I keep meaning to update this blog and then things happen and I get busy and by the time I sit down to update it, so many things have happened that I've lost track!
The biggest project that we did in September was having the pond dug out. We've been trying to figure out a way to have more water over summer for the garden, and also to keep that area by the water from flooding. Last winter we had water/mud from where we built the dock all the way up to the duck house. The swales might have helped a bit, but the level of the ground was all so low that we would have had to dig them the whole way to the pond. Instead, we got a little excavator in to dig down as far as he could (without sinking!)to make us a deeper pond and pile all the fill on the bank. Then we've had a friend come with his tractor to pull the fill across and build up the bank. We'll probably do a soil test and then plant some grass (or maybe just wing it and go with the old 'plant and see' method that we usually employ). The biggest challenge, as usual, will be keeping the chickens away from the impossible to resist grass seed.
The ducks and ducklings love the new deeper pond. It hasn't rained a ton yet this fall, but the pond's been filling gradually. I think it's supposed to rain a week straight soon so it should almost fill then, and we'll have about 8 feet of water in the deepest spots!
The ducks have all been really good about putting themselves to bed, but they seem to go on strike about their coop if they don't have pristine bedding. Last night, I hadn't topped it up in 4 days, and with 6 ducklings and Victoria in there at night, it was mucky (Silver, Deedee and Rosie have been choosing to sleep with the chickens because Victoria bosses them all out of Duck Inn and away from her ducklings, usually). We got home after dark from dropping some friends off at the ferry, and no ducks to be found...great, especially after what had happened the night before (more about that in a second). We found them in the deep part of the pond, just floating around happily. It took some rocks thrown in the water behind them to get them out and then they all 10 marched in a pouty line back to the coop.
After putting them away, we counted the chickens and 2 were missing. Up until 'the incident' on Friday, we hadn't had any stragglers for months. We gave up after 20 minutes of searching in the dark and finding nothing. This morning, one chicken was there by the coop in the morning but the other was still missing. I came inside to have my coffee and heard a funny noise at the door to the basement - almost like a knocking. When I opened the door, there was the missing chicken on the top step. I guess she chose the safest night spot..in the house!
The reason for the freaked out chickens that don't want to sleep in the coop is that we had another mink attack Friday night. This is pretty much exactly a year since the last mink incident. I guess fall is a bad time for them - less food, colder weather, and they come looking for new homes. I have a feeling this one had been under the pump house for awhile, because Abby was racing out every morning and going right over there excitedly (Ryan is so excited all the time that his racing around tells me nothing, and Zoey just goes wherever the fun is). I really thought the coop was bombproof. We've got 1/2" or 3/4" hardware cloth everywhere, the door is tightly sealed and double latched, and the floor has a buried skirt of hardware cloth on the inside that goes in 2-3 feet all around and then is joined by sheets of wood, and all weighed down with rocks. But...it wasn't enough. When we woke up on Friday morning, a mink had killed our hen Frost and 7 out of 8 of her 2-week old chicks. It was awful. They weren't even eaten - just killed. So sad.
Frost and her sister, Penny, had shared the nest and were raising the chicks together. It was so much fun to watch them take them out to forage...and unfortunately, Frost was the better mother. Penny is still taking care of the surviving chick (new name Survivor - very original) but she doesn't sit on him to keep him warm at night. We have to put her in a little dog kennel with him so that she doesn't leave him, shivering, while she goes up and roosts with her buddies!
On Saturday we were on a 2-part mission with our friends Paula and Ross. 1 - cover the entire coop floor in connected 1/2" hardware cloth, just in case that's how it got in and 2 - trap that damn mink. Part 1 went well, and as we pulled up the wood that was in the middle of the coop, we found a bajillion rats. That isn't an exaggeration. We uncovered 2 nests and rats of all sizes and ages. It was nuts. They had tunnels going every which way, and my guess is that the mink has been eating rats and also used their tunnels into the coop. They tunnelled under the hardware cloth and then up between it and the wood planks - I hadn't thought that would be possible, but apparently it was. As were were finishing up the new hardware cloth floor, the dogs were going nuts at this one corner of the pump house every so often. At one point Abby crawled underneath and I heard the signature scream of a mink.... he was still there. Nathan looked under and sure enough, there he was in the corner. Nathan flushed him out, the dogs were released from where they'd been waiting on the field, and Ryan caught and killed the mink in under 5 seconds. It was pretty awesome to watch - that dog is the perfect farm dog.
Fingers crossed that the coop is finally completely mink proof...
Phew, that was a long update! Photos will have to follow in another post.
No comments:
Post a Comment