New Discoveries With The Ducks And Chickens

 Last evening when I went to start up the tractor to mow, I found a great surprise. Technically, our hens should not be laying for another six to eight weeks.

But as you can see, we have an egg. We don't have straw for the nesting boxes in the hen house yet. We were going to wait until closer to egg laying time. Getting the hay in too early just makes for a big mess.

But our little hen just couldn't wait. We're not sure which hen is laying early. Both the Rhode Island Reds and the Plymouth Rocks lay brown eggs. This small egg is small for both breeds of chicken. This is normal for a first lay though. 

 I proceeded to mow and here came all the chickens. Sassy was the first one to hop upon the mower to my left. And then, A RIR had to copy her. Sassy has made herself my pet hen. She's the only one that will fly up into my arms and let me hold her.

They just kept huddling around the mower as I tried to pull away. I'd like to say it's because they wanted to spend more time with me. But, I'm pretty sure since I had already mowed and acre or so,

This is a mallard with the blue stripe and green head and white neck ring.

This is a mallard with all the markings except for the blue stripe. I'm not sure why some drakes have the stripe and others do not.

But this is another great change amongst our birds. The fact that our mallard is definitely a male. He has had the blue stripe for several weeks but no other signs of being a male. We didn't know what to think. With the color change on the belly and throat turning from brown to white we were getting suspicious. And then, his head started turning a deep green. He is a male.

We're pretty sure the Pekin Duck is a female. The male got taken by a raccoon. You can see how much larger Pekin Ducks are than mallards. Yes that's Sassy in the photo. She has really been competing for my sole attention.

 This is Beaker. He is still the most adventurous of the Plymouth Rocks. The other chickens are reluctant to balance themselves on the edge of the duck's pool. But not Beaker. She has always been a fearless hen.

Once again Sassy feels the need to try to be top hen. She doesn't have the courage to perch on the pool. But she is still determined to get a drink. Streeeetch that neck Sassy. JoJo is content to just watch. We are still trying to figure out exactly what breed she is. She has a very flat comb. We do know that Hark can swim after the chasing of the dog. She wants no part of the pool. And is nowhere to be seen while the rest of the chickens are curiously checking out the water.

A Typical Morning With The Chickens And Ducks

This is a typical morning with our chickens and ducks. They have gotten along so well since we've gotten them all back in the early spring.

We go out each morning and open the coop door so the chickens and ducks can free range. The chickens spend a good hour picking at the clover and grass for bugs and morning dew.

The ducks are no stranger to this behavior as well. They don't spend as much time with their heads to the ground but they do like shuffling their bill through the foliage for treasures just as much as the chickens do. They "graze" super fast so that they can high tail it to their favorite spot.

I keep a galvanized steel tub by the down spout so when it rains the ducks can play in the water. They groom themselves carefully with this water.

The Pekin duck requires more grooming because of her white feathers. But it's the mallard that could spend hours picking and preening through her feathers. The Pekin is just lifting her left foot to run her talons through her feathers on her head.

It doesn't take long though and the chickens start looking for something new to do.

The ducks wait for the chickens to choose the direction and then they follow them everywhere they go throughout the day. You can see the hodge-podge of duck and chicken foot prints on the sidewalk.

This is the talons of a female chicken. A hen will grow spurs, but they aren't aggressive with them like a rooster can be.

This is Deleanor's feet. We thought he was a hen for several weeks. But, as spring turned into summer Eleanor became Deleanor. He is developing larger spurs than the hens. 

Here a few random shots of the ducks after they've groomed themselves. They spend quite a bit of time scrounging around the yard and making sure the stay close to the chickens.

These two ducks couldn't be more opposite but they are best friends. Even though the white Pekin is much larger she tries to hide behind the smaller mallard when people come and get too close.

 Her morning grooming routine was a success. Her feathers glisten and shine when the sunlight catches them.

This is one of the Rhode Island Red hens. Her face is in the last stages of being completely developed. She is a very happy, healthy chicken. You can tell by the bright clear eyes. She has a bit of clover in her beak.

A hen's ear lobes indicate the color of eggs they will lay. She has red lobes so she will lay brown eggs.

Red lobe indicates brown eggs. White lobes indicates white eggs.

We should end up with a wide array of egg colors. The Plymouth Rock (black and white hens) will lay brown eggs. Jo-Jo and Hark will lay what is called the Easter eggs. They are pastel blue/green.

We Have A Rooster Indeed

We ended up with a rooster. But, it isn't Penny. Turns out Penny is a hen. But now we know why one of the hens had amazingly beautiful feathers, she is a he. Most female birds are the beauty. It's usually the male that gets the colorful flaunting feathers. So, that would explain...

