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.
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| The sap was frozen in the buckets this morning but was running great again by noon. |
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| 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!
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| Ducks just hanging around the watering hole having a morning chat. |
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| Ducks and chickens going about their day. |
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| First egg from one of the new ducks this morning! |
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| 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.
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| Oh no missing silkie mama! She was in a different nest box. |
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| he other silkie was still with her clutch. |
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| Treat toss time. |
I'm so glad to see the ducks so happy they have been through a lot. That looks like a mama duck egg though dozer hasn't started laying yet. Angel wing lays light green eggs so you will know who laid those. I wanted to thank you for adopting my babies I miss them so much but I know they are better off.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for letting me know which egg it might be. This must have been so hard for you. We will take the best care of them and love them a lot. I didn't really want more ducks at first but they have won my heart for sure. We will keep Dozer for the baby's name and I have been calling the black one Angel and Mama Duck just Mama. She is a protector and a survivor that is for sure. She has chilled out now and let her guard down just one of the gang.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that. I'm sure Sean didn't tell you the story on why we called the black one dumb duck. When we had more we had mama duck dada duck dumb duck and goose they were our original flock. So we had duck duck duck goose. A little homage to our childhood.
ReplyDeleteThat's cute, thanks for sharing why they had those names.
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