Muscovy ducks do not quack, but instead, whisper as though they have laryngitis. They make great city ducks for that reason, because they won't disturb the neighbours, however; they are good flyers. Wings can be clipped to keep them on the ground, though if they are well fed and have enough space they will always come home and not stray far. Suzy sat on eggs with another Muscovy for a long time last summer. The two ducks fought over the nest and often pushed the eggs out, which caused them to get cold and none hatched. Jemimah duck sat on eggs and did not hatch any either, but her sister hatched a couple of babies. The drake that is here is the only survivor. This year, I will take the babies when they are hatched and put them in a covered shelter until they are bigger, so they have an excellent chance of growing up. Muscovies can be quite friendly if they are treated well and the handler frequently is among them. Most do not like to be picked up and they do have long claws and a sharp tip on their beaks, plus extremely strong wings, so they can do some real damage to human skin if they feel threatened. Muscovy eggs are larger than any of the other duck breed eggs, though they lay fewer in a season. The meat of a Muscovy is all dark and not fatty at all, even on the dry side. There is twice as much breast meat than on a standard North American meat duck breed, such as a Pekin, but they take twice as long to raise to slaughter age. Muscovy ducks make the best pest control squad too, eating their weight in flies and bugs if given a chance. They do like vegetables too, so they can quickly eat the tender plants in a garden and are best kept out until the garden is well matured. The Fat Ewe Farm has three ducks and one drake of the Muscovy breed and hopes to have little ones for sale this summer if the mammas do the hatching. They are a great addition to a homestead, whether it is a city lot or a farm, those wonderful Muscovies!
Suzy Muscovy is a chocolate and white Muscovy duck. She is smaller than the other females and half the size of the drake, but is very quiet and pretty. The Muscovy duck breed hails from South America, so they need more protection in the winter than the Mallard derived breeds from North America. A draft free building with a lot of straw on the ground so the bitter cold does not come through is absolutely necessary. Drakes have large red caruncles or outcroppings on their noses and eyes and they are prone to freezing, like the large combs of a chicken. Female Muscovy ducks can be as heavy as eight pounds and males as much as ten, though that is the top side for them. They lay less eggs than other duck breeds, but are excellent mothers and will set on a clutch as many as three times a year, hatching their own little ones. When small, the ducklings require protection for arial predators, such as hawks and ravens and from cats and dogs, foxes, coyotes, weasels and whatever other predators are in the area, so they are best kept in an enclosure until they are half grown. The mother duck is very protective of her babies, but she cannot keep them safe from those predators all the time.
Muscovy ducks do not quack, but instead, whisper as though they have laryngitis. They make great city ducks for that reason, because they won't disturb the neighbours, however; they are good flyers. Wings can be clipped to keep them on the ground, though if they are well fed and have enough space they will always come home and not stray far. Suzy sat on eggs with another Muscovy for a long time last summer. The two ducks fought over the nest and often pushed the eggs out, which caused them to get cold and none hatched. Jemimah duck sat on eggs and did not hatch any either, but her sister hatched a couple of babies. The drake that is here is the only survivor. This year, I will take the babies when they are hatched and put them in a covered shelter until they are bigger, so they have an excellent chance of growing up. Muscovies can be quite friendly if they are treated well and the handler frequently is among them. Most do not like to be picked up and they do have long claws and a sharp tip on their beaks, plus extremely strong wings, so they can do some real damage to human skin if they feel threatened. Muscovy eggs are larger than any of the other duck breed eggs, though they lay fewer in a season. The meat of a Muscovy is all dark and not fatty at all, even on the dry side. There is twice as much breast meat than on a standard North American meat duck breed, such as a Pekin, but they take twice as long to raise to slaughter age. Muscovy ducks make the best pest control squad too, eating their weight in flies and bugs if given a chance. They do like vegetables too, so they can quickly eat the tender plants in a garden and are best kept out until the garden is well matured. The Fat Ewe Farm has three ducks and one drake of the Muscovy breed and hopes to have little ones for sale this summer if the mammas do the hatching. They are a great addition to a homestead, whether it is a city lot or a farm, those wonderful Muscovies!
