Farm Fresh: Ducklings Bathing and Chicks Moving to the Coop

This is the beautiful view out my kitchen window.  The azaleas and dogwoods have been a treat to watch come to life. 

 

Another happy surprise is a huge patch of lilies of the valley around one of the hickory trees. They are one of my favorite flowers. It reminds me of the ones in Goomie's side yard.

 The 2 week old ducks went for their first swim this week while I cleaned out their brooder.  It was so fun to watch them.  Makes the expression of someone taking to something "like a duck to water" soooo much more meaningful.

I also moved the chicks out to our coop area this week. This has  been tricky for several reasons. It's still going down to 50 degrees at night! They are 6 weeks old and I have been putting them out for most of the day (with temps in the 60's) so I finally decided to just let them shiver a little and leave them overnight. And of course, they are fine. The bigger problem are the old ladies of the house.  They have been around the chicks a lot, always with the chicks fenced for protection. So far they have not been too aggressive. I am keeping the chicks in the coop and run all day for a couple weeks. That is supposed to help them recognize it as home and return there to roost. The hens shouldn't be allowed to eat the chick's food and vice versa, so I lock the hens out of the coop and run all day. Only about 10 more weeks... and then they can mingle and all eat hen food.

  

The 7 week old ducklings treat the 2 week old ducklings much better than the hens do the chicks.  They waddled right over to meet the new arrivals and have a chat. Then they stayed (despite L's efforts to catch one) to watch the ducklings' pool party.