Jess172 journal: I want to do it all!

What kind of ducks are you hatching? I'm gonna start my ducklings the same way I did the chicks, in the baby brooder tote. I'm sure they will out grow it much faster than the chicks did so ill probably try to work on their grow out pen this weekend. It's supposed to be nice this weekend but I've got a photographer friend coming Saturday to take pics of my kiddos around the property. So that day will probably be shot.

Muscovy. I got the eggs from the farm when it was so cold out that they would have frozen solid. Then I had to figure out what to do w/them. I finally decided to go ahead and try to hatch them out. I did have 14 eggs. I'm down to 9.

My ducklings came in this morning!

I'm loving them! They are so friendly and don't seem scared at all. Here is the Rouens in the brooder:

I'm going to have to find some rocks today to put in their water so they will quit stepping in it. I knew this ahead of time but got too excited about them coming and overlooked it at the last minute.
Today I'm going to move the new 4 day old chicks out into the garage and divide them into two brooders for more room. The two week olds are doing great! No more chick losses other than the original 3. Either I'm getting better at this chick raising stuff or the freezing temps that the first batch were sent in was just too much for some of them.
In going to try to go through closets today and pull out everyone's spring clothes. It's supposed to be in the 70's for the next 4 days I've also got to find time and clean up the yard before Saturdays pics. In between everything I'll be staring at my ducks and chicks. They are so entertaining I could watch them all day!

Woo hoo! congrats on the duckies!

They're cute.

We've had some beautiful weather the last few days. I've been going outside in the morning and not coming in until dark. Got lots done in the yard but there is still so much to be done. I'm mostly still going around and picking up junk and trash that the former owners left. The kids got lots of time playing outside and we even got to fly kites yesterday. I had a photographer friend come to our house on Saturday to take pics of the kids and a family pic outside. I also cleaned all the baby chick and duckling brooders out and the grow out pen really well while hubby was mowing. And it really needed to be mowed. It was getting snakey and he even seen a few while he was mowing. They were only the harmless black snakes so at least they weren't poisonous. Ticks are going to be bad this year. Got 23 ticks off my dog in two days. That's with a flea and tick collar on and we wash him in flea and tick shampoo. I may get some of that stuff you put on their back to see if that helps. Got guineas coming in June so that should help some once they can be turned loose. Starting to wish we had ordered them earlier. We got potatoes planted, pulled weeds in the garden and worked in the green house. Since its going to be raining on and off today I'm going to stay inside and catch up on laundry and clean house. I've just been doing the basics since its been so nice out because who wants to be stuck inside cleaning on a beautiful day?

Chickens will eat ticks as well, and they're not as noisy!

I'm kind of afraid to let the chickens free range very far. Right now we have a big coyote problem. Just today a lady that lives a few miles from me found the remains of her small dog, obviously killed by coyotes. We have a friend who hunts them and he came to our house last month to see if he could find any. He found them alright. He was tracking some when 4 came up from behind him. He couldn't shoot them because it was in the direction of our house. Decided then that maybe he was going to need some more people to help him out. Hubby is going to go next time the friend is in town and maybe they can thin the population down a bit. Coyotes in my area are about the size of German Shepards so they can cause a lot of problems if not kept in check.

Hope they can get them under control.

That's scary!