dilly dalley doolittle gardening

Duck eggs

Yesterday when I went out to collect the eggs I found two unusual eggs. One rather large duck egg and one without a shell. See the warmly coloured brownish egg below? It is only a membrane, no egg shell. I suspect it may be from our banner duck - Mummy duck. She is very long-lived and has successfully raised many flocks for us. I've told her story a few times on this blog. She acquired a limp a few years back. In fact, it was touch and go there for awhile and the kids wanted me to take her to the vet. I held off, hoping she would just heal, which she did, but now she limps.  She's always had a special place in my heart but I was a bit worried to see an egg without a shell. Ah, ageing. It comes to all of us. Unless of course, it is caused by the other end of the spectrum - young duck, not quite managing to make the shell before finishing the laying process. Not sure I have any answers here. I haven't found many eggs without shells in my years of duck herding. The membrane is reasonably strong.

 Check out the size of the other special egg, though! Mandarin added for context.

I was curious to see just how big it really was....130g. If you aren't convinced that duck eggs are better than hen eggs, take a look at that!

The egg without a shell is pretty big as well - 80g without a shell.

And here's the modestly sized duck egg - 75g. They are impressive my girls. I now have 6 ducks in the backyard. We used to keep 4 ducks (3 ladies and a drake) and 2 hens. When our hens passed on we let the duck flock grow to what will be a maximum for a suburban garden - 6 ducks. Our neighbours must be saints, or else the way our land falls (we are on a slightly sloping block) means that no one's bedroom is close to these noisy creatures. They are not like hens, who like to go to bed at night, these girls can be up at all hours wandering around chatting, arguing, disputing, bossing and generally partying. Ask me how I know? (I know that's meant to be a rhetorical question..hah) but I've had some trouble sleeping lately and have been up at all hours and boy do they carry on. Anyway, in the 10 years we've lived here and kept ducks, our neighbours have never complained. I am grateful, as I do love my ducks. And check out those eggs!

Ducklings - two months old

I caught sight of this from my kitchen window and rushed outside with camera to make a documentary record of this vandalism. Can you see him/her? This cockatoo is eating my apples. He's nearly the size of my duck! He flew off after I started recording his mug shot. He was doing what all native bird vandals do to unripe fruit. They pull the fruit off, take a couple of bites, drop most of it on the ground and then grab another piece of fruit and repeat the routine. After attracting all the two-month old ducklings up to eat the broken bits of apple he was dropping, he casually flew off clutching a half-finished apple. This is the first year we've contemplated putting bird netting on the trees. Sooner rather than later, I think. Better act.

 Look at the size of these ducklings. Almost fully fledged with feathers.

Little brown ducks and little white ducks. I ended up with quite a mixed breed. None of the mums are pure white with yellow bills but I have a number of them in the duckling flock. Genetics is interesting.

 

These guys below follow me around so when they saw me rush out with camera they took up position on the deck to watch my antics (and the feathered antics).

 

Anyone local want a duck or two? I was so pressed for time at work I didn't get around to putting up an ad on our social club database to say we are happy to give these surplus ducklings away to good homes. If you're interested, post a comment and I'll get back to you.

 

Previous posts

Ducklings - one month old (Nov 2011)

Ducklings - one week old (Nov 2011)

Ducklings (Nov 2011)

 Two ducks sitting on the nest (October 2011)

Drakes - a short history since 2006 (October 2011)

Nesting ducks (October 2011)

I was wrong - not once, but twice (December 2007)

Duckling arrived (November 2007)

Sitting ducks (November 2007)

Ducklings - one month old

I thought you might like a catch-up post on the ducklings. All alive and well in duckling town. These photos are from when they are one month old.

Our mums have to walk through the gate...pah..not for us...we fit through the fence.

