When Huey Met Dottie

Hi farm friends, I sure hope you are enjoying this early spring. As many of you know, I have been so busy with my job over the last several weeks it has been hard to find time to visit and e-mail my wonderful blog buddies. I am so hopeful that things will ease up a bit as I get into late April and May. Hope you will hang in there with me and know I miss you and all that is going on in your world. Farmer has been so wonderful in taking care of Verde Farm and I’ve asked him to share some farm happenings directly. Today’s post is one of his. I know you will enjoy it...

Farm life can be brutish. It seems the wolf is always at the door. It seems nature is never finished yet always winding down. It seems, no less, compassion was the intent when I decided to move a little chick named Dottie to the big chicken house next door. This little chick, with the black and white polka dotted feathers—and one crescent moon drawn on her wing—inherited a feisty spirit. She relentlessly pecked her brothers and sisters, making their lives awful. I felt I had no choice. I had to move her next door.

I was happy to see Dottie blending in so well with the other roosters and hens. At bed check I knew I had made the right decision when I saw her sleeping—tiny, next to Edgar. Hooray. 

A good case can be made for allowing nature to sort-out its own problems.

By feeding time, the next morning, the chicken house chickens were already stirring. I found the gang in the run. I didn’t immediately see Dottie. Maybe I did, but I told myself it’s just a black dot in the corner. As I focused, it became clear the black dot in the corner was Dottie. I walked to her.

She was alive. Her head was tucked beneath her wing. I picked her up. Her eyes were mangled and bloodied. The other chickens pecked her eyes out, blinding her.

Oh, my lord.I couldn’t kill Dottie, which would have probably been merciful. I put her in a pen and fed her. I visited her while nature healed her.

Followers of this blog know about a Muscovy named Huey, born this past January. It’s amazing he’s still with us, considering he emerged from his mother’s egg in the deepest, coldest part of winter. I found him and his two brothers, Duey and Louie, walking on the frozen snow across the back yard, about 100 yards from their nest. Unfortunately, Duey and Louie died. However, Huey moved from the box in the bathroom, to a cage in the tool shed to a pen in the barn with a girl named Dottie.

You can read about them by clicking on the picture above

Huey, the lone survivor

Dottie and Huey hit it off. Heck, Dottie even started to lay eggs. As months passed and spring moved closer, I knew I had to release Huey. He was beginning to flap his wings and run in circles around the pen. I vowed on the next pretty day I would set him free. It pained me, though, because I knew Dottie, even though she couldn’t see Huey, felt Huey’s presence and would know he was gone. It’s not as if my animals have human characteristics as much as it’s about a human interpretation of their actions. I think love is love and transcends species. It’s something we have in common.

Huey and Dottie-he is wrapped over her fluffing her feathers

Out for their afternoon sun

Yesterday, I put Huey and Dottie in a cage and took them outside, in front of the barn. I opened the cage. Huey was curious, but cautious, sticking his head in and out of the cage. Dottie simply walked in circles, literally blind to what was getting ready to happen. All at once, Huey was free—running, flapping, testing his wings, tasting freedom, the warm wind, all for the first time. I’m thinking, man what that must be like. I wish I could remember. The other Muscovy’ came by to inspect, giving the thumbs up. At the same time, Dottie began to cluck, well…it sounded like a cry. As Huey ventured farther from the cage, I walked away to tend to the pigs.

Huey flapping his wings in freedom-Dottie in her cage

About 10 minutes later, I came back to the cage. It appeared my intuition had been correct—I only saw Dottie, still walking in circles. As I got closer, however, I saw Huey resting outside behind Dottie. At the end of the day, I gathered the Muscovy and the chicken and took them back to the pen—their home. They walked around in circles—together.

Pretty Dottie-alone for the first time in a while

Dottie stepped out for some freedom too

The weather is supposed to get warmer, this weekend, which means Huey will get another chance to test out his wings. We’ll push him out of the nest, eventually. The important thing is we’ll do it together. 

Farm Friend Friday #6-Thank You Tess! Plus: Peafowl/Muscovy Q&A

Hi farm friends. I hope you’ve had a wonderful week. This is one of my busiest times of year with my job, and I have a lot of visiting and catching up to do over the next few days. I look forward to seeing what you’ve all been up to. We have a big thank you to share and answers to your peafowl and muscovy questions. So, here we go...

I met a great blog friend the last couple of months at Idlyhours blog. Julie Marie lives in the countryside and loves her french roots, cottage gardens and her wonderful home. But even more than that--she loves her Tessy. Tessy is a beautiful, stray English Pointer that was blessed enough to find Julie Marie who is now her forever mommy. 

Tess has been so happy with her new home that she celebrated last month with her very own giveaway. My chihuahua, Gracie Allen, heard about it and asked me if she could enter this great contest for the furry, four legged friends in blog land. Wouldn’t you know that Gracie won one of Tess’s wonderful prizes and has been anxious to blog about it since the package arrived. The package included a beautiful red doggie blanket with little black paws, and a bag of her favorite treats, too. It was wrapped so beautifully, and came with a special doggie card we loved. 

