...right after this picture she stole my dinner off of my fork and then complained because it was past her bedtime and she felt it was time for her pillow to go to bed... All incubator manufacture stopped at that time....
I am still giggling from Bean's blooper! She looked so surprised!!!!
MissBehavin spent yesterday with my mother, since we had cats to take to the vet, errands to run, eggs to deliver, etc... An 85 year old with dementia and a teenaged duck can do a lot in one day. I'm pretty sure I can't leave either of them alone anymore...
Today's project will be to begin construction of incubator #3. I found an amazing glass front wine chiller!! I don't know how the little miss is going to do with me using power tools, but last night she was pretty excited to "help"...
...right after this picture she stole my dinner off of my fork and then complained because it was past her bedtime and she felt it was time for her pillow to go to bed... All incubator manufacture stopped at that time....
I have found ducks to be remarkably tolerant of sound. When I am operating a cutoff saw, they are interested. When I hammer nails, they are interested. When I mow the lawn with the lawn tractor (yes very, very carefully) they stay away about 15-20 ft but follow me for the bugs I stir up. When I fire a small caliber hand gun, they are interested. When I fluff up an old blanket in the yard, they are scared silly, but once it is down, they are interested. I think the power tools will be fine... Ducks are definitely better with sound than cats.
I have found ducks to be remarkably tolerant of sound. When I am operating a cutoff saw, they are interested. When I hammer nails, they are interested. When I mow the lawn with the lawn tractor (yes very, very carefully) they stay away about 15-20 ft but follow me for the bugs I stir up. When I fire a small caliber hand gun, they are interested. When I fluff up an old blanket in the yard, they are scared silly, but once it is down, they are interested. I think the power tools will be fine... Ducks are definitely better with sound than cats.
She completely ignored all the power tools. She ignored the sparks flying from the cut off wheel, she ignored the drill, she ignored the circular saw. She ignored the sound of me "gently persuading" the shelf for my humidity tray into place with a mallet.
She was quick to try to taste all the equipment of course, so I had to constantly clean my work area lest she decide to sample the little bits of plastic, and I kept her out completely when I was cutting insulation board.
What really surprised me was that the ferret got out this morning, and came in to the incubation room with Missy and I. He would represent a pretty deadly predator in the wild. She didn't even feel that he warranted the open mouth threat that the cats get. She just moved over about 6 inches when he went to sniff her, and shot him the waterfowl stank eye. He does consider birds prey items, and like the cats, know when the egg runs are close to hatching (at which time he will try to get into the incubators) but he had never encountered one that huge or completely unconcerned.
Another sign that I totally picked the right bird out of the clutch for the permanent house resident. Her threat assessment skills are basically non existent (as highlighted by her repeatedly ignoring the largest, most dominant, and most dangerous bird in the flock until he lost his temper with her)....
I do have an off schedule duckling due to hatch today (a fertility test that I couldn't bring myself to terminate), so I will see how she does with a much smaller duckling that will take up some of my attention. In a couple of weeks there will be a ton of babies hatching, and a lot more geese to imprint, so I'm hoping she will be OK with sharing what is now her bed with the babies during the imprinting period when they stay with me 24/7....
That is what I'm concerned about - she and her siblings were fascinated with babies, but also would chase them. Young ducks can be quite the bullies!!
She is so cute for doing that. I love Missy's naughtiness with food stealing. My friend's Welsh Harlequin Montgomery is a food stealer too. One time his young son was eating a popsicle and Mont snuck up and grabbed a bite of it the the boy ran crying in the house about it. Another time John and his family were sitting on their deck floor eating dinner and Mont came up from behind John, craned her neck under his arm and stole a ravioli. He did not even know it until he heard her bill clink on the plate. Gotta love ducks….
I have found ducks to be remarkably tolerant of sound. When I am operating a cutoff saw, they are interested. When I hammer nails, they are interested. When I mow the lawn with the lawn tractor (yes very, very carefully) they stay away about 15-20 ft but follow me for the bugs I stir up. When I fire a small caliber hand gun, they are interested. When I fluff up an old blanket in the yard, they are scared silly, but once it is down, they are interested. I think the power tools will be fine... Ducks are definitely better with sound than cats.
