Burnt maple=homemade flock block, cleaning the rabbit cage and FIVE ducks eggs.

I burnt a (thankfully) small amount of maple sap this morning while I was doing taxes (can I take this as a tax deduction?). I thought quick and tossed some chicken scratch onto the sticky maple mass, homemade flock block! I was almost in time to make it candy but it was just too far evaporated. The chickens and ducks liked it so not a waste.

Accidental homemade flock block.

Maple flavored flock block enjoyed by all

Five ducks eggs today! First time ever for five duck eggs. We have had four in the past with only three females at the time. We have one duck who has laying glitches. We have never had five duck eggs all in the same day so a first for us.

Five duck eggs today

Later in the day I cleaned the rabbit cage which meant I had to let them run free, in the fenced yard, and later catch them. The rabbits do not like to be caught once they're out, it was challenging. They really prefer their much larger spring-fall pen but they need to be in their winter cage in the coop for a little longer. It's an XXXL cage, not bad sized at all but not like their better weather cage and run.

We want more room, bunnies protest.

Lots more sap collecting and boiling and rotating the fast filling sap buckets took up a lot of the day. Not much else for this day.

Some silkies settle in early to get the roosts of choice for the night.

Sugary Sweet Syrup and Not So Happy Silkies

The maple sap has been running great! Today it was time to finish off the first batch of syrup. Only problem was my candy thermometer wasn't working! I tried it even though it thought room temp was 100 or so. No good, before the sap was even close to ready the thermometer thought I was well past syrup and on to hard candy. The red liquid in the thermometer looked to have a break of some sort in it. It will need to be replaced but that didn't help me with finishing this day's syrup. I had to do it by instinct which meant I had to stay with the boiling sweet sap for much longer than I normally would, testing it every so often. Finally it was time to filter and pour, the resulting maple syrup was darker than my first batch of last year. It has a good consistency and taste just would have liked to see it a little lighter.

The rapidly boiling maple sap.

Getting filters and clean jars ready.

Eek that gap in the red must mean a problem for this candy thermometer. It's no longer accurate.

Somebody (Comet) is hoping for sweet drips from the syrup pouring!

Just about exactly a gallon in this first batch.

I'm getting behind in my sap boiling, there are at least 20 gallons still waiting for me and more coming out of the trees!

The day wasn't all about maple, we had broody silkie troubles. The nests they have decided on just aren't working. The nest boxes are constantly disturbed and two eggs were even broken. I took the remaining eggs to try candling since it is day 5 and I didn't see a thing suggesting development. After very careful candling I cracked a couple and as expected after candling they were just eggs no baby chicks starting. Either the eggs were not fertile at all or they were disturbed too much to ever get going. I tried explaining to the broody silkies that it's just too early still winter not much happening in the chicken yard. I gave in, let them have a try but it's Just. Too. Early! I tried to distract the broody girls and shut them in a pen with some good treats but a few hours later when I let them back into the yard they ran right back into the hen house and started their broody behavior again. 

Trying to distract broody silkies is hard work.

Apparently another silkie ROOSTER is feeling broody as well, those silkies!

And just a few random photos from today in the farm yard.

KitKat the Farm Cat

A duck conference.

All 10 ducks

I was here first, get off of me!

It snows it melts, it snows it melts and new ducks first egg!

The house is smelling sweet, maple sap is running and I'm boiling it into sweet maple syrup and later candy. Last year I got 7 gallons, will I beat that this year? A lot depends on the weather, we got an early start this year but will the season end early too? Only time will tell.

The sap was frozen in the buckets this morning but was running great again by noon.

KitKat helps me check the lines and buckets as usual.

The sap runs when the nights are below freezing and the days above. This year I think we're getting extremes. We got from freezing and snow to warmer and melting almost daily right now. We got another 6 inches of snow Saturday night into Sunday and today much of the new snow has melted. We do still have some old snow that hasn't gone yet and it will take awhile to be snow free around here. 

The ducks just love all the snowing and melting, they love anything wet! They have great fun with any new puddles that appear from melting snow. Today we had a first, first day of 2018 with 4 duck eggs and first day that one of the adopted ducks has laid an egg! 

