Farm Day

We hosted a Farm Day at our place for the Homeschool Group we belong to and had a blast!

This is Peep Peep, the baby duck that we rescued from the egg.

This is Peanut Butter, she is supposed to be a Holland Lop.

Here are a couple of the kids gathering eggs with one of the chickens supervising. 

Feeding the goats is everyone's favorite activity (including the goats)!

Another picture of goat feeding.

The children also threw the crust from their sandwiches to the ducks and chickens after lunch.

We have wonderful neighbors who let us visit their horses through the fence.  The little one on the right is only 4 months old.  When I told the children we were going to pet a baby horse they didn't believe that she was the baby.  They were expecting something smaller!

Feeding grass to the horses.

Everyone together, enjoying the farm.

The Stud wanted some grass to eat, too!

Running through the tall grass back to the picnic area.

Peep Peep's First Swim

For Peep Peep's story, click here.

Peep Peep Doesn't Like Water!

For Peep Peep's story, click here.

Peep Peep Makes it Through the Night

For Peep Peep's Story, click here.

Peep Peep in the Egg

For Peep Peep's story, click here.

Baby Duck Rescue

These are the mother ducks sitting on their nest.  Only 6 of the eggs hatched and they left the rest of them to take the hatchlings to the water.  The eggs were cold when we checked the nest.

We did, however, find this egg with a small hole in it and when I checked it the chick inside was still alive.  For a video of the duckling in the egg click here.

I gave the egg to my daughter to keep warm and we watched the baby duckling emerge.

Here's the duckling right after he came out of the egg.  We dried him off and let him stretch himself out.  In this picture he's still egg-shaped.

He had a rough start to life, abandoned by his mother, difficulty getting out of his shell and then he had splayed legs (where his legs went out to the side and he couldn't stand up). For a video of the baby duckling after his first night click here.

After a few weeks under the heat lamp and daily sessions of physical therapy in a little pool the duckling is as good as new.  He doesn't recognize his family so he will be staying with us as he continues to grow and get stronger every day.  My daughter has adopted him and called him Peep Peep.  

For a video of our Peep Peep following his 'Momma', my daughter, click here.

For a video of Peep Peep's first time in water, click here.

For a video of Peep Peep's first swim, click here.

Baby Duck Following 'Momma'

For Peep Peep's Story, click here.

Ducks in the Water

Even though I'm not crazy about the mess and the work that the ducks take, 

I just can't get over watching them play in the water!

Chick chasing duckling

The ducklings are much bigger than the chicks but the chicks still chase the ducklings around.  The ducklings will go splash in the water and then get a mouthful of food.  Some of the food will stick to the outside of the ducklings' bills and the chicks chase them around trying to peck at the food.

Ducklings with Lettuce

The ducklings are getting bigger fast!  I have started feeding them things like lettuce, cucumber peels and applesauce.  Here's a video of the ducklings eating finely chopped lettuce.

Chicks and Ducks Video

It was time to split up the chicks and ducklings.  The ducklings were making such a mess with the water that the chicks weren't able to get a drink.  They were always rushing to the waterer when I refilled it.  They are all growing so fast!

Our New Baby Chicks and Ducks

Here are the boxes of chicks and ducks from Tractor Supply.  There are 12 chicks in the white box and 4 large ducklings in the red box.  The bottom fell out of the duckling box right as I was putting it in the car.  Thankfully, none of the ducks fell out and we made it all of the way home!

We set up our brooder in a water trough.  We bought it special for this purpose but when the chicks and ducklings are done with it we can use it for the horses in the Fall.  The chicks and ducklings need a heat lamp and a temperature about 95 degrees.  I had some trouble figuring out how to rig up the heat lamp! The ducklings try to swim in the waterer we bought and splash all of the water out until there isn't any left for them to drink. I also used some tops from tin containers to make a feeder but didn't like it so switched it for an ice cube tray.

We bought 12 chicks total. The one in the picture to the right is a Barred Rock. We bought 2 of these. We also bought 6 Orpington chicks and 4 Isa Brown chicks. The Isa Browns were sexed so we know they are all girls. The Orpington and Barred Rock are straight run so we have no idea what they are. All of them are good egg layers and the larger birds so also good for butchering.  We will only keep one rooster so if we have more than one (which is likely) they will be butchered this Summer.  All of the types we bought are supposed to be friendly.

On the left is one of our ducklings.  You can also see them in the picture on the right along with some of the chicks.  I'm not sure what type of ducks they are, Tractor Supply didn't have a breed type on them.  The picture showed them to be brown or brown and white when they get their feathers.