Duck and dive...

Look what we woke up to this morning... :)

Thick snow covering down to the lower level of the
mountain ridges
(by the way, the bentonite we added to the
dam has definitely helped the dam to retain
water and to prevent it from drying out
completely as it did previously!)

The sun is shining now and the reconfigured solar panels are performing perfectly at our current outside temperature of 6°C with no over-voltage occuring whatsoever - the power input at the moment is 710 watts - and I'm sitting at the dining room table with my back being gently warmed by the roaring, crackling Rosie behind me.

Life is good.

But, on to today's post...

The ducks that adopted us a while go are happily waddling round the property - munching on all the available insects (and my strawberries when they are in season) - and run up to us quacking madly for their grain twice a day when we go out to feed the alpacas.

But, I noticed that when I scattered their grain on the ground in their nighttime enclosure I was also feeding what they didn't finish to all the wild birds, not to mention the field mice, who have, naturally, taken up residence nearby.  Very nearby.  Like in the straw I have given them for bedding...

I then tried feeding the ducks the grain out of a container - but ducks aren't the tidiest of creatures when it comes to filling their stomachs, and as much went into their stomachs as landed on the floor.

More wild bird and mouse food.

Also, on a couple of occasions I noticed that they gobbled the food so quickly that they almost choked.

So, Google to the rescue.

Searching for "Duck feeders" brought up this pic.

http://poultrykeeper.com/duck-keeping/
beginners-guide-to-keeping-ducks

I quite liked the concept, so I've adopted it :)  On that same site, I also found out that ducks have no tear ducts, and they have to put their entire heads under water in order to clean their eyes.  I didn't know that.

I understand, especially in summer, that the submerged food could start fermenting in the water, so I am making sure that I feed them only as much as they wolf down at one sitting right from the start ;)  After all, their raison d'etre at Foothills Organic is to also to eat as many insects as they can find...

Duck food in a bowl of water

I gave them their first meal in the bowl (a re-purposed plastic ice cream tub) full of water and hung around to see if they would get the gist.

No problem.  They ducked their heads straight into the water and had a field day.

Yum, yum
Isn't there one last speck...

Because the food isn't dry anymore, they're not choking on it either.  In fact, the one just wouldn't stop and spent an extra 5 minutes making sure that there wasn't one last scrap that he could find...

The wild birds are only managing to scrounge the few seeds that float on top of the water, and the field mice - well, there's nothing for them, so they'll just have to relocate back to the fields.

You gotta love it when a plan comes together :)