Tag Archives: Duck

Belize, Farming, Food, Plants, Uncategorized

On The Farm

Hi Everyone! Yes we are at home on the farm staying out of trouble and heeding the quarantine recommendations for the Coronavirus pandemic. Belize has closed all its borders and the International Airport has been shut down. We only go into Punta Gorda once a week anyway and within the space of one week, there was so much difference. A couple of weeks ago, it was “business as usual” and village buses into town were packed full. When we drove in last Friday, it was like a ghost town; there were one or two cars and no buses (so we actually found parking!). A handful of restaurants were open but only offering take-out and supermarkets and banks were only allowing five people in at a time. People were wearing masks. It was such a stark contrast to the usual hustle and bustle of the town, that it felt eerie and surreal like a science fiction movie.

Anyway, back on the farm, it is definitely not eerie and surreal. Lots of things are happening and we are pleased with the progress. It is probably because our attentions are not divided by other things…business has ground to a halt and we are not seeing many routine patients or people. The garden is coming along very well…we started this at the beginning of the year. This is a before and after picture:

Before
After

The “after” picture is still an old picture. Right now, we are harvesting lots of vegetables…I am very pleased with these green beans; they are really sweet and tender.

Green Beans

More vegetable harvests:

Mustard Greens
Tindali

We are eating a lot of food harvested from the farm which is great since this is the reason why we do this. The duckies are happy and laying eggs. This is a picture of our fine-feathered duckies… they are gregarious and friendly:

Happy Duckies!

Lovely Duckie Eggs:

Duckie Eggs

Oh and guess what we have started feeding our duckies!! Yes, we have been busy bees. We have been breeding soldier flies and feeding the pupae to the duckies. This is the container that Gnome came up with; kitchen scraps and leaf litter are dumped at one end to feed the larvae; the pupae then climb up the clean end and drop into a container filled with soil and sand.

Soldier Fly Container
Soldier Fly Container

That is all for now. Keep safe everyone!!

Belize, Farming

Duckie Time Again!

It is that time of the year again. Duckie and Goosie time…this time, the first one out is a duckie! There won’t be any more eggs hatching for about a week so I have this one to feed and entertain until some more company comes along. This one is very quiet and well behaved.

Breakfast with Duckie:

First Duckie of 2019

What else? Oh yes…we re-visited the wormery project; about six weeks ago, Gnome asked me to revive the worm colony…it was sadly one of many projects that had fallen by the wayside. When I looked in the box, there wasn’t much at all…maybe about 10 survivors. Anyway, I placed all manner of chopped up food wastes in the bin and kept this going for four weeks. The other day, we went through the box and sifted out the worms. I am happy to say that there were probably about 200 to 300 baby worms. This encouraged us to persevere! We cleaned out the box and lined it with newspaper and cardboard. We them filled it up with peat moss soaked in water and placed our worms in it.

Making the Wormery.

They have been chomping through hair (Gnome had a hair-cut), leaf litter and scraps from the kitchen. It has been about two weeks now since we cleaned up their box and they look like they are re-producing faster. It looks like the wormery is becoming a reality after all! We plan to use the worms to feed the ducks and make delicious gourmet meals for ourselves. Also, the compost will be soil for plants so this project is definitely worth the time and effort.

Worms:

Worms.

That’s it for now. Gnome’s hand is better so we will be out and about on the farm today.

Belize, Farming

Hope.

Hope is a good thing.  I had made the decision to leave my duckies alone this year and not bother them about laying and nesting.  I opened the coop and told them that they were free to walk around and do whatever pleased them.  I then quickly stuck a greenhouse in the coop…thinking: aha, since you are not going to be around, I will move my tiny plant nursery off the veranda into your big, spacious coop!!

Greenhouse in Duck Coop.

Anyway, guess what happens next?  A few days later, Gnome spotted a duck emerging surreptitiously from under a wood pile.  He said,

“Quick Munchkin…check that space out…”

I quickly got down on my hands and knees to peer into a tiny, squashed-up space under a wood pile and this is what I found:

Secret Duckie Nest.

They are laying and starting a nest.  Yes…there is hope.  😉

Belize, Farming

Duckie Exchange.

