The Animals – Page 4 – Peacock Orchard

10 Duck Pond Ideas for your Homestead

If you have ducks, and you should, then supplying them with enough water is probably a problem you are facing. I am going to share a 10 simple ideas with you for solving your water problems.

1. A plastic kiddie pool. This is an easy, cheap way to supply your ducks with bountiful water. It needs emptied weekly at the very least, and that means wasting a lot of water. So unless you are able to funnel the water to say, an orchard, this idea may not be for you. Works great for pigs too.2. Half a dog kennel. This one seems a bit weird, right. Perhaps, but it works fantastically well. Easy entrance and exit for young ducks, doesn’t use too much water and is easy to clean. I used them until they cracked one winter.

3. Stock tank. Similar to the kiddy pool but sturdier the stock tank is a good solution if you are looking for larger solutions. They make metal and rubbermaid stock tanks. I have a sheep tank that worked just fine for a little while. Cleaning it out is a real problem. You also have to make sure there are blocks for the ducks to get in and out of the tank or they will drown.

4. Automatic Waterer. This is the ideal solution for limited space and water. This is also a great winter solution as some heat tape keeps the entire thing from freezing and you from hauling around a hose. This is a great solution for all animals on the farm but for me, it was all about the ducks and the huge mess they make.

5. Heated water bowl. Another solution for winter water this one is quite laborious for you as it requires hauling water out to it at least twice a day. I’ve done this more than one winter and survived to tell the tale. It’s still not ideal though.

6. Dig a duck pond and seal it with cement or a pond liner. This is an expensive option, but a superior one as far as longevity and enjoyment go. I was able to dig a 10x14x3 foot duck pond with the bucket of our Kubota tractor. The deeper portion I cemented and the smaller bio-filter portion of the pond was lined with pond liner. The cons to this pond are the cement cracking (which mind did the first winter) and the liner cracking (which mind also did that first winter). Cementing and sealing this pond were also really laborious.

7. Dig a duck pond and seal it with bentonite. Bentonite is a clay polymer that when mixed with regular dirt and compressed seals water into ponds and waterways. This is a great solution all around. It’s less expensive than cement and pond liners and their is no risk of cracking.

8. Dig a duck pond and gley it with pigs. This is my favorite option. It’s inexpensive and you get bacon when it is all done. What isn’t to love?

9. Filtering duck pond water. Plants are the best way to filter duck pond water. The problem is protecting those plants from the ducks. They are smarter than they look, or so I’ve found. After some trial and error I’ve found caging each plant individually to be the best way. I am perfectly happy with whatever grows out of the cages being consumed so long as the main plant is protected. So far, so good. Also make sure your pond is properly aerated either with a pump or an under water aerator.

10. Controlling pests in a duck pond. Bugs do love a good body of water to procreate in. Midge flies really really loved ours. The ducks weren’t eating them so the best and safest solution was goldfish. 100 goldfish released into the pond solved the problem in a single day and then fed the ducks.

Life and Loss on the Farm

We have had an eventful few weeks. So many new babies around and so many more in the works that it is rather exciting. The peachicks have finally hatched and momma pea is doing a wonderful job with them.

In fact, she has kept them quite hidden most of the time. So much so that I had a hard time figuring out how many she’d had. Seven, I now know. She has finally gone into the barn where I have locked her up in solitary confinement. Don’t feel bad for her though, her confinement is approximately 300 sq ft. It did take some talented staple gunning though. I had to chicken wire the area between the run in portion of the barn and the tack shed, where the chickens sleep every night. I didn’t want the chickens getting into the pea area and drinking the water, which I have to medicate for coccidosis. I hope that by keeping her confined in the barn with the medicated water I can save the peachicks. In years past the momma peas have always lost every single baby to coccidosis. When I raise them I manage to medicate them enough to get them through but then they die as soon as I release them as, for some reason, they are mighty attracted to the dogs, who think they are delicious.

She has two blackshoulder babies and 5 india blue. I’ve never had a blackshoulder survive. I am very hopeful this year around.

Daddy has been quite occupied running about screaming his awful scream. He is the worst sounding peacock I’ve ever heard. It sounds like he has something stuck in his throat.

In other baby news, we had 2 chicks hatch. The mama has been taking very good care of them.

The ducks have eggs all over the place. Four of the hens have taken to sitting, two on a single nest.

They do an excellent job of caring for their eggs, even when they get up to eat.

I had to post this photo of Son helping me with feeding time. Now that he has discovered he can carry feed in his dump truck he is all in for feeding time chores.

Now the loss part of this post. Our twelve year old weimeraner has passed on. He was in awful shape for some time and suffered an injury that he was unable to recover from. Being blind he injured himself quite often but this last one was rather horrific. He is buried with his brother, Louie, and our dearest Celsus. This has been a great comfort to the children who are happy to know he is not alone. I like to remember him as a younger dog. A dog that caused havoc wherever he went and proudly caught whatever we sent him after.

Peacock Hatch 2016

We have had awful luck hatching peacocks over the years. The first year they each hatched 2 only to have them both die. I later learned it was from Coccidosis. So, the next year I took the eggs right before hatch. I medicated them and when they were old enough, released them. They all disappeared for one reason or another. This year I’m going to let the moms hatch again. I haven’t quite decided how to give medication yet. Do I pen the lot of them up? Seems foolish. When the moms are too close they peck each others young.

Regardless of my indecision the babies are coming. At least 3, I hope more.

