Backhoe Weekend, Project 1 - Gooselandia

The backhoe came in late, but can't complain too much as we get to use it for the entire weekend (plus part of Monday) for the price of one day's rental. So Spouse and I did something rare: after animal chores, we went back to bed! Ooooh, so nice... sssnzzzzzzz.

Once the backhoe finally arrived, it was time to rub the sleep out of our eyes and get to work. First priority: re-dig the pond for Gooselandia. We were originally going to use a stock tank set in the ground. We had the hole dug, and the tank situated and leveled. The more we thought about it, however, the more it seemed like it would be a royal pain to create the appropriate berms and ways to get in and out of the stock tank: not just for the geese and ducks, but for any small fry they might hatch. Plus with the ducks, the tank was now going to be too small for everyone to swim in peace. Round two: take out the stock tank, then dig out and slope the sides.

The tank was partially full of rainwater, and had a nice thick layer of algae and sludge at the bottom. We'd also a large branch half in/out of the tank before the photo, so the frogs and snakes could get out as needed. No frogs or snakes this time... anyhow, bailed out the water, shoveled out the sludge, then pulled out the tank. After a break and a quick side project of moving a big pile of soil up the hill where our raised veggie beds will be (another post), Spouse started sloping out the sides of the pond area.

The old hole was approximate 10'x10'x2'. The new hole, with sloping sides, measures about 20'x16'x2'.

 

 

Pond liner - the good stuff, heavy rubber, fish safe and all that - ain't cheap, but with my Awesome Employee Discount™ at the feed store, we can probably line this hole for about $200. We'll also need to shell out for a heavy duty pond pump and filter, due to all the poo. The ducks out-poo the geese, and the geese are no slouches by any means. Together, they create MEGA-POO, killer of puny pond pumps and filters alike. Our poor 3'x5' side pond! If we don't clean the filters every other day, the water quickly becomes a mess.

So, slowly but surely, progress on the Gooselandia pond proceeds apace. Once lined, pumps installed, and filled with water, we can move the duck and goose shelters to the new pond area. What will be next: trenching so that electric and water lines can be routed to the area. We can currently stretch two connected outdoor extension cords to the area, and ditto for water hoses, but this is not a viable long-term solution. Yay, we get to rent more heavy machinery!!!

DIY Duck Shelter

Although I'd never claim mastery, I have gotten to the point when using tools - such as power drills, circular saws, staplegun, etc. - that I no longer have to really think about how I'm supposed to use the tool. This development makes fixing or creating new things around the property much more fun (and faster, too!). With this new ease, I was able to bang together a duck shelter out of all scrap materials in a single afternoon.

The design idea came from "Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks" by Dave Holderread. Two challenges with the original design, however: it would be too hot in the summer, and as designed, the geese and dogs could get into it. The geese get territorial during egg-laying season, and I didn't want the ducks to get booted out of their shelter. And the dogs, well, they're a bunch of egg-stealers. Rotten dogs. Then there was a third consideration: the shelter would need to be moveable. Gooslandia's pond is being dug out this weekend, and we hope to move all the waterfowl to their much larger digs by next week!

The shelter is three pieces: the roof, the main area, and the egg-laying box. The egg-laying box in the back is not attached, nor the metal roof. Both will be after the move. I've also put a piece of tarp across the wired front (which faces North, but not shown in the above photo) to act as a windbreak. I thought the crossbars on the two sides would be enough to keep out the dogs and geese. Nope. Both just "duck" under it :-). Will need to add some vertical bars at approximate 8-inch intervals to keep the interlopers out.

The laying box will get a divider at some point. The laying box roof is covered with recycled pond liner to keep rain out. The metal roof may get a small gutter and downspout attached for rainwater collection at a later date. Oh, and that black stripe down the center of the roof? The metal corrugated roofing pieces I had weren't quite wide enough, so I used a piece of smokey clear corrugated roofing that was laying about to make up the difference.

The only new thing purchased were the hinges for the laying box roof. I probably should have bought a few new boards - working with twisty lumber isn't much fun - but the ducks haven't complained about the design. In fact, it hasn't been very cold, so they've not used the shelter much at all!

The Khaki Campbell males (drakes) have bright green bills, orange feet, and black-green feathered heads. I love the little curly feather on their hindquarters!

It's a Lull

Pic: Yeah, you WISH you were this talented!
Flopsy's progeny, Generic Peeper, at bottom.

It's been unseasonably warm this Fall/Winter, and I'm doing my best to take advantage of this fact by catching up on odd projects. For example, the photo left shows the goose hutch, recently modified by adding new left and right openings. Our geese like to have a clear view out, and the hutch as it was before would rarely be used by more than one goose. Hopefully that will change. Cutting out the new entrances was my first experience using a circular saw doing unguided "plunge cuts" (kids, don't do this at home -- or at all). The result looks a little like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. The geese, opinionated though they may be, have never had anything to say about architecture. Thankfully.

Pic: Left is Gertie, middle is ?, right is Billy-Bob.

