The Ducklings move Up in the Farmy World

Yesterday was another fiercely hot day for everyone. But there were no problems.

Here is the pig’s tin water. It is a big cow trough with a built in hog waterer that looks like a hole in the side with a shallow water reservoir. It is in deep shade because I don’t want these pigs to have any excuse to fool around in the sun.

(You might want to click on the image and zoom in). Not a terribly good photo but it was early evening, I had already had a shower and being clean, I was not going back into the pig pen. 🤭

They are getting stuck into their hay already. And beginning to eat a variety of vegetables and fruit from the restaurant kitchen down the road. No problems with appetite which is good.

The Chicken Brats

I caught the four tween wild hatched chickens, that I had trapped in the chicken hospital, and popped them in with the big chooks.

They are old enough now to hold their own with the big birds and should start laying in about three months.

There is still plenty of room in there. Once I am not quite as tired in the evenings (over 18,000 steps yesterday mostly dragging hoses) I will go into the hen house at night with my rooster catching gloves and evict the four roosters hiding in there with my hens. I will leave one in there as a lookout.

Ducklings

Yesterday, with help from one of my young farm hands, I gently herded the ducklings into a crate and we carried them over and let them into the newly cleaned chicken hospital. (I call it the chicken hospital but have never had a sick chook in there!).

This is Quackers favorite corner plus there is high traffic being so close to the barn which will help them get used to the other animals and people. After a number of days I will let them out for a few hours at a time but this will be their night time home.

Ducks are easy enough to herd as long as a person goes slow.

The Herd

With the days being so hot I have stopped bringing the little herd of cows and calves up to the barn at night. They graze in the cool of the early night and early morning so I leave them to eat.

In the daytime they come up to the barn to sleep in the shade there.

Luckily we have a bit of cloud each day to give us all relief from the sun, but we are on Day 6 of no rain so I will be dragging the hoses around the new plantings again. We have well water. Once the plants are established I will not need to baby them so much. But needs must. A deep water every few days is the best way to encourage deep root growth.

I have a terrible feeling it might be a dry summer. In which case all the plants need as good start and plenty of mulch.

Have a good one!

Celi