The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

We're upgrading an old garage into a safe storage room for grains etc and so I went looking around for a large hammer when it was already dark. I visited the greenhouse and... apparently forgot to close the door.

(You can already sense where this is going.)

In the morning I heard the happy grunting/chortling that the ducks make when they have found some good stuff, and I thought how nice, the spring is really here, they got some bugs - slugs - worms, good for them.

Then I visited the greenhouse

What would have been a month's supply of lettuce is no more. Well some of it might regrow since it's of the type where you pull the individual leaves off instead of cutting off the head. But it was not a happy surprise. Still, it's my own fault, well played the ducks

I just checked on the berry-garden and am missing about three dozen strawberry plants. They have been replaced by tiny round holes in the ground.
I wonder what has happened…

 

[Canadian Wind]

I just checked on the berry-garden and am missing about three dozen strawberry plants. They have been replaced by tiny round holes in the ground.
I wonder what has happened…

You really need a fence.

So do I.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I was suspecting that there was an obstacle with sexing Muscovies! - What hatchery gave you this info? - I have asked Metzer's and they answered that they receive their ducklings from an external source unsexed...

I actually just asked why are Muscovy ducklings sold unsexed and that was the reply that it gave me. It makes sense as no one I know of sells them sexed so I figured there had to be a good reason for it.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I just checked on the berry-garden and am missing about three dozen strawberry plants. They have been replaced by tiny round holes in the ground.
I wonder what has happened…

Squirrels, raccoons and deer will all eat those plants Frank. Do you have any of them around????

 

[Miss Lydia]

Squirrels, raccoons and deer will all eat those plants Frank. Do you have any of them around????

He probably has all 3 unless he lives on the moon.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

You really need a fence.

So do I.

I actually have a fence around my veggie- and berry-garden!
60cm to keep small animals out, the wabbits for example and three strains of electric poly-wire to prevent the deer from eating the dux cabbage.

But: As long as nothing serious is growing in the garden and the berry shrubs are dormant i left the door open, so that the dux can dig through the beds, removing bugs and bug larvae, soften and fertilize the soil and trample the pesky grass flat.
Last year the strawberry plants were only good for a short nibble, this year however...
⇒ Dux cannot be trusted!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Squirrels, raccoons and deer will all eat those plants Frank. Do you have any of them around????

Plenty of everything! Don't forget to mention the chipmunks, the foxes (yes, foxes are omnivores!), rats and mice…

But this time the suspects quack!

I need to build a small fence around the strawberry-patch. Hopefully there are some roots left in the ground.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

He probably has all 3 unless he lives on the moon.

All three and way more...

 

[Supercow]

I just checked on the berry-garden and am missing about three dozen strawberry plants. They have been replaced by tiny round holes in the ground.
I wonder what has happened…

We're now sowing peas with ducks being present at the property for the first time. When I think of it that way it sounds kinda problematic... I think there is still some 2 ft wire fence lying around somewhere...

 

[Supercow]

So I'm going out for a morning walk with the young dog, through the inner orchard, through the outer orchard, through the large-scale-veggies part and we're out of the last fence line, walking along the field.

And then, oh, hello ducks! Wait, what?

We herd them back toward the fence, thankfully the little doggie ball of energy is behaving well... And we see them squeeze through. Yikes!

So we herd them back into the inner orchard where there's a fine mesh fence that they definitely can't squeeze through. And 10 minutes later there are again 2 ducks missing.

They are in the greenhouse (the one with yesterday's harassed lettuce). The doors of which are closed. But there is a certain space below the front door that one could, if one were so inclined and a duck, possibly squeeze through, given the motivation and the familiarity with the idea of squeezing through things.

As I write there is one atop a brush pile about 5 ft high. Hopefully she won't go broody there haha.

This is shaping up to be an interesting year.