What a week....

This week was crazy! We have had some predator issues. An owl and a skunk decided to make visits. I was so sure we had our bases covered but unfortunately we lost our male duck to a huge owl. It was a sad day for the little girls because every morning they are the first ones up and they head out to check for duck eggs. It's their favorite breakfast and they love the ducks. Our female ducks are still out there and doing great with the exception of a minor injury to the smallest one. It just never dawned on me that an owl would mess with them. They are a Rouen and Pekin mix, so they are really big. I think the male duck was protecting his girls. One of my neighbor’s dogs ended up being sprayed by a skunk. I just hope it doesn't try to make a guest appearance here. We smell him almost every evening. Cool weather always seems to bring the predators in closer. It's time to keep a watchful eye.

A neighbor’s dog actually tore up the fence to one of the chicken breeder pens. Thank goodness I designed the coops to keep them safe. They can fly up top and get away from most anything. Unfortunately chickens, when startled, sometimes fly out of the pens. One of my beautiful lavender pullets managed to fly out and the dog grabbed her. Thank goodness my neighbor was able to grab the chicken before there was too much damage. I did have to stitch up her abdomen(a first for me) and give her an antibiotic shot. She is now up walking around and seems fine. I thought she wouldn't make it through the night.

We had baby ducks last weekend, right after my post.  Four beautiful ducklings. There were 2 yellow ones.  It's really hard to keep that many ducks together to take pictures.

 This weekend I was so excited.  I had ordered pretty expensive hatching eggs from CA.  They are a very rare breed called Isbar.  I ordered twosets of eggs. In the first shipment, I received twenty eggs. A few broke during shipping and only one developed.  I was so worried it wouldn’t hatch, but guess what!  It did.  I have a beautiful splash Isbar chick.  In the second shipment, I received eighteen eggs and only one developed.  I can only hope it hatches as well.  I moved it from the incubator to the hatcher this morning, and it is due to hatch on November 1^st. 

We finally made progress fixing things.  We made a new flip up door for the broken coop and started on the nest boxes for the other four coops.  We also made time to clean up the shed which needed it badly!  Let’s keep moving forward. **smile**