Tag: ducks

I’m rich! Again. For a little bit. And a general update.

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

It has been nearly two weeks since I have written, and I think this may be the longest I have been away from this blog since I started it. I have started and stopped many posts, but life gets in the way of my writing, as it does, but it has been doing so especially of late.

I love little Luna to the moon and back, so much so that I am going to have a hard time letting her go back to flock when the snow melts. It’s going to be a process, but she has healed so well that I think she should be able to go back to her people. I know it’s best for her. She needs to hunt for bugs and play in the mud, but I struggle with a possessive kind of love. Life keeps teaching. me, but I am a slow learner. Anyway, she’s a lot of work though, and I think my Luna work has taken up the nooks and crannies of my life when I used to be able to write.

Of course, all of that could just be an excuse. I think I have some writer’s block too. I think I’m struggling with the “what’s the point of all of this anyway” kind of writer’s block–the disillusioned kind. It feels good to be writing tonight though, so I’ll tell you what all has been going on.

First of all, I’m rich with eggs again! The light comes back so quickly here in Maine, and we went from getting 2 to 3 eggs per day to 12 to 14 eggs per day in no time, it seems. I feel so rick when the eggs come back. We have eaten eggs for breakfast and dinner, and I even had enough to sell my first carton last week. It was so good to see my favorite egg customer again. I love that she loves our eggs.

The hens are doing well. The three roosters are still getting along. Rooster is hanging in there, still enjoying his retirement. Mary Jane is doing so well that I found her on the top roost again last night. This morning, however, she was wise enough to not jump down on her own, and she waited for me to scoop her up and put her on the coop floor. I guess neither of us wanted a repeat of her leg injury. Thankfully, tonight she was in a nest box, which is not up nearly so high.

Ruby is still doing her Ruby thing, though she’s had some struggles this winter. Petty’s babies are kind of a gang, and they like the driveway, which has always been Ruby and Juliet’s territory. Well, this little gang has been mean to Ruby and Juliet and running them off. I’m probably going to have to do something about this because I watched out the window yesterday and poor Ruby just went from one chicken to another who was mean to her. It was like she couldn’t get away. They don’t hurt her. Thankfully, our flock isn’t like that, but they make it known that she is an outcast. They don’t like her nervous energy perhaps.

People like certainty. I am uncertain about everything. I think chicken’s like certainty too. I think Ruby and I are too much the same.

In sadder new, we lost a dear friend to a tragic accident this weekend, so we have been in some mourning. Also, yesterday, on our evening walk, a dog off lead came up to us, and Boudica turned into a werewolf. She is so, so, so strong and so fierce. I have a fairly seriously pulled muscle in my shoulder thanks to that little scene. I kept her away, but it took literally every bit of strength I had in my body. I am in quite a bit of pain today, so it was a rough weekend. It was hard to do the morning chores this morning.

The seeds we ordered have arrived, and we are planning the spring. I just have to order the Oxheart carrots still. Oh, and we ordered some cherry trees and two more pear trees. I have decided after having my own canned pears all winter that I cannot live my life going forward without my own canned pears.

Finally, I am ready for the winter to be done with us. I know we surely have at least a month or more to go, but we are getting close. I think, maybe, I see some buds coming on my Maple tree friend.

Luna has become a mama’s girl.

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

After a solid month of Luna being grumpy at me because she had to stay in the house to heal, she gradually started to turn in a more positive direction toward me. Now, she is a complete mama’s girl, and I am honestly going to have a very hard time when we have to try to move her back outside with the flock in the spring.

Luna and I have learned to communicate well with each other. She lets me know when she has to go potty, and she also lets me know when she’s hungry for peas, is bored, or just wants to be pet. She has also taught me that she loves to fly.