Gracie took right to her new favorite blankie and even lets her beloved, George Burns, one of our papillons, enjoy it too. Tessy, Gracie thanks you so very much and George does too.  

Now, onto peafowl/muscovy Q&A. We had a great response to our muscovy and peafowl posts with a lot of good questions. Please note, we are not experts in muscovy or peafowl but will share our experiences with you.

Dog’s mom asked

Q: How do I keep the ducks from going to the river or leaving home? 

A: Well, that is a good question. You can clip one of their wings so they can’t fly, but they will still     wander toward any water source. We have a pond across the street and our muscovy sometimes go over there. However, we decided their really isn’t anything we can do except hope for the best.  The good news is that some, not all, do venture out farther than we would like, but they come home every evening on their own. They know where their bread is buttered. 

Matty asked

Q: Where in the world did you find your peacock?

A: I found him at an Ohio chicken swap. It’s a unique event which happens three-times a year in Lucasville. I’m sure other areas of the country host chickens swaps, but this event had much more than chickens including a wonderful peafowl breeder who has several beautiful varieties. He is from Indiana and knowledgable and caring about his birds. He raises quality peafowl. I went to the swap last April knowing I would come home with a pair of peafowl. 

Dreaming asked

Q: How long do they live? Do they lay clutches of eggs and will you keep them if they do?

A: Muscovy can live to be 15 years or older. Some have lived well over 20 years. They do lay clutches of eggs and we have had two clutches in the past with one on the way. We have kept them all and will be selling the pending hatch.

Mary Ann asked

Q: Can you keep peafowl with chickens? Some people don’t think you can.

A:  Mary Ann, I asked the breeder this question when I bought my pair and he said you could as long as your peafowl have their own area to roost. I wouldn’t put peafowl in a tight space or coop with chickens because they will dominate them and it’s not good for their health, but they can definitely free range together, eat near each other and live on a farm together. At least they do here at Verde Farm.

Bee Lady asked

Q: Do you clip your birds wings? Do you have to?

A: We clipped the peafowl wings when we first got them to ensure they didn’t fly up in the trees or fly off when we first got them home. We haven’t clipped them since because they’ve learned where to roost and have never strayed off the property at all. 

Phyllis asked

Q: How is their temperament?

A: We find our peafowl to be domineering but not over the top. They definitely use their size and tails to show other animals they are in charge. They know what they want and they will likely get it but we’ve never had any fighting or ugliness. The other animals just acquiesce to them.

Farmer’s Wyfe asked

Q: Do you have trouble with owls? Do you collect the feathers and put in vases?

A: We have been fortunate and haven’t had any problems with owls, yet. I do collect all the pretty feathers I find and used many in my Christmas decorations this past year. They are wonderful!

Thank you all for your questions and interest in our little farm and blog.

Now, let the farm fun begin with our 6th edition of Farm Friend Friday. Just click below to enter your post. Please, be sure to link back to Verde Farm so others can find Farm Friend Friday and all the great posts shared.

Farm Friend Friday #4 -The Muscovy

If you are like me, it’s likely you’ve never heard of a Muscovy duck. When I set out to purchase my first farm critters at Verde, I knew I wanted a few ducks and some chickens, but I knew nothing about the myriad of choices awaiting me.  Three-years ago, I simply thought ducks were...ducks. I have since learned differently.

I visited a farmer who lives “out Wayne,” in Wayne County. “Out Wayne” means it’s a drive from Huntington--but I digress. Anyway, I always love visiting this little farm and looking at the different animals. The Wayne farmer primarily sells chickens, ducks and rabbits. I was looking for chickens and ducks on my first trip. What I found were muscovies.

I saw these large “ducks” with varied colors and big red masks on their faces with warty growths, cute right? I didn’t think so the first time I saw them. Honestly, I was a little frightened by them because they looked and sounded very Darth Vaderesque--especially the breathing. Is that James Earl Jones or a muscovy? "These are muscovy ducks,” the farmer said.  “They’re great for farms, eat a lot of flies and are quack-less." Hmm, quack-less ducks that eat flies? It has to be a good thing.

I brought home three muscovies that day. Two of them were black and white pied, and one was grey and white pied. At the time, they were “juvies” or juveniles because they were in between the duckling and adult bird stages. None of the three had the red mask either. I later learned those develop in adulthood. Once I got home, I did some research on the muscovy and after three years of raising them, we truly love these interesting birds. So, here is the low down...

1. Muscovies are not really ducks at all. Of course they look like ducks, but they don’t sound like ducks. According to conventional wisdom, then, these webbed footed, water loving, waddling walking creatures were not ducks. In order to be a duck, you have to look and sound like a duck, right? These birds are tree perching waterfowl that come from South America.

2. The red masks on their faces are called caruncles. At first they seem bizarre but once you get to know your muscovies, you fall in love with those beautiful red masks.

