a snowy morning

Woke up to the beautiful snow ...
However the aviary netting was so weighed down in sunk low inside the duckie aviary.  It took a lot of work to knock it down because it was melting into an icy mush that didn't want to fall.



Our poor silly duckies - they are weirded out by the snow and brightness with shadows and the falling stuff (snow and small branches).  But it gave us an opportunity to take some pretty pictures because for the most part they stood and just stared at GrMaDuck (like I can control the weather ... silly duckies) and at the sky.



Enjoy my snowy duckie pictures.



duckie aviary weighed WAY DOWN

weighed down aviary netting view from back side

snow on Kouta's bill - Beau showing off his curly tail

Darrick (cayuga drake)

 

Beau and Queenie

Kouta (front left), Queenie (back left), Darrick (center), Missy (back right), Beau (front right)

Beua saying we don't like the snow GrMaDuck fix it. 
Kouta all puffed up, kingly but not too happy about the falling clumps of snow either.

aviary netting all clean off
Now we need to tighten and re-fasten it down
( a two person job for later )

SNOW

Well we finally got a few inches (~4 so far) of snow. Our duckies have definitely decided they DISLIKE it. The snow is wet and sticky and after a while created a 2 inch blanket on the aviary netting and weighed it down. We could hear trees and branches breaking and falling in the woods behind the property (something else the duckies didn't like).

The heat lamp has been on most of the day in the duck house and we put down an extra 2 inches of clean pine flakes in the house too. While they are not happy about the snow they seem grateful for a warm clean house to hang out in.

We knocked as much snow as we could from the netting - hoping it does rip over night.

Just a Thursday morning

Our duckies this foggy Thursday morning.

Saturday January 28, 2012 - a quick update

Our duckies are doing well. They have adjusted to Keelyn's absence.

Competition between the drakes continues on it's normal ups and downs. The warm few days late in the week resulted in a bit of over mating due to this competition.

So this morning, we gave the girlie duckies some time alone in the R&R pen with the big pool. They have really enjoyed the chill time and pool time without having to deal with the macho boy duckies. When the girls started quacking like they were ready to come out and join the boys, we opened the R&R pen door but Queenie and Missy just stood there ... as if to say, "uhm, just kidding. No thanks we think we will stay in here.".

So they are peacefully napping and eating grasses and playing in the big pool today while the boys stand staring confused as to why the girls don't seem to be interested in such handsome, macho drakes like them. Of course their staring is interrupted from time to time with macho competition activities like fighting and chasing (not mean nor hurtful- just boys being boys).

Sorry no pictures yet today.

Sometimes the right thing to do breaks your heart

Keelyn ...Sick again ...Re-injured again.....


This is no life for a duck - always hurt, separated from the flock, and often sick. All we are doing now is prolonging her suffering. Her passing is inevitable but will be slow and painful if we don't do something. She can not stay active enough to be healthy and she always has to be protected from the rest of the ducks (she is too fragile to be mated or even walked over), and even in times of improvement she re-injures herself. Saturday morning her breathing was slow and labored. Medication and a warm bath inside in the human bath-tub helped, but she is weak, tired, and losing weight AND Kouta (big white male Pekin) jumped over her fence and got in her dog house nest box so now her legs are re-injured too. The kindest thing to do for her is to put her to sleep, but it is really hard. We have cared for her and worked hard to give her a happy life and to manage her pain and injuries ... but now it is time to say good-bye. We love her too much to do anything else.   We just want her to go sleep in peace and be free from her suffering.

**written 1/16/2012 .... our emotions are/were too raw to post publicly
______________

We waited to post this until we were ready to share, we will likely not be responsive to any one's suggestions or questions about how we could have / should have done things differently.  This is not YOUR feathered loved one it is ours - please respect our grief and decision(s).

