Musky Ducks

Candace (my oldest Muscovy duck) laid her first egg, hurrah! That was on the 23rd.  I took the first three eggs and to eat and see if they were fertile.  They weren't. Then she took a break.  The she laid two more eggs. These were fertile. She took another break.  I noticed she was looking panicky and trying more vigorously to escape their pen.  I thought that perhaps she wanted to find a nest that was more secluded. I let the ducks start free ranging again.  She laid an egg behind the compost pile a few days ago and apparently abandoned it.  After two day of her not laying, I moved the egg to one of the nesting boxes in their pen.  Two days passed and nothing.  I am still letting them free range, my hope is that Candace has found a nest so sneaky that I haven't found it.  I kind of doubt it, our yard is pretty small and I know it like the back of my hand. I can still hope.

Two of my Muscovy ducks, Ken (left) and Candace (right). Candace is giving me some attitude.

Kahh-tuuuur-neeeks!

I started getting fed up with my quail.  They were getting pretty loud with their obnoxious "Kahh-tuuuur-neeeks!" One of the Texas A & Ms was startling all the time and flying up into the ceiling of the cage, effectively scalping the feathers from his head.  Just looking at him was stressing me out.  So one day I took a trip onto BYC and found a step-by-step tutorial on butchering quail.  It helped that the user employed the help of a six year old to model each step.  If some first grader can do it so can I!  I was a little challenged emotionally because I had raised them up from eggs and they are so small, they fit in one had, how could I kill something so dainty? 

The first one to go was the scalped A & M, but he did not make it easy for me.  I went to grab him out of the cage and he flew out.  So then I spent fifteen minutes chasing him around in the yard.  I finally pinned him under a stray rain gutter that I had lying around.  By that time I was SO ready to chop his head off.  Aida was taking a nap but Millie was awake and as I held the panicked bird over a 5 gallon bucket she wandered out to me.  I told her what I was doing and then grabbed a pair of hand pruners and clipped the quail's neck.  She surprised me with her casual attitude.  "You killed the quail," she said and went to play on the swings.  Huh, I guess she is getting used to this whole urban farming thing. 

Plucking a quail is so easy!  It's almost enjoyable!  No scalding required; some people just clip off the wings and skin the bird, but I left the skin on.  Even though I was totally inexperienced I was completely done cleaning the carcass in about five minutes.  Time for number two.  I grabbed one of the Jumbo Browns and vented it, just to see.  You can injure a bird improperly venting to determine sex, so until now I had been too timid, but in a few minutes this bird was dead meat anyway so perfect timing.  The second butchering was uneventful, took a little longer to pluck because of the brown feathers.  I went to grab the last A & M, flipped it over to vent and was surprised to see a much different picture than I had seen with the previous bird.  The cloaca was large and swollen... Hmmm... I guess I should leave these two alone. 

The two survivors

A week later I was rewarded with my first quail egg. Yay!  I had it over easy.  The second week of laying I started collecting eggs for an incubation experiment.

Beautiful slightly green with brown speckles

My experiment: To use my yogurt incubator to hatch quail eggs, I will be doing sets of 4 eggs, with a maximum of 16 eggs.  In about 17 days we will see if I get any babies.  I am doing to the staggered sets because 1) I am not completely certain of the fertility of these eggs, 2) I am super impatient 3) eggs can only sit around for ~1 week before being set.

Here is my incubator next to my beside so I remember to turn the eggs frequently.

Excited for more babies but I am not holding my breath.  I will report on the results either positive or negative.  I will warn you, if you believe in premonitions, I had a dream about exploding eggs.

Boo Hoo Hoo!

Within twelve hours of the chicks being moved into their new home one of them died.  I didn't think it was a big deal.  50 freshly hatched poultry? Some just aren't going to make it.  When the death toll got up to five I started to feel pretty rotten.  I was checking the chicks twice daily for pasty butt and cleaning them gently, I also employed the technique of applying Vaseline after cleaning.  My mom came to visit and I thought the chicks had finally stabilized, the weakling had been weeded out.  I proudly led her out to the brooder and she took one look it and turned to me, "Katherine, two of your chicks are dead."

