The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Animals do seem to know how to adapt to their handicap. I see three legged dogs on my bus route that do very well with no help from any devices. I also knew of a dog that was born with very short front legs and regular sized back ones. It too adapted very well. Hopefully this little duckling if not in any pain will be able to use its foot. Swimming may present a problem but other than that hopefully it will be fine.

No pain at all anymore, a feisty and always hungry duckling approaching the 100gram threshold.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Went and flooded the yard by forgetting to turn off the hose.

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You need a hose to flood your duck-yard?
Here the dux do that themselves every day. And when it rains it turns into a swamp.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

Have you seen the amount of poop that geese leave behind? - I have been visiting the corporate headquarters in CA a couple of time, Bay Area, there are artificial ponds all across the business buildings areas and during the "warm" season (SFO!) those ponds are full of Canada Geese and the grass between the ponds is full of Goose nests and goslings. Walking from the parking areas to the office buildings is like walking through a mine field. Theres Goose poop everywhere! Maintenance told me the have to change the doormats twice per day to avoid poop showing up inside of the buildings.

Less poop than ducks but way more smelly. Don't drink k as much water so more solid smelly poops. But fantastic personalities.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I'm on a well, so no water bill!

I'm actually surprised there's still a bit of greenery, but I don't expect it to last much longer. They've started tearing down the less 'savoury' plants now, like burdocks. They've also been gorging themselves on all the windfall apples.

Isn't everything we do just for them?

And yet, they still demand more!

I have two wooden frames that i can cover with chicken wire which i use to grow some greens in the duck-yard: I loosen the soil with a garden-claw and throw in the left-over seeds from last year plus some wheat and sunflower seeds. Water and cover for 10 days and then move the frame to another spot.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I wasn't able to get pictures but while I was sitting there trying to do so, Lenny learned the most amazing thing. Mom wears a Bra! You can pinch it in your bill and snap mom in the back. Over and over.

That was the most famous "sport" we played at the public pools when i was @school…

 

[Supercow]

Hey, friendly Quack Shack folks ... I hope everybody is doing well as we move into Autumn. Things are going smoothly over here. The ducks are in good shape, the group sticks together, the eggs keep coming.

... and that's a good time to think up more possible problems

I was thinking (here we go...) that it might be a good idea to add a couple of geese. Why - because their role on the property is a bit different, seeing as they will go for grass and fallen fruit. My current idea are Franconian geese as they are relatively small and presumably docile. We'd take 2 girls.

Now, as I think about it, it seems that a possible problem could be that the ducks keep getting layer pellets as they basically can lay all year long, esp when young; whereas for the geese, the laying period is presumably quite restricted.

- Would the geese be OK eating layer pellets even outside of their laying time?
- Would the geese maybe simply not care about the pellets and instead go for just grass and grains if offered separately?

This is all just thinking out loud at the moment because my home country is quite small and the market for ducks and geese is, well, there just isn't all that much for sale, the market lacks both quantity and quality. But I'm willing to work at it, if all else fails, our location is very close to 3 other countries...

Thank you!

 

[Miss Lydia]

If geese have pasture year round they will prefer that, with just some grain tossed in.
We don't have pasture even in the summer so I have to buy greens but my goose does eat layer all year round I just mix it with [6 different grains it comes already mixed.]

 

[Supercow]

If geese have pasture year round they will prefer that, with just some grain tossed in.
We don't have pasture even in the summer so I have to buy greens but my goose does eat layer all year round I just mix it with [6 different grains it comes already mixed.]

Good info about your goose eating layer feed, thank you!

There would be pasture except for the winter -- the grass does die down / dry out during winter. I'm a bit worried how much mud the birds would create during the dead grass time so I'm currently making a largish gravel area to place kiddie pools and the main food/water station on.

In any case we have lots of either our own or neighbors' grains - oats, buckwheat, barley, wheat, millet, corn, hopefully we'll also harvest our own sunflower seed in October. I currently give our ducks about 30:70 (daily total) of mixed grains vs. layer pellets and that's working fine (almost 100% egg production and no more bouncies).

Lately I've had some luck with huge winter squash - Muscat de Provence type hybrids; I'm told the birds also love that. Also we normally have tuscan kale throughout winter (ie. it gets cold and freezing but not super cold), and chinese cabbage. Frozen shredded zucchini in the freezer. I hope all of these grains and veggies can support ducks and geese through the winter.

I'm a little worried about coop space .. it's a 2 x 2 m coop (4 m2 = 43 ft2), it's great for 8 ducks and could probably take 2 more ducks, but maybe +2 geese is a stretch? The Franconians are small geese though, Pekin duck size...

 

[Miss Lydia]

If they are the size of Pekins that may work especially if they will only be sleeping in there.

Sounds like you have plenty to feed and I am sure they will all love it.

 

[Supercow]

Well.

I found a somebody quite close to us who is moving and needs to make his flock smaller and that includes some Franconian girls.

Coincidence is the messenger of truth, they say.

We're set up for delivery tomorrow.