Perfect Scovy hearding tool...

[keeperofthehearth]

If you don't have a hearding dog, that is.

I've used a broom, bamboo stick or two, my arms out wide. They all work to an extent but if the Scovies were scattered, I'd get a few just so far and then they would stop where they were while I ran over to gather a few others to push towards a central direction. It was raining lightly last week so I took a large blue umbrella out with me when I saw the Scovies headed into the road. Wow! Does that umbrella work!

Works well closed up, then if you want them to get moving a bit faster, point it at them and start opening it & they begin moving faster. Fully open and pointed at them gets them moving nice and fast. If they are a bit scattered across the yard, they all take note and start moving towards the drive way to head to the back. Tonight was the first night I was able to get them ALL into the two duck houses with a minimum amount of trouble. Hee Hee, SOOOO I was able to go in & get the rest of the flying girls wing clipped. Double

AND without DH's help. Though it really is easier to clip wings w/two people. I hope I didn't do to much squish damage holding them down as I clipped their wing. Guess tomorrow will tell.

I also made an investment in a LCD lantern a few weeks back & boy, with the shorter daylight, that sure did come in handy, both inside the unlit duckhouses & the walk back to the house. I think I much prefer the lantern to a flashlight as it gives you a nice pool of light all around you vs a beam only in front of you.

 

[Emzyyy]

Yea I learned this with my chickens. Except my bantams can fly...They flew all the way up in the tree LOL

. They were terrified of that thing.

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Yeah, I can just see me trying to use it with my chickens. Pandemonium!!!!! They freak out enough w/ a rake or broom.

Think I will stick with just using it on the mellower Scovies.

 

[MDC]

I have several different duck herding sticks!! I wouldn't be without one hanging around along with my wire leg-catcher.

Two ways I've clipped wings, one is to sit and put the bird between your legs, head down, and use your legs to lightly squeeze the bird while you clip the wing. The second way which is how I do it now is to hold the bird's feet in my palm (which I always do when I carry birds) and tuck the bird under my arm against my side, then using that same hand I hold the right wing out to trim. Once you get a routine down it becomes almost second nature. The only problems I have is with drakes but since they usually don't fly much I don't generally worry about trimming them.

At night you can use a flashlight to herd them, too.

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Thanks MDC.

I will have to try that next year. I'm also doing a partial clip & I hope to do a better job next time around. A few of the girls partials don't look as nice as I'd like but with them wiggling around so much and it being somewhat dark I was having a bit of trouble doing a "Pretty job".

I skipped the drakes also. I noticed if the girls aren't flying off somewhere the drakes are usually happy to just stick around.

Then the most they do is jump up on a log or get up on the porch. Once my year old breeding girls molted out I noticed that even though they can fly it isn't very high or far so I'm thinking the first year is probably the only time I need to clip for the most part. It really feels much better to have them all in the secured sheds/houses at night instead of on the house roof. I was getting really uneasy with winter coming in.

 

[MDC]

Quote:
That has been my experience, too. Really once they get their adult size they aren't quite as interested in flying as high or as far. I've really only ever had a few utilities that were horrible flyers, they constantly got out of their pen and wanted to get back to the stock tanks and do their own thing and I sent them to auction finally as I don't deal with that. They were just smaller birds to begin with, but they were also a lot more flighty than the others and I wouldnt' be too surprised if there was some actual wild genes not too far back as they just weren't like all my other utilities.

 

[keeperofthehearth]

MDC, I like the changes you've made to your website.

 

[MDC]

Thank you, I try to keep it in order but sometimes that's a challenge! It's good to go in and just refresh everything once in awhile when I have the time..