob of corn


Greek salad and spinach salad​

Luxurious to have two salads!!​

Girls playing with Rick

Apr 25 2017​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

So few years ago, Rick and I started an exhibition poultry club. Rick taught the youth how to build...that be girls AND boys. His methods are simple and useful...so here goes some clicks of his techniques.


First off, the basics.

You will be using 2x4's, OSB, hardware cloth, drywall screws and washers that make the drywall screw head larger (to hold the hardware cloth in place).

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Very simple construction as you are using butt cuts (ignore the angle cut on the one 2x4, these are scraps I grabbed for a click).

Here is what I mean...

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Swan building door...the doors are the basic start to your project. Doors often scare persons...they should not. Make a door, a door can be a pen side, and you got it going on! Rick taught kids, baby humans, to make doors. It is easy and when you can build your own pens and buildings...what is stopping you from keeping birds and keeping them well? Get on it already, eh!!!

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Lookit closely...you see that scrap piece of OSB...drywall screws secure it. Butt cuts butted up on the 2x4's and the OSB rectangle is used to HOLD the joint in place. It also helps that the hardware cloth is used as it helps make the entire structure strong...seven years lasting strong. BTW, the hook on the door, use that on pens where if the birds got out, they'd be gone or I am busy in another area and don't want them charging the doors and escaping...be smart, save energy for other more worthy projects than chasing birds round abouts.

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Here yah go...the first coops made here. The Coop fur Sure was made in 2001, Rick's first building for the birds. And on the left of the Coop fur Sure, the Duece Coop.

Coop fur Sure door​

Rick has played around with different OSB shapes, this one has triangles...to hold the door together.

Details inside the door​

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See, two triangles, one on each side of the door to hold it together...it works and has worked since 2001!!

Another triangle OSB brace​

When Rick built the Duece Coop, he wanted wider doors on the five outdoor runs. The constraints to your building projects is the dimensions the materials come in. Like sheet material is usually 4 foot by 8 foot. The hardware cloth was the bottleneck as it comes usually in a three foot wide piece. This time, Rick wanted the end runs to be wider than three feet...so he had to order in special (and expensive!) hardware cloth that was more like metal screening than the run of the hardware cloth. He then used triangle wedges for corner bracing AND he also used lathing to hold and secure the finer meshed hardware cloth in place.

The Cabin door​

Here's The Cabin entrance door. Note here we have the butt joints of the door frame facing outwards...and yes, butt to butt, so easy cuts to make. Butt cuts.

Inside The Cabin door details​

So with this door, he cut the OSB angled, why, because he wanted to. It does make for a very strong and sturdy corner. But as you can see with the swan building, you can just cut OSB into squares and rectangles to make sturdy door braces too.

Inside The Cabin looking out​

To ensure your doors shut tight, two eye hooks and a bungy cord make a GREAT door closer!! Over the years, the bungies have worn out from use, but hey, easy enough to replace, eh!

So that be a quick and slick tutorial on building!!


Here are a few clicks on the dawgs.

Apr 25, Lacy looking cutester​

Apr 25 - Emmy is having a hard time perching...the snow piles are dwindling!

Apr 25 - The Girls all waiting on Rick to go for evening dog run runs​

Apr 25 - Pack of three awaiting the bally to be flung...flung FAR!!!​

Every evening, such fun with the dogs...run run, run them into good behaviours...RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

After run runs, Trailer trash scooping ups easy cool drinkings! ​

Refreshioner for you genetics fans...

This duck of Mallard descent, she's expressing pure and simple WILD TYPE colour pattern - so NO MUTATIONS from wild type (Anas platyrhynchos)​

Told you the White Crested would clean up good...

Well OK besides dirty bill...she's being a Duck duck!​

Stop and picture MY vision of the ducks this pair will make...think CRESTED with the frosted drake's colour pattern...how

is that? Now for this white hen to begin laying.

And yuppers, laugh my butt off...the FOUR drakes I was sold at auction...yuppers, one is a hen like "I" knew she was and yuppers...she has settled in nicely, accepted the new digs where she is quarantined with the rest of the waterfowl we bought AND we got our first egg from her today....

Takes time for ducks to feel safe and when they feel safe, then they feel it is OK to lay eggs...hatch out a family, have little ones. SAFE and HAPPY, sure sign is the gift of eggers...thanks there gal. One good thing to do, I have golf balls in nests...that too helps a duck figure this must be a good place to lay eggs. Ducks, if you steal eggs and leave the nest empty...just like the swans (waterfowl!)...they start to think something is stealing their eggs...like a predator and there is NO safe place to lay eggs. Leave one egg (mark it with X's if you think you'll pick it up...leave one egg as a token sacrifice, no matter the weather, spring time can be cold enough here to stop the egg, as in kill it, but leave ONE)...then the waterfowl moms will get it is a safe place to lay eggs. Otherwise, she keeps changing nesting sites...no safe place, eggs keep disappearing...no safe place to make a clutch and raise up babes.


I am still waiting on some brave soul to guess what genders each of the ducks will have from my chocolate drake crossed on the black bibbed hen...come you flock of chickens...dive in and start guessing...I have my first egg of what I hope is many from the black white bibbed hen in with the chocolate runner drake. Am I going to have to wait 28 days or is someone gonna attempt to guess this...???

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If I go about crossing a chocolate drake...

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On a black hen... <<that jest laid her FIRST EGG today here>>

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The offspring are gonna be gender coloured...!!

Chocolate male x Black female:

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Get guessing...the hen above has laid her first egg...yippee...a gender linked breeding and well yah, I already know what colour the females will be as well as the males in these future ducklings ... you better get guessing you guys!!!

That or I start calling you chickens...bock a bock bocks...bwa ha ha...chickens!!!!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[BantyChooks]

Haven't gotten to the Punnet squares in your thread yet, so 'fraid I've got no clue... Better hurry up and finish reading, eh.

 

[scottcaddy]

I be called chicken!
Scott

 

[BantyChooks]

I be called chicken!
Scott

Aw, c'mon, Scott, you've read the whole thread, haven't you?

 

[drumstick diva]

Bawk, bawk, ba-Gawk !! Scott just laid an egg

Come on Scott take the pressure off the rest of us.