We have been a bit unlucky with duckies this year.  We had about 6 girls initially and one by one we lost them through some pesky possums early in the year.  I managed to incubate a few eggs and had a few duckies to mother…sadly, none of them survived either…some were too weak and I actually stood on one too.  I know, I know, I was so devastated that I couldn’t even write that in a post!  Ducklings have a very erratic way of walking ie. they don’t walk in a straight line AND Munchkins have an erratic way of walking…so, put the two together and it might be a recipe for disaster!  Oh dear, no duckies this year:

Duckie.

Anyway, we have ended up with a lone surviving duck and three drakes.  The last two months, we attempted to isolate the female with one drake in the coop.  They had the whole infinity pond to themselves and access to all- they- can eat corn and protein buffet.  Despite all this pampering, duckie was not laying any eggs (or was there a snake getting them, I am not sure?).  We felt that she was lonely and unhappy and needed some female company to perk up.  To add to all this stress, during this confinement period, the drake kept on escaping through invisible holes in the coop to chase after the other two drakes!  Yes, oh what fun!!  It just wasn’t working out at all…

Duckies.

So, we decided to seek out our Duckie Exchange guy in Punta Gorda.  We have known this guy for as long as we have had duckies…so, probably about 14 years.  He owns ducks and occasionally, he goes through difficult duckie times like ours; when this happens he usually seeks us out for a pair of duckies to start again.  Over the years, we have sought each other out in duckie dearth times.  This time it was our turn.  He said that he was happy to spare a a few for us even although he had suffered quite a loss recently.  That was really nice of him.  Whilst talking, he told us that he had lost his only male goose to the dog.  As he told us, his single female goose walked by…she was so tame and cute and she had a funny, limping gait.  He explained to us that when she was a gosling, a crab nipped off all her toes so that was why she walked in a teeter-totter sort of way.  Anyway, we thanked him for his help and said that we would return to pick up the ducks.

Afterwards, Gnome and I talked and agreed that since we had always helped each other out, we would give the guy a male goose in exchange for the duckies.  It is coming up to goosie breeding season again and the fights will start with the September solstice.  There is one particular male goosie that gets the brunt of it all and we end up throwing him into the duck coop for protection.  I am not sure why the other males go for him because he is very fine-looking and he is a fighter too. Gnome and I agreed that he would probably be happier in a new home despite our reluctance to let go of our beloved goosie.

Anyway, that Duckie-Goosie exchange took place about two weeks ago.  Every time, we are in town, we slow down in front of the house to catch a glimpse of our dear goosie.  He looks a lot happier walking proudly  about with his new lady and it looks like he is the new boss of the yard!  Oh I know, we are suckers for happy endings…let us also hope for a happy ending for the duckies because we want more of these little cuties!!

Duckie

Belize, Farming

Goosies, Duckies and Possums.

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With Goosies, Duckies and Possums we are being kept busy; on top of all that, Gnome has mowed all the grass to the pond area.  It’s really helpful because we (the animals and I can move about more)!!  Anyway, little big goosie was getting a tad too big for the house creche so we had to put her outside; in the daytime she grazes on perennial peanut under a wire cage and at night, we place her in  a possum trap( by herself) with a water dish, plenty of doggy biscuits and a bunch of grass.  On the first night she kept on calling for us (we are Mum and Dad to her) so we went downstairs to try to calm her down.  As soon as she saw our familiar wellies (because at her height all that she sees are two pairs of walking wellies) she immediately started her happy noise.  That was when I realised that if I stuck a pair of wellies outside her cage she would feel safe…and it worked!  We have a happy goosie…Goosie ‘n” Boots!!

Goosie with Wellie Boots.

Little duckie is getting bigger and still in the house creche…which is essentially just  a big glass fish tank.  She is still small enough to handle but I anticipate that she will be going out soon in a weeks time.  Every night we spend two hours quality time with duckie…

Duckie.

Oh yes the possums.  I spent three days making my special Bengali curry…the sauce is made of twenty medium onions very, very thinly sliced (by yours truly) with ginger, cardamom, cumin seed, yellow ginger, star anise, cinnamon and little bird peppers.  The meat was soaked in brine for 24 hours, simmered in curry for 8 hours and left over-night for all flavours to do their thing.  Phew, it was a lot of work but totally worth it.  We had it with sliced green jackfruit.  Very Good!!

