The Quack Shack

[Luv Ducks]

Well, according to the dux it is already spring time. They shed their feathers, are loud and a lot of ducking is going on. The only thing they forgot is laying eggs!
But what you call a cacophony is music in my ears.

I love it when my girls all sound off too. It sounds like they are laughing really loud and my neighbors don't mind it so I am very fortunate. I can be thinking about something that makes me sad and then when they see me and start cracking up, I laugh with them. They are my therapy ducks, lol.

 

[Luv Ducks]

With the warm weather we have had the ducks do seem to think it is spring. I took my calendar out yesterday and pointed to February so they would know this is all a false alarm! LOL I saw my beautiful drake Pepper get frisky with his best friend the Runner Duck I bought along with him named Salt and he was very gentle so hopefully he will be a nice drake. Either that or he was being nice because down deep he knew it really wasn't March, lol.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

My little lavender crested, wounded survivor of the dog attack is still limping after 33 days like Blanca. She now keeps her foot flat but still has to swing her leg out. She's much better than when she was walking on a rolled up foot. What seems to have helped the most is her toes on that foot fell off this week. So she has one regular webbie and a smaller one without toes.

 

[Supercow]

Unintentionally i grew Sorghum and Amaranth in quantities last year: Those are a huge part of winter-feed for song-birds here in the U.S. and those birbs are messy eaters, so i ended up with Sorghum (aka. Millet) and Amaranth everywhere. These plants grow incredibly fast to heights of way over 2 meters (6½'), out-compete everything - even potatoes - and cast shadows on whatever you want to grow.
I want to make the best out of it and tried to harvest some bird-feed, but there were two obstacles: The wild birds who ate most of the grains before they were even fully dry and the plants themselves. You have to thrash them really hard before they release their seeds and then you spread these seeds all over the place. And pray that no strong gust of wind comes your way as these seeds are tiny.
Unless you really want to be serious with these plants, growing them in large scale (bird losses!) and have the right equipment to harvest, choose something else.

Googling around I see that there is some mixup with sorghum also being called Milo or Great millet, whereas millets actually are biologically different from the sorghum group - https://www.savorysuitcase.com/millet-vs-sorghum/ .

Around here proso millet has been grown traditionally but has faded in the last decades as the aim of producing more and more corn and wheat pushed it out. Lately sorghum has started making an appearance, primarily because of resilience to creative weather, grown mostly for silage and biogas but I'll try to grow a grain crop. Nowadays there are various cultivars available optimized for green volume (grows like bamboo) or for grain (much shorter stalks and generally more manageable plants).

Our land is too small to make a tractor and combine harvester economical but we have the option to hire someone in our village with the proper machinery so that's OK.

 

[Supercow]

It's so warm that frogs etc have started their migrations in some places. Also the ducks are running at speed around the orchard even before gobbling up the morning's peas which is unheard of, so I figure they must be seeing little bugs or worms emerge. As I understand it ducks have really good vision, higher resolution than humans. Certainly better vision than mine which is not hard to achieve.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

Where I grew up sorguhm was raised for two reasons. Put up in silos for winter feed for the cows and distilled into molasses for the humans. I have some in the pantry. Better than map!e syrup.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

 

[Miss Lydia]

View attachment 3745518

I love sorghum so good on pancakes and biscuits

 

[Luv Ducks]

My little lavender crested, wounded survivor of the dog attack is still limping after 33 days like Blanca. She now keeps her foot flat but still has to swing her leg out. She's much better than when she was walking on a rolled up foot. What seems to have helped the most is her toes on that foot fell off this week. So she has one regular webbie and a smaller one without toes.

I am glad to hear that she can at least walk. That is a good sign. Many times they can adapt to their handicaps so hopefully since the toes are gone she will be able to do better. I am glad she survived the attack.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

Me too. I thought this afternoon about her vet recommended treatment. Clorohexidrine wash follow by Silver Sulfidrine cream. What if those toes had come off in my hand? I'm still nauseous. But her little webbie and her leg look really good. They were very pale at first but back to bright orange.