The geese should start laying eggs any time now, but there's no sign yet that they're even thinking of doing so.  Last year they started dropping eggs by Winter Solstice. This year? Not even a hint of territorial crabbiness. No pairing for "snuggles" in the Pool of Woo. No cheering on of others "snuggling". Nada. We've lost four geese this year - Godzilla, Princess, Gina, and Miss Cecily - and have gained a new Buff Pilgrim goose, adoptee "Purdy" Gertie. I've been wondering how Billy-Bob, the lone gander, is going to handle having a whole harem to himself. I'm sure he's not worried.

Learn to De-Worm

It's that time of year when the hens slow down their egg-laying proclivities - the less light available during the day, the more they slow down. Commercial farmers get around this by using timed, artificial lights to keep the production high, but the drawback is this method also shortens the lifespan of the hen. Not something I'm interested in doing, as most of our hens are pets. [There, I said it, I admit it. If it wasn't blatantly obvious, I love our squawky, fussy little fuzzybutts.] Thankfully, our girls are still laying enough eggs to sell through the co-op and to individuals, which in turn buys their organic feed (and a bit more to make up for those slacker geese).

Fall or Winter is also a good time to de-worm. The problem with the usual deworming method is that it requires you to destroy any eggs laid during the deworming process. Pretty intense chemicals are used. On one hand, you KNOW that the girls are going to emerge from the process "clean as a whistle" when using these chemicals. On the other hand, I wonder if such heavy-duty chemicals are really necessary every year, unless there's a major infestation*. So this year, I'm trying out Verm-X and pumpkin seed smoothies.

You can read more about Verm-X at their site. Basically, Verm-X is an herb/spice combination that is supposed to have deworming properties. You can get it in liquid form, or feed pellets. One challenge, however: the girls drink and forage in so many places that I can't guarantee they're ingesting enough (or any) of the formula. Tried soaking bread scraps in the liquid Verm-X as an alternative suggested by their site, but the girls wouldn't touch the stuff - it has that potent a scent! After chatting on Twitter with a couple other hen-addled folks, came up with a solution: pre-soak scratch grains in Verm-X. This gives the Verm-X time to "off-gas" some its scent, making it more approachable. The girls are now eating the grains.

I also took home a bunch of free pumpkins from the garden nursery a few weeks ago -- one person's old Fall decorations are another person's home canning project -- of which the pumpkin seeds can be used as a dewormer. Grind fresh seeds in a food processor with some unsweetened bio-active yogurt, and serve. This recipe is what the girls REALLY love. Figure I'll make this smoothie recipe for the remainder of the six-week de-worming process (the Verm-X will run out before then), and see how it goes.

Supposedly back in "ye olde days", those who worked with animals on farms were also encouraged by country doctors to do a regular de-worming regimen (and of course, I can't find the links where I first read this). There are plenty of herbal parasite cleanse methods available to humans over-the-counter. It's been three years of owning animals, so I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt if I were to do one as well. And thankfully, I don't need to worry about throwing out my own eggs.

*NOTE: [start legalese] Be sure to talk to your vet or doctor (whichever is appropriate) before undertaking any parasite cleanse. This blog article is provided for information purposes only. [end legalese]

Growing Ducks & Chickens

Remember these little fuzzballs? Look at how they've grown:

Ducks are so. freaking. adorable. Adorable, I tells ya! They squeak, quack and waddle. They swim like seals, speedy/sleek through the water. They think I'm evil, but I hug 'em and squeeze 'em when I can. I can't wait for the big waterfowl pen & pond to be finished, just so I can pull up a chair and watch them swim and play. "If we had adopted ducks first" Spouse bemused, "I don't think I'd ever have wanted to get geese." [Blasphemer!!]

Pic of Maggie. Would this
sweet face steal eggs?
Oh yes, in a New York minute.

It will be a few months yet before the new ducks start laying eggs, but when they do, this particular breed can lay at least four eggs per week, oftentimes more. Whether we can gather that many eggs to sell is dependent on how quickly we can find them on the property before Maggie does. Since we've tightened up the entrances to the hen house, Maggie no longer has easy access to the laying boxes, and has missed her daily egg snack. Woe was Maggie! She finally figured out, however, that the eggs the one mature duck lays - Moe -  are NOT those fake porcelain eggs we put into the egg boxes to encourage the chickens to "lay local". They are quite an acceptable substitute. It's a race in the mornings between canine and hominid to find Moe's latest laying spot. Moe likes to keep us all guessing and switches up her laying spots often.

Now, for the chicken update: Flopsy and her baby are doing well. We had to set them up in their own quarters, as some of the other hens weren't too clear on the fact that the chick wasn't a new squeaky toy (no worries, the chick was/is unharmed). We set up one of the chick brooding kennels for their nighttime digs  - a big plastic dog crate with an adjustable heat lamp affixed to its ceiling  - and lined it with hay. Since it's been dipping below freezing temps at night here, the crate's heat lamp keeps the girls cozy. There's also a goodly amount of protected, fenced-in space for Flopsy & chick to scratch and sun in peace during the day. The chick is already sprouting wing and tail feathers, but since I'm not handling her much, she shies away whenever I'm around. Feeling dang lucky to have caught these photos: