We've got muscovy ducks as well. The ducks are pains in the... but funny. And with all the rain we've had recently, our dam is overflowing and they're having a ball. The chooks aren't so impressed with our 10 acres of swamp however
I love my chooks, they have got such wonderful personalities and watching them supplies me with great delight. And every time I run the incubator, hatching due day becomes one of the most anticipated things! Watching little wet bundles of fluff fight their greatest battle is so amazing. It's sad if one doesn't make it, but considering how epic the battle to get out of the egg is, you know that the ones that don't make it weren't strong enough to survive. And watching the ones that do make it grow up, developing their own little quirks along the way
I'll upload some photos of them out and about when I get around to it. The only photos I have on my photobucket are ones of my mini human in a chicken suit, Webber. She was a surprise chick that was hatched by a duck. Had no idea the duck was sitting on a chicken egg until the chick was there. Because the duck was exepcting ducklings, I had to remove the chick, and as I had no other chicks her age, I raised her myself. Insane enough that for the first three and a half weeks of her life, she slept snuggled against my neck in my bed at night. She's so very imprinted on humans that she won't have anything to do with the other chooks and comes in at night to sleep in her box after she's pottered around in the lounge getting bits of food fed to her from our plates.
But I've just come in from feeding the horses and rescuing one of my almost five month old Australorp pullets from one of the many pesky goannas we have. We've had to disable the electric fencing around the boundry fencing (main fence is wire, but we run several strands of electric fencing beside it to deter snakes, goannas and wallabies) because of all the water, so now we have these nasty critters getting in when before they stayed away. Went through one of the pens because the gates were open for the flocks to free range and was greeted by the sight of one of my favourites cowering against a water tank with a big bald patch and four big roosters attacking a young goanna.
Needless to say, I grabbed a shovel and started chasing it. Got it to the neighbouring property before it ran up a tree.
The poor darling 'Lorp pullet is in shock. She thankfully has no open wounds, just a big patch of her glossy black feathers missing. And she's limping. I've got her back in her flocks night lock up. Thought about bringing her in the house in one of the empty brooders, but didn't want to distress her more. At least in her pen, she's somewhere familiar and safe. Just got to hope she makes it through the next 24 hours. If she does, she'll be fine hopefully. But looking outside, the sky is getting so very dark and there are rumbles of thunder. So I might have to bring her in if the weather gets bad.
