Happenings at the pond

Lots of activity at the pond this year! We added some fingerling bass after having a company come out to count our stock. It's a healthy pond and well stocked but we want more bass. We can catch quite a few catfish and some tiny perch most days. Our goal is to be able to go out and catch something anytime 🎣

I originally got a few ducks because I wanted them at the pond. Well, I could use some more girls. My ratio isn't ideal. I've posted a few photos of ducklings. They're so cute and fun! Watching them follow mama is adorable! Sadly for one reason or another none have survived. New mamas and cold windy weather are tough. Take your pick of predators: turtles, bass, snakes, herons, and egrets. Well, I'm happy to announce we finally have a survivor 🦆! Our Cayugas, Right, Left, and In Between (the drake) are shown here with the five little ducklings the girls co-hatched. That seems to be a trend at our place 😎 No recent photos. It spends a lot of time in the duck house and is always too far away. Here's to a long and healthy life little one!

Canadian geese that are frequent visitors. These aren't just passing through. We're told somebody raised a bunch a few years ago on the other side of town and they will now randomly show up and hang out at different lakes. We have a pair that visit us regularly for days at a time. Their current visit has lasted almost a month. Two days ago 6 more joined them. The 6 stay for the day then fly off at night and return in the morning. Love it!

Our Guinevere is happy to stay and protect his flock of chickens in the yard. He, yes he (his story here: http://lazydogranchblog.blogspot.com/2016/06/mother-goose.html?m=1), did chaperone the first ducklings at the pond for a while but was returned to the yard a couple of weeks later. He likes to play and bathe in his pool and sometimes the koi pond because he can flip upside down in it 🙃

Sprout, a crested duck, was an impulse buy at the feed store 😲 Because I've never done that before.... I wanted a yard duck. Would've worked except I have an uncanny knack for picking boys... He's a very confused duck. He tries to grab a hen by the neck once in a while but he's just not sure what to do after that. I can't exactly put him out at the pond. He'd be attacked by the others and might not survive. Here he's sitting in a nest box. He often does this in the morning sometimes joining a hen as she lays her egg. 🙄 I do have a duck I rescued one cold evening from the pond. Not sure where he/she will eventually end up once grown. If it's a girl I may let her join Sprout. Sorry, no photo. It's happily living at this point in a grow out run with some chicks though. 

I got a call one evening wanting to know if I wanted a goose. Well, I didn't want one in the yard but I was happy to take the chance she wouldn't fly away if we put her at the pond. Meet Gwendolyn, a Toulouse goose. Larger than Guinevere by a bit, she has made herself at home and keeps her distance. I hear her once in a while honking. She likes to hang out when the geese visit but seems just as happy with the ducks. 

As for the koi pond I finally ordered lilies and got them planted. Hopefully they'll all survive, fill the pond, and give us blooms all summer long 🌸 Still struggling with planting around it but I'll get there.