Possum Curry.

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Munchkin & Gnome Crèche!

Hey everyone!!  We don’t have a guinea pig creche any-more for our young’uns  so Munchkin and Gnome are running a temporary creche in the house (as-well as doing a multitude of things including cleaning up the farm, cooking up possum, making stuff to sell and of course, doctoring).  Since we have to baby-sit them we have spent a lot more time with new goosie and duckie.  Look at goosie…she likes to sit at the table with us; cuteness goes a long way!!

Goosie.

Duckie likes to sit in front of my computer monitor and keep me company.  Here is duckie in our temporary crèche facilities watching a film with me:

Duckie.

There is a huge size difference between the two of them; Goosie-zilla is a monster next to the little one…we have to watch her carefully so that she does not trample over the little one…she’s a bit of a cute clutz.

Goosie vs Duckie.

Sometimes we have to hid the duckie in a box so that she can stay safe:

Duckie in Box.

It’s all fun (mostly) but the tremendous amount of poop does get in the way of the fun.  They will have to go outside soon and meet the rest of the gang.  There are no more new ones since the possums have stolen all our eggs…hopefully with possum control, we can get a few more…

Amusing, Belize, Pets

Star Trek Duckie!

We have a new little duckie to look after and this one has been raised on Star Trek: The Original series (as-well as the usual food, water, greens and Munchkin & Gnome love).  This is funny:  Duckie whistles to the Star Trek tune and when we switch off the sound, she sends out distress calls!  I am experimenting to see if certain TV programs affect the intellect and temperament of ducklings.  After telling Gnome that we might have an extremely bright Star Trek duckie, Gnome said,

“Munchkin…maybe you should get out a bit more.”

He has mentioned this already when I was going on about rehabilitating a bullied goose!  This is just our silly banter.

Anyway, here are some fun pictures:

This was Day 1; she was a bit spaddled but otherwise able to stand.  This is a picture of her really trying to stand upright with lots of concentration. Good Duckie!

New Duckie.

This is Cape Duckie; it is getting a bit colder so we gave her a little cape to run around in.  Also, Gnome is crocheting bits and bobs right now.

Another Duckie Picture

Yoga Duckie:

Duckie.

Duckie has been with us for 7 days now and is ready to go out; actually we are ready…they start pooping constantly and the fish tank (which is the temporary home) has to be wiped and cleaned every few hours.  Time to go to the Guinea Pig creche for more schooling…

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Houdini Duckie!!

Phew…what a sweat fest it has been for the last week.  I have been walking about with a sore head from all the heat.  Today is a blessing with morning rains and marked coolness.  Oh lovely!!  So, the headache was definitely due to the heat.

Another silly Duckie Tale!!  About 6 months ago, we bought a new lot of fowl from a neighbour; this included a pair of geese and a pair of turkeys (The Overlord and the Duchess).  The neighbour was trying to off load her fowl because her dogs were attacking them and she felt sad that they had to kept in a protected coop all the time.  She threw in a duckie as a freebie since it was all alone and she had lost her drake partner to the dog.

At that point, when this new duckie joined us we had 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 duckies.  After about 2 to 3 weeks, I kept on counting 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 duckies.  This was back when the ducks had total free range of the entire farm and could come and go as they pleased.  They were herded into the coop at night.   Some days I would count 8 ducks as they trooped into the coop for their daily corn ration.  Other days there would be 6 ducks so I reckoned that some of them wanted to stay out and I felt that having independant ducks was okay at that time.  During the last 6 months our duckie rearing practices have changed because they were laying eggs haphazardly all over the farm.  Most of the time the dogs were getting them.  We decided to keep them for a short while in the guinea pig houses.  When we made this change, we had 7 duckies and I could not find number 8 (the new recruit).  We looked everywhere and gave her up as lost.

