Neglected Blog

My oh my has so much changed.  The last year has been a bit of a whirl wind.  A lot of family changes and yet another move… thats right, another move.  The BTC Acre was such a wonderful idea yet the dream has taken a bit of a detour.  Aaron and I separated and sold our perfect home and moved into separate homes in the city.  *GASP*  The chickens and ducks were sold and we have moved on.  My dream of a homestead is simply put on hold for the time being.  I needed to be in the city where I have a good support system of friends and family.  I moved in March of last year (2013) and still managed to have a decent garden at my new home.  It wasn't BTC acre but it was a nice start for my new home in the city.  I have become a member of the Chicken Co-op yet again and still get out to visit with our original 4 Barred Rock hens as well as the rest of the big flock that is out there now.  My goals in life are still the same, there has just been a few detours along my path.

I have a file on my computer with many pictures and post ideas that I just never got around to writing and so I will be back dating many posts so that it all makes sense and in chronological order.  So from August 2012 I hopefully will be filling in the blanks over the next few weeks.

 

Winter with Birds

The winter with the birds seemed to fly by.  The daily was going through some major changes and plans to sell the birds had already been put into place.  Regardless of this, I loved these birds throughout the winter.  There were no major issues throughout the cold months.  It was a mild winter for my area but we still had a few cold spells and some major dumps as far as snow fall goes.  The main issue in the cold months was of course water.  I managed to bring the large waterer with warm water every morning and afternoon and the birds would empty it before it froze each time… thanks to the ducks.  When building the coop we were sure to not have any low drafts and made the roosts flat so the birds would could keep their entire feet under their bodies rather than having to wrap their feet around a circular type roost.

If you have ever seen ducks or chickens in the cold you have seen how they will keep one foot tucked under their body for warmth while perched on one leg and then they switch.  During sleep it is difficult for the birds to do this so it is important to have a flat surface for them to roost.  

As for laying, the birds didn't slow down too much over the winter months.  They had been well into their fertile months and only slowed down moderately.  I usually got just under a dozen a day.  We also had a bird who laid double yolks on a regular basis.  The eggs were far larger than the rest, more like a duck egg, and the yolks were usually a fair size… poor girl.  

It was late in february that the birds were sold.  The chickens went to a local farmer who wanted to add to his flock and saw our for sale sign.  He stopped in one day and offered to take (for a price) the birds if we needed to rehome them.  The ducks also went to a different local farmer who added to their existing flock.  If only I were able to have some birds in the city… I would most certainly have 4-6 birds in my side yard… on day I'll be back on a property where I can have a flock, but until then its back to the Coop Co-Op.  

 

Foamy Pekin Duck Eye

One of my Pekin ducks got an infection in his eye.  This is a very common ailment with ducks in colder months because of the lack of water to bathe properly.  Typically, it is easy to manage with some TLC.  We purchased some saline solution and I would go outside 3x a day and squirt it in his eyes.  I would never rub them or touch them, you wouldn't want to irritate it further.  Foamy eyes can often be signs of a upper respiratory infection if accompanied by any combination of sneezing, wheezing, runny nose, diarrhea or lethargy.  If any of these symptoms are present further treatment and a vet visit may be necessary.  This guy didn't have any other symptoms aside from the foamy eye and it was within a day or two that I could see significant improvement in his eye after the saline treatment.

Once this infection occurred I would often (once a week or so) bring out warm buckets of water for the ducks to simply dunk their heads in and give themselves a quick rinse.   

Here are 2 links with some of the common duck ailments/issues:

http://www.callducks.net/ducksail.htm

http://www.duckhealth.com/duckhlth.html

A New Family Member

A close friend of mine decided to find a new home for her dwarf Norwegian Rabbit.  I of course jumped at the opportunity to take her!  I am very allergic to rabbits, but this would not stop me… after all I am allergic to birds as well.  As long as I remember to wash my hands after handling, I am typically fine with all animals.  So here is Ruby!

The kids are huge fans of Max and Ruby so of course our white bunny needed to be named Ruby.    

Even Winston was a fan of our new bunny!