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Last July Mike and Joe came to The Fat Ewe Farm to be livestock guardian dogs for the sheep. They have been kept with the sheep since they were 8 weeks old, but the call of the pack was too great for them. Lately though, I have been reinforcing the need for them to be in with the sheep. They are only fed there and I bring them treats when they are "home". They get nothing out of the pen, even if the other dogs are being fed. Now they are getting the idea. When I tell them to go home, they do so with gusto usually, hoping that it means they will get something as a reward. They are more and more starting to take their naps with the sheep, but at night, they wander the farm with the rest of the dogs, keeping everything safe. There was a weasel near the chickens this morning. Robbie saw it and tried to catch it, but it got away. For some reason, the livestock guardian dogs do not care about weasels or ravens, too bad. I need to get a trap for that weasel before he kills some birds. They usually just suck out the blood and kill lots at a time. Mike and Joe were slumbering peacefully while Robbie was frantically attempting to catch the weasel, silly pups! The busy season at the bed and breakfast has begun with the beginning of March. We are booked for a couple of weeks and have even had to turn a regular away. Of course, this is great and is the fun part of the business. Tonight's guests are two middle aged fellows, nice guys, who hail from the Calgary area. They are specialists in plastic pipe welding and are here to do a job in the area. Neither have stayed at a bed and breakfast previously, so I sure do hope they enjoy it and want to come back and also recommend us to others. The bad part is the heating upstairs is intermittent, not working most of the time. There is an infrared heater in the kitchen for supplemental heat and it does a fantastic job, but cannot heat the entire upstairs. The plumber did not show up. Hopefully, he will come soon. Tomorrow, I will plug in two small ceramic heaters in the kitchen as well, so we will be warm for breakfast.The guests are staying on the lower floor and they will be comfortable tonight, at least. They did say they would miss a TV, though one suggested they play a game or two of crib instead, since the crib board was out and ready for them. I hope they do. They took themselves out for dinner at Whalley's Pub in Elk Point, a good place to dine and have a brew, if one is so inclined. I will see them tomorrow for breakfast, bacon and eggs, farm style, with homemade fried bread and fruit salad to start. The coffee is organic and hot. They are discussing whether or not to order a bag lunch for the next day and possibly the Farmhouse supper. Of course, if they liked Whalley's, they may just elect to go there, because they cannot smoke at the Fat Ewe. It is so great to meet people from different places who do neat things like these guys do. I will enjoy our breakfast time together tomorrow morning. That is the best part of having a bed and breakfast...the folks that have tales to tell. I am blessed to be able to hear them, too. Experiences shape us and provide fodder for the thoughts that surround our lives. I love farming because I love nature and animals and being on this farm affords me to be with both. But what is the purpose of the farm? Did I mean to be a meat farmer or to raise animals for fiber? How will the chickens pay for themselves - though eggs or meat? Of what use are the llamas or the rabbits? And so the questions go on. When I started the venture, I had in mind to farm wool and exotic fiber. To do so does not mean, then, that I need to breed the sheep or llamas, for even castrated males or wethers will provide fiber. Then there is the question of registration. Is it best to register purebred animals or simply keep them on the farm. If there is no breeding going on, then registration is not important, however, for keeping pure lines of rare breeds, registrations may be of a much greater value. Do I need 3 sheep or 30 sheep? One llama or 4? Do I need a cow, or pigs or even a horse? Lately, I have been pondering the farm and what it set out to be, a rare breeds permaculture farm, and how it has evolved in three short years to not be a rare breeds farm at all and the permaculture is only starting this year. Maybe I only need one breed of sheep, just a few goats for fiber or milk and one milk cow and possibly one meat cow. Occasionally I could raise a pig or two for meat as well, and the chickens that reproduce themselves by hatching their own eggs, could be kept for meat or eggs, depending on if they laid or not. I believe I have finally come up with a feeding system that will keep the wool of the sheep free from contamination with hay, so the wool will be easy to clean. Up until now, the many systems I have tried have resulted in very much hay lodged in the wool rendering it poor quality. What really got me thinking was the bunnies. Who does not love the bunnies, cute as they are, but do I need to breed them to raise them for food? Do I want to send the babies off to slaughter to put rabbit meat on the table? Do I want to help my lambs enter this world, care for those who inadvertently become ill or injured and then once healthy, kill them for food? Oh goodness, there is so much to think about now. How much work can one person comfortably manage in all seasons? I think I am more or less at my capacity for animals now and like it or not, some must be slaughtered or sold. It makes the most sense to slaughter them saving the hides for tanning, which provides the most return for the animals. Or maybe, it could simply be a petting zoo of my own and I would never have to send any of the precious lives to the butcher shop? At least I know that the meat is raised humanely with love and fed the best diet