Her fancy feathering. And it would explain why she/he has suddenly become the ruler of the roost.

It would also explain why his tail looked like this picture of a blue wheaten rooster.

But we were mostly convinced that he is a rooster because he woke us up trying to crow this morning.

 So, Eleanor is now Deleanor.  And for those of you who are following the chicken stories...

The chickens were chased by a pit bull last weekend. One of the Rhode Island Red's eye got damaged in the fiasco. We left her alone to heal rather than trying to tend to and possibly causing further damage. We are happy to report that her eye opened after a few days and she can see perfectly. 

I wanted to post one last photo of Deleanor. His feathers are just magnificent.

It's been a week since the last post. All was going well with our Bohemian chicken lifestyle, until the neighbor dog came in our yard. We love dogs.

We just don't like a dog that chases our chickens. But that's what happened to our little chickens and ducks yesterday afternoon.

It was a beautiful day and we were keeping a close on the chickens and ducks and came inside for about ten minutes. I glanced out the window and saw a tail of what I thought was a beagle. It was not. It was a pit bull. This breed of dog is considered vicious. We have the pit bull on surveillance chasing the chickens and ducks into hiding. He actually got one of the chickens but it got away. We weren't sure if she was hurt or not. We couldn't find any of the chickens.

Two ducks were safely hiding behind our tractor. And then ran to the coop.

We found Eleanor first. She hightailed it to the hen house immediately and hid on a perch. Penny was huddled in a corner in the hen house as well. JoJo and the third duck ran for the coop when they saw us. We got them safely inside. We had all three ducks and three chickens. Now to find the other six chickens.

We searched the Department of Natural Resource tree study field next to our house. Very timidly a head poked out of the weeds. It was Merida. She was scared and panting. We coaxed her along gently to the coop. She was extremely skiddish and nervous. And now to find her best friend Belle. 

While we were looking for more chickens, Zoey had found her way to hide under the tractor. She was so shaken that she let us pick her right up without any fuss. She has been nervous since Joey moved away. If a chicken could possibly miss someone and be depressed, it would be Zoey. The dog chasing left her with a few feathers on her underside a bit ruffled. We saw the third rhode island red by the garage bushes. We coaxed her to the coop because she was too nervous to be picked up and carried. Now we just needed to find Hark, Beaker and Sassy.

Then I thought to get the tin feeding can that I put scraps in throughout the day to feed to the chickens. they always come running when i tap the can. So with can in hand we headed along the creek. I tapped and tapped and it wasn't long and we heard the clucking of a hen. It was Hark on the other side of the creek.

My husband finally worked his way down the creek to where Hark was hiding.

He had no other choice but to coax her into the water because she would not come to him or let him pick her up.

A friend had sent a video of a Plymouth Rock hen swimming in a pool. I had never seen such a thing. I'm so glad that she sent that. Chickens aren't typically a swimming kind of creature. But it was nice to know that if need be a chicken could swim. And so Hark swam across the creek with my husband staying close by.

 I don't know if you can tell by the photo. But, this is Hark immediately upon coming out of the creek. She is drenched. We got Hark to coop. She looked very relieved to be back with the other chickens. Now we just needed to find Beaker and Sassy.

I get so irritated at the hens for coming on the porch and wanting to sit in the window. It's something Beaker and Sassy do nearly every day.

But for once I was glad to see Beaker in the window. We knew that the dog had gotten one but we didn't know if she was still alive. We searched for quite a while. Then my husband watched the surveillance camera to see if we could find which direction they ran. While we were looking at the footage, I heard a gentle trill at the dining room window. It was Beaker. She is always sitting up high on the porch bench. We were thrilled to see her still bold and brave and sitting in the window calling for us to come get her. Sassy was still missing. We searched until we didn't know where to look anymore.

We decided to go get something to eat and hopefully she would find her way home. The first restaurant we went to had this sign hanging on it's door.
 

 But the banner on the front of the restaurant said, "Now Open!" We looked for another restaurant and vowed that we would check this one out once they got they story straight. We found a place to eat and then quickly got back home in case Sassy found her way to the coop.

When we came home and pulled into our driveway there was Sassy sitting in the bushes peeking out at us. My husband went right over and scooped her up. True to her name she still had her sass and vigor. But she sure was glad to be safe in her owner's arms. 

 

Sassy was caught by the dog. But true to her name she held her own and survived. 

All ducks and chickens are now all present and accounted for!

Our new order of business on our free ranging chicken farm...teach the chickens to chase dogs come rain, sleet, snow or hail.