Last spring The Fat Ewe Farm acquired a pair of Sebastopol goslings, a male and a female. They are less hardy than the regularly feathered geese, with the openess of their plumage not being as warm as the tight feathered friends. When the predator came from the sky, it attached one of the Sebastopols and tore the wing off at the last joint, but he is recovered now. In that same incident, his foot was injured and for a long time he limped around. I checked his foot over and again to ensure there was nothing broken, but it was very swollen. I am grateful that it has healed and he has full use of it now. 

Sebastopols are an ornamental breed of geese, kept for the exquisite beauty. When fully feathered in the summer, they appear to float across the lawn wearing long gowns of white ruffles. Their feathers grow poorly in a curled fashion and the wing feathers can be askew as well, giving them a very unkempt appearance when they are growing feathers. However, the geese look spectacular when they are fully dressed. Due to small numbers, there is not an adquate gene pool in Canada, and many of these geese are inbred leading to poor fertility rates. For that reason, they are sometimes mated with other breeds of geese . If the ruffled feather pattern is dominant, then the offspring are much hardier than the pure Sebastopols and also will be more fertile usually. Then the resultant bird is a coloured Sebastopol, not a recognized breed of goose, but still a very beautiful one. 

The Sebastopols seem to stay together. Geese tend to mate for a long time, if not for life. Hopefully they will have little Sebastopol goslings, but if not, the Toulouse cross gander will mate with the female and possibly produce coloured Sebastopols, most likely grey splash on white. In any event, they birds are beautiful and a joy to watch and a wonderful addition to the Fat Ewe Farm.  Oh, and poor Eunice…the wry neck Rouen. 

It is not only human nature that shuns those who are not like the others. I see the ducks bite her and try to move her away, so she remains after they have left to eat or to bathe. My heart breaks for her, my Eunice. She stayed after the ducks went home so she could bathe in peace without the biting of many bills trying to mover her away. Nature can be cruel as well as beautifule.

Khaki Campbell ducks are not known to go broody, and as a matter of fact, it is rare for one to do so. I am fortunate to have had one raise 8 ducklings last year and this year, one with 7. I locked her in a hoop shelter with her nest so she could bond with the babies. Sometimes the mommas just forget about them and the time spent with just her babies helps the bond become strong. After a week, I let them out. There is a threshold on the hoop shelter that was too large for the babies to climb out of, so I made steps of wood logs, which worked perfectly. It is late in the season for babies, with only a few days of summer left, but she is not alone. The Muscovy girls just hatched their ducklings, nine beautiful babies, and one mamma hen hatched a single. She went broody with just a few eggs, but only one was hers. There is another hen with 7 babies a week old and still another duck sitting on a nest and 3 more hens as well. 

These little ducklings appear to be Rouen and Ancona crosses. There is not a single pure Khaki there. The white drake is looking on and making some comment about the new additions to the farm and mamma duck is scolding him. The babies are swimming in a tote lid, but the water has become muddy from the other ducks. It will be interesting to see how these babies turn out. Welcome little ones!

The four Rouen mother ducks sat on three nests, two together on one and the other two on their own. They synchronized their nesting so that the ducklings would hatch at the same time and they did, 42 of them. Of course, the mother ducks had no idea whose belonged to whom so they are trying to take care of them all. Already 10 have been lost to various episodes, some to the geese when they got too close, some left behind and they got cold and expired and who knows why the others did not make it. I guess that is why they have so many. 
But today, the mother duck with the white on her had a tiff with the other mother ducks and she picked up one of the ducklings repeatedly and threw it down, the same one. It was a little yellow duckling, so it will be white and the only white duck on the farm is the white Khaki Campbell, so it is safe to assume that it is at least cross bred Khaki. I watched the whole thing from the window of the skid steer with a huge bale of hay on it, so was powerless to help the little duckling. Finally the disagreement ended and the little duckling tottered a bit, but was able to walk. 
The last thing Robbie and I did tonight was to close the sheep pen and there was a duckling peeping. Robbie found it and sure enough, it was the little yellow duckling that had been so badly mistreated before. He was weak and cold and alone. I picked him up and cuddled him in the palm of my hand to warm him, but it is not looking good. He is in the porch in a Rubbermaid tote with a hot water bottle to snuggle up to and a bunch of wool to simulate another duckling. I fried and egg for him and gave him some pellets, but he showed no sign of wanting to drink or eat, so I left him huddled in the corner next to the hot water bottle. I am going to heat it again for him before I retire and hope he will make it through the night, though with that very rough treatment it does not appear he will pull through. Poor little duckey. 

