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Moose Manor Farms

Crazy Birdy Bedtime

5/7/2012

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So I'm out locking up the birds for the night and start, as usual, with the duplex broody coop but find Mama Cochin and her 20 rowdy chicks (who've just started free-ranging this week) missing - uh oh!

Mama Cochin is sharing the duplex coop with my broody duck (due to hatch this week) so I peek in on the adjacent apartment occupied by Miss Blush, my Welsh Harlequin duck and her 10 eggs, where I find 5 fat baby chickens snuggled in there safe with her - LOL!  These two apartments share a single attached yard so those chicks must've figured cranky Miss Blush was better than cold, plain straw next door.

As I lock all the doors on all the various houses I search with my flashlight for Mama Cochin inside each - she has to find a suitable nighttime house for her babies. Just as I start to think I'll be covering a couple acres this evening hunting under prickery holly bushes for my Mama Cochin, the last house to be closed up is where I find her... she's taken over the doghouse my fat goslings are living in!  The small goosy-gooses are outside in their pen instead of in bed where they usually are after dark, so I herd them inside where I see my Mama Cochin tucked into a corner... many tiny heads poking out, curious as kittens, from her fluffy feathers.  Everyone safe and warm this windy, chill night.

Wonky but satisfying social dynamics you don't typically consider: Baby chickens shacking up with my broody duck (poor Miss Blush!); Mama chicken and her hooligan brood bedding down with baby gooses... and one adult Khaki Campbell duck (Miss Faith) who somehow ended up sleeping in the barn with my newly broody Muscovy girl, Lumi, this strange, mixed-up night.  Everyone completely tolerant, if not downright companionable, with the other.  Only at Moose Manor, eh?

Well, everyone is locked up tight and all babies are accounted for and pleasantly cooing while warming with a fluffy mama of some stripe.  It could certainly be worse!       

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Then there was that one time that I ordered 50 broiler chickens...

10/3/2011

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Yep, 50.  As my good friend, Kent would say, I now have half-a-hundred of these tiny yellow chicks in the brooder already eating me out of house and home.

Meyer hatchery was running a sale but I had to place a minimum 50 chick order to get the deal.  I called a local farmer friend who raises these same jumbo Cornish cross for meat, usually right about the same time I do in the spring and fall.  She never called me back (it's a busy time for farmers right now).  The longer I wait to place my order, the further I push my harvest out so I wanted to get them growing asap.

I figured I'd just place the order and if she decided that she wanted them they would already be on their way.  And if she didn't, I'd just sell them on craigslist; wouldn't be hard at all this time of year.

Then they arrived and I started to feel all greedy about them.  I wanted to have them all in MY freezer.  I was feeding more people this year, wasn’t I?  I need to make certain my larder was full, right?  Yeeesss,  you really never know when the lean times are upon you until they’re looming down… and quality organic meat is really expensive.  So I decided to keep them  All.  For.  Myself. 

Yes, all 50.

This is where you might be scratching your head... "how will you harvest 50 chickens with your little operation?"  Well, I figure 25 one weekend and 25 another.  I'll sell the usual amount to offset my cost and put the rest in my own freezer.  Then you so sweetly remind me, "but you haven't finished your duck harvest that the hurricane brought to an early conclusion..."  YesYesYes... I KNOW that.  I'll do it.  I'll do it soon. 

OK… ummmmm... next year I'm only doing the Spring and Fall harvests.  Three is clearly too many for me to handle {she says woefully while holding her head in her hands}.

So sometime in the next 6-8 weeks I need to finish my waterfowl harvest of Cayuga and Muscovy (those Muscovy drakes are on my last nerve and on the short list for the first to go), then 2 more weekends dedicated to sending the jumbo Cornish cross to freezer camp.   We WILL be eating healthy, protein filled meals this winter. 

Now I just need to get the winter veggie garden planted...

You know... sometimes I wish I could get rollover minutes to add to the days I really need to cram more time into my time.

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Unlike this poor womans family, my minutes would never get old enough for me to consider ever throwing them away.... those minutes are still good, man!

Yeah, OK.  So the hurricane… my power was out for several days and all the eggs I had in the incubator were officially a no-go.  Luckily, I was gearing down for the season and only had about 30 set at the time.  And in retrospect, I really don’t need any more chickens.  But I was looking forward to a few more Welsh Harlequin girls for next season. 
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Day-old Welsh Harlequin Duckling
So I decided that while I had my Welsh Harlequin pair in the garden alone I would put all of Miss Blush's eggs in the incubator to see if I could get a few more girls to add to my flock for next season.  I set every one of the eggs she laid, waiting until I'd gathered about a weeks worth each time. That should give me a week for slow hatching babies before I open the hatcher to put in another set.  I don't expect high fertility on these eggs since it was really late in the season, but I'm likely to get a handful of ducklings from this hatch, which should net me at least 2 or 3 girls to add to Duck Dogers harem.