I was really starting to flip internally, what was going on?! The day before I had gotten some probiotic for their water to jump start their little flora populations.  The turkeys and ducks looked awesome and turkeys poults are supposed to be super sensitive! I had started to notice that some of the chicks appeared to have trouble breathing before they died.  I watched a few expire before my eyes.  I would notice that the chicks' breathing was labored and then they would fall on their side and seize a couple times before they bit it. The next morning I went to check on them and do my pasty butt detail.  A few of the chicks appeared to be breathing more rapidly than the others but all of them were up and moving.  I went to the other side of the brooder and I saw the Ancona duckling throwing her head back gasping.  I almost lost it.

I went to google and typed in "why are my chicks dying", I read through a list of possible illnesses and determined that it must be aspergillosis.  I wanted to punch myself in the face but it already felt like someone punched me in the throat as I choked down some tears and frustration.  The cause of aspergillosis is environmental.  The babies most likely inhaled mold spores from the wood chips (that I being thrifty borrowed from my backyard) and then the infection started.  The incubation period is 2-5 days.  Adam and I removed the wood chips immediately then sprayed bleach all over the brooder, we temporarily housed the chicks into large rubbermaid containers.  The duckling flipped onto her back in the rubbermaid and seized a couple times before she flat lined. She was one of the cutest things I have ever seen and watching her die before my eyes because of a mistake that I made cut me deep.  A decision that seemed SO arbitrary!

There are two kinds of aspergillosis, acute and chronic and even though I scoured the web there aren't any official treatments.  Acute as you may guess is rapid onset, that is what my chicks were presenting with so far.  But if some of them were infected the odds were that they all had it.  One website suggested Nystatin in the chick feed.  The same website said the mortality rate could be anywhere from 5-50%.  I took off for the feed store to see if they had any Nystatin before church.  It was there at the counter while I talked to the woman at the register that I lost my grip on composure.  All they had to do was ask, "What's wrong with them?" and then the tears just started flowing.  I seriously love the staff at our feed store.  A married couple works there, this ethnic looking dude with an accent and a beard and his wife who is a pretty plain jane with mousy hair.  I told them what I had found on the Internet and the wife told me they didn't have that medication in house, as her husband handed me a box of tissues.  She suggested I try Tylan.  I was torn.  The birds cost $60.  Should I really spend $40 on a treatment for a supposedly untreatable condition or should I just let it runs its course naturally and shell out another $60.  Money wise I should have gone with option b but in my heart I had to do something.  I lost four more chicks after I started the Tylan treatment, one was a turkey poult.

As of today the count is 31 chicks, 1 turkey, 1 duckling.  I think we are out of the woods ((knock on wood) haha, that's kind of punny).  Most of the chicks that I lost were bantams and the more exotic looking ones.  Kind of a bummer.

The day after I started treatment on the chicks I called Cackle Hatchery, just to see what they could do for me.  I was kind of relieved when the customer service woman told me that they would re-ship 12 chicks and 1 duckling if I bought two other poults, since their minimum shipping requirement is 15 birds.  I was set to get two more turkey poults when her stupid manager came over and put the cay-bosh on the whole thing.  So instead of replacements I got an apology.  I expected that from the beginning but I wish they hadn't yanked me around first.  Later in the morning I bought myself a pick-me-up present.

