Weekend update, quail questions, appointment day, processing party

With the few soaking storms we have had recently, Mama and I were disappointed with the position of the laying box in the duck pen. Since placing that box on the ground next to the deck I built on one side of the enclosure, the ducks have been laying in the box with regularity – six to eight eggs per day. However, the runoff from the heavy rains left the inside of the box as soaked as the ground around it. That seemed a problem since the interior of the box would be difficult to dry out. So, I moved the box once again. This time, I lowered a part of the deck to serve as the base of the box to keep it off the ground and allow the interior of the box to remain dry, but the ducks have been hesitant to use the relocated box. It is perhaps due to the lack of the bedding we put in the box once it was moved, but it may just be that the location was different. The box now sits a couple inches above ground level. Since the relocation, we have had only one duck lay in the box. The rest of the eggs have been laid in the open area of the enclosure. It will all work out, but the amount of effort in relocating the box seems to have been less promising than I had hoped. I am rapidly discovering that I cannot think like a duck. Chickens I understand. Ducks, not so much.

I also changed the creep feeder we have in the goat barn to allow Mama to close the bottle babies inside the small enclosure when needed. Mama and I wanted to start feeding the babies some regular feed, but the older goats are very aggressive in their competition to eat as much feed as possible as quickly as possible, generally by butting each other out of the three feeders where I place their feed twice per day. If we were to get some feed to the baby goats, it would have to be inside the creep feeder. Getting the baby goats to go into the creep feeder to find the feed was the issue. So, we closed them up with the feed overnight. That seems to have worked. We cannot be sure because last year’s baby goats – now almost a year old – are in the lot as well and it is possible that they could reach the feed inside the creep feeder if they get on their knees and slide their head in as far as possible. I am not there to see that happen or to guard the babies feed. But, the feed is eaten each day. We just hope it is being eaten by the three bottle babies.

Recently Mama discovered that one of our quail was being abused by the fellow occupants in the cage they were housed in. Mama got the bird out and placed it alone in a cage. It was not happy with the isolation and began to make screeching noises at odd intervals. In fact, it took a couple days for Mama and I to determine that that lone quail was the source of those noises. So, when it was sufficiently healed – maybe a week on its own – we placed it back with its fellows. The pecking abuse started immediately so I separated it back in a cage but put two other quail with it. That did not help. The two I placed in the cage with it continued harassing and pecking the injured bird. Having explored all other options, I released the bird into the yard hoping it would flee to the woods nearby. As the chickens chased it our of the coop area, I was confident that the little bird would find a new home in the wild, but that was not the case. Grandpa found the dead quail in our back yard yesterday afternoon. Turns out that releasing a bird that had been raised in captivity and did not know how to make it in the wild, would not work out as it does in the movies. I could have guessed, but I tried out the idea of release. I will not repeat that mistake. Next time I will process the bird and eat it myself.

Mama will be out all day today for appointments for Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma in the morning with the pain management doctor. Grandpa in the early afternoon with the heart doctor. Neither of them wanted to keep the appointments, but that was a matter of being disappointed by the outcomes of such appointments. There has been no change in the prognosis for either patient and the expenses cut into the little income they have to live on. In their mind it both a waste of time and money. From the medical insurance point of view, without those appointments Medicare will not continue their meds. So, we are stuck with the inconvenience of keeping the appointments. Mama for her part, just makes the appointment schedule benefit us by doing a little focused shopping on each trip.

Later today Mama and I will go to Sarah Fox’s house to help with the processing of chickens. We will be taking two of our own and four for the Shaw’s to be processed along with the thirty of so the Fox’s are processing. We will be using the plucker we teamed up to purchase for such an invent. I am looking forward to seeing the plucker work. Mama and I will be using the plucker in the future so it will be good to see it in operation. To prepare the chickens we are required to put the chickens in hot water – 150 degrees or so, but not boiling – to soften the feather’s attachment to the skin before putting the treated chickens in the plucker. To heat the water I bought a special burner on a stand that will let us heat the water in a large pot. I have not used it either. Tonight, that will change. I am hopeful that these purchases will have been good purchases to be used many times in the future.

Time will tell.