The first of those eggs came due last week and this little cutie hatched out from the 4 eggs I set on August 31 - looks like a pretty silver phase girl (the black head = silver phase & pink bill = girl). Luckily, the night after this lone duckling was born my 50 Cornish cross arrived and I just popped this little one in with her new bunk mates.  Everyone is getting along perfectly.

I have another set of Welsh Harlequin due to hatch this week so I'm looking forward to a few more fuzzy butts to add to the giant, fluffy yellow brooder bunch soon.

**Update: 2 more WH ducklings hatched on Oct 16!  And based on the dark brown color of their bills, It looks like I have two boys.  One appears to be a silver phase and the other probably gold phase.  I've also determined that Miss Blush's eggs consistently hatch 3 days early... LOL!**

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Babies!

8/5/2011

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Welsh Harlequin duckling 3-hours old
I've had mixed results in my incubator this year.  The eggs that I'm able to get consistently excellent hatches for are Spot, my single Ancona girl and Blush, one part of my lovely Welsh Harlequin pair.  Those two girls give me an average 85% hatch rate! 

Spot was in my WH breeding yard until I moved Blush and Duck Dogers into the garden last month.  I added her when she hurt her leg and was trying so hard to keep up with the Runners at a fast limp.  Just so happens that Blush was acting like she was getting ready to set a nest and Spot could keep Duck Dogers company for the month that she was broody.  Since Spot and Blush's eggs look just alike, if I wanted to hatch WH I had to set them both. So after carefully marking their eggs when I collect them each day, I discovered that it's really easy to tell who's babies I have as soon as they hatch.

Both girls throw beautiful, healthy  ducklings but Spot's kiddo's are really interesting looking.  She throws Blues, Blacks, Chocolates, and Lavenders... some splash but most bibbed.   One of the fun things is trying to figure out just what Spot's babies will look like when they get their feathers.  Sometimes they lose their baby bibs and sometimes they don't.

On July 13th I hatched out 4 babies from a batch of Blush and Spot's eggs and this time I got colors I haven't had before: one lavender and one chocolate from Spot all with multicolored legs and feet.  All of Blush's babies are yellow with orange legs and they're growing into beautiful Welsh Harlequins, however, the one in this batch is a creamier color than her usual... I'm interested to see what kind of adults I get.

I plan to keep all the WH girls to build my flock and, while I don't need them, I'm tempted to keep the chocolate and lavender from this hatch.  I bet that they grow into stunning birds.  

The pictures below were taken just a few hours after these babies hatched as I was moving them from the incubator to the brooder.


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4 babies only a few hours old and just out of the incubator
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Black & White Ancona x Welsh Harlequin mix
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Lavender Ancona x Welsh Harlequin mix
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Chocolate Ancona x Welsh Harlequin mix
Welsh Harlequin day old
Welsh Harlequin
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Ducks in the Garden

7/24/2011

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Duck Dogers Welsh Harlequin Drake
Duck Dogers, my Welsh Harlequin drake

My garden is growing like gangbusters!  I would describe it as "profuse and delightful" :~)

I have glorious golden blossoms on everything and many of the climbing plants have grown into a serious jungle.  My cucumbers are an enormous mountain of green and gold vines, gourds that I never imagined would need trellising have cascaded over the fence in a colossal drift of squash leaves and tricky sticky tendrils threatening to overtake the nearby shrubs, and the melons have also escaped their corral like wild horses striking fast for the hills.  I love the jumble of cosmos that I planted to line the garden path with cheerful orange flowers to attract pollinators - but have promptly become an exuberent pile of honey colored surge spilling over the lane.  

I've really got to take the time out of my already packed schedule to get out there...

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Spring is Sprunging!

4/2/2011

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Farmer Jackie
Farmer Jackie digs worms for the Muscovy
The cherry blossoms are a bloomin’ and the Canada Geese are honking overhead… time to get those early tomatoes started!

I’m getting a better early start this year than I did last spring but I’m still two months behind.  I guess it-is-what-it-is but I do soooo disapprove of lateness.  Just this past weekend I (with the help of wonderful friends) was able to get my market garden plowed for planting and build out my duck breeding yards.  I’m way behind on my spring duck production!  I’ve currently got my Welsh Harlequins and my Black Cayuga ducks sectioned off for breeding.  At this point, it looks like my Cayuga harvest won’t be until the end of July *bleh*.  I should have had them in their yards by the first of February instead of the end of March.  *sigh*  Next year…

The Muscovy will be a staggered harvest this year since one of my hens couldn’t decide if she wanted to set that giant clutch of eggs she’d laid or not.  Little Miss Queeny went broody in December but I wouldn’t let her brood any duck eggs until February (so she wasn’t trying to raise warm weather Amazon waterfowl babies in January).  I replaced them all with infertile chicken eggs instead.  By February I think she was just tuckered out and sick of being inside all the time.  I’m crossing my fingers now… she’s gathered herself a clutch of 15 eggs in a new nesting spot and for the past two days has been more committed to them than the last batch.  If this is the real deal then I’m looking for babies in 35 days.