Carmen and Rico Our Newest Additions

 With my mom and daughters in tow I went out to Lemmon Valley to meet some hippie chicks with goat kids to spare.  Adam had made me promise not to get goats until after Burning Man.  I negotiated with him and ultimately we decided that "practice goats" would be a good idea.  The price of a good quality doe could be anywhere from $150-300.  That's a pretty big investment for us.  So "practice goats" were a good compromise.  These particular goats are drop kids from a dairy.  My understanding of a "drop kid" is that they are the kids produced when dairy nannies are freshened.  Typically dairy farmers cross breed their milkers with meat goats like Boers so that the offspring are dual purpose.  The kids that were available were mixes of Boer/French Alpine/Nubian.  I told the woman that I wanted two doelings and I really wanted to be able to get them disbudded.  There was one female around three weeks old that was presenting good dairy characteristics; slim hips, longish teats (proportionally), and a good "bag size".  The other doelings available were older with more prominent horns.  I had read that disbudding was possible up to three weeks old.  I didn't want to push it buying an older doe.  So I also picked out a two week old buckling.  Both kids had horns nubbing up through their fur, I called the equine hospital the farmer suggested and made an appointment. The soonest I could get was Friday.  The receptionist asked what their names were... uh...names?  My mom suggested Tacos.  It's never good to name your food.    In Pullman, our college town there was a bar called "Rico's" and a goat head was the logo.  I thought Carmel would be a good name for the girl because of her coloring but we couldn't decided whether to pronounce it Car-mel or Car-a-mel.  Carmen was just simpler and seemed a good pairing for Rico.  So after a day Adam and I decided Rico for the boy and Carmen for the girl.

I had read that breeding early can stunt growth.  Which might be a bad thing for some people but seemed strategic for us since our square footage is a premium.  Maybe I could keep Rico intact and just let nature take its course... Then I read further and that aside from impeding growth the chances of complications in labor increase exponentially.  So, yeah, add castration to that disbudding appointment. 

The kids had been bottle raised for a week and then put with a nurse goat.  So their bottle feeding skills were a little rusty.  We tried feeding them twice the first day.  Carmen went to town on the first feeding, Rico had no interest.  Later we tried again and neither of them took the nipple. 

My Hubbie has the Magic Touch

Rico Chowing Down

Tuesday Mom and I took the girls to the thrift shop and I got harnesses for the goats.  I really want to leash train them.  How cool will it be to take my kids for a walk with my goats.  SO COOL!  I was afraid that the harnesses I got would be too small since it seemed like most of the harnesses were for chihuahuas originally.  When I got home I was surprised to slip the harnesses on and watch them hang off the tiny kids.  Oh, well, they will grow into them.

I kept treating the chicks religiously and around Wednesday I discovered that aspergillosis is also called "Brooder Pneumonia", so I'm not the only person in the world affected. The chicks that had made it thus far seemed to be growing fine.  They had feathered out enough for quick flutters from one side of the brooder to the other. Even though their numbers had thinned, I still love just watching them peck around.

Friday arrived and I took the kids to visit a friend before the veterinary appointment.  The goats got chased around the back yard by hyperactive kids and an ornery dachshund.  It was pretty funny to watch.  My friends watched the girls while I took the kids to their appointment.  I was confronted with bad news at by the Vet.  Their horns were too big already.  She could try to disbud them but chances are that it would be a long painful process and the horns would grow back again since they were already established. Ugh!  She was able to band Rico, poor guy.  After she placed the band around his scrotum he bleated pitifully and crawled into my lap. She estimated that at maturity Carmen would be around 150 lbs and Rico would be close to 200 lbs.  Hmm... She said that breeding at five months would be fine particularly if I was breeding to a mini or dwarf buck.

So my new plan is to fatten Rico up all summer and when Carmen is five months to get her serviced by a breeder and hopefully that breeder will have a doe or doeling available. Rico is super cute right now but he is looking more delicious daily.

Cu-cu-ca-roo!

My Cackle Hatchery Surprise arrived today!  For the last week I have been awaiting my shipment and putting the last few touches on my brooder.  I called Thursday to specify that I wanted geese and turkeys if available.  The customer service representative was very nice but disclosed that she did not know how they fill the orders.  I had fanciful thoughts of getting five geese and a dozen turkeys and not knowing what to do with myself.  Monday I got an email saying that shipping label had been created and my package weighed 5 lbs.  I googled the weight of a day old chick 0.56 oz.  Let's do the math, 16 ounces in a pound, 16 x 5 = 80, and how many times does 0.56 go into 80?  142.8, rounded to 143. Holy shit!  That's a lot of chickens!  At least that is what I told my husband and he just shook his head.  Ok, yeah, so the majority of the weight is the package.  One woman on BackYardChickens.com said her package weighed 8 lbs.  What?! 

