Pipd's Peeps!

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They always come back... They're like a plague... Lucky for them, I like them so much when they aren't broody. I know, same old empty threat. Looks like Georgette may join the broody brigade now, and Margaret is definitely getting thoughts in her little fluffy head!

Speaking of fluffy heads, Reuben is out in the flock today. The girls are still giving him a hard time, and the Partridge Plymouth Rocks are really going out of their ways to put him in his place. Poor guy is shunned to the back of the chicken yard, 'cause every time he comes back toward the coop, those Partridges do a body check on him. He seems fine otherwise and there's plenty of room for him to get away, so I'm staying out of it for now and seeing what happens.



And in other news, our li'l ducky is 2 weeks old today! I woke up to him peeping, as usual. Looked over toward the brooder, and here's what I saw.

"Are you awake yet?" (Don't mind his mess, it was brooder cleaning day. )

We had to get our Easter chick picture, of course, but he was not being particularly cooperative for the effort. "I'm not ready yet!"

Then, he was standing weird instead of posing, and he blinked so his eye looks funky...

I got this picture afterward to show his more natural stance.

What was I saying about him going into his awkward phase? I think I was wrong, look at this cutie!

Snuggle time!

Last one, I promise. He was lounging in my hand. Look how big he's gotten!

 

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Well, Reuben is getting more confident today. He spent more time at the front of the chicken yard before losing his nerve and heading to the back. He's still got some maturing to do before the girls will give him any kind of respect. My other Silkie, Margaret, had one heck of a reaction to him! She saw him standing out there and cackled at the top of her lungs. Then, she turned and ran for it into the bushes! I don't know if she thought he was some sort of evil doppelganger or what, but man, she didn't like the looks of him!

Oh, and the broody uprising has begun with Elda and Georgie as the 'first wave', if you will. So much for that!


My mom and I took my niece and nephew to the zoo the other day while we were babysitting them. Of course, the thing that stood out to me was the chickens and ducks in the petting zoo. They have a quad of sweet little bantam Salmon Faverolles with the floofiest beards and the cutest little voices. One of them was laying an egg when we got there and she was so quiet when she came out of the nest, I was surprised! After a few minutes, she seemed to realize she had just laid an egg, and she gave a cackle and ran to the water dish. ARGH, I don't need any more breeds on my wantlist!




On another topic, here's the squirt today at 15 days old! Getting bigger and bigger every day!

He's starting to get pin feathers in on his tail! Hard to get a picture of them, but they're there, I swear they are!

This one made me smile. He really likes this pose!

Spoiler: See?

11 days old:

3 days old, kind of a mirror effect. Look at how much he has grown!

And this one... He was nibbling at my hand and I pulled away to get a picture with the hopes that he would pose okay. Obviously that didn't work. But look at the serrations in there!

 

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I've got to say, as adorable as Crashie duck is and as precious as he is to me, raising a single duckling is hard.

It's not anything I can't deal with. I'm on summer break from classes, so I don't have anywhere to be or anything to do other than my usual chores with the birds. However, it gets very trying when I can't go into the room with him without having to stay for an hour or so trying to get him settled down again. If he sees me leave, he freaks out. If he's not quite asleep when I leave, he freaks out. If I talk too loudly outside the door and he hears me, he freaks out. Last night, I had to lay by the brooder for an hour and a half just waiting for him to settle in so that I could go start supper for myself. I actually dozed off before he did! I had thought I avoided imprinting on him, but now I'm thinking I may not have after all...

Don't get me wrong, I am really attached to the little guy and I don't mind the bonding time (well, unless I have other things to do, like last night...). I may get frustrated by his neediness, but it's just something I need to adjust to. I've had to accept the challenge due to the circumstances of his hatch and the unfortunate deaths of his siblings, but I must say, I would never recommend that anyone raise a single duckling on purpose. If you're thinking of buying a duckling, better make it two. Just my two cents on that...


