The Quack Shack

[Luv Ducks]

I will curse about them in Spring! - And maybe buy some Pekin Hens to to show them some boundaries.
Or some Muscovies...
Or i build a drake-jail…
I really don't know, those drakes are the sweetest ducks i have ever had, they come running to me and still cuddle with my feet.

My drakes were always the Sweetest too. I think they don't have to have the instinct in them to protect their young like the hens do so they are just more friendly. That is with the exception of this latest one I got that turned out to be a Dusky Mallard Runner Drake. He doesn't come near me to amount to anything and it a lot more on the wild side for some reason. I still wonder if he was not half wild and just a fluke in the bin at the store I got him from, Rural Queen as you call it. He is beautiful though so I have let him stay for now until I see how he behaves in the spring. Good luck with all of yours Frank. It's hard to let them go, how well I know.

 

[Supercow]

I don't think that will be necessary, as said dux are very quick learners and have a very hardy digestion tract. - And they love to sit in those daffodil clumps for cover.
And you want the dux to pick off everything that tries to crawl up your fruit trees, don't you?
And for fresh greens you can grow fodder.

What I saw this spring was ducks getting into the daffs all the time -- in order to pick up the little slugs (the kind one also tends to find in lettuce) which love the daffodil leaves (and onion leaves). Well, several duck-months later, slugs and snails are extinct in the orchard, so we'll see what happens in 2-3 months when spring returns.

Merry solstice everybody, let's turn this thing around!

 

[Supercow]

Same here, it would require a lawnmower to get rid of them which is impractical due to the steepness of the ground… At least they produce good quantities of honey for the bees.

Do you apply oxalic acid as an anti-varroa treatment to your hives during winter?

For us there's usually a warm period shortly before Christmas when one can apply the acid and then the next day or two the bees can fly out and clear their bowels. The oxalic does wonders to keep varroa down. Compared to it, formic acid is just something you use over the warm part of the year until you can apply the real thing again

That's what I use - the two organic acids, nothing else. Would prefer to use nothing and let the population try and sort out some resilience but I don't want to be a varroa factory for my neighborhood.

Our weather forecast is currently very promising, it seems I'll be able to do the treatment over the weekend or in the first days of the next week.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

What I saw this spring was ducks getting into the daffs all the time -- in order to pick up the little slugs (the kind one also tends to find in lettuce) which love the daffodil leaves (and onion leaves). Well, several duck-months later, slugs and snails are extinct in the orchard, so we'll see what happens in 2-3 months when spring returns.

Merry solstice everybody, let's turn this thing around!

Daffodils are a breading ground for slugs, somehow the daffodils maintain a high amount of humidity even during dry weather. The dux like both, the slugs and the humidity...
Here, the dux did a great job in keeping the stink-bug population under control.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Do you apply oxalic acid as an anti-varroa treatment to your hives during winter?

For us there's usually a warm period shortly before Christmas when one can apply the acid and then the next day or two the bees can fly out and clear their bowels. The oxalic does wonders to keep varroa down. Compared to it, formic acid is just something you use over the warm part of the year until you can apply the real thing again

That's what I use - the two organic acids, nothing else. Would prefer to use nothing and let the population try and sort out some resilience but I don't want to be a varroa factory for my neighborhood.

Our weather forecast is currently very promising, it seems I'll be able to do the treatment over the weekend or in the first days of the next week.

No, i tried to avoid harsh chemicals as long as possible and oxalic-acid vapors or even formic-acid is a treatment very painful for the bees. I found only a few varroa mites in my hive during the summer, so i decided to use the powdered sugar method to dislodge those parasites from the bees. I caught most of the sugar after it fell through the hive, kept it at 80° for an hour, then dissolved it in water, strained it through a fine mesh and fed the syrup to the bees. Quite satisfying…
The only other chemicals i use here is Roundup, only for the driveway and Permethrin to fight the fly-infestation in the dux' house.
I may have to use roundup for the first time next spring in and around the potato patch though. Somehow a lot of amaranth grew in there and that has distributed a ton of seeds that i may not be able to stop from taking it over large parts of my veggy-garden.
The weather in December here is usually kind of "warm" with double digits in Celsius during the day and freezing over night. Just a precursor of the real cold, coming in January and February. I wish we had a working fast forward button to March.
Just if you all try to push...

​

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Happy winter solice, from Summer solstice

 

[Supercow]

No, i tried to avoid harsh chemicals as long as possible and oxalic-acid vapors or even formic-acid is a treatment very painful for the bees. I found only a few varroa mites in my hive during the summer, so i decided to use the powdered sugar method to dislodge those parasites from the bees.

Around here varroa pressure is quite high; the most gentle approaches such as the sugar one you're using are not sufficient. The vets were even not impressed when I decided to go organic-only (gotta use the really heavy duty synthetic stuff!) but so far (8 years I think) it seems to be working. We do have other problems that may be a show stopper such as the new weather patterns... We'll see.

Both organic acids are found naturally in honey (of couse in lower concentrations) so if there are some leftovers at the time when we collect honey, it's not a foreign element and does not really change the nutrition profile. I apply formic as slow-release several times over the warm part of the year and oxalic as a sugar drip in late December, any day now. Vaporized oxalic seemed to me potentially problematic even for humans.

Sun today, ducks exploring the outer part of the orchard. They really blend in well.

 

[Supercow]

I may have to use roundup for the first time next spring in and around the potato patch though. Somehow a lot of amaranth grew in there

The (relatively) small, wild-growing one, amaranthus retroflexus, pigweed? It should be quite nutritious, not that far from its cultivated taller cousins. Maybe high in oxalates and thus problematic for larger animals (who can eat a lot of it)?

Look at what Google brought me...

University of Missouri says mallard ducks can move 882 million pigweed seeds each year. - https://www.agriculture.com/crops/just-ducky-pigweed-seeds-spread-by_135-ar51708

 

[Canadian Wind]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I'm home sick. Caught a really nasty bug. Started out just as a sinus congestion, but then it moved down. I'm at the chest and gut point now. Pot of homemade soup is simmering away.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Get well soon @Canadian Wind