This morning I fanatically punched refresh on the USPS tracking web page and when I saw that the package had departed the sorting facility I called the local post office to confirm that I would be notified to pick up my order as soon as it arrived at the building.  I was surprised when I walked out from the back bedroom (where I had been watering my indoor starts) and saw Millie with the door open to a postal worker holding a cheaping box.  The box was A LOT smaller than I thought that it would be.  Only about 18 inches by 10 inches, which was like the size of my first laptop (yeah, it was a clunker).  I accepted the box and placed it on the kitchen table.  I quickly mixed a small amount of sugar in some warm water, got a warm wash cloth, and took a couple towels out of the dryer (they were nice and toasty) and placed them in the bottom of a rubbermaid container.  At this point both my daughters are going crazy pushing chairs up to the table to get a look at the peeping box and then abandoning those chairs because our cats commandeered them.  So my girls pushed up more chairs.  I chased the cats into the laundry room and shut them in.  Then I took a deep breath and cut the tape securing the lid. 

First Look at My Cackle Hatchery Surprise

I first looked to see if there were geese or turkeys.  I snatched out a duckling and used the warm washcloth to wipe its bottom clear of any feces that may have pasted up during the trip.  Next I dipped its beak in the sugar water and placed it in the rubbermaid.  I followed suit with the another duckling and then plucked out two turkeys.  I took the four of them to the brooder and separated the ducks to the designated waterfowl side and relegated the turkeys to the chicken side.  I returned to the surprise box and counted out ten chicks at a time, religiously cleaning their cloaca and dipping beaks in water.  After ten were in the rubbermaid I took them into the garage to introduce them to the brooder.  I made four such trips and then there were only six chicks left.  They got the same routine and then I brought them and my girls into the garage.  One of the turkeys seemed at little lethargic so I watched it a while, re-introduced it to the water and ulitmately decided to move the turkeys to the waterfowl side.  Even though the chicks were smaller than the turkeys, those poor turkeys were getting trampled left and right.  Which was kind of understandable, there were 46 little chicks running willy nilly.  I put them over with the two ducklings and they immediately improved.  

My lovelies

The ducklings and turkeys hanging out in their spacious compartment

Chicks mingling en mass

One of the last times I was at the library with my girls I got Storey's Guide to Poultry, thinking that I would be able to use it to identify my chicks.  HA! All of the pictures are of adults and while some chicks look like their parents most don't. I tried using the Cackle Hatchery site (because they post day old photos of all the breeds they offer) but found it too tedious.  Cackle offers such a large variety of chicks that going to each individual page was a super pain in the butt.  That and some chicks look really similar.  Meh, I don't really care that much.  I have fallen head over heels for these guys, which lessens the disappointment that I didn't receive any goslings.  After I abandoned identifying my chicks I did find a use for Storey.  I read up on the uses of bantams and game fowl.  I became deeply enamored with the Self Blue Old English Game Fowl...and I think I got two of those! Before the box arrived I was snobby and thought that I would just give away the more ornamental breeds that I received, huh, now it makes me want to cry just thinking about losing one!  I am sure that as they grow I will become less sentimental.  I think that I have successfully identified my ducklings as an ancona and a pekin.  The turkeys may be broad breasted whites or royal palms, maybe one of each.  Ahhh, just writing about them makes me miss them!

More fun news from today, I have been searching for ways to reduce my costs and it was suggested to me by multiple sources that I inquire at local restaurants and use their food waste.  I had a disappointing experience with Port of Subs, the manager was totally into it but when she asked the owner for approval we were shot down.  After my failure I was reticent to try again.  Then I spent the evening talking to Permies and my courage was bolstered.  I went by The Dish Cafe, which just happens to be locally owned by a super awesome guy, and inquired.  The owner was there and gave me a card with his number and told me to come back with a container, they would love to give me their scraps!  Long story short today I picked up my spoils.  Delicious romaine crowns, halves of apples, carrot shavings and more.  The chickens and ducks were pleased.  My plan long term is for the poultry that I am currently brooding to subsist on kitchen scraps, period. 