It was 30 degrees Celsius today and the humidity was high, making working outside during the day very uncomfortable. The evenings bring out the mosquitos making working outside impossible unless something is used to repel the varmints. In the shelter where the ducks are nesting, 4 ducks in three nests, the temperature probably was closer to 40 degrees. There are openings for air and no door, but being on the west side of the building, that shelter was a swelter. But Mamma duck is smiling today. Three eggs hatched and one other one, a little black bantam chick so tiny and so cute. But it has to be a little rooster. He already is zooming around the shelter, has the exits and holes figured out and bombs through them like nothing. I thought I could catch him, but that was impossible. He hid under the building the shelter is attached to. You have to love those bantams! They are born smart. 

Mamma duck's eggs do not smell good, which means there is at least one rotten egg in the bunch. The chick looks like he is a few days old and she has not taken him out to feed or drink yet. There is no water shallow enough for the chicks so the duck waterer will have to be changed tomorrow. Newly hatched ducklings and chicks drown very easily. Nice work Mamma Duck. 

The ducklings and goslings hatched in the incubator earlier in spring are now almost full grown adults. It is possible to tell the difference between the sexes too. The male ducks have a distinct green tinge to their bills, while the females have plain orange, brown or mottled bills, depending on the breed or cross. The males will also develop a curl in their tail feathers fairly soon, but for now, they can be sexed. There are about half and half it appears. Most of these girls will stay on the farm since their moms are now three years old and their laying will decrease considerably next year and the subsequent years. The Khaki Campbell ducks will lay from early in the spring, even with snow on the ground and freezing temperatures, right through until the late fall, and possibly the start of winter. The other ducks, Saxony, Rouen and Ancona, will lay more sporadically now until fall. The only gosling hatched from the farm is a very large gander, mostly grey in colour. He is already protecting his flock. The white Chinese gosling belongs to a friend and was a sole hatchling, so has come to live on the farm for now. The poor fellow has a genetic defect resulting in dropped wings, called angel wing. Since he was fed just the same as the rest of the ducklings and the three other goslings, it was not likely a deficiency that caused the problem, because no others display any abnormalities at all. Well, that is not entirely so. One Rouen was hatched with wry neck, a twist in the neck that inhibits proper eating and drinking and is very tiresome. Although I was advised to do away with him, he has been given the chance to survive and do his best to keep up with the flock. 

The pure white Sebastopols are becoming quite stunning with their fluffy feathers. The goose comes to me and tells me stories. I picked her up today and she protested loudly bringing the gander over to investigate. Then she calmed down and laid her beautiful head on my arm. Ah, the goslings and ducklings are wonderful creatures. They really are. 

After so much rain for the past month, with the ground being muddy soup everywhere and the mosquitos and flies more prevalent because they can breed so quickly, today was a sunny day, finally. But it was super hot, 27 degrees Celcius, or almost 81 degrees Fernheit. The heat was one thing, but the humidity was the other. 

After the morning chores I settled down for coffee and breakfast, though breakfast never really arrived. I could hear a little kid goat crying and crying and the goats had been getting through the old fence in the weak spots, so I thought I should investigate. Sure enough, they had busted through again. An old tree had fallen on the wire giving them a clear path to the other side where it is always better than the side they are supposed to be on. 

So, I heaved and hoed and finally moved the log, pulled the wire up, got a stick and propped it up like a post to rest the wire on and went back inside. But that kid kept crying and I went out to find him. He was stuck on the right side of the fence this time because the goats that were out were ushered through the main gate and back to their pen leaving him behind. Robbie and I went in the bush and led him back to where he could find his way home. Kids these days, really. 

I went back in to have breakfast and realized I had not seen Georgie, the crippled lamb, go out with the rest, so we went to look for her. She was nowhere in sight and I hoped she would be found by night, but Robbie and I searched the bush, especially where we found her last night, and had no luck. Poor Georgie. Wherever she is, I hope she makes it through until morning. There are many predators in the woods and the dogs do their best, but she cannot run at all, so would not fare well. Bless you little sweetheart baby girl. Stay safe until morning light. 

I went out to do a little gardening, however the humidity was unbearable and sweat was pouring off me. Staying in the sun was not an option. I got two rows of mulching done and decided to go inside. I had long given up on breakfast and decided two fresh mangos from the case I bought yesterday would be a tasty treat. 

