The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I've never seen a Mallard go through molt into Nuptial plumage I thought for sure one of Hillbillys drakes might have fathered this one.

@WannaBeHillBilly are the Mallards now part of your flock go in every night with them for safety?

They come and go, most of the nights they sleep on that floating island on the pond, where they have been raised by their mother, but sometimes they sleep somewhere else. - The neighbors also have ponds.
They hang out with my flock to enjoy safety in numbers - at some times there lay up to 59 ducks around the house, every step another quack… And they help themselves to the pellets. But i have not seen one of them in the duck-house and they don't walk inside with the other's at night.
I am still not sure if they will stay here over winter or if they will be gone one morning.Told them they're welcome to stay and will be fed, but instincts are strong.

From my childhood in Germany i remember, that all Mallards and Geese (and a lot of other birds) were leaving for the winter, but as the winters became milder and milder more and more ducks and geese decided to stay. Now they have turned into a nuisance in parks and lakes and it is strictly forbidden to feed them.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Happy Wednesday everybody!

Its 2pm and i'm still not awake… Rain is in the forecast here and that causes my brain to partially shut-down. Have to plant the remaining strawberries…

 

[donkeydew2farms]

hi guys it is raining thank the lord. it has been very dry here for this time of year. i am sure the geese are very happy . turkeys not so much i hope my babies are all right. my royal palm has 5 young about 3 weeks old. she surprised me. and i have 8 assorted poults from porters. they are 8 weeks. never been in the rain before.lol .they have shelter weather they are smart a enough to use it they are not very bright.lol.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Happy Þursday Morning everybody!

I fell asleep really early yesterday evening, now it is hortly after midnight and i am fully awake!

Look at Pinballs neck and head how many feathers she has grown for the upcoming winter and listen carefully what she has to say…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I was racing against the weather yesterday afternoon!
First Mount DuckPoop needed to be protected against the upcoming rain and the winter weather, we don't want all the nutrients to be washed away until next Spring, so i covered it with some freshly plucked (bamboo?) grass:

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Then i had to plant the remaining strawberries:

As you can see in the right, i had to "plant" the latest offshoots together with their pots. Their roots are not developed enough to keep the soil in their pots together in a root-ball. Hopefully they won't freeze to death and have a chance to grow some more roots until/in spring.
And during the whole time those cheeky ducknagers were plucking, ripping and trampling at the strawberry plants! They haven't understood that the edible parts are the berries and not the leaves and roots. In the end i had to draw a line in form of a fence post (left) which caused a dozen disappointed girls to turn their backs on me.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

The final task was to burn some cardboard boxes, some old wood and some shrub-debris.

And that was when the rain hit us here really hard! The cardboard burned away, the wood very likely not entirely. More charcoal for the soil…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Has anybody ever made Papier-mâché out of those pesky cardboard boxes and tried to form seedling pots? - I burned some of these today:

re-using the cardboard as seedling pots instead of burning it would serve a dual-purpose, i could get these pots for free and wouldn't have to burn something…

 

[rjohns39]

Good morning / evening folks

 

[Miss Lydia]

Has anybody ever made Papier-mâché out of those pesky cardboard boxes and tried to form seedling pots? - I burned some of these today:
View attachment 3289673

re-using the cardboard as seedling pots instead of burning it would serve a dual-purpose, i could get these pots for free and wouldn't have to burn something…

I haven't but it looks like it might work as long as there are no nasty chemicals to leach into the plants.