So...now will I get over it or should I go buy a gosling?  I can at least price them, right?

The Side Garden, Part 2

So my guess-timation of the space was a little off.  I had guessed that the space was 14' x 25' but it actually is 12' x 21', I give myself points for being pretty close for just eyeballing it but in a cozy space like this two feet is a lot to over-estimate.  With the new correct dimensions I moved features around just a bit.  Instead of the cinderblock 3-D garden being backed up to the dog run I moved it against the neighbor's fence.  I was debating whether to do a garden bed for my nightshade veggies at all.  But then Craigslist Angel Dominic gave us eight railroad ties and I just had to put them to use somehow.

Over the weekend Adam built the fence which in total cost us ~$100 in supplies from The Home Depot ( three 4x4s, twenty-six cedar pickets, four 2x4s, and two bags of quick set concrete).  I whitewashed the street side of the fence a day later.

Here are some pics of the side garden in process.  When Adam's parents came to visit last month we started to rip up the turf so these pictures are a little rough, just warning you.  

 The finished product

Before I painted the fence I played a little tetris with the cinderblocks and although I reserve judgment on how "pinterest worthy" my work is I am confident when the cinder-garden is filled with strawberries, creeping rose, "walk on me" thyme and kiwi vines.  I am pretty happy with the results so far and since this garden feature cost me zero dollars I think that its totally worth it.

 

Now that the new fence was up we could take down the old chain link fence and put in the dog run.   The old fence was no trouble.  The dog run was a little tricky.  We have never assembled anything using chain link let alone a craigslist special dog run sans instructions. The seller did tell me that it was a FenceMaster.  I had thought no problem I could just look up the directions online but Google failed me.  Still there were plenty of pictures and my common sense which served us well.  It turned out that I had purchased two 10'x10' dog runs.  We pieced together a dog run roughly 7'x20'.  We were short on rail end clamps but it was no problem to go to Tholl fencing and get some.  I carpeted the run with wood chips which we currently have an excess of, piling a heap on the south side since goats are known for playing king of the hill. 

Once the dog run was up and skinned with chain link we constructed a little planter with four railroad ties, three to form a tall back (and hopefully a sufficient barrier between the eventual goats and our veggies) and one for the lip on the front.  The remaining railroad ties we used to build two more garden beds one, you may have noticed, in front of the freshly white-washed fence and the other under our window in the backyard.

We aren't completely finished with the side garden, there are still trees and plants that have yet been shipped let alone planted and I need to furnish the goat pen with some sort of shelter, water trough and keyhole manger, hmm there's time for that later.  The posts from the previous chainlink fence remain in place, Adam may need to utilize a hacksaw to remove those, at least the middle one.  I am still working on laying flagstones (re-purposed from the front yard) but I did manage to fill the long bed with soil and plant some Wando peas.  They are said to be ready to harvest in 70 days, just in time to give us some green and fix some nitrogen before I rip them out to make room for okra, eggplant, and peppers.

The Side Garden, Part 1

When we first moved into our house the previous owner had a cute little strawberry patch in the side garden.  The house was framed with peonies and a forsythia bush.  It was adorable and picturesque and by the time we moved in, the lawn and garden had not been weeded or watered in a month, and that month happened to be July, the second hottest month of the year.  We tried to save the strawberries but instead we murdered them slowly over a year by viciously weeding and leaving them stripped, naked and bare all winter.  *sigh* Oh, well.  No time for regrets let's push onward.

I decided to put the Fig, Kiwis and Paw Paws in the side garden (and if there is room okra, eggplant and peppers), on the East side of the house.  It is one of the only places in our yard with a reasonable windbreak.  Recently we acquired a chain link dog run, with hopes that we will house dairy goats in the near future.  That will also go on the East side as well.  To increase the temperature I plan on utilizing a lot of rock and cement in shaping the beds and to hopefully add a little humidity I want to have some kind of water feature, like a bird bath or twenty.  Adam and I recently acquired a generous stack of cinder blocks via Craigslist Angel, Sherrie which led me to investigate how I could incorporate them.  During my research I found this really cool cinder block wall garden:




I think it would be crazy, wicked and it would kind of act as a rock garden too, plus it would provide gardening space while helping to make things feel "cozy" instead of "cramped".