Big Boy Muscovy
'Big Boy' Muscovy drake is a sweetie
My Pretty Girl Muscovy has been broody since November!  Oh my, but that girl is committed to the nest… In February I ordered eight American Blue & Lavender-ice Goose eggs for her to set but it’s turned out that not a single one was fertile (sure hope I can find some more this year).  Poor Pretty Girl.  She’s been such a good little momma-wannabe that I broke down and ordered 15 Muscovy ducklings from Hoffman Hatchery in Gratz, PA for her to raise.  I’m hoping they’re able to fill my order this week so I can get them to her… she deserves to have some babies for goodness sake!  I’ll keep two girls from that hatch to add to my breeding flock and harvest the rest at 12 weeks.  Looks like a mid-June harvest.  I’ll have my Cornish chickens arrive to correspond with that harvest and do them both together.

Tomato Seedling from last year
Heirloom tomatoes are a coming!
As far as my veggie garden is concerned, I plan to get my peas in the ground and get everything else into their peat pots ASAP.  By the last week of April I should be able to get my pole and snap bean seedlings in the ground along with my short season tomatoes and beets.  Maybe even a few others depending on how much my plastic mulch and cold frames are able to raise the soil temperatures.

Permaculture is the word here at Moose Manor: chickens, ducks & geese are all welcome in the garden at the appropriate time for each of them to do their happy little jobs. 

Chickens first.  They scratch, scratch, scratch at the soil.  Dump in the spring cleaning from the poultry houses and the chickens will spread it all around for you.  They'll also scratch up weeds, eat weed seeds and bugs; all the while depositing nitrogen rich fertilizer right where you need it.  You can use a chicken tractor or just fence them in.

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Harlequin duck on the hunt for bugs
Waddle, chortle, quack! Plant your seeds or seedlings out of scratching range!  Once fully established, trade those chickens in for some ducks (I'm sending in the Indian Runners).  Those broad billed bug busters will keep all the slugs, snails, cutworms, ect. and their eggs from eating your garden before you get a chance to.  No need for chemicals or even hand picking... the ducks are more than happy to help.  You can just dump their wading pools right out on the veggies... duck poop soup is the best fertilizer around!

What's good for the goose is... good for the lazy gardener!  It's also unnecessary to weed if you bring in a few geese.  They'll eat up your weeds for you.  Careful with your cabbages and lettuce though... they'll scarf that up too.  Just herd the geese to the pasture once your strawberries start to ripen so they don't ruin your plans for pie!

I reckon the agenda for this weekend is to move the chickens into the garden plot, clean the duckbarns so I can spread all that nutrient rich composted manure and straw around for the kickin' chickin's to till in, and get my farm-stand signs made for the Moyaone Market (3rd Saturday every month at 2311 Bryan Point Road, Accokeek, MD). 

I’m very excited about the veggie selections I’ve made.  I hope Mother Nature cooperates and that my California green-thumb has accompanied me the 3,000 miles to the mid-Atlantic!  I’ll keep you posted.



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Tales of the barnyard pecking order

8/31/2010

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My chickens are bossy.  

No… I mean it.  And the Rhode Island Reds are especially ornery little hens.

On any typical day the chickens are running around the property here there and everywhere.  Getting into stuff they’re not supposed to, eating the dog kibble (which is a lot more expensive than chicken kibble), and generally making a nuisance of themselves.  The dogs completely ignore them so their uppity attitudes are lost on my hounds, the cat steers clear of them because she can recognize a troublemaker when she see's one, but they get pesty and stubborn with me on a regular basis - stamping their feet and hunkering down in their mulish little way, forcing me to actually pick them up to remove them from off-limits places (like my hay bale stack).  But their most favorite pastime is to torment the ducks and geese.

Chicken & Muscovy Brawl
RIR's still ready to rumble and Big Boy has his forehead hackles up

This morning I heard a ruckus in front of the barn and went to have a look… my Cornish Rock chicken had puffed herself all up and was guns-drawn on my 14 lbs Muscovy boy who outweighs her by a dozen pounds.  He's normally pretty zen but Weheheeellll, lemme tell ya, he is NOT gonna let some chicken push him around so then when she rushed him he charged her.  That (previously sweet natured) chicken fought back like a fully feathered Calamity Jane and it was ON!  He got ahold of a big chunk of her neck feathers but before he could pull her down all the way to the ground she beat him with her wings pretty good.  He hung on and they tussled like that for a moment before the whole barnyard waddled and ran over to see the fight.  The other chickens jumped into the frackus with wings beating and Big Boy was outnumbered.  He pinched a couple of them when they got close enough and it was all over in 30 seconds.   I had my camera but by the time I switched it on the whole thing was done except for a little post-game chest thumping (pictured above).  I still don’t know who schooled who or which started the fight (I suspect the chickens tho).  The Muscovy all gathered up together and did that crane and bob thing they do in solidarity, all the while trilling and huffing what I’m sure were piercing chicken slurs at the retreating hens.  Now they’re out there with their duck-chests all puffed out, strolling among the chickens daring them to stick just one chicken toe across the line.