Ruby would remain part of the inside family and was never outside with the birds.  Meat rabbits is something I would consider in future… but not Ruby and certainly not her breed.

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs!

A few of our first chicken eggs!

Our birds started laying between 18-20 weeks old.  It started with a few eggs a day and quickly escalated to around a dozen a day at least.  As usual, the first few eggs were smaller and often misshapen.  Duck eggs didn't appear until 25 weeks or so.  The duck eggs were beautiful!!  About the size of 1.5 regular size chicken eggs and speckled.

Here is a duck egg between 2 chicken eggs.

To compare duck eggs to chicken eggs in flavour, for me duck yolks were far superior in flavour.  Duck yolks seemed to have a much richer flavour.   Duck eggs are also higher in Omega-3's and last longer.  But… when it comes to the whites, I actually prefer chicken egg whites.  The duck whites have a different texture which was a bit tougher than chicken whites and they just seemed to have less flavour to me.  In a nutshell, if I want dippy eggs for bacon I'll go with duck eggs.  If I'm wanting scrambled eggs or omelette I'll have chicken eggs.

Here is the nutritional breakdown of Duck eggs vs. Chicken eggs (Source):

Chicken Egg, Large, Raw

Chicken Egg Caloric Ration

Chicken eggs (large egg, 50g):

• Calories: 71
• Total Fat: 5g
• Cholesterol: 211mg
• Sodium: 70mg
• Total Carbohydratge: 0g
• Protein: 6g

Duck Egg, Raw

Duck Egg Caloric Ratio

Duck eggs (70g):

• Calories: 130
• Total Fat: 10g
• Cholesterol: 619mg
• Sodium: 102mg
•  Total Carbohydrate: 1g
• Protein: 9g

Now, here are some photos of the flock once they were all laying:

One of our Columbian Rocks… tied with Barred Rocks as my favourite!  The were so sweet and every time I would bend over in the run they would take the opportunity to roost on my back!

A Poisonous mushroom was growing rampant in the yard.
I made sure to remove any that were growing in the birds run, although through instinct, they knew not to eat them.
I believe it to be a:  Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria

The Fly Agaric is a common white mushroom with an orangish to red cap. This is the species illustrated in many fairy tales (it occurs both in North America and Europe). Many mushrooms in this genus are extremely poisonous.

Some yummy snacks from the kitchen.  Chickens really do make the best garbage disposals.

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Sam The Clock

"Sam The Clock" named by our son.   He was boss of the chickens but certainly not the ducks.  

Sam was the Rooster and he was a Barred Rock.  He was the keeper of the flock and the wakeup call in the morning…. and the afternoon…. and sometimes even in the middle of the night.  He was boss of the chickens, indeed, but certainly not the ducks.
As he grew he became a bit aggressive.  We loved taking the kids into the run to pet the birds and chase them around.  Once Sam started getting aggressive we stopped bringing the kids into the run.  He liked to jump at us and try to get our legs with his claws.  When he decided to attack my leg and give me a nasty cut it was decided that he would have to become dinner.  He was a decent weight so one night Aaron, for the first time, harvested a bird.  I'm a bit of a softy so I wasn't present until the bird looked more like food.  I helped with some of the plucking and cleaning and we ended up with Sam on our table.  Surprisingly, the kids were very ok with this process.  Megan was a bit young and may not have fully understood but Owen certainly did and was not bothered by it at all.

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Bird of Prey

We had an issue with a bird of prey in the summer of 2012.  We are not sure what kind of bird but we believe it was a hawk.  One day on my way home from getting our son from school I noticed all the birds were inside the coop.  Upon further investigation I then noticed one of our female rouen ducks on the ground and had been killed by something.  I quickly looked around and saw a very large bird high up in a tree near the creek.  I assume this was the culprit.  I sent the kids inside and I disposed of the duck.  The rouen ducks were my absolute favourite and I was so sad to see one go this way.  I began to make more frequent appearances outside and also got a fake Owl to set in a tree in the yard and I moved it around regularly.  I saw the bird in the same tree a few times but it never took another bird, thankfully.

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