Indian Runner ducks cannot really fly. I have seen them get a little lift-off when they are running and flapping their wings, but they never really fly-fly. Apparently, Luna wants to fly though because we do this thing when I hold her up and she flaps her wings like she’s flying. I carry her throughout the house, and I can tell by the movement in her little muscles which way she wants to go. She stretches her little legs behind her and just goes all in with her flying. It seems to make her very happy, which makes me really happy too. I did have to learn how to keep my hands in a certain spot because those wings flap hard–and they can hurt. I think we have it down to a science though, and my favorite part is when I am lowering her to come in for a landing and she puts her little legs down like she’s lowering the landing gear.

She talks to me quite a bit now and loves me the most. This is a surprise to me after she was so grumpy at me for so long. It’s like she realized I am here to help, and I guess I must be doing a pretty good job. We spend time together almost every evening when I grade papers. I sit and binge watch something on television, and Luna watches it with me. She watched all of Ted Lasso with me, and we just finished Lessons in Chemistry.

She still gets grumpy sometimes though, and we have found that the best babysitter is Bach, specifically the Bach cello suites.

Over the six years we have had these ducks, we have had four ducks in the house for an extended period of time. With each duck, we found that they really loved cello music. Anna Sophia loved it so much that she would come running from different parts of the house to listen to it. For Anna Maria, it was the only thing that could calm her down.

I did tests with each duck to see what they like. I tried different types of classical music. It turns out ducks hate the horns. I also tried country music, rock music, folk music, etc. Bach always wins. Bach and the cello.

In this little video, I captured Luna in her most totally relaxed state listening to the Bach cello suites this week. It’s the best.

Grumpy Duck

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

I haven’t written about Luna or anything in a few days because I have been very busy with my new part-time job. My new job is being a duck servant to Luna all day every day.

Luna has not taken well to her life in the house, especially since she had to come back inside due to her bill injury after mostly healing from her leg injury. I think she thought she was home free, so coming back inside full time seemed to take a toll on her. I think she made sure it took a toll on me too. If you have never heard a female duck quack with all of her might, I assure you it’s quite loud. It hurts. And in our old house with wood floors, the quack echoes loudly. My son is very sensitive to sounds, and I am a bit as well, so I try to do what I can to avoid this loud quacking. I have been running and jumping and tending to a grumpy duck for several days now, and I am pretty worn.

My mornings start with having to carry buckets of her tub water out of house because Ron worries about putting a giant duck bath, which is a lot of water, into our septic system. So, every morning, one of us has to carry the water out of the house. It’s usually me because Ron is busy building a fire in the wood stove and when I am done with carrying water from Luna’s bath, Ron has to carry buckets of water out to the outside ducks for their daily water. They use about 40 gallons or so a day, more when the water freezes and we have to carry out more in the middle of the day. Have I mentioned that I will never have ducks again?

After I empty the tub, I put Luna and her nest into my son’s music room and shut the door to keep her safe from our two curious kitties, and then I head out to do the chicken chores. Thankfully, the chickens only require 5 gallons of water each morning, so I carry out 1 bucket to Ron’s 8.

After the chickens are all set, and that takes a good bit, I am back in the house on Luna duty. I scrub the tub and then start the water. I make tea and coffee while that water is running. Oh, and I feed the kitties. Then, I can go get Luna, who is usually quacking quite loudly to let me know she is dissatisfied and needs her morning time in the tub. I have to hold her like she’s flying because she feels better when she “flies” through the house (runner ducks cannot really fly but can certainly flap those wings), and then I bring her in for a soft landing in her tub. She loves the warm water and splashes around so much. That’s pretty much the only time of the day she’s happy.

While she’s doing that, I have to clean all of her dishes and her nest box. I take her old straw out to the duck area, so the outside ducks can use it to keep their feet warm. I get new straw and food and fresh water, and her little nest box is all ready to go for when she finishes tub time.

And that’s just the morning. While I am busy all day trying to work, grade papers, homeschool, cook, and whatever else it is that I do, I am up about every half hour meeting some demand from Luna. The cats are too close. The dogs are too close. She needs to poop (she is amazing and won’t poop in her nest box or on the floor unless she just has no choice). She wants to be with her people. She wants to walk around. She doesn’t like the curtains. The curtains moved. The broom is scary. The wrap for her foot looks like a snake. Snakes are super scary to ducks, I guess. She wants peas. She doesn’t like the red shirt I am wearing. I have to change shirts. She needs fresh water. She needs more tub time. And I don’t even know what else.