Now that I've got that off my chest, a few pictures of the cuteness. Here's his buddy picture with the Easter chick. He's begun chewing fuzz off of it and eating it, so I have it up on his EcoGlow where he can see it, but not reach it. Well, it's the best indicator of his size at this point, so I sat him up there next to it for his pictures this morning. He fell off about 5 times, just the short drop into the brooder, but still. I think the Easter chick will come down to him for his pictures from now on.

Look how big his beak is getting! I swear, it's growing faster than he is!

Sitting in my hand. Well, as much as he can anymore. He's getting so big!

I think he finally understands that he needs to hold his breath under the water! During his bath yesterday, he was torpedoing and dipping and having a heck of a time, and he didn't start crackling afterward like he had been! He was also dabbling at the bottom of the tub with his tush in the air like the adults do! He's growing up so fast... Time to start looking into bath time treats to dip after.



As for the rest of the flock, it's business as usual. Elly and Georgie are out being broody-busted. Reuben's getting braver and braver with the girls (but still getting put in his place routinely by some of the pushier gals out there!). Frou-Frou's honking about this and that. The Guineas are, well, the Guineas. Other than the muddy mess that all of this wretched rain is causing, everything's just as it should be. My happy place.

 

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Oh, last night was too sweet! Crashie started calling for me as it began getting dark, like he has been, so I went up to make sure everything was okay and get him set up for bed. He was inconsolable and would not stay under his EcoGlow for long enough so that I could slip out of the room. Sigh...

So I picked him up and held him in my hands while lying by the brooder, and just let him do his nibbles and peeps and whatever else. He settled right into my hand (just barely fitting, I might add) and was peeping gently like he does when he's settling in. Then he rested his head against my chest and started to doze off. I couldn't imagine how I could ever be frustrated with this precious baby. That's all he is, after all, a baby!

...And then he pooped in my hand.

The good news is that that had settled him down enough that he went under his EcoGlow and went to sleep. Ah, the life of a surrogate mother duck.


Here are his pictures for today!

He didn't wait long after the above picture before he flipped the Easter chick and began chewing on its feet. Little cannibal!

I think he gets a little bigger every time I see him! It seems like sometimes I just blink and he seems larger!

Ah, my precious little Crashie duck.

I've been weighing him every day since the concerns about his health last week. He hit 100 grams today. Getting so big!





In other news, I'm getting very, very sick of all of the rain we've been having here! All of my pens, except the one that old Toes is in, are ankle-deep mud at the moment. Including the ones that are on a slope and should be letting water run off. The forecast pretty much has us in rain until the end of the month, so... Seriously, we have enough water! You can send it somewhere else now!!

And in the news about our war on broodies here, Elly has given up already, but Georgie is still going strong. In a surprising twist, my young Legbar, Poppy, has gone broody now! That means that all of the youngest hens have gone broody except for Mabel the Welsummer, who, quite frankly, I can't picture ever being that motherly... I think that Rosie might be going broody again, but she's not quite there yet. I need more pens for broodies!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Hehe... Maybe poop is a sign of love? And I'll gladly take some of your rain here. It rained last night, but it's already hot again... I love rain. Aye, broodies is a disease. My two have been broody since late APRIL. Ugh. Whenever I see people say, "I wish I had a broody," I always think: a) You sure about that? and b) Take mine. Lol. Glad to see Crashie doing so well. He certainly is getting bigger!

 

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Someone send a boat--it started down-pouring bad here!!

Hehe... Maybe poop is a sign of love? And I'll gladly take some of your rain here. It rained last night, but it's already hot again... I love rain. Aye, broodies is a disease. My two have been broody since late APRIL. Ugh. Whenever I see people say, "I wish I had a broody," I always think: a) You sure about that? and b) Take mine. Lol. Glad to see Crashie doing so well. He certainly is getting bigger!

Oh, this, a million times this! All I can figure is they must not have the right breeds for broodiness, 'cause I sure as heck have more broodies than I ever need at any given time! Although, I must say, the longest one of mine has been broody so far was about 2 weeks, I think, so you win!