3. They really don’t quack. They make a puffing type sound and it’s not a loud sound at all. Sometimes they squeak. It’s actually quite pleasant and sweet.

4. They forage for most of their food and eat a large number of flies daily. Farm studies have repeatedly shown they can reduce the fly population by 80 to 90 percent. It’s fun to watch them eating, the way they move their heads to catch flies on the wing is quite funny.

5. Muscovy are hardy birds and disease resistant and require little effort to keep them. We feed them a little chicken scratch in the morning and evening and they do the rest. It’s funny to watch them come running to the barn porch at the sound of the cowbell, which means it’s feeding time.  Suddenly, the farmer appears from the barn holding his feeding scoop and sometimes they’re so excited they meet the feed in the air as it’s falling from the scoop. It’s as if the farmer is a maestro and they are  an extremely captivated audience waiting for the music to begin.

Farmer and Shep are up on the porch

6. Male muscovies are called drakes and girls are called ducks--some call them hens.

7. It’s good to raise them with shelter. They are cold hardy, but because of predators and extremely low temperatures, it’s best for them to have a safe haven at night. I can tell you this is sometimes difficult because once they find water and outside roosting, they don’t like to come in.

8. They like to roost. Every evening, just like our chickens although maybe a little later, they fly to their roosts for the night. Some will stay on the pond, but most prefer a roost on our fence, bear cage or rock wall.

9. Muscovy mothers are wonderful and systematically teach their babies to clean their down, eat and most importantly, swim. There is nothing cuter than a mama and babies walking to the pond for the first swimming lesson. I cried when I saw it. And as if they weren’t wonderful enough, muscovy ducks are often used to sit on chicken eggs, and are also able to raise baby chicks, too.

10. Daddy’s are very involved in raising their young. It is a rare sight to see mama and her ducklings out wandering around without the male drake supervising and ensuring safety. He usually waddles along the perimeter and herds his ducklings wherever they need to go.

Class is in session

So, what can be better than a quack-less duck that eats most of your flies and needs very little care from you? I can’t think of a thing.

We are doing a post next week to follow up on the great questions you asked about peafowl. Stay tuned.

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Welcome to our fourth Farm Friend Friday (FFF). We are so excited to have you join the party and visit the wonderful posts shared here. Spread the word, and feel free to copy the code below so you can post the entire list of linkies to your post, as well as ours--which makes this a blog “hop.” I would love to see us get 75 farm lovers to join us for our next FFF, March 3. Simply click below and follow the steps. Be sure to visit the partygoers and leave them comments so they know you stopped by to see them.

Let the farm fun begin...

Snow Babies

Hello farm friends, it has been very cold in our area the last few days. At night our temps have been in the low single digits and below. Water is staying frozen and Farmer Richie has to de-thaw and replenish often. Not a time of year we would purposefully hatch baby ducklings but sometimes things happen around here without our permission.

Elvis and Brownie have been in love for many moons. Brownie, our mama muscovy, had her first balding of ducklings in May 2010--twenty-one ducklings to be exact. She attempted to hatch another group but to no avail. Unfortunately, our peafowl like to find the duck eggs and eat them and we really didn’t want to have any until spring due to the temperatures.  It just so happened, Elvis and Brownie had a different plan. They stowed away under the barn steps out of farmer and peafowl sight and the next thing you know...

Elvis by the pond

Brownie trying to hatch eggs earlier this year with help from the hens

Farmer was walking to the barn this morning and found this...

We shall call them Huey, Dewey and Louie. Remember how mischievous the Disney trio were? I think the names seem to fit.

It is way too cold for day old ducklings to be out in the snow, and mama wasn’t being very attentive. She kept running off and leaving them to follow. It was not an easy task for the babies. They were barely able to stand--or not--from the looks of the one above. He wasn’t dead, he just lost his footing, thank the Lord.

Farmer got worried and put some hay in a bucket and brought them inside. They were shaking from the chill in their body. I had read on Tales from the Coop Keeper many times how she takes her baby chickens and puts them in her sweatshirts to warm them against her body-- so I told him to get me a towel and the electric blanket.

In they went and snuggled into a small pile. It didn’t take long until the shaking stopped and the three drifted into a deep, restful sleep. I have to say they were so precious with their downy feathers and sweet little chirping sounds resting there. As I peaked at them, one looked up at me as if to say “thank you mommy.” Oh my heart melted.

About an hour and a half later they started chirping away and seemed to be telling me it was time to eat and drink. The difference in that short time of warmth resulted in their eyes being alert, standing on their own and energy galore. Jayme knew what she was talking about.

We will nurse Huey, Dewey and Louie until they are strong enough to go to the coop and ultimately out to live with their big brothers and sisters. As for our lovebirds, Elvis and Brownie, we will be moving her to the girl’s dormitory until spring. Elvis better not be caught shimmying up the tree to sneak in to see her either. Bad boy Elvis!

Quack, quack,