On top of this, Ron hurt his back terribly Monday night trying to chop up a downed tree near the chicken yard from the bad storm about a month ago, so in addition to waiting on a grumpy duck, I had to do farm chores by myself all day on Tuesday. I did all of the buckets of water going in and out by myself, and it was so, so hard–and then I got a flu shot–and then I went down, like down, down.

Thankfully, Ron’s back is better because I put my homemade CBD cream on it, and it fixed it! I was so grateful he was better and so grateful I didn’t have to do chores by myself today, especially since it snowed quite a bit. I was so worn this morning, I couldn’t even finish my part of the snow shoveling. Normally, Ron does our driveway because it is long and epic, our son does the back side of the house, and I do the chicken and duck areas. I just barely finished the chicken area this morning when Ron saw me and was like, “You have to go inside.” I would normally argue but not today. I just went inside. The warm fire in the wood stove Ron built was heaven. For a few minutes, I just sat there in front of the fire while Luna was in her tub.

And, in another “thankfully” today, things took a better turn with Luna. She wasn’t nearly so grumpy. The cats can get a little closer without causing alarms, and she is starting to like me now, like quite a bit. She lets me pet her. I tried to sit with her on the couch the other day, and she wouldn’t let me, but I might try it again. I think I’ve won her over.

She barely complained today and seems to like it that we got a new, bigger nest box for her. She seems to understand that I am trying so, so hard. Oh, and she started laying eggs from being in the light so much. It’s great for us but not good for her to be laying in January, so I am trying to make sure she spends more time in the dark. She laid her first egg on Monday, and I was so excited. Then, I realized I was a stupid human who had forgotten that she didn’t need so much light. So I am addressing that, but, truly, the eggs are lovely.

When the snow melts in the spring, we are going to try to slowly integrate her back into the flock using the tried and true method for reintegration where you keep them together for a while but separated by a fence, so no one can get hurt. If that doesn’t work, Luna will have to live in the house for the rest of her life, I suppose. Hopefully, it will get easier. It’s been a tough month or so with this duck. I think we are finally starting to become friends though–or else she just has Stockholm syndrome.

Plot Twist: A Luna Update

~ Crystal Sands ~ 5 Comments

I was all very much prepared to write a blog post this week about my success with Luna. It has been one month since the “incident” with Bairre when he accidentally stepped on her, and her leg has healed quite well. It is still a little off, and she still has a bit of a limp. However, she gets around very well. It really barely slows her down.

Because Luna was reluctant to eat in the house early on, as soon as she was able, I would let her spend time outside with her people, little bits at a time. It helped get her appetite going, and with her leg wrapped up, she could hang with her flock for at least a couple of hours each day. I was amazed that no one was aggressive to her when she would go back outside for visits. I was so grateful because flock aggression is a real issue with our ducks.

This week, Luna was doing so well and the temperatures were warm enough that I decided to leave her outside all day one day. In the evening, I went to check on her, and she didn’t want to come in. I let her spend the night with her people, and in the morning, I scooped her up, gave her a soak in the tub for about an hour, wrapped her leg, and let her go back outside. This seemed to be working so well for a couple of days until one afternoon I was outside with the chickens and heard a terrible commotion from the ducks. I wish I could have run, but there was so much ice on the ground that it took me a bit to get to the ducks. I found a terrible situation. Luna was at the bottom of a pile, and four of the ducks were absolutely abusing her–like severely. Only Ferdinand and Anna Maria weren’t involved.