I (MamaDuck) truly believe that God had His hand in the situation.  On her last day we were supposed to get rain all day, but we were praying for sunshine so she could have some pool time without getting too cold.  This of course did happen, she had one last "good" (considering her condition) day with sunshine, fun with the girls, foraging and lots of one-on-one attention from GmaDuck.  We know she knew what was happening and that she trusted us, we both felt her say good-bye and that she loves us.  I told her to have fun with Alex and Bianca up in Heaven and don't give Bianca too hard of a time.
It has been a week, and I still ache with how much I miss her, but I know it was the right decision, and I am thankful that she is pain free and sickness free.

Rest in peace our Little One, my Sweet Baby Girl, Keelyn.  We love you dearly.

RIP Keelyn   10/12/10 - 1/17/12

silly duckies

Saturday - Jan. 14, 2012

SATURDAY   it started with Missy's loud alarm quacks because she didn't want to take her medication.  However, we insist.  Her foot is showing marked improvement now and we are confident she will be all better (after several more weeks of antibiotics).

Keelyn is having a very tough morning but for the rest of the flock there was lots of running around on this sunny but cold morning and happy times foraging for bugs, roots, and grasses.

silly duckies think this is an alfalfa treat bag

Tonight ...

Our duckies in much need of a bath. Another night with water and treats inside the duck house at bedtime and the heat lamp on. 

Our spazy Missy is shown in the top picture here. She is looking like one big hot mess. She is on antibiotics for an infection in her foot which is showing slow improvement.  She is the girlie duckie that the boys like best and also spends the least amount of time washing up and preening. We wonder if this is a female Pekin trait, as Bianca the female Pekin we had before was the same way, although Bianca didn't have multiple loves climbing all over her making her feathers even messier.

Keelyn sleeps in the pet carrier, but we have improvised a garden gate front so that she can share treats and socialize a bit. She is shown way in the back because that is where we put her to bed. By morning she will have moved all the way to the front. Her legs are not doing well at all, which is causing increased concern for us. She is on pain/inflamation meds twice a day and another medication. We just trying to do our best for her, but not sure what the future holds.

Beditime treats in a water dish inside the duck house.

Our Kouta is a big sweet love of a Pekin (on the right above). He will calmly walk right up to us and even though he does not like to be picked up or petted, he does loves to talk with us.  But when he is stressed (as in the case of very cold nights, and two of his girls having to take medication) he gets very grumpy with the flock and will peck the girls and chase the boys. We take this to be dominate competive behavior.

QUEENIE

Darrick and Queenie our Cayugas are the calmest of our tiny flock. What sweeties.

Beau in the front looking at me with great suspicion.

The weather has been very cold (for our area of the country). The teens and twenties with 15-35 m/hr winds is considered very cold around these parts. We don't have large heated water containers nor large heated barns. It is just not financially practical for six pet ducks in the mid-Atlantic region of the US. So when it gets this cold the duckie pools get emptied and the really warm heat lamp goes on and stays on in their 4x8 duck house.  The weatherman is promising warmer weather for Saturday so I am sure we will have VERY VERY VERY happy duckies this weekend... if the weatherman is right.

A coooold morning ...

....

We are keeping food and water in the duck house with heat light on. By yesterday early evening their water dishes in the aviary had frozen over.

They are not thrilled with the cold or the changes but are learning that the house is warm and the ground is cold. A good lesson to learn BEFORE it snows.

Here a few pictures ...

Our ducks enjoy a warm December morning... clean pool, clean house & nest boxes , & clean leave piles

What a surprise. We were expecting a deep drop in temp, but instead we received a seasonally unusual warm morning and day.

With aviary clean up on the agenda this worked out perfectly.

Missy is flighty a foot infection again and Keelyn's bad legs are having a major flare-up/set-back. The warm weather allowed lots and lots of time in the clean "deep" pool which is what they both really need (in addition to medications for both and rest for Keelyn).

Every duck loved that we filled the "big" pool and the drakes were happy to have so much forage time. Greens and grass are sparse in the cool months. And the big pool is just too hard for us humans to deal with when the temps are near or under freezing.

So it has been a nice morning in the aviary and back yard.