You know you life is dull when.......

You know your life is dull when your day is made because you out smarted a duck.
Over the past several months my duck flock has drastically been reduced by predators and some by chemical poisoning from an exterminator who treated our house for carpenter ants.

We were down to 2 ducks, male and female. We let the female sit on some eggs, and Sunday I discovered 3 had hatched. The male was very protective during this time, so I was surprised that he was trying to kill the baby ducks (I'm guessing they are males). I put up a wire wall in the coop that would separate the mother duck and the ducklings. The problem was that the male was used to going into the coop only by the door to the pen, and now I needed it to go in the door that we use to get in and clean up. Last night I chased that sucker for 2 hours and couldn't get him in, so he slept outside with the chance of being eaten. Today, I built a ramp up to the door, and made a maze that the duck had to run through which ended up at the ramp and into the coop. Tomorrow night will be another fight, I'm thinking a best of 7 series on who outsmarts who. Now I'm celebrating the victory with a glass of Jack on the rocks.

These are my daughters ducks, but in the summer she, her mother and brother go to Fla. and Georgia for most of the summer visiting family and friends. Lucky me, I get up at dawn to feed and water and then get to put them in at night.

Its the small victories that make you feel extra accomplished!


But it sounds like the ducks are more trouble than my near worthless dogs.

I have a couple of Red Hawks and an Eagle that do fly bys a couple times a day. The overhead netting has kept them safe. Even a 1 or 2 year old as big as they are have been lost to the hawks.

I might find a way to lose that netting.