Geese high tailing it to safety
Geese and ducks high-tailing it out of the pasture

A few weeks ago I was out in the yard and noticed the ducks and geese were happily grunting and chortling and digging their little beaks around in the grass, not paying much attention to anything other than tasty bugs hiding in the greens.  The geese tend to stand sentry duty around the flock while they forage and were taking turns eating grass and keeping an eye out.  The chickens were busily running all over the yard in a hurry to get from one very important chicken task to the next.  As one of the RIR’s was wandering her way past the ducks I noticed her do a little second take at one of the geese's backside (I could almost see the wheels turning in her malicious little chicken brain)… just as the goose bent to nibble some grass that chicken goosed him!  That poor Goosey-Goose jumped 4 feet in the air and let out a big old rusty honk.  The RIR just carried on like nothing had happened.  I would have to say the chickens firmly believe they're running the barnyard... goosing the goose?  Are you kidding me?

Queeny Girl Muscovy
Queeny is actually a very calm & sweet girl

Another time, back when Duck Dodgers had 5 Welsh Harlequin girls all to himself (I’d just harvested the other 3 drakes), he must’ve been feeling like he was the big man on campus and his little ducky britches got a bit too big for him.  I was walking across the barnyard to get from one chore to another and out of the corner of my eye I saw Duck Dodgers make an opened beak threatening gesture at one of my Muscovy girls, Queeny.  I stopped to watch just to see what would happen.   At first Queeny pulled her head back in surprise, then a moment later she narrowed her eyes, craned out her neck and huffed her quiet Muscovy trill at him, like, “don’t you dare talk to me like that!”  Duck Dodgers held his ground so she charged him!  He ran, she chased and finally when she caught him she jumped on his back, dug in those pterodactyl claws, mashing him into the dirt, grabbed the back of his neck and hit his head against the ground a few times.  He managed to get away and she chased him just a second longer.  When he stopped and turned around she advanced again and he boogied it on out of there while she huffed and trilled and bobbed her head at him.  He went back to his girlfriends and fluffed up his feathers, then resumed leading them to grazing.  He didn’t mess with the Muscovy girls after that.

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Big Boy with his girls
The four Muscovy prefer to flock by themselves.  They’re a bit like a flock of 3-year-olds: very curious, get up to a bunch of hijinx, and like to explore on their own.  They have their own pecking order and prefer that the other ducks maintain a little distance but they’ve generally allowed the Harlequin to hole up in their barn with them when they catch sight of a predator and run for the nearest safe portal.  

The Muscovy have all been sequestered for the last 3 weeks in a smallish run while they heal from hawk wounds, but I let them out into the barnyard this weekend where they encountered the geese face to face for the first time.  There’s always been a thin wall of fencing between them, but they’ve interacted many times through it without any trouble.  I reckon the geese decided the Muscovy would be easy to bully and came right over to lay  claim  to  the  water  dish the  Muscovy  were  using.  My  two  most  timid Muscovy hens high tailed it

Goosey Goose chasing someone out of the pool
'Queeeeeeg? Out of my pool!'
out of reach but Queeny ignored the goose and continued to drink while Big Boy wouldn't be bullied either and did the Muscovy huff and puff.  Everyone stood their ground for a moment but it looked like a draw to me since they both went their separate ways.  Then later that day one of the geese wanted to push Queeny away from the waterbowl again but she ignored the goose… until he stuck is long neck out and made his rusty gate sound “Queeeeeeg?!” (you dare disobey?!).  I could tell from her body language that the goose was about to get it.  She stretched out her own long neck right back at the offending goose, who didn’t back down, so Queeny reached out and got herself and nice fat bite of goose chest meat in her big, pinchy beak and twisted hard… and hung on tight!  The goose started to back up – all the while honking in a panic – and she hung on like a pit bull until she was sure she got her message across then she chased him for good measure.  That big ol’ goose had learned a valuable lesson: don’t mess with Queeny the Muscovy girl!

It might sound like there’s one rumble after another in the barnyard but most days all the animals just play and chortle and make their way from the grass to the pool.  Once in a while I catch sight of… well… a sight.  There’s no lack of entertainment around here, that’s for sure!



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Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century

8/21/2010

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I’ve been watching my lone Welsh Harlequin drake, Duck Dodgers, slowly working his way through a brand new pecking order and it’s been a little heart wrenching but also very interesting.

The Back Story: So when I started out my duck enterprise it was with 3 little Khaki Campbell ducks I hatched in my incubator.  You can read all about them in this post.  Not long after I purchased a flock of 14 adult and juvenile Welsh Harlequins along with 11 assorted tiny ducklings and 2 goslings.  Duck Dodgers was the leader of the pack of the adult Welsh Harlequin when they came to my farm.   The others were happy to follow him to and fro around the property and he was easily able to keep the mostly juvenile drakes in check.  