Ducks just hanging around the watering hole having a morning chat.

Ducks and chickens going about their day.

First egg from one of the new ducks this morning!

That makes 4 ducks eggs today first ever this year.

The broody silkies have been having mixed results with their clutches, one was out of her nest and in a completely different nest box today. I gave her back her eggs but they were already a little cool. I did a test candeling (day 4/5 depending on the egg) just a couple eggs from each silkie. I don't think we have a lot going on there but I will wait until day 8-10 before making any changes and removing non fertile or non started eggs. The rest of the flock were out an enjoying the somewhat sunny afternoon. They all came running when it was time for a treat toss.

Oh no missing silkie mama! She was in a different nest box.

he other silkie was still with her clutch.

Treat toss time. 

These Silkies!

We have broody silkie girls, we have acting broody silkie boys, we have Mr. Baby Paint who had a spot of bother yesterday and today a silkie hen somehow got herself caught behind a rabbit pen. My goodness I barely gave the silkies a thought all winter they didn't cause a bit of trouble just wandered around the place looking cute and now the weather is improving they are causing all sorts of trouble!

The day started with checking over Mr. Baby Paint who spent the night indoors (see previous blog post). All was well with him so he was returned to the chicken yard in time for breakfast.

First in the yard today after his sleep indoors.

The broody silkies are indeed staying with their eggs so we may have chicks in 20-21 days give or take. Although the eggs were 24 hours under the hens I couldn't resists popping the turken egg into the pile when I caught her laying her egg first thing this morning. That was good timing! I know we won't likely have a good fertility rate right now but it's still fun to hope and wonder what might hatch out of those eggs. Hopefully we'll get a few chicks. I marked the eggs so now if the silkies collect any more I will know to take them away or else we'd have a staggered hatch and those usually do not go well and cause a lot of stress.

Silkie turning her eggs.

Silkie hens seem to love nothing better than sitting on eggs.

Labeling the eggs with the date.

As I was labeling the silkies clutches Turk the Turken laid an egg!

I added the turken egg to one of the silkie girl's piles after labeling it with the date.

Turken egg

Later in the day we even had silkie boys hoarding nest boxes! Mr. Paint the head silkie roo was taking up a nest box with his second in command, Mr. White, waiting below. Batbaby, the black hen seems to be wondering what is going on!

What is that rooster doing in there?

Finally for the second day in a row I had to bring a silkie indoors at bedtime. I was counting the birds and kept coming up one short. I finally decided to look all around indoors and out and found the paint silkie hen upside down behind the rabbit pen. Although she seemed fine when I freed her I brought her indoors to look over just in case. Another silkie spending the night indoors. I hope this trend doesn't continue for a third day!

I didn't mean to get myself stuck in an odd spot.

I don't know why the silkies are causing so much uproar lately. Maybe the warmer weather is the cause or maybe they can't see what they're doing and they all need haircuts!

Snow Again, Sap Running, Ducks Bonding and Mr. Baby Paint

The warm up was short lived, by Thursday noontime it was snowing. Thursday is our busiest day most weeks with homeschool co-op and shopping. I didn't have as much time with the animals or other farm chores. I quickly fed and watered the flock and switched over some maple sap bucks before co-op. and that's about it. I did a few more chores and spent a little time with the flock when we got home but soon it was time to close everything up for the night.

And again we are covered in snow.

Ducks were here.

Today we woke to a couple inches of new snow. Maple sap was still running though and we added some more taps today. It turned out that I may not have collected all the eggs after co-op and shopping yesterday and two silkies have taken advantage of this. I can't take them away now that they've had them for quite a few hours so we officially have two silkies sitting. I was going to have them wait a couple more weeks to time any hatching chicks to arrive about the same time as the six chicks we've ordered. We did that last year and it worked so well giving each silkie who had hatched chicks a couple more purchased chicks. Oh well it's likely we'll have yet another broody silkie by then anyway!  Between the two silkies they have around 7 eggs most of which are blue, probably from our Easter Eggers & Cream Legbars. I guess they chose selectively this time! Our only large fowl rooster is a white egg laying breed so I guess we will get lighter or maybe brighter blue egg layers should any eggs hatch and should they be females. I still don't think our fertility levels are very high in the eggs. There has been more activity among the birds with that warm up we had so maybe. I guess we'll try candleing in 5 days or so and see if any eggs are growing chicks.

