The ducklings were getting rather large, and I decided that this is the perfect timing to get rid of the breeding pair of Welsh Harlequin I had. Baby and Swayze were an amazing pair of ducks. However, I didn't think Swayze would do well if I got rid of only Baby, and Baby was rather vocal after she hatched those ducklings. I was sorely afraid that my neighbors would lodge a complaint and then I would lose all of my critters. That, as you may have figured already, is NOT an option.
I found a wonderful home for the pair, and they will be kept company with 7 other ducks of various types. The ducklings only noticed their parents were gone for about 2 hours. After that they never even looked for them. All was well.
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| Goodbye old red hen. Your obsessively in charge attitude will be missed. |
In the chicken coop however, I've been dealing with a hen that has had issues for the last 6 months. I'm honestly amazed that she lasted as long as she did. On Saturday I put Blondie and Campbell's into the shed with lots of food, water and a few treats. It's a nice sized shed for them, really.
That afternoon while I was working on getting all the critters ready for the painters to come the kids had a neighbor friend over. We were dog sitting a rather large puppy. Well, she isn't huge, just that she will be a large dog. She's probably 45 pounds or so now. Anyhow. The neighborhood kid was warned that we were pet-sitting and that it was not our animal. The dog was not allowed outside unless I took it out. Yeah. that lasted all of 2 minutes before the animal was let out not only onto our porch but into the back yard. Being a puppy that likes to play fetch and run around like puppies do she did what came natural to her. She ran around, and when a duck suddenly decided to run, too - well disaster was immanent. It took no less than 30 seconds for her to grab the duck, run off with it and for me to command her to drop it. 30 seconds and now I am one less duck. The pup didn't maul the duck, nor wasn't vicious it just played with it. A single canine pierced the skin and unfortunately it was instant death for the duck. So now we are down to 1 duck. UGH. I did manage to get a couple new duckling (well, older ducklings, but still) to replace the lost one.
That evening when I was settling in the duck crew I noticed that Blondie had fallen down and couldn't right herself. I gently put her on her feet and she cooed at me a thanks. She was standing very erect. She walked over to the water, took a drink and settled in for the night. She was gone in the morning.
So now I'm just hoping to hit a status quo here and have everything settle back down. Painters have been at the house all week. Hopefully I'll have pics for you soon.
See you soon!
Barbie~
Oh how sad.
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