Oour first dozen

The girls are giving us two eggs a day. I see a quiche in our future...

A Second Egg, Breakfast for Dinner

First Egg 5 months 7 days

Peas in a pod

For some reason they all wanted to be in the bowl at the same time.

The New Duck Bowl

The ducks have a new bowl. It's the bottom 6 inches of a 55 gallon
barrel. For thier safety I used a blow tourch to fire polish the
edge. It melts all the saw marks rounding the edge of the plastic.

Dive dive dive

Ben Aflack likes to be under water.

Taller

Out with the old, in with the new, the duck's feathers are coming in! With new feathers, comes height, and their voices are officially changing. There's a quack here and there. We think we know who it is, but not quite positive. A few times I've thought there is a voice that sounds like a bad bagpipe quack! Either way the individual duck personalities are beginning to show along with their different voices.

The Green House

A couple coats of high gloss paint.

Ducks, Dawn and Joe Purdy

The song is "Wash Away (Reprise)" by my favorite musician Joe Purdy from the album "Julie Blue."

I first learned of Joe by a simple twist of fate. I was at the 5th Street Market in Eugene for lunch one random workday about 4 years ago. We ate out in the fountain area and there was a band playing. They were touring on the CD Julie Blue and it was the first CD I purchased in a decade (you know Napster and all). Joe is simply the best. They had the entire place wrapped in sound and I was instantly hooked. I believe it was "I love the rain the most" and the lyrics:

"Well, the dark waves, they start singing together I can't believe this change in the weather

I start to hum a child's rhyme And all these boats, they start rocking in time

And I love the rain the most when it stops

Yes, we love the rain the most when it stops Yeah when it stops."

They had the whole place "Rockin' in Time" you can even hear the guitars playing the parts of the lapping waves as they hit the boats.

First Night

We are forming routines together, the ducks and us. The flock spent their first night outside in the hut and all went well. Early this morning we moved them outside of the hut (still working on a door to the hut) and they were off foraging. Picking strawberries I realized it was a little too quiet. Checking on the flock, I found them next to the large Rubbermaid tub peeking out at me. I figured they were either foraging in the compost or they were trying to figure out how to get up to the water in the tub. I chose the latter and put them in a for a morning swim, and then they were on to good eats and a nap here and there. I believe this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship- ducks outside and loving life.

Every so often we'll hear the flock moving and talking, which I've learned the louder they become they are looking for one of us. It is very sweet to have a group of ducks waddle up , settle near one of us and continue eating, sitting, or just babbling in their constantly changing duck voices.

The Duck Butt Hut

DIY duck waterer

Who can resist this face?

Little Blue Peep, 23 days

The deep pond and a handful of duckweed

"I've got your back"

Solo had to be with the ducks

What do you do with all the bedding?

Guard Duty

Web Foot

The Peeps

The garden has a few new residents. They are Ancona ducklings hatched on Thursday 11 June 2009. The are a medium breed that produces about 250 eggs per year per bird. They are from local breeders, who have great stock from well known sources.