Brooding Ducklings

Three days old and already knows how to preen and clean

I've had ducks on the mind for the last few years.  I've enjoyed chickens so much, I thought, well, what about ducks?  I've heard the downsides from people:

• they love mud and mucking around in it
• they require way more water than chickens to drink/splash
• their poop is more watery and shoots straight out of their butts like a projectile, instead of dropping in a neat bundle like chicken poop
• they lay their eggs anywhere and everywhere
• they can be harder to get to go in at night

They sound like free spirits to me.  So, 3 Khaki Campbell Ducks (straight run - could be boys or girls) from Tractor Supply have started off our duck adventure. 

So far, they seem quite intelligent and more responsive to me than chicks.  They dash around like little bundles of energy, their extreme exuberance about being near or in water is fun to see, and I have never raised them before, so I am looking forward to seeing how adult ducks will work out for us.  I know they'll grow faster than chickens, they are prone to foot injury due to their webbed feet but generally hardier than chickens otherwise, and they don't scratch but they can trample plants, uproot perennials, and muss mulch in their hunt for bugs.  I can already see that their bills lead the way - nibbling, dabbling, and dibbling.  

Diving and splashing

I based my brooder set up on ideas from Fresh Eggs Daily in this duck raising post.  The most important things so far seems to be:

• Bond with them by singing and talking to them.  Then when they are playing in their waterer too long you can call them under the heat lamp and they will come running.  
• A stuffed animal in the brooder.  They love this and seem comforted by it.  The flatter the animal the better because they all want to pile on top of it and sleep.  Also, it serves the function of towel and dries them off as they roll around on it and snuggle with it.  
• Some way to minimize water splashing everywhere in the brooder.  There are lots of variations on doing this: the one I chose was to put a rack meant for the grill over a roasting pan, so when they splash and poop, it drains through the holes in the grill rack into the pan, and I change that once a day.  Working pretty well so far until they outgrow it.  You just have to be sure if you go this route that whatever you use is not too slippery or sharp on their feet, and that the mesh or holes are small enough that their legs and feet don't get caught.  An alternative to using shavings at all in the brooder is to use a shelf liner so they don't slip that you just hose off periodically.  
• Niacin.  Mix 3 c brewer's yeast with 10 lb unmedicated chick starter crumble for the proper niacin amount for ducklings.  
• Less heat than chicks.  The hottest spot under the lamp is 85 - 90 degrees for the first week, where chick brooders are warmer than that.  I'll probably switch to my EcoGlow as a heat source when they are bigger since it is safer than a heat lamp and uses less energy.  For now they love piling on their stuffed animals to warm up after a swim in their waterer!

Warm sun bath 

Many sources say to wait until the ducklings are a week old for a full-on bath experience and other sources say sooner is OK.  At 3 days old, they spent some time in this baby bath given to us by our friends Yve and Marty.  We kept it brief, kept it warm, and they really loved it.  Since day one, they seemed to know about preening themselves and spreading oil from the oil gland located near their tails if they were wet.  This helps waterproof their feathers and keep their feathers in good condition.  They are just fuzz now with no feathers to speak of, and that is why you have to be careful they don't catch a chill.  I have noticed with all the preening they are doing, water does bead off their downy fuzz when they splash in their waterer.  

Back in the brooder to warm up

Heat lamp and brooder set up 

The feeder is as close as possible to the waterer but far enough away so they can't splash it.  This is because ducks run back and forth between feeder and waterer.  They take a bit of crumble and then run excitedly to the waterer and dunk their bills in which helps them ingest the food.  For this reason, they shouldn't be fed powdery feed as they can choke on it.

Waterer over a splash tray I rigged up with wood block "steps"

This is where they spend most of their time.  The waterer.  As they get bigger, the water trough won't be deep enough for them to dunk their bills into but it works for now.  

