rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

I was pondering selling out of ducks for the winter so I don't have to carry buckets all winter, but DH wants to keep on keeping ducks. This year we only got a few ticks in our yard. They ate them all, and the huge slugs and a lot of the crunchy frogs. They are lazy man's spray. Not sure lots of pekins make sense long run, but I may look to add a few campbells to the buffs and Dan's swedish (and the muscovy). We need eggs. A few more pekins might go away, maybe we'll keep one or two.

 

[Baymule]

I raised a bunch of Pekins for the freezer one time. I learned things I never knew about ducks.

Ducks don't go to roost like chickens.
Ducks are awake at night.
Ducks never shut up.
Ducks quack at scary things. A LOT of quacks.
Falling acorns are scary things.
Ducks are extremely messy.
Wet duck poop is disgusting.
Roast duck is very tasty.
Pin feathers were invented in Hell.
Ducks quack all night, did I mention they never shut up?

 

[rachels.haven]

All this is true.
They only go to bed because the only time they get food as adults is at lockup.
Predators really get those loudmouths going, but everything does to some extent. Anyone who says ducks are quieter than chickens has never had ducks. Also, they cause terrible erosion and eat all the grass.

But, if I didn't have ducks, I wouldn't get to shout, "go to bed mother duckers" over and over again at the top of my lungs every night. And I try not to swear, so I need that daily moment of psudo profanity to make the neighbors think I'm a nut.

 

[rachels.haven]

When we had snapping turtles going through the yard this year the ducks were following them in a linr honking up a storm. Before Bailey got bit at/scratched by a turtle beak on the snoot, she was leading the loud parade. It...um...got my attention from inside the house so I could take care of it. They're not all bad. They're just really, really stupid and routine oriented. But they do the same thing every night, so I don't care!
How exactly they brood babies is beyond me.

 

[rachels.haven]

I sold my buck that is Avalon's cousin and the one who had selenium issues earlier this year. Durango will get more ladies this year in exchange for the change. Now I'm down to 3 bucks/bucklings of each breed. I've got a little more hay money now. I should probably send in a blood test and preg test Ava, since I want Ava x Patrick babies before I sell her, then I want to get her and her daughter Sugar sold, as they are both a bit on the bitey side (Ava a lot). Patrick is so mild his bucklings he threw with Ava were the sweetest thing with none of mom's nastiness (...and then she decided to wean them at 3 weeks like she did the previous litter, so they had to be bottle trained to boot, so they were extra sweet and Ava maintained her bad goat status).

I'm also down to one Pekin duck-I sold the rest. The rest are buff, swedish, or muscovy. I need to pen in and free feed them as the insect life isn't doing great with the snow we got and they are eating up all the grass on our acre and a half fenced barnyard. I can't free feed until I pen them because Bailey wants to eat everyone else's feed and keep them off it, and I'd prefer my anti coyote dog to not get diabetes and die because she is stupid about other animals' feed. Sigh, animals.

 

[Baymule]

My sheep don't bite...... if they did, there would be a serious Come to Jesus meeting about that.

 

[rachels.haven]

Lol, some days I almost do too. It gets really old walking through the pen, turning around to do something and getting my legs or butt bit through my pants because Ava or one of her spawn we still have oozed into my blind spot. I still want to make the best of the lines I've got though. Sugar and Ava are like sharks (how do they bite so well with only bottom teeth???). Lavender, the last doe, is mellower, but still occasionally acts like she wants to. She's the only one in evaluation territory still. The other two will be sold in milk after they kid assuming we don't need the milk to help us stayed locked down during this next covid spike (or to feed their babies during the 8 weeks they need it, I guess). Sugar and Ava should be due to kid by Patrick December on if he felt dominant enough to breed them. If not......Durango got them and I'll be very, very picky about doe kids in case Durango throws more Ava-like biters. I do not need to do this again.
If I can get my herd established I can breed up with good attitude bucks and be extremely selective about temperament and cull to avoid this in the future assuming I keep dwarfing. So far, comparing big goats to dwarves, it's pretty obvious dwarves haven't had hundreds of years of dairy refinement to put that relaxed and chill, just eat and chew cud milking temperament in their heads. They still want to battle it out at every opportunity with anything they see rather than put all the energy into production-even the non-biters.

 

[Baymule]

My animals are for my enjoyment. If they are jerks, I will do my best to train them out of it. If they don’t get with the program, they don’t get to stay. Some, like pigs, are short timers anyway, and my Pig Palace is built do I don’t have to go in their pen to care for them.

 

[rachels.haven]

Today the jr. lamancha bucks decided to inform me they weren't blueberries. We got snow, all the bucks enjoyed knocking it all off, then I guess the cogs turned in the teenaged bucks heads and all the boys who weren't glued to the ground by a couple of extra pounds or short legs decided their house is jungle gym and a slide. Looks like they'll be headed to the barn pen today after school until we either move or I build buck house 2.0. Meanwhile the nigerian boys and Buggy just want them to stop making the hay racks inside the structure move. Oh well. Maybe I'll try again with the hoop house in a few months. I'm surprised. Those sides were really, really steep and the house was QUITE tall. Naughty boys.

 

[Finnie]

I remember when Latestarter’s goats flattened his hoop shelter.