My best hen is setting in her usual spot, atop a moldering alfalfa bale. I daren’t move it lest she pick a more coyote accessible spot.

Prince has been quite attentive to the eggs. Frighteningly so. He was guarding them in between her visits to lay. Whenever I would go to have a peak he’d fly over and give me a look of displeasure. He’s still on guard, now over his hens.

This silly little girl is determined to stay on top of the board we put up to keep them off. Best laid plans and all. I suppose it’s high off the ground so at least she’ll be safe.

Here is hoping for a few blackshoulder chicks this year. Mostly hoping for chicks that live.

Gleying a pond with pigs

What is “gley” exactly? According to Merriam-Webster gley means:

a sticky clay soil or soil layer formed under the surface of some waterlogged soils.

In essence I am using my pigs to seal a pond for me. Their manure and weight will tamp and coat the soil to keep the water in. It hasn’t been warm enough for them to be doing it long. We’ve had about a months worth of weather where they left the barn freely.

There was a few inches of water in the bottom of the pond that the pigs were enjoying. I wanted to fill the pond for the ducks though, and to see what the pigs would do. So a month ago I filled the pond to capacity. The pond is 14x20x3. I dug it years ago. It has a deep end and a shallow end I intended to use as a biological filter for the duck mess. It never worked out, unfortunately. The cement I had used to seal the pond cracked and it hasn’t been usable for years. We pounded out the cement when we got the pigs and now it’s their turn to work.

Or play, depends on your perspective. B.L.T. has brought a toy into the pond and he splashes around with abandon. In these pictures I’d turned a sprinkler on for them because it was SOOOO hot out, at least for Wyoming.

The pond isn’t completely sealed yet, but it has a good start. A month without intervention and it still has a fair bit of water in it. It was unexpected. I hope they are able to finish the gley soon. They are eating weight now.

The joys of pigs

Last I wrote I liked the pigs a fair amount. You might even say I rather loved them. That hasn’t really changed. Some things have though. It’s warm out. Everyone is coming out of the barn and exploring the run now. The pigs are exploring the fences now. I was confident the fence would with stand the pigs. We built it for our dogs and they’re worse than pigs as they can jump 5′ easy. Like a gazelle, our great pyr is.

The fence is livestock fence fortified on the top and bottom with 2×4’s. They’re digging around it but haven’t made any holes I’m worried about as of yet.

The digging is quite impressive though. They have some massive spots getting tilled.

Our weak spot is the gate. We’ve had two escapes. Both on the same day. The first I was going out to do the morning feed with the kids in tow. I opened the gate and the pigs just bowled me over. I started chasing them in a panic but then common sense returned and I started rattling the feed bucket. They returned and we went about our business.

The second escape happened while the kids were outside chasing bunnies. The pigs come to the sound of our voices and scream like crazy demanding food. This particular day they must have been emboldened by earlier freedom as they started on the gate until it popped open for them. Wrangling them this time required the horse whip and a fair bit of running about.

Now we have the “tomb of the pigs”. The spool must be rolled aside to get access to the gate. I’ve seen plenty of testing of our new fortress but as of yet, no escapes.

It looks trashy at the gate now as everything that was once nicely stored in the barn is now outside the gate as the pigs were DESTROYING EVERYTHING!

To keep from getting bowled over at the gate I throw the scraps over the fence away from the gate before opening it and heading inside.

The duck pond extension fence isn’t quite as well fortified. Since i want them to gley the duck pond I’m letting them have run of the lot but….they’re pushing the corner out of it. I’ve stacked some rip rap around the base now and they haven’t escaped…yet. We’ll see.

If all else fails the electric fence is always available for routing around the base of the fence.

Now on to a few other animals.

The turkey is like this the ENTIRE time he sees me. He’s a real pain in my neck.

The ducks are glorious. I’m a real fan of ducks. I just think they’re adorable.

The pigs are good with the kids. Not great since personal boundaries aren’t their thing and they’ll bowl them over. However, the kids are smart and they wait until the pigs have been fed before going in to collect eggs (the pigs are fed near the nest boxes). They can pet them no problems. No biting problems. Hopefully this continues but if they start biting the kids will be sad as they do love their pig pets.

I like that the pigs can be trusted with all of the birds as well. Not a single incident aside from the day we brought the turkeys home. The male turkey made so much fuss that the pigs were chasing him about just for fun.

That one time we put security cameras in the barn……

I am happy to announce we are getting eggs from our chickens once again. Even happier to announce that being home means I’m able to collect the eggs before they freeze, most of the time.

This was not always the case, however. We had egg eating. Lots of egg eating. I wasn’t able to figure out who exactly was doing it either. So we set up our surveillance camera system in the barn to watch the birds. Oh how exciting we are, I know.

Even still we weren’t quite able to determine who it was. I suspected it was some of the white chickens and so I separated them out. Still no eggs from the other chickens, and no eggs from the separated whites.

Naturally my reaction was that a cull was in order and thus we separated out all of the older, egg laying chickens with the turkeys for kill day. I had 6 immature chickens still so I was fine culling out the older birds.

I’m unsure how many of the chickens were actually killed. We had some escapees. One wriggled out of the kill cone and a few flew over the fence while I was attempting to catch them for slaughter. Whatever the reason for their escape it appears they have all been “scared straight”. We are getting eggs and no one is eating them. Joyous day! We have chickens and are only getting about 6 eggs a day but that’s fine for winter. Also I noticed that someone is laying on the ground and the pigs are eating those eggs. We’ll take care of that issue later.