They love their "babies" - two stuffed rabbits that they sleep with and on

Warming up and snuggling under the heat lamp.  Pretty sweet.  So if the main complaint about ducks is they are cute as ducklings but then they grow up, well, I'm ready for it.  Bring it on...I can't imagine them losing their joie de vivre as adults.

These pictures are from Monday, so they seem twice as big now on Thursday - I can vouch that they seem to double in size every few days as they grow very quickly.  A duck synopsis one week in? They do a lot of splashing, pooping, and growing, they stick together in a pack always, and they love life, as long as it involves water.

Time to snuggle

"Romaine lettuce?  Don't mind if I do."

Seville Orange Marmalade

Marmalade

I had only had store bought marmalade until recently, and I just didn't care for it.  A few years ago, our friend of ours handed over a jar of her homemade marmalade.  It was completely delicious!  A lovely blend of tart, sweet, bitter, pure citrus deliciousness.  When another friend pointed out Seville oranges in the store and mentioned how good they were for marmalade, I thought, "What the heck, I''ll give it a try."  I really love preserves and jams, but am not yet an expert jammer.  A fan of the soft set, I like try to take my sweet confections off the stovetop before they set up very firmly at all.  Long story short, I did not hit the soft set sweet spot on this marmalade adventure, and instead created something that could be called Marmalade Gummy Candy.  It's not easily spreadable...though it can be forced to spread on a warm piece of toast but the flavor is damn good!  A must have for those that love the tart and bitter in life, with just a touch of sweet.

seeds of the Seville oranges are the pectin source: they are in a cheesecloth bag

I'm looking at this picture and realizing our stove top is due for a good cleaning!  (By the way...best and gentlest way to clean a stainless steel appliance?  Baking soda and water paste and a paper towel.  Rub in the direction of the grain of the metal, then wipe with damp sponge and dry.  Works great!)

Anyways, Seville Orange Marmalade recipe is as follows:  http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/02/seville-orange/ complete with the story of how Seville orange marmalade became popular.  I had no idea orange seeds contained so much pectin.  Next time, I will remove the seeds sooner and take the marmalade off the heat sooner and hopefully have the soft set marmalade I'm aiming for.  My marmalade is very tasty nonetheless.  Three cheers for the warm orange color of marmalade on a grey winter day!

Apple Pruning and Saving Scionwood

A freshly pruned Stayman Winesap

Today was a lovely day - dry, warm and time to prune the apple trees.  This winter was so warm for so long, I feared our apple trees might bloom in the middle of winter like some of the street trees in Pittsburgh, but luckily, it finally got cold and that didn't happen.

I have our apple trees planted in a hedgerow, at fairly close spacing, loosely experimenting with the idea of Backyard Orchard Culture from Dave Wilson Nursery and others.  I found this a helpful synopsis of the pruning ideas, if you scroll down through all the "why to do it" stuff.   This idea of forcing trees to compete for nutrients and keeping them small through lots of extra pruning isn't my usual planting philosophy, but it makes sense to me to try it in this context.  I want a tree I can easily reach to spray with my holistic foliar sprays, and easily prune and harvest without an orchard ladder.  I want the trees to grow closely in a mixed hedgerow with other plants to keep out the deer, and I don't want to just use a dwarf rootstock because they are short lived and not good at anchoring so they would have to be supported and staked on our windy hillside.  So far, so good (trees are 2 -3 years old) but we shall see how it goes as they continue to grow.  This is something I am prepared to fail at, though I hope I don't for the trees' sake. 

All my trees are on EMLA 111 Rootstock, a large semi-dwarf that if allowed to grow full size would reach 20'.  I'm attempting to keep them pruned to 10 - 12'.  This means spring and summer pruning the first few years that pretty much removes half of all new growth.  Pruning fruit trees is hard for the uninitiated...it seems so damn complicated.  Reading, reading, reading the 400 different theories of how to do it, thinking about what feels right, and then just going for it is the only way to learn.  I'm still in the beginning of the learning curve, but each year I figure things out...so we shall see how these trees respond to what I've done now that we are in year three.

