Hobby Farm Photo Journal - 4-15-15

Another Beautiful Spring Day

The sun was shining & it was mid-50's, possibly reaching 60*F! 

The grass is greening up, and all the critters have "spring fever".

The ducks were very unhappy in the "bachelor rooster pad", so I knew something had to change. Even though the roosters & ducks did fine all winter, I knew they now needed more room. Last night when I went to close them up in the coop, they refused. So, I quickly rearranged some pallets for a makeshift "duck coop" under the rabbit cages. They spend the night there, and today, I worked on making to more secure for night-time. I learned the hard way over the winter that ducks don't do well inside a cool with a wooden floor. Hence, another reason why I moved them back into the PA coop group's area.

Here they are enjoying the sunshine & "Sir Francis Drake" smiling!

I don't know why they do this, but they do this frequently,

seemingly catching bugs or simply "thin air".

While it's not the prettiest, I used some of my wonderful recycled lumber and pallets to make a gate on the left side of the rabbit cages, so the ducks can be "closed up" at night.

On the right side of the rabbit cages, I already had pallets, with a gap between them that I installed a cabinet door in, and boards on top to close up the gaps.

Mom said she's the "painting ich" again, so I have some wonderful candidates here that need a good coat of paint.

 Here is "Pansy" with her new feathers almost all in - she's been looking rough for quite awhile, but now she's all pretty again.

Now, "Primrose" is taking her turn to molt;

Note: this is the underneath of the rabbit cages where the ducks will be now staying at night. 

Speaking of rabbits, they got some twigs to chew on, and here's two of the does enjoying them. The first one just kindled yesterday, and for her first litter, she's doing quite well.

The chicks from the 4th Hatch I gave to Lydia yesterday, moved her from her nesting box (none of her eggs hatched due to incubating them in a milk crate).

Here's two photos of Lydia teaching them how to eat.

This last group of photos is of the "Dad's Coop" breeding group

enjoying themselves in the sunshine and digging in the hay for worms.

This rooster is "Joshua" from one of the 2014 Hatches,

whose Dad was most likely "David", the Freedom Ranger/Dominque.

He's one the largest, prettiest rooster I have, even though he did loose some of his comb to frostbite.