So, we had 7 ducks definitely for a while.  Four months ago, we let them all out in the confines of the duck coop (aka zen garden).  After a while, there were 6 ducks.  No idea what happened to that one.  Then there were 5 ducks (snake?)…then, definitely 4 by the end of the boa incident.  So, I’ve been counting 4 for about 6 weeks now.  I need to remind you  at this point that the coop is now sealed so the ducks can’t get in or out of it.

Last night I counted 1-2-3-4…5!!

Where did the fifth one come from???  It just appeared from nowhere and joined the usual food fight in the evening like she had always been there.  She is really skinny and she looks like the new duckie that we gave up for lost about 6 months ago.

We have no idea where she came from and what she has been doing all this time.  Gnome reckons that she has been hiding inside the cardamom bush in the coop all this time (setting with no eggs!) and she has been so perfectly camouflaged that we haven’t spotted her.  What…for 6 months!!!  Hmmmm….maybe…or she’s a magician duckie and walks through walls and coops!!

So, where have you been all this time??

Where have you been?

(Not Telling!)

Belize, Farming, Pets

What Happened To Duckie-zilla?

We are going from dry to wet season right now and there seems to be a more apparent transition this time round.  It’s raining at night and in the daytime it gets seriously hot when the water from the rain evaporates.  It’s like wading about in a sauna!!  Is this Paradise, by the way…

Anyway, do you remember that we had a lovely yellow duckie co-habiting with the guinea pigs because she was a one-duckie incubator hatch?  She started off really small (of course ha-ha!!).

Duckie.

And the she got bigger and bigger in the guinea pig metropolis so we started calling her Duckie-zilla…the awkward teenage years…

Duckie-zilla!!

She is the first of a new generation of laying duckies and so we have dubbed her Dalai Duckie.  Well now she has turned into a beautiful golden yellow duck so she is also called The Golden Maiden.

Here she is and  she is out with the older generation of duckies.  What a beauty:

Dalai Duckie.

The Golden Maiden.

Ooooh and one more…

Dalai Duckie.

She has started laying already.  Now we have 7 laying duckies so the plan is to start replacing the older 6 with a new generation.  The old generation are still going strong despite being over 5 years old; apparently, ducks lay good numbers up until the age of 5.  That’s according to information on the Internet…we have to see what real ducks actually do!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

Everything But The Onions!

Hello…still in the kitchen!  It’s great to “boycott” the farm now and then and refuse to descend into the dirt and wetness (yes it has been raining so now time to swap the mantra over to “wet, wet, wet” instead of “dry, dry, dry.”

Gnome says,

“You can come back to the reality of the farm in your own time my dear…”

Ahhh…I think…that is so supportive of him.  But then he says cheekily:

“The grass is getting longer as we speak.  And little goosies are calling out for you.  Oh and there’s a jackfruit dying a super squidgy death on the veranda….”

Hmmmm.  I can ignore alll duties for one more day whilst I re-charge my batteries in the kitchen.  Sort of like a re-boot…

Anyway, this is one of my most favourite things that I like to do.  Gather lots of food on the farm and make something good to eat.  I do this everyday anyway but I am making a concerted effort to ignore anything talking, quacking, wee-weeing, mee-owing, bow-wowing or honking demands at me! 🙂

Yummy Garden Food.

Today, I have made a meal out of everything from the farm.  All except the onions.  Ahhh the onions…that is going to be called “Munchkin & Gnome: Plant Acre of Onions Project” and will require ingenuity on our part since it is soooo wet (there we go again with the new mantra).

Thank-you my darling duckies for the eggs; I am rather fond of them…the duckies, I mean:

My Lovely Duckies!!

The Meal of the Day!  This includes onions (not ours) and aubergines, tomatoes, jalapeño peppers and duckie eggs (all ours).  Oh, and thanks to Panda for his Roma tomatoes which I nicked out of his bucket!  This is a great way to poach eggs…which Gnome taught me a long time ago in a land down-under: cook your dish as usual on the stove (can be anything; beans, lentils, stew, anything really) and once cooked, crack eggs on top.  Place lid on pot and cook eggs, on medium heat, to desired consistency. Hard-boiled yolks require about 8 minutes; so if you want anything in between, give yourself up to this measure of time.

Monday Meal.

Okay, back to farm work tomorrow with renewed energy and inspiration…