I answered some emails and did not too much for a while during the hottest part of the day, went out and cleaned the water bowls and refilled them. The ducks and geese foul the water as soon as it is poured and the goats especially do not like to drink dirty water. There are 5 ducks sitting on nests and a Saxony building one that already has 7 eggs, so soon to be 6 sitting ducks. The Ancona built a nest and began her sojourn today and the Rouen ladies began several days previously. I don't think the Saxony is far behind. That will be a lot of ducklings, if they all survive. Something has been picking off the goslings, the raven perhaps, so we are down to 14 from 28, half. The other Muscovy duck not sitting has her nest ready to go and is all huffy, but I gave her 14 Guinea eggs to hatch because there are plenty of ducklings already under way, including the other two Muscovies who are sitting on their own eggs. 

It was  a quiet hot and muggy day with not much production, but some days are just like that. Now, time to hit the hay. Goodnight and Bless you all. Sweet dreams. 

Gosh ducklings and goslings are cute! The last of the hatch was out today, with just a few goose eggs to go. The eggs were collected early in spring when the temperatures were still very low and although they were likely fertile, they were not viable. The ducks laid in their shelter and the chickens in their nesting boxes, but the geese were laying outside in makeshift nests. Unfortunately, most of the eggs got chilled and only two geese out of 50 eggs hatched. There are four geese setting now though, and each has a dozen or more eggs, so most likely, many of those eggs will hatch. The geese adults all care for and protect the young goslings. Last year, the gaggle raised 5 mom hatched little gaffers and they all went into the freezer. This year, if the eggs all hatch, which is not likely, but possible, there will be more than 40 goslings. It will be more difficult to protect the babies from arial predators, particularly the ravens. I am not sure how to handle that, not wanting to lose the young ones, but at the same time, wanting to allow the gaggle to look after and raise their babies. Only Robbie, the border collie, chases the ravens off. The other livestock guardian dogs do not much bother with them, unfortunately. 

Two goose eggs pipped, that is the baby broke through the shell, but they have been in the shells too long now, and likely will die in the shell. It is usually not a good idea to liberate the hatchlings either, since they often die shortly after, especially if they are stuck to the shell or membrane and bleed from being released. There are a dozen more goose eggs still in the incubator due in a few days. Then hatching is pretty much over for this year. A hundred chicks and about 25 ducklings, plus 5 turkeys made it, and so far, just two little goslings. They are all living in the granary aka brooder house with two heat lamps (in case one light burns out in the night or anything else ). During the day, if it is good weather, the granary door is open with a wire cover in place to keep cats and ravens out, so the birds can get some fresh air and see outside. In a few weeks they will be transferred to separate pens, one for the waterfowl and the other for the chicks and turkeys. There they will remain until they are well on their way to adult hood and have gained the ability to fend off predators and watch for themselves, usually about at four months old. The males will be sent off to the processor at five months, and the females sold as laying hens or kept for breeding stock and laying hens for the farm. Then next year, the cycle will go on. That is the way of the hatch. 

The first hatch is underway. The cost of keeping birds is much less than buying hay for sheep and goats, and the eggs, chicks and adult bird sales far outweigh their upkeep. That is not so with the other animals on the farm, but at least something breaks even!
The incubators are not mine, but belong to two different friends. I am splitting the hatch with one friend and the other gets his pick of the birds, so it is a win win situation for me and for them. About 40 mixed duck eggs, Rouen, Saxony, Ancona and Khaki Campbell, plus Muscovy, and 15 Standard Bronze turkey eggs, 18 mixed geese, Tufted Toulouse/Embden/Pomeranian, and chicken, Ameraucana/Partridge and white Chantecler and a few others plus bantams are all in the incubator with the chicks due on April 26 and the waterfowl on May 3 and 5. Muscovy ducks take the longest to hatch, followed by the geese then ducks and chicks the shortest, at 21 days. Some of the hatch has been presold already. About the same time, or a bit later, the farm will be receiving an order from Performance Poultry with specialty birds so there will be waterfowl and chick brooders set up and ready to go. Three separate hatches will be made, with approximately 80 eggs per hatch. After that, if there is still interest, the hatch will be set by order only. Unclaimed birds will be raised and either sent to the processors or kept for layers or for sale as adult birds. In the summer the feed bill is very low because the birds free range and basically feed themselves. This year, the numbers of adult birds are too high for the small farm yard, so they will out to pasture with the sheep so the dogs can also watch over them. With the new fencing, it will be easier to pasture the birds. The fliers go where they wish anyhow, so basically it is the ducks and geese and a few of the chickens that will need supplemental grazing. The benefits of raising the birds are many from fresh pastured eggs to bug control to delicious dinners. And to think that when I began this venture three years ago, I had a terrible bird phobia and could not touch a bird, not even a newly hatched chick, let alone go in a coop. Now I can, though the odd time, I still get prickles on the back of my neck when the birds fly by my head. I actually like them now, especially the comical ducks. They are my favourites, hands down. The egg pictured is from a Standard Bronze turkey, and I even like them. 