Well, some sort of predator (hawk or owl most likely) moved in who wasn’t partial to free-range chickens in the least was pleased to see I’d finally set up a free-range duck buffet.  So she invited her raptor friends who especially enjoyed rare Khaki Campbell and Welsh Harlequin duck.  Needless to say, I lost all the Campbell’s and most of the Harlequin in the ensuing months.  Terribly sad and disappointing.  I think I’ve got a good management plan figured out now but poor Duck Dodgers and his WH gal Blush have had to blend in with a separate well established flock since it’s just the two of them left from their old one.

Unfortunately for Duck Dodgers, that established flock includes two large American geese who are, without a doubt, at the top of the pecking order and are unlikely to ever be knocked from their lofty perch (not at almost 30 lbs and over 3 ft tall).  But that little WH drake had to peck and push his way through 11 other ducks to regain some semblance of his previous position. 

Not My Ducks
Ducks in a pecking-order shoving match (not my ducks)

He was able to out-push the 3 runner ducks one at a time, the 2 Khaki Campbell’s gave him a run for his money but he eventually won that shootin’ match.  He ran up against 2 rotund brick walls when he next had to challenge the Black Cayuga hens (Darkwing Duck #1 & #2).  That little pecking match lasted a long time.  He would challenge one of those big girls and she was always ready to put her head down and push him back with all her weight.  One day I was watching the latest bout between one Darkwing Duck and Duck Dodgers.  It was a vigorous shoving match and just when I thought old Dodgers was gonna win... one of the geese came over to break  it up. 
Duck Dodgers
Now  I  didn’t  think  that  was.fair so I was a bit disappointed, but - whoa-nelly - not as much as poor Dodgers!  He was clearly very frustrated that the bully goose had stepped in when he was making progress in shoving that Cayuga back a step that he didn’t even bother to lift his head but ran like Toro the Bull straight at the goose and hit him square in the (lower) chest.   He pushed the goose back a step (mostly from surprise, I think) then stamped off, clearly bent out of shape, to the other end of the duck yard draking and muttering who-knows-what all the way.

I wasn’t sure he’d ever out-shove those Cayuga, but watching him today it seems that he’s positioned himself just below the geese.  Ducks are pretty subtle most of the time in their pecking order so I can’t say for certain, but I haven’t seen him spar with any of the other ducks in a while though I have seen him pinch a few to tell them to get out of his way… and they do.

It appears that meek little Blush isn’t interested in climbing the duck ladder so she’s happy to find another water dish when a flockmate is being rude.  I did notice the other day that the Runner drake got a little pinch from her when he got too close.  Guess she's not completely at the bottom ;~)

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I've crawled out from under my rock

8/10/2010

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Farm2Fork
I know it’s been a long time since I’ve updated the going’s-on of Moose Manor.  So beware… this one is an extra long post to make up for it. 

The harvest of the chickens and ducks (30 birds total) was exhausting physically and mentally so I took a little break from all but the most basic outside communication (ie; work).  Don’t get me wrong… there are no breaks around here on the farm!  Every day it’s early to rise and late to bed because there is always more to do than there is time to do it.  I just needed some hermit time to reflect, renew, and finally resolve myself to moving forward with preparations for my next harvest.  There are, as always, a lot of things that have to happen between now and November to ensure I’m more efficient at this task. 

Farm to Fork - A recap of the Summer 2010 harvest:

I began the process on April 23rd with 16 unmedicated White Muscovy ducklings from J.M. Hatchery in Lancaster County, PA.  This hatchery uses improved breeding stock from France that produces males weighing 12 pounds in 12 weeks.  I’m happy to report that this is very accurate and the stock was incredibly hardy and healthy. 6 of my ducklings were male.  I lost 1 duckling in week 3 when it got out of the brooder unnoticed and couldn’t get back in; I lost 2 females in week 9 when they were attacked by hawks.  I selected 1 male (the 2nd largest) and 3 females (the largest, the friendliest, and the prettiest) to keep as breeding stock and the rest were allocated for harvest at the 12 week mark while they’re still young and tender. 

When I ordered my Muscovy, I also placed an order for 21 unmedicated Cornish Cross roaster chickens with Meyer Hatchery in Polk, OH.  I requested a delivery date 6 weeks prior to the scheduled harvest date so I could do all the birds at one time.  These chickens are specially bred first-generation stock selected for fast feathering, rapid growth, and nice carcass finish. Meyer states 4lbs average dressed weight in 7 weeks with a 2lb feed conversion and 98% livability. I thought mid-way through that the birds had stopped growing at the appropriate pace (taking a hit in my feed conversion ratio), but there was a spike in growth right at the end.  The chickens preformed as promised, and were in excellent health.  The hatchery sent me 2 extra for normal mortality, I lost both in the first week.  It stormed heavily at the end of week 6 so I couldn't butcher as planned then in the days that followed it was extremely hot and even with a giant box fan and lots of shade and water I lost 2 more chickens to heat just days before freezer camp.  In the future, I’ll move my summer harvests closer to spring so that the Cornish aren’t heat stressed.

