Monday, June 11, 2012

Chicken Tractor #2 is Infested!

With Cats. Just lousy with the little furry beasts!

No sooner had Sean stopped his work for the evening, Tasmanian and Machias decided to check it out for themselves. If you look closely, that would be Machias's tail dangling from the inside of one of the new nest boxes. Silly boys!

Our cats don't bother the chickens, since the hens proved that they were perfectly capable of running the cats off in order to steal their cat food! With visions of being bested still fresh in mind, they probably thought a little "recon" was due before its feathered inhabitants took possession.

During the early evening, while Sean worked on the 2nd chicken tractor, we brought the ducklings and goslings out for their bath time. We kept a close eye on the bathers in case the cats decided to take advantage of their relatively small and helpless state. I was supposed to be helping Sean with finishing the 2nd coop, but I had a migraine which began in the morning and didn't subside until last afternoon. I spent most of the afternoon medicated and resting, which left Sean with the lion's share of the work to complete. I was glad my head ache subsided by evening and I was able to spend some time on the grass with the babies, watching Sean. Happily, everyone survived both bath time and nap time in the clear early-evening air.

My favorite part of the day, was napping in the sun with the babies all sleeping beside me. I love how tame and friendly they are. We are probably going to keep these particular birds separate from the other ducks in their own pond. We raised several mallards last year from chicks, but they act like "normal" ducks; they are friendly enough, but they certainly don't choose to follow us around or settle to nap in the grass with us. I hope that keeping them apart will continue this behavior, especially if we continue spending time with them and love them. For that reason, I do hope that we have one male and one female or alternately two females of each breed. I think these will be allowed to live in the larger pond in the front yard when it gets created. I can picture so perfectly returning home, driving up the driveway, to the happy "welcome home" of a duck and geese chorus.

Have a great day, friends.
Sonja

2 comments:

  1. Wow! They are getting big already.

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  2. Those babies are so cute and sweet, I hope they continue that way too! Those kitter cats are scoping out what that new fangled thing is their Daddy built. So cute!

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