I ran to her, but she didn’t want to come to me. She took off, so I yelled at the ducks to knock off this nonsense and realized I had better start keeping a very close eye on Luna, though I thought I already was. For the rest of that day and another one, I checked on her about 20 times each day. It was steady. I didn’t see anything else, but yesterday morning, she was acting really strange. I found her away from the flock, and when I went to check on her, it seemed like she wanted me, which was a surprise. I told her I would be right back. I came inside to run a bath for her and went right back to get her. When I put her in the tub, I saw blood on her bill.

I couldn’t figure out what had happened, but after she was in the tub for a bit and her bill was cleaned, I could see the small cracks near the top, where her head meets the bill. I was devastated! I couldn’t believe the other ducks had done this much damage to her, and I couldn’t believe we were here.

A duck’s bill is far more sensitive that you might think. A duck’s bill has highly-sensitive nerves. I have seen the ducks out hunting at night with their bills to the ground. It’s really fantastic to see. Obviously, seeing Luna with a damaged bill was a big worry.

Her bill not only has some small cracks, there is a tiny missing chip from the outer area. I researched about what to do, so I treated her with antibiotic spray to prevent infection. I then had a talk with Ron about what this might mean.

There is a chance Luna may never be able to go back with her people. I found out later from our teenage son that he had to break up an attack on Luna the afternoon before I saw her injury, and he forgot to tell me about it. I told him to please, please tell me when things like that happen.

With these attacks in mind, at the very least, Luna is going to be in the house until spring. I hope we will be able to put her back with her flock, but she is going to have to heal a long time and is going to have to get used to the house right now. Hopefully, we will be able to integrate her back into the flock, but if she gets beat up again, the damage to her bill could be even greater. I don’t know how well it’s going to heal. I don’t know how sturdy a bill will get to be after an injury. I have been trying to research online to get more information, but I really don’t know a lot yet.

All I know for now is that we have to take care of that bill, and Luna is now walking around the house, making herself fairly at home. She’s walking so well now that she won’t stand for sitting her her little nest very much, so she marches those little webbed feet across our wood floors in the cutest manner you could imagine.

A Luna Update

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Luna has been in the house for a couple of weeks and is doing fairly well, though she doesn’t eat well in the house and has lost weight. This has been a source of constant worry for me, which has led to a lot of work, as I have tried so very hard to make Luna comfortable enough to eat.

Thankfully, after lots of trial and error, I found that she would eat some if she was in the bathroom with the door closed for privacy. I put food on a towel, and if I left her alone long enough, she would eat some peas and homemade whole grain bread. While bread is not great for ducks because bread from the store lacks nutrition, we have pretty good luck with the bread Ron makes because he grinds the wheat and keeps the bread quite nutritious. In fact, that’s the point of doing it.

When we have animals in the house who won’t eat anything else, sometimes, the bread keeps them going during the rough patches until we can get them back to eating their food. This has definitely been the case with Luna.

The aspirin did wonders for the swelling in Luna’s leg. In fact, she is able to walk around quite a bit now, though she certainly hobbles. Yesterday and the day before yesterday, Luna spent some time outside. When she is outside and with her people, she eats well, so I am working to make sure she has as much outside time as her leg can handle. However, last night, at her insistence, I let her sleep in the duck house instead of our house, and I think that was a mistake. She seems a little set back on her healing journey today.

Still, as I write this, Luna has finished tub time and is sitting in her nest box with straw. I am about to wrap her leg with vet wrap and let her have some outside time again today.

Mostly, over these last couple of weeks, I have discovered lots about her personality. She is not a huge fan of me. I can’t tell if it’s because I am the one who messes with her for her care or if she is just not a fan of my personality type. She’s pretty no-nonsense, and I am full of all kinds of nonsensical ways, perhaps. She tolerates Ron more but seems to greatly love our teenage son still and perks up when he walks into the room.

She also seems to have zero problem adjusting to rejoining the flock, and as I have watched her, I have been able to tell that she is one of the dominant personalities in the flock. When she returned to the flock yesterday, they followed her around and did what she did for a long while. I can see why she likes it better with her people. I wish she could stay–but not yet.