Harvest preparation: Several days before the harvest I created an online ordering site where folks who had expressed an interest could reserve a bird.  Within an hour or so of sending out my notification email I was “sold out” of all my birds!  And I still got some email requests... I even sold a couple out of my own pantry – I think I was left with one of each of the 3 types of birds for myself. LOL!

OK… having plucked a few chickens and ducks in my time, I knew that if I was gonna process 30+ birds with just my own two hands I needed to get a mechanical plucker.  I immediately discovered that small plucker machines, like the Featherman, were way the heck out of my price range ($800-$2500).  They work like a champ, getting 3 or 4 birds at a time spanky clean in 30 seconds.  But there’s just no way I can ever justify that kind of cost for my little operation. 

So, being the DIY diva that I am, I’m building a chicken plucker machine instead of buying one (you can see it in action here).  If I’m crafty enough I might get out of the project only $300 lighter in the wallet – that’s a cost I can live with for the amazing speed and convenience of this contraption.  But, as you can imagine, with building housing for the different birds and the regular upkeep of the farm, and, oh yeah... that day job that pays the mortgage, there wasn’t time to get it done before harvest.  Other smallholders have off-set the cost of buying a Featherman by renting it out when they aren’t using it (which is more often than you are, right?).  I found a guy just about a 2-hour drive from me, over in Virginia, who was renting his machine out so I scheduled my harvest date with him.  I was supposed to pick it up Friday evening so I emailed him that afternoon to make sure the time was good… he said it wasn’t back from the last renter.  No Way!  It would be back Tuesday so I rescheduled and took Wednesday & Thursday off of work. 

Cornish Harvest: Those Cornish were not gonna make it through the weekend with the heat so I had no choice but to do all the plucking by hand.  I got an early start but it still took me 12 straight hours to pluck and process 20 chickens by hand.  And when all the naked carcasses were on ice I still had to dig a 4 foot hole on the back of the property to compost the waste.  At 9:30 that night I finally had everything cleaned up and dragged my tired, smelly self inside to shower and sleep.  I got up really early the next morning to package and weigh my birds so the customers could start picking them up at 9am.  What a job!

So the stats on the dress birds… I lucked out with about 50/50 hen to cockerel ratio (I really didn’t know until I processed them).  They picked very cleanly and dressed out nice.  The consistency of weight was pretty exact: cockerels dressed out at 5 & 5.5 lbs each and hens dressed at 4 & 4.5 lbs each.  I had one that dressed out as a Cornish game hen and one that came in at 3.5lbs (which is what folks were expecting them to average).  I would like to harvest them a little smaller – or maybe grow them in two age groups next time so I have birds running between 6 lbs and 2 lbs.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, Tuesday rolls around and I contact the Featherman renter guy and the machine is still not back yet!  It's not like I can go down the the Rent-all and get a plucker machine!  This is the only guy advertising the rental of just the machine (and not a 16 foot trailer of mobile processing equipment).  I can’t imagine plucking this many ducks by hand… they have 4 times more feathers than the chickens.  No choice now but to get out there and get started since I already took the time off work and folks were expecting their ducks to be ready. 

Welsh Harlequin Harvest: I got started at 7am because it was supposed to be a hot day with a high of 109 and I wanted to get as far along as I could before then.  I had 3 Harlequin drakes that needed to be culled for a better boy/girl ratio in the flock so I did them first.  They each took about 30 minutes to pluck because I had a lot of trouble getting off the tiny downy feathers closest to the skin.  I followed some old timer's advice and used paraffin wax on the first duck… that was a total disaster.  I probably didn’t do it right so I did the other two without.  They were all juveniles and in the light duck class so they dressed out at an average 3.5lbs.  They were nice and lean, half the fat during processing that I had with the chickens (who were a little on the lean side too because I didn't fatten them on corn the last week).

Muscovy Harvest: I had set aside 9 of these ducks for harvest (nearly half were very large drakes) after separating out my 4 breeder stock.  I learned A LOT about harvesting ducks that day. Most important of all is that you don’t harvest these big, strong ducks the same way you do chickens and light ducks, no sir.  I tried the new-fangled European system of pumping inert gas (argon or helium) in a small enclosure to make them sleepy first but that was unsuccessful.  I'm still not sure the best way, personally, for me to do it. These guys were the most taxing on me mentally and every one of them was a challenge. 

Stats on the meat: My drakes averaged 8lbs dressed weight and the hens averaged 5lbs dressed weight.  All were very meaty but extremely lean, there was no fat on the gizzard or heart and zero excess fat to be removed in processing.  The hens, especially, are very active birds so I’m not surprised. 