The morning rush in the egg laying business. All lined up for the favorite boxes while others are empty.

KitKat on duty, keeping birds in line and warding off vermin.

 The new ducks and old ducks are already one flock so nothing to worry about there. They have bonded, a group of 10 now not 7 and 3. For some reason they were following KitKat around today! It's wonderful to see how the ducks have bonded.  I have been given more information about the three ducks we adopted. The "mama" is not the mother of the one younger duck, the one she was guarding the first two days. She had other ducklings of her own which didn't make it. Also this mama duck survived a raccoon attack and has a small hole in her beak as the only scar. Goodness this explains why she was so defensive and nervous her first couple days with us. All three seem to be doing very well now and looking at the group you would never know they didn't all grow up together. We've had the adopted ducks 1 week today!

10 ducks following KitKat!

The ducks are interested in the new taps and buckets which happen to be in their yard.

The indoor baby chicks are growing so fast and I am pleased that the bare spots on their backs which they had when we purchased them have all but gone. New feathers coming in and the birds don't seem to be pecking each other there anymore. We've had to move them to the bigger brooder now, formerly the play cage. They are already too big for the brooder cage we started them in. They're almost 5 weeks old now and we've had them a week tomorrow.

Big Baby Chicks

I had quite a scare at coop shut up time. One of the younger silkies, Mr. Baby Paint (one of Mr. Paint's sons) fell from a low height but seemed to be very hurt and disoriented. I thought he had somehow broken his neck, he was all listless and floppy and making strange movements. I carried him into the house and though it took a few minutes he perked up and was soon back to normal. I have noticed that his hair (crest) is very much blocking his eyesight so we will give him a trim before he goes back to the flock in the morning. For now he is camping out in the chicks smaller brooder since I hadn't taken it down yet and it was handy.

Mr. Baby Paint injured due to a bad hair day?

KitKat at the end of a long day doing his duty as farm cat.

What a warm up!

When the weatherman said that our temperatures could get into the 60's today I was happy and figured even 60 is good. Well we made it to 70 F today! What a treat, yesterday was warm and today was even warmer. I took advantage of this weather and got lots of outdoor work done. Coop cleaning, run cleaning, more maple tapping and dealing with some compost. There was some indoor work too the usual cooking and cleaning and I cleaned out the chicks brooder.

Buckets are filling up with sap.

KitKat supervises.

Washing more buckets to tap maple trees.

I was fortunate to be in the run to see Rocky, Hayley's Swedish Duck lay an egg, in fact it was probably her very first! I'd noticed the younger ducks acting a bit secretive the last couple days seeming to look for quiet spots and sitting for a bit but no eggs. Today there was an egg from Rocky! Only a little smaller than the eggs we get from the older ducks.

Rocky's First Egg!

That makes three duck eggs today.

I am happy to say that the three new adopted ducks  are fitting in very well with the flock already. Watching them in the fenced yard today it was hard to differentiate new ducks from old. They all seemed to have a grand time enjoying all the water that resulted from melting snow and ice.
I noticed most of the ducks watching something just outside the fence and saw it was a squirrel captivating them. It even came into the fenced area and climbed up and down a tree in front of the ducks, taunting them I think!

Chickens and ducks alike enjoyed all the new area opening up and more and more snow melted through the day. Lots more spots in the fenced yard became snow free or low snow and chickens were willing to walk on it.

The ducks are quite anxious for the ice to melt so they can have a good swim!

Longer days lots more eggs in the nest boxes.

Well tomorrow winter will return and I will miss the warmth but spring has to eventually arrive. It was nice to have this two day preview.

Editing to add, all 10 ducks, 7 originals, 3 new adopted ducks all went in to bed together in the coop. They are one flock already not even quite a week since we adopted the new 3. It was a special moment.