I thought, perhaps, she just had a dislocated ankle, but I do think it was more of some kind of small fracture as well. She is doing much better, but it’s clearly going to take a couple more weeks before she can fully return to the flock. Still, I think just about a month or so is pretty good overall.

One great irony for me is that she seems to like Bairre. He has come to visit her a couple of times, and she just touches his nose with her bill in such a sweet way. I’m like, “Oh, you like the one who did this to you, but you hiss at me? Great, Luna!”

And that’s how is seems to be so far with me and Luna. I love her so much, even if she doesn’t love me back. There are lessons in that, are there not?

Betty, Luna, and New Friends

~ Crystal Sands ~ 1 Comment

Betty and Luna are not the new friends. Luna is on Day 7 in the house, and Betty is very curious. Luna is very cautious.

I think it was the third day Luna was in the house that Betty grew brave enough to investigate the duck. Betty did not like the quacking and seemed to just stay away from Luna at first. I thought this was fortunate because I was worried about Betty deciding to pounce. But, on that third day, I guess curiosity got the best of her–plus, Luna was quiet.

I was working on my laptop at the kitchen table, very near Luna, and she let out the loudest quack I have ever heard. It echoed! I jumped and saw Betty scrambling, terrified. She flew through the kitty door and down into our basement.

About 15 minutes later, I heard the kitty door open, and in slow motion, Betty made her way through the door. With her paws stretched, she walked back by the duck–ever so slowly. It was like she was afraid to take a step near the monster. I laughed at poor Betty’s fear. I asked her if she was okay, and she glared at me, just glared. How dare I bring this monster into our house? It was the cutest thing, but poor Betty didn’t think any of it was cute.

Betty is getting curiouser and curiouser.

After another day or two, Betty got brave again though, and this time, Luna didn’t scream at her. This has led to some bravery on Betty’s part, which has led to some stress on my part.

Thankfully, Luna has made a friend. It’s our teenage son, and I am surprised. At first, he complained when we lost the guest bathroom to another duck. That kid is going to have some stories when he grows up.

I noticed he kept asking questions about her though, and by the end of the first day, he was asking about petting her. I told him he could see what she did. If she seemed too nervous, maybe not. I explained the nature of Indian Runner ducks. I thought she might be nervous about someone who is essentially a stranger, but then I remembered he was very involved in the raising of our ducks when they were babies. They loved him, and he spent a lot of time with them.

Maybe she remembers him or maybe it’s just that these two connect, but I am shocked by how much this duck loves our son in just a week. The first time he leaned into pet her, she raised her bill up and touched him, and they have been fast friends ever since.

I noticed Luna, who is getting frustrated with her hurt leg, was starting to complain more during the day. This, coupled with Betty’s fascination with her, made me wonder if I was going to have to think of another solution for Luna during the day, but the best solution arose. Luna loves our son so much that she is content just hanging out in his room and being near him.

She’s safe from Betty’s curiosity and seems to be in heaven hearing our son’s voice. Interestingly, when he’s been outside and comes in the house while she is having a tub soak, she hears his voice and starts quacking. This is all fascinating stuff. As an animal person, I hoped both my children would be animal people. It’s great when they are. Animals make us better humans. Luna can teach him things I can’t.

I hope they stay good friends.

Luna’s Day 2 or Rehabilitating a Duck with an Injured Leg

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

Luna had a tough day today after a good start to a really tough process yesterday. Her leg is more swollen, and she is not eating. This happened with Ana Sophia though. For several days, she wouldn’t eat very much, if at all. I was very worried about losing her when I finally convinced her back to food with bites of Ron’s homemade whole grain bread. After we got some of that in her, she perked up and did so well. Even though she would have months to go in the house, once we got her to really eat for us, I knew she would be okay.

Because of my experience with Ana Sophia, who broke or severely sprained her leg in 2019 and is going strong still with the flock, I thought I would do my best to chronicle Luna’s rehabilitation process (I mean, hopefully, I can heal her) in the hopes that it might help someone else in a similar situation.

