The Wyandotte gardeners

This Sunday morning began with a sort of easter egg hunt, the birds burst out of the coop as usual and Whitney was unusually noisy.
She quacked around the yard non stop, in and out of bushes, into the pool, out of the pool... I followed her for a while keeping my distance. Is she trying to find a spot to lay? at one point I crawled into a particularly awful corner under a bottle brush tree, positive I had spotted a new egg...
Inspection showed it was just a large, very round seashell.
After a while I left her and her duck friends to loudly dawdle and forage.

After coffee I decided to check again and found everyone congregating in what is left of the vegie patch. Dark little duck eyes spotted me and they sauntered towards the pool, Whitney had quit her constant chatter. Interesting
As they stopped to drink I caught her poop some clear fluid... egg white.. Uh oh...
Internal laying? apparently it can be common in new layers and her egg has been soft shelled yesterday. I scooped her up, time for a warm bath and a check over.

Whitney settled in, biting at the running water and wary of my company. Suddenly she heard Stevie calling through the window, realising her duck friends weren't there she became a bit upset. Normal for the ducks though, they hate to be separated.
I talked calmly and she seemed okay, shooting out a big normal duck poop, no whites or yolk, just digested food. Okay! that works, good!
I've always found it interesting that chickies daintily squat to poop, but ducks shoot it out like a noisy water gun.

I finally scooped her out of the bath, quickly cocooning her in a towel to calm her, mainly because... have you ever tried to locate a ducks vent under all those fluffy butt feathers? finally found it, no redness or swelling in or around the area, everything seemed fine. She joined her duck friends to chat, preen and swim and also probably to discuss what the awful human had just done.

 

Then I found a goopy egg under the cherry tree, the birds favourite area. At first I was convinced it must be an older egg, but it seems likely Whitney laid this and the shell didn't form properly which would explain why she pooped the rest of the white separately. Hopefully she will continue to eat the layer feed and it will help. You have no idea how wary our birds are of new foods

It is early autumn here and time to be thinking of tidying up outside.

Time to trim the trees and bushes, clear the millions of oak tree babies and clear up what started as good intentions for my usual summer garden that got neglected by the arrival of baby chickens and ducks.
I started with a mass of agapanthus by the driveway, my brother gave Chuck a moth which he devoured in his usual Chuck way (pick it up, freak out like it might eat your face, stare at it, then gobble it down before Blue steals it) then he napped under the oak tree with his friends. Lacey came over to inspect my work

 



Eventually there was a stampede, they love recently cleared areas

 

If only they could dig the darn weeds out for me and trim the trees! (rather than murder the corn and tomatoes)