 

Previous posts

Ducklings - one week old (Nov 2011)

Ducklings (Nov 2011)

 Two ducks sitting on the nest (October 2011)

Drakes - a short history since 2006 (October 2011)

Nesting ducks (October 2011)

I was wrong - not once, but twice (December 2007)

Duckling arrived (November 2007)

Sitting ducks (November 2007)

Ducklings - one week old

I thought you might like to see a few photos of the ducklings at one week old. We have a small ornamental pond that is fenced off from the ducks (the ducks have their own watering system). At one stage, after seeing a combined fish and hydroponic system at a garden show, we considered getting trout for our pond. We did some research and spoke to the local trout farms down in Tumut and decided that the pond wasn't deep enough and wouldn't keep the water temperature cold enough for trout through our hot summer. Anyway, it remains an ornamental pond and the large, wide-bodied ducks can't get into it. But ducklings can.

Because ducklings can drown if they can't get out of a body of water, we needed some escape routes for them. In the past we've put bird netting over the fence to keep the ducklings out but as the large ducks use this pond to drink from, we decided against that practice. Instead we have put some ramps in for them to climb out.

This ramp is a little bit steep and there's a bit of pushing and shoving going on I think....siblings!

Most of the ducklings are back under the watchful eye of mum.

These photos below have all been taken with full zoom on my little camera. The mums are hugely protective of their babies and I don't like to get too close. They have a very strong set of alarm calls that bring the flock to them. It starts off as a kind of low repetitive set of yips and barks and then the ducklings all become alert. Then the mums calls get louder and more insistent and the ducklings peep peep back in earnest. By this stage they are all around her and at her bidding. On this occasion, despite being all the way at the other end of the garden, the mums decided to take them back up to the duck enclosure (which at present has no door to enclose them but will do again sometime soonish).

Up the hill they go.

Up into what is distinctly their territory.

One little one decided "that's it, I'm here, rest time".

And although  I don't think I managed to photograph all 11 at any one time, they are all still peeping along, doubling their body size each week. No way these guys would fit back into an egg.

Ducklings

The ducklings have arrived and there are 11. They started hatching out late on Tuesday 2nd Nov and by Wednesday afternoon they were being taken for a walk. Then on Thursday afternoon the nest had been abandoned and so I removed the eggs from the nests that had not hatched (11 of them). Ever since then, we've been trying to get a few glimpses of yellow fluff, without disturbing the mums too much. They travel as a group, two mums and 11 ducklings. It is so funny when they come down these steps. The mums kind of waddle down but the ducklings sort of walk, sort of slip, sort of just tumble.

At only a few days old the ducklings often still try and sleep under the mum. She lets them arrange themselves and when ready she kind of sits down on them. I guess its safe and cozy under there and they aren't visible to predators. Kind of squishy though.

I

 

Previous posts

Two ducks sitting on the nest (October 2011)

Drakes - a short history since 2006 (October 2011)

Nesting ducks (October 2011)

I was wrong - not once, but twice (December 2007)

Duckling arrived (November 2007)

Sitting ducks (November 2007)

Two ducks sitting on the nest

They have been sitting very diligently. Waiting, waiting. I managed to take this without disturbing them. They come off the nest about once a day for water and food and a bit of stretch of the legs. Funnily enough, I never see both off at the same time. When they do get up, they will cover the nest with leaves. Not sure if that is about warmth or predators or both. Anyway, flock due soonish (we think).

 

Previous posts

Drakes - a short history since 2006 (October 2011)

Nesting ducks (October 2011)

I was wrong - not once, but twice (December 2007)

Duckling arrived (November 2007)

Sitting ducks (November 2007)

Drakes - a short history since 2006

 

We've been keeping ducks for a number of years. In our time here in this house and garden we've had three different drakes. This is our Indian Runner drake from February 2007. He was given to us in 2006 by a fellow Charnwood community gardener. This would have been his first progeny in the bathtub. He was brought in to join our flock of ducks, which had come from a woman selling all four of her ducks. She currently runs a hatching chicks program for schools and child care - both our schools and our preschool did this activity. We were tempted to get chicks from the hatching all three times we participated in it. It was so much fun. Here's a link to her site -  Hatching chicks. At one stage in her poultry keeping, she decided to only keep chickens and so offered to sell us her ducks.