for the species so the meat is the best it can be as well. I need to make some decisions in the next year. Where is the Fat Ewe going? And what is the goal of the farm? These experiences over the last three years provide excellent education to help me on the right path for the farm. I think. There was a bumper crop of lambs last year and most of them are still here. The problem with breeding for June lambing, when the weather is warm and the grass is green, is that the babies only have a few months to grow when the market is ready for them. So, they have been staying an extra season on the farm, which puts enough weight on them to be marketable. Only, last year, the majority were female lambs, so in order to increase profits, they were introduced to a small Babydoll ram in December, at five to six months of age. Some would have been ready to breed, while others may have taken another month or two, but the little ram and the Blue Faced Leicester ram are both still there with the ewe lambs. It is time to take them out now, because the last of the ewe lambs not bred would deliver in October and that is getting pretty cold. I did not think that whole project through too well, though, because the newborn lambs will need their mothers for a few months, then the market is not ready for lambs again and so on. A sheep can be considered a lamb until the age of two and most of these are small breeds to begin with. But, next winter, that will mean a lot of little sheep. Plan B is to try to sell the mothers with the lambs at their sides when the lambs are four months old or by then, the lambs can be weaned and sold separately. If need be, some may have to go the auction, but I am trying to find avenues for grass fed lamb, which is much healthier than grain fed lamb. People who suffer from gluten related illness often do so much better with grass fed meat, too. The signs are everywhere. It is early too, at least for this area, but spring is definitely on its way. The dogs have been losing their down for a few weeks now and so have the goats, even though the last week's temperatures were in the minus 30's and even minus 42 one night. But, today, the geese were scoping out the sites for nesting. One of the geese went into the chicken coop and was trying to get into the nesting box, only she would not fit. I tapped her and she hissed at me, still with her head stuck in the box, but she was not going anywhere. Finally, I moved her and she begrudgingly looked at me before she left through the pop door. There are five barrels set up for the geese for nesting, but the little bantams have taken to hanging out there so some new barrels will have to be set up in different places so the hens have warm safe places to set on their eggs. Last year, there were around 60 goose eggs laid by three ladies. This year there are 4 ladies, so I do expect a few more eggs. As the weather warms, I stop stealing the eggs and allow the geese to raise their broods. The breeds at the Fat Ewe Farm are quite calm and tame, non agressive, the Pomeranian Saddlebacks and American Buffs. Yes, spring is on its way! This is one son. The picture simply does not do him justice, for he is beautiful. He has beetle green feathers and blue ears, a trait inherited from his Silkie ancestry. He stands with the cocky upright stance of a small bantam rooster and has very pretty neck feathers and five toes, another Silkie trait. This is the father, the original Silkie/Ameraucana cross, one of the breeds being a bantam breed. The Ameraucana was a Blue Wheaton feather pattern, though the blue does not come through adequately in this picture. This rooster is excellent for the flock, calling the hens over when he finds food and sounding the alarm at overhead predators or passerbys. He also sings when the hens lay an egg, announcing the continuation of his progeny. There are seven roosters at the Fat Ewe Farm and 4 of them have to find new homes. The other male offspring of this rooster are available as well for ten dollars each. My good friend, Bil, was also my web helper for technical things. He was excellent at the back sort of details like domains, registries and the details surrounding them, but he passed away. Unfortunately, my site was hosted with dreamhost, a terrible company for people who are not as technically inclined as Bil was. They have no one you can ever speak to and they take a long time to answer emails, sometimes more than a day. Now, I know that does not seem like a long time, but when in business, an hour can be a long time, let alone a whole day or more.
Bil's sister is the Power of Attorney and executor of the estate and only she could release the domain to me. I am so sorry for her at this time, because she is badly injured with a broken tail bone and some other bones bashed, due to a terrible fall. Yet, she gathered all the documents asked for and sent them to dreamhost with instructions to release the domain to me. That is not enough, apparently, and they want her to write to them again. I have contacted her and asked her to do so, but also feel quite terrible knowing the pain she suffers to even move a little. So, after three weeks now, I have also gained thefatewe.ca and the site is up and running on that mode for now, but there is nothing that points to it yet, at least not until I contact all sites where thefatewe.com is found and add the .ca address. What a nightmare this has become and Bil would be horrified at our poor progress, because he was so excellent with things in this matter. Sorry for our ineptness, dear friends, but we are trying and hope to have everything up and moving real soon. Thank y |
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AuthorFluffy writes daily about the experiences on the farm and with the bed and breakfast patrons. Archives
October 2020
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