I feel I should first explain why we have not taken Luna to the vet, just in case some are wondering. I have taken a duck to the vet one time and a chicken to the vet one time. The only thing I got that was helpful to me was a prescription for antibiotics, and honestly, I now know that those weren’t the best decision in the situation. I hope this does not sound arrogant, but I knew more than the vet in both situations. I was, honestly, devastated to learn this. I needed someone to know everything I didn’t about the animals I love.

In one case, there was nothing that could be done, as I had thought, and I had to pay the $100 office visit bill. In another case, the vet wanted to do an x-ray on something that I was like 99 percent sure was bumble foot, but it was my very first time to experience it. The x-ray was going to cost $450 on top of the visit and the meds. I paid for the visit and the meds and passed on the x-ray. The vet bill was nearly $300. We had to make the decision that we could not really afford vet bills for all of our farm birds but that we would do our best to learn how to treat everything we could and always consider quality of life for the animal.

I have spent the last ten years reading everything from Facebook posts to scientific journal articles. I took an online class from the University of Edinburgh. I studied our animals as much as I could. There is still so very much I don’t know, but I did help a duck recover from a broken or severely sprained leg in 2019 and have since learned that duck leg injuries are not uncommon in backyard ducks, so I am going to chronicle what I do with Luna and record what works and doesn’t work and hope that most everything works well and that Luna will have many good years in front of her.

I won’t blog about Luna every day, as I will have other stories to tell, but I will chronicle Luna’s journey until she, hopefully, recovers.

On Day 1, she was run over accidentally by our young Per who was playing near the ducks. Ron was there at the time of the incident, so she was put into a soak tub within minutes while we assessed the damage. It is easier to assess leg damage when they are floating and their little legs can dangle. We decided it is severely sprained or slightly broken. Within an hour or so of the incident, we swelling was super noticeable. She did very well in the house the first day, to my surprise. She ate well.

On Day 2, she has been in more pain, so I researched pain management. I read a lot of conflicting information, but without a prescription, most people recommended aspirin. Of course, the internet is like the Wild West, so I kept looking until I found a site I trusted. I looked for something from a university cooperative extension because, truly, they are the best, and I found helpful information from Mississippi State University Cooperative Extension, so Luna now has a dose aspirin, as per the instructions on the site, in her drinking water. I did not use aspirin with Ana Sophia, so I am nervous about this; however, Luna’s leg is worse than Ana Maria’s was. It seemed necessary to do something for Luna’s pain.

As I mentioned before, she has not eaten well at all, so I am hoping a little pain management will help. We have brought her inside to live in the house until she is healed. She stays in our bathroom when we are away from home to keep her safe from our dogs and cats. When we are home, she is either floating in the tub or in her bin where she is in a nest of straw the ready access to food and water. Right now, we are just keeping her off of her leg while also making sure she gets enough tub time to keep her nostrils good and wet throughout the day.

Listening to cello music calms her down a lot, though she was hand raised and knows us pretty well. Still, she is an Indian Runner Duck and, therefore, very high strung in general. This is not an easy experience for her, so we are doing everything we can to keep her comfortable while still living our lives. She likes to be around us and not be alone. Ducks are social animals, so, even though we are not her ideal people, we are still people. She is definitely happier when she is with us.

Those are the key things I can think of right now. Hopefully, they will be helpful to someone, somewhere, at some time. And, hopefully, little Luna will get better. uc

The Last Duck Eggs

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

In the last week, we have gone from getting 10 chicken eggs per day to 7 eggs per day. They have done pretty well this fall in terms of giving us some eggs, and I am thankful. It won’t be long before they are all resting for the most part. It’s always the worst between Thanksgiving and the Winter Solstice. Thankfully, they will be laying again within weeks of the Solstice. That light is like magic for the hens.

