PEEP

Sissy's babies hatched! She's got 3 Uncles and one Daddy who are her Nannies.  It's hilarious to see them all looking after these 3 little ones.  They are little fluff balls that waddle behind Mama where ever she goes.  As soon as I can, I will get a pic of the babies on her back.  It's cute. At times they are under her wing, but if they are sufficiently warm, they just nap on her back.

There's still a lot of hissing and charging from the Uncles, but Daddy has calmed down a lot. Sissy's got them out for a tour of the lilac bush in the picture.

This is Molly on her nest. She got a late start. After spending most of the spring running away from the guys, she finally decided to let them near her...which led to mating.  She's got 11 eggs under her.  Dave's been building nests to see what is the optimum dimensions for them.  This one is 3' square by about 8" high.  The concrete block in front helps her get in an out better.

We're revamping an old Tobacco stripping shed to turn into goose quarters with areas for our gals to nest.  Hopefully with all the boys taking mates, there will be less off an issue with space. Right now, Molly's nest is about 10' from Sissy's nest and Ron would just go bonkers trying to force her off hers.  We now have a nice L shape made from straw bales to separate them.

The ducklings over 3 weeks are now in the outside pen with Mama Duck.  She's got a damaged foot and is taking Baytril antibiotics for another 2 days.  Mama Ducks' right ankle looks to be permanently FUBAR. We'll see how she does on it after the course of antibiotics. It's kinda hard to think about culling her. She's got a mate and a loyal friend in Percy.

I'm on my last batch of hatched ducklings. Down to the last one.  That will make..(I'm counting..hang on...15 in the pen, 10 in the nursery, 4 in the warming box...29 ducklings I've hatched in the last month to 6 weeks.  A LOT of hatching!  They're our 'livestock' so to speak and will be this winter's meals.

However...I've had more than one request to sell some of these organic, free-range ducks after I've dispatched them.  I really didn't think of that, mainly because there's a TON of regulations, red tape, $$ to hand as bribes just to do that.  I cannot afford it, and I am sure we would not meet the standards by the Government just to sell 3 birds.  I mean there's probably about 300 pages of OSHA and EPA regulations alone!

It pretty much sucks ass when the government prevents a person from making an honest buck. Of course, if you've not heard about the story of the man who rented his cows to people who paid him to milk the cows, store the milk and then hand it to them when they came to get it, well then:
Wisconsin raw milk farmer acquitted on 3 of 4 criminal charges
It's been an enlightening thing for us farmers.  We are very wary about selling anything we produce these days due to the government being against it.