Turtle vs duckie, Chickens started laying, and everyone is growing!

We were fortunate to be chosen by Izzie's Pond as release site for some wild mallard ducks. We have really enjoyed having these beautiful animals as an addition to our farm.

Unfortunately, we also have a snapping turtle (or maybe two) in our pond and they can do a number on the poor waterfowl.

We recently had a hen mallard attacked by a turtle....I won't post any pictures, but the poor thing lost all the webbing between one, and the turtle stripped the skin off her middle toe down to the bone, and broke the middle toe....I sent my Farmer Man the pictures via text the day it happened...they were awful!  She apparently had been injured the evening before or even day before because maggots had set in and hatched by the next morning....ewww!

Thankfully Angel Durham at Izzie's Pond was so very helpful in getting us on the right track with Capstar, yes, the dog flea medicine, to kill the maggots and Baytril orally for the infection. We soaked her little foot daily and kept her in a dog crate on the screen porch. She was a trooper!  After about 2 weeks she was quacking up a storm DEMANDING to be let out of the crate. We started to let her out onto the porch for some exercise and soon she was healed well enough to allow her some"swim time" in the sink in my laundry room.  We still kept her on the porch for another week or two until we were sure the wounds were healed. She was MORE than ready to be back down at the pond with her flock since she quacked each morning talking back and forth with the rest of the girls.

She's been back on the pond for about 3 weeks or so and she is doing well.  It took her a little while to figure out how to swim with that poor foot, but she is managing very well.  She is a little slower than the rest, but she does very well in the water.  Walking on land, she hobbles a bit, but gets around ok and makes it no problem to the food bowl!

Here's Duckie today:

Our chickens FINALLY started laying on October 11th.  They were 25 weeks when we got our first egg :0)

Our girls even gave us a double yolk egg in the first few weeks they were laying....this was two eggs I was going to use to make breakfast one morning :0)

This is "Rudy" my buddy. He courts me every morning and will come running from anywhere in the yard when I call him.

"Rudy's" favorite girl is "Woobie".  She is also very tame and come to sit with me when I am supervising free range time.

The turkeys are growing too!  "Tommy" is a fine looking boy and "Diva" and "Baby Girl" are beautiful, full figured girls ;0)

Our "Tommy" <3

Our "Diva"..you can just see the attitude!

"Baby Girl"...always curious and always into something!

I will have to get updated pictures of the guineas...IF I can get them to stand still long enough! "Popcorn" aka "Poppy" the white guinea has grown into quite a handsome young boy.

We are hoping that our rescued wild Canadian geese, "Porkie", "Weeka Weeka", "Toes" and "Gimper" will all return come Spring.  They had two wild geese join them at our pond and they were soon pond hoping with the newest arrivals.  They would fly off for the evening and return in the morning spending the day on our pond and munching away on food.  A month or so ago, they started staying away for a day or two at a time before returning, and eventually they did not return one morning.  We were hoping they would stay year round, but if the wild geese were used to migrating, they may have migrated with them.  We'll be looking for them come Spring!

So much more to tell about the happenings of the farm, but I'll save it for another post.  Thanks for checking in with us!