The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

They can be so unpredictable at times. I pray that Ducky is alright. I would wait until he is much bigger before I would let him around them again.

I usually keep them separated, but when it's supper-bowl time i have to go out to the patio to fill cat-food, scratch-grain and sunflower-seeds into the bowls, then go back inside to add the vegetables and the cooked rice. When i close the door behind me and ducky isn't able to see me its peeping loud enough to alert the fire-department ten miles away…
Anyways, it seems ducky is doing just fine, refusing to sleep inside of the laundry basket which i have prepared with a warming pad. It just laid the first real sausage…

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

So how many seconds do you have left after being bitten by those?

Their bite is more like a snapping turtle. They won't let go

 

[Canadian Wind]

That's why i recommended sunbeam! Their pads don't have timers.

Pretty sure the last one I had was a Sunbeam. It has since broken, though, in is in that great big trashpile in the yard.

 

[Supercow]

I hope the tulip tree will have flowers next year. The Autumn Olive shrubs are not a replacement.

In Slovenia we've lately been having a pattern of late frosts which decimate the spring honey harvest. Later on in the year, a lot of buckwheat is sown after the grains have been harvested so the bees are able to prepare well for winter. So they keep on living but they rarely produce a surplus (of honey and also of bees - there is less swarming because the colonies are less numerous and the hives less full). It's a stalemate situation.

Autumn olive is loved by ducks

 

[Canadian Wind]

Lost one of the ducklings. Mom literally flew the coop and didn't go back in, leaving the littles to get cold. One got colder than the others and even with trying to warm it up, it didn't make it through the night.

Today, the top partition of the door is remaining closed. And I'll be checking in on them more frequently.

Grrrr.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

In Slovenia we've lately been having a pattern of late frosts which decimate the spring honey harvest. Later on in the year, a lot of buckwheat is sown after the grains have been harvested so the bees are able to prepare well for winter. So they keep on living but they rarely produce a surplus (of honey and also of bees - there is less swarming because the colonies are less numerous and the hives less full). It's a stalemate situation.

Autumn olive is loved by ducks

It is actually the other way around here: Winter ended suddenly and unexpectedly by the end of March, spring was cut short, temperatures raised quickly to over 30°(86F) and we had a sequence of very dry weeks followed by intense rain events (most of that just ran off) and cold-snaps where temperatures dropped from almost 40° down to the low 20° (>100F → 70F) which is really bad for insects.
My hive was still full of brood (i only checked the upper brood-box) and during warm weather there's plenty of bees bearding on the hive. The forecast is for October to be a wet month with the first overnight frost at the end of the month, so i am planning to strap up the hive and move it into my garage late in October. Then feeding them with syrup until next spring.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

[...]

Autumn olive is loved by ducks

That is one of the reasons why i don't eradicate the shrubs entirely. The other one is that they have flowers with nectar multiple times a year.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Lost one of the ducklings. Mom literally flew the coop and didn't go back in, leaving the littles to get cold. One got colder than the others and even with trying to warm it up, it didn't make it through the night.

Today, the top partition of the door is remaining closed. And I'll be checking in on them more frequently.

Grrrr.

Sorry to hear that! - As i wrote somewhere above, hypothermia is one of the biggest threat to ducklings. They seem to recover, cheer up, eat and drink and then suddenly die. At least you could give the little one some warmth and comfort.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Lost one of the ducklings. Mom literally flew the coop and didn't go back in, leaving the littles to get cold. One got colder than the others and even with trying to warm it up, it didn't make it through the night.

Today, the top partition of the door is remaining closed. And I'll be checking in on them more frequently.

Grrrr.

So sorry to hear this. Mine have got three more weeks in the house before I can let them out. It will be a long three weeks. My Momma Mallard did the same thing this spring. When they were three weeks old she flew out and wanted nothing to do with them. I let her stay out because I was afraid she would turn on them. I had them in a covered pet gazebo and since there were 4 of them they stayed huddled together and made it alright. Some of these Mother ducks get tired of being a Mom and want to go back to their boyfriends to make more ducklings. She even started to lay again inside the Gazebo with the ducklings. Strange how they can be.

 

[Supercow]

That is one of the reasons why i don't eradicate the shrubs entirely. The other one is that they have flowers with nectar multiple times a year.

You can cook the fruits as jam or as ketchup, the wood is strong and caloric, the flowers smell nice and withstand frost, the bush is suitable as a windbreak or a companion plant...