Tribes and Flocks. I guess tribes have more brains but we all behave the same. As the number of birds on the property has grown I have noticed an interesting phenomenon.
The hatching groups all stick together.
The young ducks are a group. The mature ducks are a group. The black chickens always stick together. The little Easter Eggers float through it all as a team.
Of course the two guinea fowl are never out of each others sight. 
The older chickens don’t seem to have flocks within the flock but when they lay there are always the same ones trying to lay in one box. Cramming themselves in together no matter how many empty boxes are around them.
I never noticed these very clear social groups when there were only a small number of chickens in the yard but now it is very obvious. 
Here is another interesting observation. Poppy’s babies really do have their own teats. This has not been so obvious in other litters. But the biggest piglet is always on a big center teat and the little fat runt baby always has the smaller end teats. 
The other little one seems to wander from teat to teat. She does not settle.
Poppy and her babies spent all day in her weed garden and then she brings them up to the wet concrete to feed. Maybe it is cooler. Pigs love muck. That is clean muck though. She has already trained her babies to poop down in the corner of the garden. It just looks nasty.
Monday again – after such a long weekend! 
Today I write to my immigration lawyer about beginning the Green Card process. I will also ask her about the best way for us to help families at the border. Just to add some verified sources to our List. I am really looking for a contact. A church or individual on site who we can work with. Someone we can trust. I want to send blankets that the kids can keep. Many of these facilities are freezing cold from air conditioning and the children are cold. (This happens in some prisons too by the way).
Ok – time for work!
Cecilia
Ps – almost forgot to tell you – ducks LOVE eating Japanese Beetles! The beetles were falling out of the trees yesterday morning – sliding off the leaves in the heavy dew? And plopping to the ground, I don’t know why but the ducks were under the trees talking loudly and gobbling them up ravenously.
The Kitchen's Garden 
29 responses to “FLOCKS”
Please.let me know when you have an contact. I would.like to send.so.e.shampoo and conditioner and tooth brushes and toothpaste etc. Thanks
Living in Canada I try to figure out a way I can help. I’m gutted by what is happening and feel helpless.
Of course we have our own shame with regard to the missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Before this becomes political, I have to say I just love hearing about all the animals and how you lovingly work with them.
Diana
Thank you for finding out border info.
Are you feeding the little piglets extra or are they ok?
How did the farm to table meal go?
I hope you can get some direct contact info!
Love the wee little piglet at the end…do their size differences remain constant as they grow. Or do the runts sometimes catch up with the bigger ones? The border situation is abhorrent. What have we become when we tolerate such behavior toward other humans? I don’t know…
Hmmm, maybe you could start a rent a duck side business!
Your ducks can come to my rose garden to eat those nasty beetles!! Would love to find out a good source that would help those poor people at the border. Great idea- keep us posted!
I feel like I have the best of both worlds… it’s pleasantly wintry here and your photos are nicely summery ☺
Ducks eat bugs, geese eat grass…..We decided one day to catch the beetles in a jar and then put the beetles in their water bucket and the ducks ate them like crazy. It was great!
I think breeds flock together as well. I have a 12 year old silver laced wyandotte and a 2 year old and they walk side-by-side snubbing the other birds, it’s so funny!
So true about the birds hanging out together! With our ducks, each generation hangs together. They might mix a tiny bit, and there is some cross mating, but they hang with their birth mates. And this goes for our chickens too. We will see about the guineas. We have only two left from the 15 we bought 8 years ago, not sure which round of descendants they are. So we bought 10 more chicks this year to help eat the tick and chigger population. The 10 are ready for the enclosed halfway house, which is a double wired/fenced dog kennel. After a few weeks in that they will join the other birds. I’m thinking that perhaps the two adults will join the adolescents. Will keep you informed! 🙂
Yes – do! The two guineas I have left are inseparable!
I wonder if the piglets clean the mud off and spit it out first …probably not!
I know- what a horrible thought. But I hear no complaints .
“You’ll eat a peck of dirt before you die”, or so my always Grandma said. (Thinking that piglets get their share really early; )
“Like a duck on a June bug” is a saying we use….. “Like a duck on a beetle” just dose not sound right to me. 😉
I have heard Ducks like snails too. Is that Wai hiding under blue blanket along side Tane? Laura
Yes that is Wai! The flies torture him. I have taken to covering him in mud in the mornings. It seems to work better than anything else!
lovely ducks eating up nasty beetles!
Japanese beetles are one thing we’re thankfully free of right now, but I know they can decimate vegetation in short order, almost as fast as grasshoppers. Nice to have duck food falling from the heavens!