ducks on the farm

22 05, 2020

Bath Day

By |2020-05-28T09:46:52-05:00May 22nd, 2020|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara


The newest arrivals to our duck pen really seem to enjoy the “duck pond” (i.e. kiddie swimming pool).  Since we built the duck pen in the front corner of the chicken yard, I can watch the ducks swim from my kitchen window.  I spend a lot of time in the kitchen so I get to see the ducks often.

At least once a week I empty the “pond” and refill it with fresh water.  This is the ducks’ favorite day.  I stand outside to get a better view of them in the clean pond.

Ricky is always the first to get into the water.  He is the oldest duck and I call him the daddy duck.

When he is in the water, no one else comes around. Ricky doesn’t share.

The younger ducks are content to play in the puddle created by emptying the “pond.”

 

After Ricky has finished playing in the water, the rest of the ducks can take their turn.

 

 

The younger ducks are much better at sharing.  They are not so good at social distancing.

3 05, 2019

The Early Duck…

By |2019-05-02T21:37:09-05:00May 3rd, 2019|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Now that the ducks are in their new space, we have settled into a new routine on Miller Farm.

Each morning I feed the chickens their fermented chicken feed and give the ducks cat food.  I haven’t found a specific duck feed and the cat food has the calcium they need so it is all good.

I also retrieve the egg that Lucy lays.  In the afternoon I throw some feed to the chickens and ducks and gather chicken eggs.

On Fridays I empty the “duck pond” i.e. wading pool, and refill it with clean water.  Last week when I turned it over to empty it, there were many worms underneath.

Lucy thought it was a feast.

Ricky was a little slow so he missed out.

I guess it is true – the early bird gets the worm – even if the bird is a duck.

22 02, 2019

Ducks Take Two

By |2019-02-22T07:16:41-06:00February 22nd, 2019|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

We used to have ducks. We got them when they were ducklings and they all turned out to be male.  This was not good for our farm so they went to live in a pond with lots of weeds to eat.

We have ducks again.  This time there is a male and a female.

I named them Lucy and Ricky.  Lucy has been laying eggs since the day we got her.

We put them in a separate run. They kept escaping which necessitated chasing them around the chicken yard. They get along fine with the chickens so we’ve just let them cohabitate.

I do have to search for the duck eggs among the hen eggs now.

The other problem is they make a mess of the chicken waterers.  I’m not sure how they do It but there is now a layer of mud in each chicken waterer every day.

I was really frustrated by this today and then I found a beautiful purple feather.  Then I found another one.

It turns out Ricky has purple feathers under the black ones.

It makes me smile.  I guess we’ll keep these ducks for a while.

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