Poultry

 Release the Quacken!

The ducks and the turkey are buddies.  They enjoy spending time together every day.  They also hang with the chickens.  I let them into the swing set yard when I'm around to supervise.  Otherwise, the chickens eat my seedlings in the gardens.

I don't know what was so exciting under these weeds, but the ducks loved this spot.  I'm guessing slugs, since we have a lot of those, and ducks are supposed to love them, but I'm not sure.

My friendly turkey is getting bigger.  She's very inquisitive.

And lastly, Lydia loved drama camp last week.  Here is one of her groups after performing two songs from Pirates of Penzance:

Lydia had a small speaking part in addition to the singing and dancing.  She did great.  In the second session, Lydia did improv in front of a live audience.  My girl's got skills!

 

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a good Memorial Day weekend, even if there were less visitors than there used to be.  Everyone seemed to have a great time.  Elijah went fishing with his buddies:

Our mama hen and her 3 chicks enjoy scratching and pecking:

The turkeys and chicks have grown:

We are down to 7 living meat birds.  The rest have been eaten or frozen.  (We had 23 originally.)

The ducks don't like to be handled, but the kids like petting them!

And we had our annual stair picture.  Elijah was at work, so he's not present.

 

Moving On...

 

There have been plenty of "moves" here this week.  First up, this hen became a mama:

At least 2 chicks have hatched, and she's still sitting on eggs, so there may be more coming.

The ducks moved into their new area.  They are getting used to it.

These two enjoyed their last day of school with a special lunch out:

This little turtle has been making regular appearances in our front yard:

And the chicks keep growing.  We harvested 5 meat birds so far.  Only 18 more of those to go!

And here is a closer look at a turkey poult:

I'm really enjoying the turkeys.  They are inquisitive and friendly.  The ducks don't like me.  They are very apprehensive, and they don't much like us around despite me visiting them, giving them treats, etc at least 3 times a day.  The chicks and the turkeys are always glad to see me, though.

Ducklings

First of all, Gyunay had his surgery last week.

He has recovered nicely.  The swelling has gone down to almost normal, and the bruising is minimal.  He is starting to tentatively use his little arm a bit to steady paper or other very light things, although not the tip.  He is completely off medications, and he reports no pain now, although of course, we are still trying not to bump it at all.  He is very excited that he is allowed to shower again.  (He still can't submerge his little arm in water, but he couldn't shower at all for 3 days, and my super-clean little boy didn't like that at all!)

                           And now, on to ducklings.  And a shot of a box turtle in the yard:

The ducklings grow so fast!  We have let them have little swims in their pool:

The ducklings are really cute.  They are still totally freaked out by me, but they are really cute.  They are getting more feathers in every day.  

Lastly, I wanted to note that my King Tut peas are growing:

Yes, I really did buy the seeds just on the name and the story.  Hopefully, we will like the peas, although I may be the only one who eats them.  Legend has it that the peas were found in King Tut's tomb and taken back to England by Lord Carnarvon.  More likely, the peas came from Lord Carnarvon's estate in England, but in any case, I couldn't resist planting them.

 

Thurby and Ducks

 Nathaniel and I went to Thurby!  My mom made my hat for me:

And in other news, the ducks are growing really fast. My sister and her kids were here this weekend, and they loved the ducks!

Today, I moved the rest of the chicks out to the little yard, so the brooder only has ducks and turkeys now.  All of the poultry seem to be doing really well!

I still have lots of pictures to post, so more posts soon...

Ducks and Turkeys and Chicks Oh MY!

 

Nathaniel and I had a lovely 3-day getaway to the Red River Gorge, and this is a preview of that, but I am going to save more of those pictures for future posts.  On the way home Thursday, we stopped at Rural King and bought 4 ducklings and 2 turkey poults.

This time, the poultry purchase was all Nathaniel's fault, but I gotta say, those ducklings are the cutest things.  (That is a turkey poult on the left of the ducklings.)

We separated them from the chicks in the brooder for just two nights, because there isn't enough room for 23 meat chicks, 8 regular chicks, 2 poults, and 4 ducklings.  So now the meat birds are enjoying a spacious covered area outdoors:

And the rest are enjoying much more room to move in the brooder: