It's been a busy, busy week here on the farm as well as a hot and very humid start to June - yesterday it was 87 degrees with 93% humidity. It's like doing your chores with a hot, wet blanket over your head... *bleh*
The ducklings are going through their "ugly duckling" phase as they start to get feathers over their fuzz. But the new feathers coming in look so nice... they're getting to be very handsome. The Campbell's are getting their little tweed coats with that nice, herringbone brown coloring and the Muscovy have just a little bit of yellow fuzz poking up around shiny white feathers.
The Campbell's are very active and running around finding bugs, dabbling in their water pan, and chatting amongst themselves companionably. They rest a lot in the tall grass during the heat of the day and I wish they'd dunk themselves in the water but they don't seem to be interested in swimming. They just stick their heads underwater and messily splash and flick it all around, but they don't get in. Oh well.
The Muscovy are growing so fast! They remind me of my mastiffs they way they lay around and want me to just step over them rather than move. As they've matured they've really quieted down too. They used to make their little duckling peeps but now they're growing into new vocalizations... or lack thereof. The males just make a sort of panting sound and the females are making a soft purr-squeek. They really only "talk" when I pick them up or they're upset about something.
We've had some serious thunderstorms lately and they all got caught in a terrible downpour last Thursday - the the rain drops were huge and the thunder was tremendous! I had a couple of shelters for them outside but since the whole group couldn't entirely fit into a single shelter they wouldn't go in at all. I was afraid it might hail again like it did last week and I felt terrible seeing them marching all tucked together back and forth from one place to another so I got a big tarp and went out in the pouring rain to make a single shelter for them.
Let me just say right now... that was a terrible idea.
When they saw me unfolding this big brown thing they totally freaked out and stampeded. Poor ducks! I eventually collected them all up and put them on fresh, dry straw in the barn. Those Muskovy were mad at me for 3 days after that... they would all crowd together in a corner and glare at me when I came in to feed them. But by Sunday they were back to their usual ultra-calm selves again and they decided it might be OK to go back outside. Or at least half of them did... the other half sat on the barn door threshold and just looked out.
The Campbell's were totally over it in, like, 10 minutes. LOL!
The ducklings are going through their "ugly duckling" phase as they start to get feathers over their fuzz. But the new feathers coming in look so nice... they're getting to be very handsome. The Campbell's are getting their little tweed coats with that nice, herringbone brown coloring and the Muscovy have just a little bit of yellow fuzz poking up around shiny white feathers.
The Campbell's are very active and running around finding bugs, dabbling in their water pan, and chatting amongst themselves companionably. They rest a lot in the tall grass during the heat of the day and I wish they'd dunk themselves in the water but they don't seem to be interested in swimming. They just stick their heads underwater and messily splash and flick it all around, but they don't get in. Oh well.
The Muscovy are growing so fast! They remind me of my mastiffs they way they lay around and want me to just step over them rather than move. As they've matured they've really quieted down too. They used to make their little duckling peeps but now they're growing into new vocalizations... or lack thereof. The males just make a sort of panting sound and the females are making a soft purr-squeek. They really only "talk" when I pick them up or they're upset about something.
We've had some serious thunderstorms lately and they all got caught in a terrible downpour last Thursday - the the rain drops were huge and the thunder was tremendous! I had a couple of shelters for them outside but since the whole group couldn't entirely fit into a single shelter they wouldn't go in at all. I was afraid it might hail again like it did last week and I felt terrible seeing them marching all tucked together back and forth from one place to another so I got a big tarp and went out in the pouring rain to make a single shelter for them.
Let me just say right now... that was a terrible idea.
When they saw me unfolding this big brown thing they totally freaked out and stampeded. Poor ducks! I eventually collected them all up and put them on fresh, dry straw in the barn. Those Muskovy were mad at me for 3 days after that... they would all crowd together in a corner and glare at me when I came in to feed them. But by Sunday they were back to their usual ultra-calm selves again and they decided it might be OK to go back outside. Or at least half of them did... the other half sat on the barn door threshold and just looked out.
The Campbell's were totally over it in, like, 10 minutes. LOL!
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