The space designated for the side garden is approximately 14' x 25' (by approximate I mean I just thought about it for a minute and said "yeah, that sounds right") and I want to dedicate half of that space for the dog run.  So the actual garden would be 7' x 25' which is not a lot of room to work with but what some may see as a disadvantage I see as a bonus.  The less space there is the more bio-intensive the garden will be and therefore the better the microclimate.  At least that is where my logic has taken me. 

Previously the fence all around our yard was waist-height chain link.  Our neighbor to the East has a six foot tall white wood fence and we plan on matching what she has when we move the fence line.  Changing the fencing material should add an additional windbreak, provide more privacy and give some shade to the Paw Paws.  Paw Paws are understory trees and grow best in partial shade their first few years.  So right now I am planning of putting them right up against the fence.  The following is a sketch that I just whipped up. 

 

Right now it is tabula rasa, just flat dirt and old sod with some peonies and crocus popping up along the side of the house.  First thing that needs to happen is that we need to put this dog run together and see how much space it will take, then build a new fence, then take down the old fence.  I already started to dismantle the old fence but luckily I thought about it for half a second before I tore it all the way down.  Hmm, I thought, I have toddlers and ducks that like to free range...if this fence isn't here then they won't be here either.

So that is on my personal honey-do list for this weekend. 

All God's Creatures

So much to keep up with, our mini-farm is really coming along and this week we had a SUPER exciting new addition.  American rabbits!

Jennifurr the blue steel doe

Jefferson the white buck

Our beautiful little Americans are just that little. They were born on January 14th and weaned this past week.  I wanted to get them as young as possible so that I could become comfortable handling them before they reached full weight (a whopping ten pounds).  They won't be ready to breed until May at the earliest and until then we will be working on acclimating them and taming them down.  We are planning for a trio but wanted a little diversity so in a month *fingers crossed* we will be going over to Flying Fossil Farm to check out a litter of brand new Champagne D'argents. 

Rosey, Melanie and Betsy our amazing Ameraucana layers

Ken, Candace and Lucy our Muscovies (in the terrible early morning light)

And just because I was out there with a camera I took a couple shot of our other backyard companions.














In other animal news our quail are officially a week old and beginning to feather out.  All four seem strong and are growing fast.  Soon I will have to move them to a larger brooder!

And a larger brooder will soon be an unequivocal necessity. While scoping out quail online I perused many a hatchery, searching for one that did not require the minimum purchase of 50 quail.  I did not have luck with that but I did fall prey to Cackle Hatchery "Cackle Hatchery Surprise".  For $60.95 you get whatever they send you. But... they guarantee a sweet deal.  How could I resist? Only after submitting my order did I have the sense to consult Backyard Chickens (the best farming forum IN THE WORLD).  There was a "Cackle Hatchery Surprise" thread with over 80 pages and I read all of them.  Most people reported 40-42 birds, with a varying assortment mostly, of course of chickens, but with a few geese, ducks, turkeys and guinea fowl thrown in.  One person reported 82 birds were delivered. To my dismay, people said that they requested specifics in the comment section of their order form and most people said that it was honored.  One woman got seven turkeys!  I requested the shipping date of March 31st because according to the hatchery's calendar ducks, geese and turkeys are all available in March and according to my Google search a Thanksgiving turkey needs six or seven months to fatten up.  Part of me hopes that I am that lucky that I get a pair of geese and five turkeys and a dozen ducks and the rest a happy handful of meat chickens, layers and cute bantams.  But the sane part of me yells WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO PUT THEM?!  Luckily I did just buy a dog run (in hopes that we will get a duo of mini Manchas in the future), I guess its time we set that sucker up!