The duck harvest had to span two days.  I spent 12 hours in the heat plucking and processing by hand and I still had 3 left when it finally got dark – 1 drake and 2 hens.  So I dragged myself out of the house early the next morning for round 3 of processing, which included the only Muscovy that accidentally got a name: Angel Wing.  My Muscovy who I carried out to spend his days in the grazing pen with the Campbells to avoid having his deformed wing eaten by his flock-mates.  The 3 busy little brown Campbells that he considered to be inferior ducks… but they liked him anyway.  I decided to cull the drake first that morning to get it over with.  Before I took him I grabbed the last two hens together so that the very last one wouldn’t be alone for an hour… they get very sad and a little panicky when they’re all alone.  I put them in a large wire dog kennel on the other side of the barn where all the other non-harvest ducks were hanging out.  That way, when I culled the second to last girl, the very last girl wouldn’t be lonely.  I got started on Angel Wing and it was slow going because my plucker muscles were pretty tired from the day before.  After he and the first hen were all dressed out and on ice I headed over to grab the last hen.  I stood there looking at that kennel and feeling like I just could not kill one more living thing that day.  I was at my limit.  So instead of harvesting her, I let her out of the kennel to be with the other Muscovy.  I know… I know… but I was maxed out.  She half ran, half flew over to the little group and everyone seemed appropriately excited.  They were all doing the little Muscovy dance around her.  So now I have a slightly larger breeding stock of 4 hens and 1 drake. 

And she now has a name: Lucky Girl.

.


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A Sad Week At the Farm

7/5/2010

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We'll miss you, Hardee
Hardee Campbell
This was a very stressful week here at Moose Manor.  I had an awful predator problem and lost 7 ducks in 3 days!  I figured that it was a bird of prey, likely a hawk, and though many of my sources said that the signs didn’t point to a raptor issue I pursued that line of prevention anyway.  It got worse as time progressed and I lost 4 ducks in one day.  I won’t go into great detail about the injuries but many of those sweet little birds were not killed by the predator, they were instead left terribly maimed and traumatized, still capable of walking but totally beyond medical attention.  I did the right thing by all of them, which was incredibly emotionally taxing for me and I’m still sad.  Especially since I lost both of my juvenile Khaki Campbell girls in one day – they were my little incubator babies and my favorites.  Little Hardee Campbell and Messie Campbell are gone now and poor, sweet Hardee hung in there until I got home that evening.  I cried and cried when I saw her but knew what I had to do.  The KC drake, Splashie Campbell, just seemed so lost without the girls as he wandered back and forth in the enclosure with the Harlequin.  

I couldn’t keep them all locked in their barns with 100 degree heat so I only gave them a relatively small outdoor area and, other than stretching bird netting over an acre of woods, I tried every trick and crazy suggestion in the book over the several days my ducks were being attacked - most of the “tried and true” methods were completely ineffective.  The one thing that worked was creating a giant web of 20lb test fishing line about 7 feet above the ground over their enclosures and play areas.  I wish I had found this solution the first day!  The night after I put a section of web up I came home feeling very anxious… it worked!!  Over the next few days I spent hours stringing webs of fishing line over the back acre of my property so the ducks could safely free-range.  This has been tremendously effective.

On a happy note, over the last few days little Splash has found his place with the Harlequin.  They’ve finally accepted him as one of their own and a few times this weekend I saw him “leading the pack” as they waddled across the barnyard, which made me smile for him.  All the ducks are enjoying their freedom and with the high heat index I put out several small pools for them to splash in and they seem to be having a rompin’ good time.

The chickens, baby chicks, and baby ducks were unaffected by the hawk.  Apparently, this raptor had her mind set on grown duck for dinner so – thankfully – I had no losses in that area.  In fact, the baby ducks are growing by leaps and bounds!  They’re mostly feathered out and the girls have found their quackers.  No little budgie sounds from their play pen anymore…they’re a pretty noisy bunch these days – LOL!  

They have 2 litter pan pools and a bigger 36-inch tub to splash around in.  They just love the water so much I can’t imagine depriving them of a proper pond!  There are two little Khaki Campbell ducklings in this bunch and they had me cracking up this weekend.  I sit out there and have a beer with them most evenings after my chores are done and all 13 of them were trying to cram themselves into the 2 litter pans then they would all run over to the bigger tub and jump in there for a while, then back to the pans.  They’re just making this huge mess, chasing each other back and forth, flapping their wings and quack-quack-quacking… basically having a ball.  I noticed these baby Campbell’s just seemed so extra excited about their little game and one of the girls was dipping her head into the water, splashing it all over, then loudly stamping her feet in the puddle she was making.  It was just so funny!  She would make this excited little qUAck, then DipSplash, DribbleDribble, then do this little dance… SplatSpatSplat! Made me think of a kid in his little gumboots… too cute!