Crashie is doing remarkably well, isn't he? It's hard to believe now that I ever thought he wouldn't thrive! Even if he uses his thriftiness to poop on me.



Seriously, it's been about 15 minutes and it's still just flat out down-pouring. Here, let me set out some buckets to collect it and I'll ship it out your way!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

I wish mine went broody for weeks. Don't worry, the boat is on its way. (Not my pic)

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

That's a great picture! Oh my goodness!

We needed it last night, too, apparently! I slept through it, but there was so much rain overnight that everything was washed away! There are riverbeds carved through the chicken yard and all of the dirty shavings look like they've been rinsed out thoroughly. All of the duckies' wallows are washed out, and the Guinea aviary, even with a roof, was partially cleaned out. There are a few fields around us with wheat and corn that are full of water, and the wheat was blasted over so it's laying in spots instead of standing. Wow!

Didn't slow the broodies down, of course. Georgie and Poppy are jailed with charges of excessive grumpiness and theft of nest box spaces, with parole possible in 2 days.


In other news, I have found the miracle cure to Crashie's neediness!! e I have had this flamingo puppet hanging in my room unused for a while because my niece and nephew don't understand that they can't catch the flamingo and run off with it without breaking the strings. So last night, I got it out and walked it across the brooder with Crashie watching in horror and hiding where he could. After a bit of time for him to get used to it, he began preening it and nibbling at its toes and tucking himself under its wing.

So I hung it up above his brooder so that he could reach its feet but it wasn't in the 'poop danger zone' and left it there. I can actually leave the room sometimes while he's still out and awake, and he doesn't freak out about it!! e And, when I was taking pictures of him earlier, he got scared by a noise from the baby monitor and ran over underneath it to hide. It was too cute!



Picture time! Here is Crashie with his old friend, Easter chick. Easter chick is old news. It took me a lot of fighting to keep him next to it long enough for me to get this picture, as you can probably tell by the fact that he is walking away from it in this shot.

And here he is next to his new buddy the flamingo:

This was after he ran underneath it for safety.

His new waterer as of yesterday! If anyone's wondering about how big he is in person, this is the bottom of a 2-liter bottle.

In my hand, being a snuggie.

And a picture of his tail in which you can actually kind of see the pins coming in!!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

I guess you really did send the rain my way. It downpoured last night and today! I like his flamingo. Pretty soon, he'll be getting real feathers in!

 

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Heehee, you're welcome. We actually didn't have rain yesterday, but I'm betting that won't last. Looks like a lot of rain is still in the forecast here. SIGH. I'm looking forward to summer heat and dryness!



Precious Crashie duck has reached the point where his little food dish is just barely holding enough food for him in a day! He's also slinging so much water around that I need to clean up the area around his waterer on a daily basis--or more! Ah, ducklings!

I only have a few pictures today because my little alarm clock decided he didn't need to peep at me because he had a flamingo to chew on, and I ended up sleeping in and had to hurry out to the hennies. Not that I'm not grateful for the flamingo keeping junior ducky company! I'll just have to stop ignoring my real alarm clock now.

Next to Easter chick for his daily size comparison. He looks so happy in this picture for some reason.

He was chewing on Mr. Flamingo, but all of the pictures I got of him actually chewing didn't turn out so well. But here he is giving me the innocent look from underneath it:

And during his check-up for the day. Look how much weight he's gained!

News from the war front--Margaret the Silkie is coming into her monthly broody spell. She has been laying her eggs and now wants to sit... in the dust bath in the lower area of the coop. And Poppy and Georgette still have it bad, ugh!


As for Reuben, well, this morning I saw Frou-Frou, the big, goofy fluffball that barely seems to know what the pecking order is, chase Mr. Manly Ball of Fluff across the chicken yard. So even though he seems integrated into the flock, he's still being kept at the bottom of the pecking order, I guess. Hopefully he'll come into his own and start being an actual protector of the flock before long!