Are You Smarter Than a Duck?

The time had come to move the ducks, and by default, the turkeys into the main enclosure with the pool! We were moving the hens out and into the greenhouse area where the ducks had been, and securing the nesting area for the broody hen to finish out her business. Even with all the handling as ducklings, it seems that ducks are just less into snuggles than the chickens and turkeys. Moving them was stressful and I did it as quick as I could, but they were not happy to be separated from the turkeys. They stayed close to the gate and yelled back to the turkeys. Once the turkeys were moved, it took them about 15 minutes to explore their way to the kiddie pool. They are used to a kiddie pool and made no attempt to explore any further. 

After 20 minutes I was impatient, and wanted to see them in the pond so I moved the kiddie pool closer to the pond. They ignored the pond and stayed by the kiddie pool. They had found the feeder and had little incentive to explore further. I tossed a few rocks into the pond, which barely grabbed their attention. The turkeys, being the little raptors that they are, were eager to check out the new space. In fact, before the ducks knew it was there, the turkeys had already had a drink. 

After another 20 minutes passed I decided to remove the kiddie pool from the equation, leaving them with no choice but to find the pond. Maybe the liner was throwing them off, but they were leery of going to the pond. Once they found it though they took to it, like, well, you know...

We were nervous about predators as the owls and hawks have been feasting on the hens lately. In the last few weeks we have lost 3. While I hate to lose any, I would be especially upset if we lost any ducks or turkeys given how young they are, how much they cost to purchase, and how much effort we have put into the pond.

The ducks would prefer to stay in their pond overnight, but until we have more than a small veil of bird netting over the pond we corral them in each night. I lure the turkeys to me with bird seed, and the ducks are just fat and greedy curious enough to come take a look. Once they are out of the pond we can shepherd them into the pen. They don't appreciate the trickery, but they settle down quickly.

We haven't seen too many fish since the ducks moved in so the feeder goldfish might be all gone. I would place my bets on the koi given how well hidden they have been since going into the pond. The same goes for the pleco. Even after a week, the pond needs to be pumped, which is fine because we've planted a mixture of green manure from Johnny's, pumpkins and leftover bird seed around the enclosure. I've always heard the pumpkin acts as a natural de-wormer, but I'm having trouble finding the science to corroborate that idea. I'll spend some time researching this and get back with another post to follow up on that idea.

Heeeeere fishy, fishy, fishy

It became clear, or murky as the case may be, that the pond would need some fish straight away. In a few short weeks we had an algae bloom and mosquito larvae. We have confirmed cases of Zika in Florida, and while I'm not a paranoid person when it comes to illness outbreaks it's dangerous and unpleasant to allow breeding grounds for mosquitoes to go unchecked. So, off I went to purchase some koi and goldfish. Given the cost and our uncertainty of whether the pond would support fish I opted for 8 of the 3"-4" varieties (4 koi and 4 goldfish) at $5 a fish. I also got 2 plecos; in addition to being cute and hardy we desperately needed to reign in the algae. I also purchased an aerator, which is essential to oxygenating the water for the fish. The aerator will agitate the water, which will discourage further larvae from being laid until it's ready for the ducks!

Since we apparently live by the 'go big or go home' motto it wasn't actually surprising that we hit a big box store the next day for more goldfish. At $0.29/ea we bought 30 more, assuming most of them would perish. In less than 36 hours it appeared that all of the larvae were gone. We were nervous that they had hatched instead of becoming dinner, but the results of our informal study were encouraging. Our bite to time spent at dusk without repellent ratio indicated no increase in mosquitoes, and they always find me. A few days later I went back and purchased 5 more plecos to combat the algae. In fact, I was nervous the koi and goldfish had exhausted their food source so I bought fish pellets until the plants are up and running.

Homestead tally: 

34 goldfish

4 koi

8 plecos

9 chickens

4 turkeys

5 ducks

12 chicks (that's a story for another post)

2 cats

2 dogs

....and us!

For those who might not know what my title references or

for those who do and love the skit as much as me! 

Splish Splash

The duck pond is finally, truly underway! We started it last year, but we didn't dig out enough, didn't have the liner and it turned into a day spa for the chickens. They loved their huge, safe hole for dust baths, but it was time to reclaim the area and get the true pond built. Having the tractor, again, proved to be a great investment. Tragdor did an incredible job, running wide open for 2 days she used about 3 gallons of diesel.

We purchased a 23'x26' 35 oz vinyl tarp from a company that sells billboard vinyl. We had planned to go with recycled, but the size and cost worked out for one of their new ones. That thing is heavy! We estimated it would allow for a pond about 9'x12' that would be 5' in depth. However, those estimates assumed a rectangular shape and we ended up with more of an oval. Our final size is 15'x12' with a depth of 6' in the middle and a sloping edge. We have two preformed ponds that will also be added, but our plan is to keep the ducks from those and try to raise fry in them for the larger pond or for us to eat. I found the preformed ponds on Craigslist for $175, the tarp was $315 delivered and we had 4 yards of crushed stone delivered for $400. I won't even attempt to calculate the cost/worth of Tragdor, but since her monthly payment fits well enough into our monthly budget I'll consider it a wash. The water cost is negligible since it's coming from our well. Our electricity bill won't peak from running the central air during the dog days of summer so, again, the cost is mostly a wash.

So, for just under $1000 we'll have a big pond that will, hopefully, support 5 ducks. My mother-in-law and father-in-law were visiting and it was great to have their expertise and experience to help us lay things out, run the tractor and amazingly get the liner installed in just 2 days!

I also got to learn a little about chain link gates, as we put one together for the pen. Up to now we had a makeshift gate from hardware cloth and 2x4s. I didn't realize how crummy it looked until we installed the chain link gate and put some gravel under the entry way. I'm especially excited because I plan to use this new skill to install a small gate into the garden once I build that fence. I've learned to build a fence with 2x4s, 4x4s, and hardware cloth and now I know how to add a chain link gate too!

In the midst of all the construction, the ducks and turkeys got their first outdoor adventure! We set up a small fenced area with a kiddie pool and some bird netting to serve as hawk protection. The ducks took a while to actually get into the pool even with some steps to make it easier for them. They loved the grass and the turkeys loved bug hunting. I'm amazed at the turkey's hunting success!






The other project I completed last week was installing the hammock. I bought the hammock last November when we vacationed in the Keys for a week with family, and got it up just in time for the birthday celebration.


I had some guidance, but in the end I got the entire thing up on my own. I used wire rope clips, which I didn't even know existed. Thanks to youtube videos I figured it out, and oddly enough I used those wire clips twice - once for the hammock and the chain link gate needed one too! I tossed a half brick over the limb with string attached. I used that to hoist the wire rope over the limb. I didn't have a way to trim the wire rope so that's where the clips came in handy. I made two loops, which aside from making it secure for almost 2,000lbs wasn't really necessary. I'm not exactly mechanically inclined or have much building experience so I was extremely happy to find it was positioned well and was enticing people into napping in it and sitting outside! We have a number of large trees on the property that would benefit from these kinds of hammocks. Unfortunately, I can't get the brick over a branch much higher than this one so I'll need some kind of help or other plan going forward.

Next on the list is finishing up the duck pond so we can move them out to the chicken coop permanently. As it stands, the pond is full and the liner has settled nicely. It seems the next step is to back fill a bit, install the edgers and the crush stone. The preformed ponds don't need to be installed before the ducks move in, which is good because they emptied their 5 gallon waterer for the first time the other day. They're growing so fast!