It was miserably hot this weekend and in the middle of the day the geese would hog up a whole litter pan just sitting in it to cool off.  I was jealous that I didn’t have a tub of water to sit in myself!   And up until this weekend the Harlequin only thought of me as the crazy lady who stuffed them into a big dog kennel and drove them across town in a hot car.  When I was in their line of sight they boogied it on out of the area.  But over the last few days we’ve become very good friends.  They heard me filling one of the kiddie pools this weekend and ran right over to see what that wonderful noise was.  They stood off at a “safe” distance panting in the heat and watching me fill the pool with cold water and while I chatted away they inched closer and closer.  I turned the hose sprayer to mist and aimed it at them and they were just in heaven!  They came right up to within about a foot of me and the boys aimed their big chests into the spray while the girls tried to catch the bigger drops with their beaks.  Now any time I turn on the hose they run over and want to be showered!  I guess I’m no longer the crazy lady because now they tend to congregate wherever I’m hanging out in the yard.  They probably don't want to miss an opportunity to get a cool dousing!

This last is completely unrelated to ducks: if you enjoy reading about my farm please check out this gals blog.  She and I have a lot in common and her posts usually make me laugh which was a much needed antidote for last week!


Harlequin Drake


Harlequin girl chatting at me


Goosey-Goslings half fuzz & feathers


Black Cayuga doing light yoga


Penciled Runner Art


Pretty girl Muscovy

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101 degree heat index? Say it ain’t so…

6/27/2010

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Muscovy takes a dip
The baby ducks and geese are growing so fast!  They’re all getting feathers, learning to quack, and swimming in their “pond”.  It’s been pretty hot so keeping lots of water in their run is a high priority, between swimming in it, drinking it, and generally making a mess with it, I’m finding it tough to keep the buckets full – LOL!

My three juvenile Khaki Campbell’s were put out to roam for the very first time this weekend.  I worried mostly that they wouldn’t know where to go in at night because for all their little lives I’ve carried them back and forth from grazing pen to the barn in a Rubbermaid tub.  So early one morning I put them into the duck enclosure while the Harlequin were lazily sleeping-in inside the duck barn.  The Campbell’s weren’t sure what to do with themselves at first but found the little pond in the enclosure and set up shop.  When the Welsh Harlequin came out and saw these strange ducks in their pond they chased the Campbell’s out of it.  Those little KC’s were determined to make friends with their new found barn-mates and were undeterred by the wing flapping and squawking.  The Harlequin were not overly mean but certainly didn’t think they needed any new additions to their little group.  So when they set off to forage out on the property the determined Campbell’s waddled along behind.  Soon they were accepted at the lunch table with the cool kids... but at the bottom of the pecking order.  They still won’t go in the duck barn by themselves yet.  It seems like the Harlequin have made it known that the duck barn is their domain, but there is soooo much room in there!  The Campbell’s can have half all to themselves, for goodness sake.  So every night I gather up my little brown ducks and stuff them in the pop-hole to sleep in the in safety with the others.  Eventually they’ll get it figured out.

The Muscovy have become even more friendly… when I sit on the ground out in the barnyard taking pictures they come right up, almost in my lap, to see what I’m doing.  I was surprised a few times because I had my eye up to the viewfinder and didn’t see them all sneak up on me.  They’re probably looking for a treat!  I came out with some wilted asparagus the other day and as I was tossing sticks of asparagus to them they were running over to get some and stealing it from each other.  Poor things… that stuff was wilted but it still has such a tough outer skin that they had to chew and chew and chew. 

I’ve got my eye on three Muscovy that I’d like to keep for my own flock.  The whole group is friendly and extremely curious but some of them are genuine characters and a couple of the girls are very pretty.  One of the really big boys likes to eat the feed right out of the bucket when I’m filling the feeders.   So I pour some in the feeder, then hold out the bucket for him to grab a few mouthfuls, then fill the other feeders.  He follows me around and it’s like “one for me, one for the rest of you jokers”.  He likes to be petted too… he’s pretty cute so I’ll probably keep him.

I lost a juvenile Harlequin drake and a Muscovy duck to aerial predators this week while I was at work.  Either a very large hawk or an eagle, based on the size and weight of the ducks.  It’s very sad when this happens and it really freaks the other ducks out.  They all stayed inside for the better part of 2 days after the attack but they’re finally back out free ranging cautiously.  Though the Muscovy are sticking very close to the barn and trying to stay out of the open.  The dogs are very good at keeping the ground predators away; I’ve never had trouble with birds of prey during the day so this is new to the dogs.  I know blue jays, robins, and crows are great at keeping the airspace clear of aerial hunters so I’ll need to be sure to provide plenty of feed for those birds too.  Having geese and turkeys usually works well also, maybe I should hang on to those 2 sweet American Lavender-ice geese…


Black Cayuga Cutie


Rise & Shine! It’s morning time!


Muscovy Pair (Angel Wing & his girl)


Welsh Harlequin doll faced girl


Goose Yoga


Muscovy take a stroll

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    Dana

    About Farmrgirl

    Small town Calif. farm-girl leaves the ranch behind for many years of adventure at sea, travels the world, then moves to Washington DC in 2007 where she finds the perfect homestead to settle down: acres of secluded Southern Maryland woods where she goes granola by raising her quality of life, Mastiffs, ducks, chickens, and tomatoes {& one Bengal kitty}... sustainably.


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