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. 

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. 

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 ;~)

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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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!

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…