2021

02/21/2021 I was shoveling the driveway and four supervisors showed up.

04/09/2021 First time outside the garage for the 5-week old chicks.

2021/04/24 Today’s the big day. New chicks are going to join the flock. The flock has been confined to the chicken run for today and the near future. Don’t want to let the little ones free range yet. Assuming the chicks don’t hop out on their own we will throw them in the coop tonight at bedtime so the newbies know where ‘home’ is.

Today was cleaning day for our little one-week-old ducklings. We changed out the bedding in their brooder. They need more water than the chicks did and we are trying something different to deal with the resulting mess. They got to experience the outside for a bit while we did this, eventually attracting the attention of our adult drake. Is he upset? Or just excited there are more ducks? Will we have a problem introducing the ducklings to the flock? Guess we’ll find out. He knows they’re ducks. He didn’t act like this with the chicks.

2021/05/25 The first hatchlings.

2021/05/26 Good morning. There’s definitely four hatchlings. Again she wasn’t moving and hissed at me when I put more starter crumble in and changed the water for the ducklings. I assume there’s more on the way since she’s still sitting. She had about twenty eggs in that clutch. We’ll be done when she gives up. Four out of twenty would be a lousy percentage but it’s her first time and I have no idea of what the norm is. She’s only a year old. I read that ducks can produce two clutches a year. Not sure if that applies to Saxonys or not. Wife informs me there were five last night. Somebody was hiding under Mom.

2021-05-27 First family outing. I think we’re done hatching. 7 out of 13 eggs. I better mow the chicken run for the little ones

2022/06/06 They’re getting big so fast. I let them out yesterday morning and they made a beeline for the freshly mowed barnyard looking for breakfast. Two weeks old. Only six now. We lost one a couple of days after hatching. Was in the nest without a mark on it.

2021/06/07 Yesterday we put the five-week-olds out. They are too big for what we use for a brooder. We couldn't be there every minute so our drake attacked one (we think the victim is a male) and was put into solitary confinement. The victim suffered head wounds and his back is pretty well plucked. You can see him on the right in the video. We treated him as best we could but I worried we might lose him to shock. This morning though everybody was still with us. The teenagers are enjoying the pool. The drake is still in solitary. He spent the night there. He's going to freezer camp if he attacks again.

06/14/2021 Dora catches her first mouse. Like mother, like daughter. Momma cat was about the same age when she caught her first mouse. Dora didn’t get to eat it though. Momma cat came along and ate it. Greedy cat!