I absolutely LOVE the ducks! For hours on end, I can stand and watch them conversing with each other, scolding, picking, fighting, waddling and bathing. Bathing in winter is particularly interesting. I do not give them much water when it is cold, only a bucket in which they can dip their whole heads in to clear their eyes, which is mandatory, and a small, shallow pan, which was supposed to be for the chickens. The geese and ducks will go to the bucket and dip their heads in, flapping their wings as though they were in a shallow pool, and spread the water by throwing it onto their feathers. Of course, in these frigid temperatures, the water freezes instantly. This is not bad though. The ducks and geese will then spend an hour preening, that is spreading the oil from a gland through their feathers, which further waterproofs and weatherproofs them. They are well insulated and can lay on the ice and snow if they tuck their feet up into their feathers, which they do. The feet of the waterfowl are more sensitive to the cold, it seems, than the chickens, though neither like the very cold weather.

The Fat Ewe Farm has some interesting rare breeds of ducks. Of 11 ducklings purchased in the summer, only one female Ancona remains. The Ancona is a black and white duck, somewhat flighty and crazy, but absolutely the best foraging duck on the farm. I would like to try a few Runner ducks, one of the breeds from which the Ancona was derived to compare their foraging abilities, but more so, I would like to find a mate for the Ancona duck and see if I can raise some of these amazing little critters.

There are three Saxony ducks but no drake there either. The Saxony is a pretty buff coloured duck with buff and white eye stripes. They lay eggs well from early spring to very late fall and are larger than many duck breeds, so make a nice table duck. I am searching for a non related Saxony drake for the spring.

The Rouen is coloured as the wild Mallard from which it is derived, though it is a very large duck. They lay a great deal of eggs and are good at feeding themselves if given the opportunity. There are three ducks and drake of the Rouen breed.

Khaki Campbell ducks were my first experience with waterfowl and I really loved them. They are crazy skitterish and will fall all over themselves to get away from me, but when I am not moving towards them, they will also come and see what I have and run all over my feet. They detest being picked up and so far, I have not tamed a single one. The second year, a duck got injured and was secluded. She nested and hatched 8 babies, and that is rare for Khaki Campbells. Maybe the secret is to sequester them away so they desire to set the nest rather than run and play. The Campbells were bred to lay eggs, and that they do extremely well.

There are some other ducks living at The Fat Ewe Farm, but they are crosses from the ducks here, mostly Rouen, Campbell crosses and only the females are here, about five of them. I would love to try the Dutch Hookbill, Blue Swedish, and Aylesbury, the finest table duck ever bred, along with some Runner ducks. That will be a project for the summer, to try to locate pairs of these.

Oh yeah, there are also four Muscovy ducks. These are large flighted ducks from South America originally, well, not these particular ones, but the breed is. They do not quack or make noise, but rather make a funny sound like a person with harsh laryngitis. They do not like the cold and do not far as well as the ducks descended from the Mallards, which is basically the rest of the ducks. There are three ducks and one summer baby that appears to be male. Muscovy ducks are constantly broody even at the sake of their own health. Last summer one duck spent three months under buildings trying to hatch ducklings. Finally, I tore up the nest and threw the eggs away, which were long overdue and bad, and she was locked up with the rest of the ducks. Muscovies will hatch the eggs of any duck or chicken though, so they are very valuable that way, plus they are supposedly tasty with very dark meat, but I have not eaten one.

Duck eggs are three times more nutritious than chicken eggs and when they are plentiful, I won't touch the chicken eggs. They just do not compare. The ducks are fed minimal grain in the summer and have the run of the farm yard to eat grass, which they a lot of, dandelions, their favourites and bugs, flies and even the odd young mouse of vole. I am looking into alternatives for not feeding grain to the birds at the Fat Ewe , but I am not sure yet how that will work. In the meantime, I love those duckies! They put a smile on my face every time.