We kept the Indian Runner drake for quite a few years but when he died in 2009 we replaced him with a new drake from a fellow who sells poultry at Jamison Trash and Treasure.

 

Drake on 15 January 2010. We had ducklings hatch in early January 2010 and he was locked out because he was harrassing the mother and babies.

Here's the drake on 30 January 2010. By this stage, the babies are fairly big and we had let him back in with the flock. He proved to be quite an aggressive drake though, and I was always on edge with him. He was often separated from mothers and babies.

Mid-2010, when these little fellows grew up, we managed to find homes for them on a friend's farm on the Murrumbidgee river, just outside Hall. They took all the ducks from this hatching and one of the drakes, leaving us with one baby drake. Then suddenly the Father drake died and we had just the adolescent drake left. This ended up working out quite well.

So, in the photo below,  this is our current drake, as of 2011. He fathered one flock last year. We kept his daughters but his son was given away to someone from my work who lives in the same suburb as us. We gave them a drake and one of the older ducks, so that they could start their flock. We like to keep a flock of 4-6 ducks, which would only include one adult drake. Baby drakes are OK until they grow up and then fighting starts between the males so new homes must be found fairly promptly. At least, that's what we've learnt over years of keeping ducks and drakes in the back garden.

What kind of drake do I have?

I wonder what kind of mixes of duck breed he is? Suggestions are: Abacot ranger duck, silver appleyard, buff orpington, overberg. See this link Silver Appleyard or Backyard Poultry's link to Silver appleyard.

Here's a link with lots of duck breeds Domestic Waterfowl of Great Britain and finally another good one is the Poultry Keeper link. I've never really been interested in being terribly rigorous or scientific about keeping ducks. I just love them for their quirky habits, their eggs, the little barnyard dramas that develop, their sounds and the job they do ridding our garden of snails and slugs. I can't imagine a garden without feathered friends. However, if you are interested in being true to a breed, and live in the local area, you may be interested in the Canberra and Queanbeyan Poultry club.

 

Previous posts

Nesting ducks (October 2011)

I was wrong - not once, but twice (December 2007)

Duckling arrived (November 2007)

Sitting ducks (November 2007)

Nesting ducks

You know what this is, right? Botheration. Well, not exactly. Who doesn't love ducklings. But, honestly, I don't think we need this many ducklings. There are 22 eggs in this nest. Damn. There are two ducks sitting on these eggs, which puts both the young layers out of action for this season.  My daughter gets paid to collect the eggs and she must have been cashed up enough recently and so didn't require any extra pocket money. We took our eye off the backyard and now this...

When I discovered it about a week ago, it looked quite advanced and I didn't have the heart to turf the ladies off their nests. My husband kindly relocated the compost heap because they had built their nest right next to it and so everytime I wanted to return green matter to soil, they were being disturbed. Oh sigh.

Anyway....remember these....previous flocks....I guess it will be cute to have ducklings again.

Previous posts

I was wrong - not once, but twice (December 2007)

Duckling arrived (November 2007)

Sitting ducks (November 2007)

 

The soil is alive

We have had a plot at the community garden since April 2004. Through the years we have dug the beds many times. In fact, here's a post from June 2007, where I describe preparing the beds for Green Manure and how we are behind schedule (story of my life in the garden). In the early years, we dug down to the clay but in recent years, we've only dug fairly lightly. I mention this because, while recently digging over the summer beds, in preparation for their green manure crops, I ended up pulling these rocks from the topsoil of the beds. How did such large rocks get into a bed I have cultivated many, many times? It's not like I wouldn't have noticed rocks this size.