The ducks, however, are all getting older, and though we would normally get between 1 and 3 eggs per day from them in October, this year, we are lucky to get a single egg. They are all over five years old now, so this is to be expected. Still, I’m always sad when the ducks take a break for the winter because they take a long break. That’s probably what helps them live to be like 15 years old though, so I am thankful the ducks get to rest.

The night before last, Ron made his famous-to-us challah bread and potato soup with potatoes and onions from the garden. It’s one of my favorite meals of all time. This was our first soup and bread of the season, and it felt extra special. When Ron was making the challah bread, he held up a duck egg before he cracked it and said “the first challah and the last duck eggs of the season.”

I knew exactly what he meant.

Mean Ducks and Pretty Roosters

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

I am putting it down in writing that I am never getting another duck. Our ducks will be 6 years old in the spring. They can live to be 13 to 15 years old with good genetics and good living conditions. I love those little ducks, but I will not get more ducks after these ducks pass away. They can be so mean.

Poor Anna Maria is getting picked on again. It’s happening in the duck house at night, so I have been making sure I get up very early and run down stairs to let the ducks out every morning. This morning, however, Anna Maria still had a little spot on her head. Thankfully, it’s nowhere near the damage a male duck can do, but still. In the absence of a male to lead the flock, the largest female has stepped up and is pretty fierce.

Just yesterday, I heard a loud commotion with the ducks. I looked out the window to see two ducks ganged up on another duck, just driving her head into the ground with those bills (thankfully, it was not Anna Maria getting picked on this time). I ran outside to stop the nonsense, but the largest duck went right back to it when I walked away. I chased her down and scooped her up and just made her walk around with me for a bit. She submitted quickly. She’s not a mean duck really, but my goodness, ducks can be pretty mean to each other. I know some people will think I am silly for writing this. It’s just ducks being ducks, after all, but I am opposed to any behavior that causes injury to another–in all aspects of my life–even ducks, it seems. So I’ll just keep trying to be vigilant, but no more ducks after this batch.

I have heard chickens can be like this too, but outside of a crazy rooster we had a long time ago, I’ve never seen such terrible behavior. We have a pretty nice flock.

And, speaking of our nice flock, we have too many boys right now. I mentioned before that I lucked into the best home ever for one of Ruby’s babies, and I meant to look for a home for her other little boy. But every single day that little boy gets more and more beautiful. It’s hard to capture his beautiful colors in a picture, but he just shimmers green and black in the sun. He looks just like his mama, Hector, who is a Black Copper Maran, and Black Copper Maran roosters are gorgeous. Ron said, “let’s just keep him” because Rooster is pretty old. I thought we would surely lose Rooster last winter though, and he’s still getting around, even making babies this summer. So I don’t know what to do yet, but I know that our flock makes some beautiful babies. This little boy is magnificent.

My Fantastic (but a Little Scary) New Neighbors

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Do you remember when I wrote about the three owls that came the night before my three hens died? Well, they moved in.

They just stayed here. They hang out every night right next to our house. They are in my friend, the Maple tree, on our fence, in the trees along the driveway. It’s surreal and such a treat to get to see them so closely. I mean, what an opportunity to observe nature, right?

Our teenaged son goes for walks along our driveway at night while he listens to music, and he says there is one owl in almost the same spot every night. He says it watches him. My son’s favorite animal is the owl, and that’s saying something. He doesn’t overtly love nature the way Ron and I do. It’s cool that I can see it in there though. Anyway, this has been a treat for our son, and he has been able to capture some great footage of these birds watching him right back.

Of course, they are a little scary. Owls can do terrible things to ducks, and the ducks like to stay out late. I have to be so diligent in making sure the ducks are up as soon as it is dark. The owls are a worry for sure. In fact, I don’t think we are going to be able to go anywhere past dark without getting someone to put up the ducks, and since I don’t really know anyone who might do that for us, we are stuck thanks to our new neighbors.

But that’s okay. I’ll just have to be diligent. I love having these new neighbors. They are helping us avoid the situation like we had last year with rats in the coop. I am grateful. Plus, they are so beautiful.

I am grateful.