Arkansas Black with minimal pruning

The varieties I have planted include:

• Stayman Winesap (this tree has a lovely, open growth habit)
• Arkansas Black
• Zestar! (definitely the oddball in my collection of older varieities - this is a patented variety whose growth habit seems very unfortunate - like the Grinch's christmas tree...spindly, with crazy, whip-thin branches growing every which way).  
• Maiden's Blush
• Winesap
• St. Edmund's Pippin
• Red Royal Limbertwig
• York
• Virginia Beauty
• Yellow Transparent
• Wickson Crab

And in large 5 gallon pots, ready to find somewhere to be planted this spring: Red Horse and Virginia Gold.  All but three of these trees are from The Urban Homestead in Bristol, VA, a family nursery specializing in heirloom apples.  They run specials each spring of "imperfect" tree bundles that are full of perfectly nice trees, though some have a bit of a wonky shape that can be corrected with pruning.  

A friend and I are making our first grafts this year, and we have some scionwood and rootstock on order from Fedco Trees.  After this pruning session today I have some extra scionwood to add to our experiments.  You can use what you have pruned off an existing tree to attach to rootstock with a graft, plant it, and there you have a new tree.  If you do that, the pruned wood is called scionwood.  

Prunings bundled into scionwood varieties

Varieties that I pruned that I can add to the mix are:

• Stayman Winesap
• Arkansas Black
• Maiden's Blush
• Red York
• Winesap
• Red Royal Limbertwig
• Even though I pruned Zestar! I can't graft it, since the variety has a patent.  I would likely leave this tree out if planting everything now, but it's there so I'll give it the same love as everyone else)

We won't be grafting until we get the rootstock in the mail so what to do with this scionwood until then?  Seattle Tree Fruit Society came to my rescue.  They say to paint the ends of the scionwood with latex paint so they don't dry out, then store them in the fridge in an airtight plastic bag with a damp paper towel included inside.  So, that is just what I did.

I'm really looking forward to another year of apple tree addiction and experimentation in 2016!  

Latex paint seals the ends so they don't dry out

Painted ends

First Snow Accumulation of the Winter

hoop

waterer

straw bales with fiberglass panel on top - a fave hangout

winter hoop

Early January Pictures

a batch of 8 quarts chicken stock

Warm day - girls are out flying

Seed organization is fun for cold days

Seeds.  Organized.  Check!

Happy New Year!

Welcome, 2016.  Now, let's have some real winter weather so my apple trees don't bloom in January. Our elderberries have broken dormancy and are leafing out because they heard it was spring.  Yikes!

It was actually cold today, so that felt more normal.  I brought in the new year by making herbal infused oils to use in a batch of skin balm.  When a friend and I made balm recently, we used the basic recipe found here.  The sunny yellow of the dried calendula was so darn cheerful, I couldn't help but be in a good mood.  

Resina calendula

Herbs l to r: comfrey, lemon balm, calendula, chickweed, lavender

To make the oil is fairly simple:

1) Dry fresh herbs (or buy dried herbs)

2)  Wash mason jars with hot, soapy water and dry well.

3) Put dried herb in the jar (you can mix but I like to do a single type of herb in a jar) and cover with oil of your choice.  I have only used extra virgin olive oils, but there are many other options.

4) If it is summer and warm, place in your window sill and infuse for a few months, shaking jars daily (or when you think of it).  If you want a quicker oil, very gently heat the oils (I use my dehydrator set to 115 degrees for 4 hours and then 100 degrees overnight).  I have read of using a slow cooker with a water bath set to warm can work as well.  

5) Your oil is ready when it has taken on the color and aroma of the herb you infused.  Strain out herbs (I use a nylon mesh paint strainer) and store in jars or bottles until ready to use away from heat and direct sunlight.  

Chickweed and Provence lavender

Olive oil added and ready for lids and labels

December Pictures