I think I may have an answer and it is from Teaming with Microbes. I have the older edition of this book, the one that was published in 2006. In it, the authors write " Earthworms are incredibly strong, a necessity given the amount of burrowing they do. While making their way through the soil to feed, worms can move rocks that are six times their weight. Different kinds of worms make different kinds of burrows, some permanent others temporary. The temporary burrows are often abandoned after they become filled with castings and litter; roots grow into these pathways, able to penetrate deeper than they could by themselves, all the while having access to nutrients and microorganisms that freed them. Certain kinds of earthworms move up and down in the soil, sometimes as deep as 12 feet. ...Other earthworms travel horizontally, rarely leaving the top 6 inches (15 centimeters) of soil, but even these redistribute organic matter several feet (a metre or so)." p89.

The intro to this book mentions that "...gardeners know that soil is anything but an inert substance. Healthy soil is teeming with life - not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms." In fact the first few chapters of the book are titled: bacteria, fungi, algae and slime molds, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods, earthworms, gastropods, reptiles, mammals and birds. It then goes on to describe how to feed the soil so as to facilitate the healthy development of a soil food web.

Here's an old photo - from 2007 - but it's still a goody.

Thanks for your comments - your sympathy

Thanks everyone for your comments on my last post that described the harm that happened to the ducks. It has been supportive to hear your commiserations and shock and suggestions for how life might be and should be. I have been down to the garden a few times since last Friday and I do find it a bit lonely without my clucking, gaggling girls. I had got used to my feathered friends having a bit of a chat to me, early in the morning, when I came with their bucket of leftover vegie peels. They would rush up to me and gather around while I tossed out the compost box. Sometimes I had to shoo them away because they were making such a nuisance of themselves, under my feet. I always attended to them first and then turned my attention to growing, harvesting, weeding, watering, planning the vegetable garden.

As far as my emotional progress on this issue, last Saturday I felt reassured to move the chickens back here to our home garden. It's been nice to see their little feathered skirts as they wander about, bossing the ducks around. Its curious that chickens seem to have the upper hand over ducks - or at least mine do. Nonetheless, I do feel the loss of their presence at the community garden. Like all things though, I'm sure I'll settle into the new situation at some stage. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.

Its funny when you take a blow against something you love. Not funny ha ha, funny strange. I'm trying to keep it in balance and not despair at the world. Throughout the long months of vandalism, I've talked often with my husband about what kind of life these young people have led that brings them to do these things. We've moved from thinking of them as young people harmed from life, in exchange harming other life, to young people, irresponsible - just out for a lark, a bit of fun, and somehow that fun tied up with transgression (cutting through the fence, stealing eggs and smashing them). Then after my experience with the ducks and the harm that was done to them, I moved back to thinking of them as wronged individuals who in turn do wrong. The pain that they have experienced is transferred into the world and experienced by others in society. Their life pain became my pain. But now I'm sick of them and want my compassion to be over. I don't really want to care about them any more. I just want to move on. Keep my animals safe and grow my vegetables. We'll take our turn repairing the holes in the fences. However, if the scale of things increases and more damage is done to my plot, to the efforts of my labour, so finely balanced in my life, I'll have to consider my commitment to this endeavour. I've already started considering grey water systems and building some vegetable beds here at home. My backyard here would never be able to manage the scale of what I have at the community garden but maybe that's my compromise for not dealing with the distress and turmoil of other peoples lives. Who knows. I hope to settle and calm my perspective.

On Monday of this week, my husband rang the police and they were surprised we hadn't rung on Friday when we discovered the harmed duck. I guess we thought the police could do nothing. They said they would send more patrols around the area and acknowledged that in reality they probably can do nothing but they wanted us to know they take these things seriously. They said they'd put us in contact with the police community liasion officer who will follow up with us about strategies and such. Then they put a value on the duck =$20. I had a bit of a giggle at that one. I could just see the earnest police officer filling in the paperwork - value of property - duck - $20.

By the way - camera is in the repair shop. I realise my photos are so out of date. The pumpkin vine is dying from frost burning off it's leaves. The tomatoes are ready to be ripped out. I have evidence of the labours over summer of bottling up my tomato crop. My winter vegies are going great guns. Not so hot  - the root vegetables. Still can't seem to get those right! Anyway, bear with me. My camera has been off at the hospital for two weeks and is due home soon.

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