janis

Dewey's New Feathers

Dewey is finally reaching the end of her molt.  She has very few feathers left on her wings now and is quite upset at her lack of finery.  She's grumpy, can't be pleased (except when we give her tomatoes), and doesn't want to be held.  I picked her up yesterday to try to comfort her and she reached out and bit my chin!  It was enough to draw blood.  Lovely. 

So here's a picture of her this morning.  You can see she looks pretty bare.  I'd be embarrased too, if I had to appear like that in public.  Her fluffy little tush is nearly naked and exposed for all to see. 

However...look more closely and you'll get a glimpse of brand new feathers coming in!  They're all rolled up in the shaft and they unfurl as they grow in.  And they grow pretty fast.  We'll see a change each and every day from now on and before we know it, she'll be fully feathered again.  And happier, too, we hope!

In other news, it's COLD here!  Last week we had record-setting highs of 89 degrees and I wore shorts to Thanksgiving dinner.  In fact, just two days ago, I was in a tank top and shorts.  But then yesterday a cold front blew in (it was WINDY here) and we had a freeze warning.  It was only 35 degrees on our patio this morning and the forecast says we won't even hit 60 for several days.  Brrr!  This is cold for us here in Arizona!

And, I won't warm up for awhile yet.  Tomorrow, I'm heading up north for a retreat in Prescott with Tim Holtz.  This has become an annual event for about 20-30 of us and provides a much-needed creative boost at this time of year.  Right now I'm so focused on the business side of the company as opposed to the more creative side, so this gets me away and in an environment where I can focus on being creative and learn new techniques.  I'll report more on my weekend in a few days.

Rouen? Or Mallard?!

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day so Todd & I took Dewey out to her pond for some sunshine and a swim.  She had a great time splashing and diving for the tomatoes that Todd threw in there for her.  I've included some of those pictures throughout this post....this first one is Dewey diving for a tomato piece.  The water was very clear and you can see her head below the surface as she goes for the tomato. 

Since Day 1 (or, Day 4, which is the age our ducklings were when Todd brought them home), we've believed that our ducks are Rouens.  The feed store where he purchased them told Todd they were Rouens.  The receipt said "Rouens".  So all along we have believed that they are Rouens.  After all, it's illegal to take Mallards (their similarly-colored relatives) out of the wild. (Dewey splashed a lot yesterday; here she is getting ready for her big flap!)

So imagine my surprise when I received an email from someone on my pet duck Yahoo group (yep, they have Yahoo groups for everything) telling me that Dewey isn't a Rouen; she's a Mallard!  Since she's a licensed waterfowl rehabber, I think she knows what she's talking about.  Now, chances are ours were not full-blood Mallard.  Take, for instance, Louie's lack of white neck ring and mahogany chest.  They were most likely mixed with something else.  But the odds of them being Rouen are next to nil.  You see, we finally weighed Dewey a week ago.  She's just under 2 pounds.  According to my rehabber friend, Mallards average 2-4 pounds.  Rouens are much larger.  Even for a Mallard, Dewey's on the light side. 

Well!  That explains the flying-over-the-fence episode!  Dewey will always and forever be subject to wing-clipping from here on out!  (Third picture:  before she flaps the water out of her wings, she rears up out of the water...)

Speaking of wings....Dewey's are looking rather scraggly these days.  She's lost nearly all of her flight feathers as she's nearing the end of her molt.  She's very insecure and doesn't like to be touched or held anymore.  And she's GRUMPY!  You see, she feels defenseless at this stage due to not being able to use her wings for escape.  And her body is bit sensitve while her new feathers are forming and growing in.  This is all normal for ducks. 

Here's Dewey in mid-flap.  You can see that she has a lot of beautiful white feathers underneath her wings.  She rarely loses those during her molt, but we do find one from time to time.  And those long flight feathers at the far outside of her wings?  Those are nearly all gone now, just since yesterday.  She's been dropping them everywhere.  And I've been picking them up & saving them this time around.

We still have one egg in the incubator and it appears to be coming along nicely.  A week from now we should be hearing peeping and the duckling should start to peck his/her way out of the shell. 

Here's one last picture of Dewey from yesterday.  This is to show you how her wings look with her molt nearly done.  You can see that she has just one of those pretty purple/black/white-tipped feathers left on this wing. If you'll look closely (you can click on it for an enlargement) you can see that the purple part is on only half of the feather.  I never realized this until our ducks went through their first molt.  I always assumed that the entire feather was purple.  It actually has quite a bit of variation on it and is quite amazing to see. 

In other news, we're busy in the office preparing for 2007 and all that entails.  This has been a working weekend as we have a lot to do in preparation for the CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) trade show in January.  We did, however, take time out to observe Thanksgiving yesterday and remember our many blessings.

And then there was one

Mixed news on the egg front....we're down to just one egg that we think is fertilized.  We're sad because we were really hoping that one of Huey's eggs would develop.  Not only were we hoping to have a little piece of Huey to live on, but her eggs were always larger and, therefore, more likely to develop to full term.  The one egg that we have left is from Dewey.  It's pretty small but "something" is growing inside.  We are hoping that it's a duckling and not just bacteria. (Ewww...)  We still have two full weeks to go before hatch so we keep the incubator going and I keep turning the egg every 4 hours.

Here are some pictures of what a candled egg is supposed to look like at 12 days.  Our egg (currently at Day 13) is remarkably similar so we are feeling optimistic right now.

Dewey's doing well and is still spending her days inside with me.  She's got the routine down now:  breakfast, followed by a bath, then preening, sleeping, more eating, sleeping, preening, evening tomato snack, another bath, more preening, then asleep for the night. Such a life!

Egg Update

Today was the first we candled the eggs to find out if they're fertilized and growing.  We started with 16 and now we're down to 7.  We expected there to be a few duds in the bunch, but I'll have to admit that I was a little surprised at how many.  We were aware that Dewey was Louie's favorite female this season, but even so, I was amazed at how many of Huey's eggs showed absolutely no signs of fertility.  Being new to this, and having never candled eggs before, we're a little unsure of exactly what we're looking at (we've seen pictures, but never anything first-hand), so we're not even positive that any of the 7 remaining eggs will work out for us.  We'll candle them again in a few more days to see if there is any further progress.  In the meantime, Dewey still hangs with us in the office and living room, splashes in her pond (only while supervised), and converses with her mirror friend. 

Pens and Needles

I wanted to tell you all about this new book published by Pinecone Press called Pens and Needles.  It's co-authored by Cindy Smith and Tania Willis and focuses on two scrapbooking techniques, stitching and doodling.  Cindy and Tania have done a great job of showing multiple ways of achieving these looks using machine stitching, handstitching, and faux stitching.  The hand-stitching section even includes some layouts and cards using our Fiber Friend templates.  I hope you have a chance to check it out.  I know you'll get some great ideas for incorporating these two design styles into your own projects!

Dewey's New Friend

Dewey has been extremely lonely since the loss of her buddies (her mate and best friend).  For the first couple of days, she simply rested in Todd's chair while I worked (see photo at left...she's got her head turned completely around and her beak is tucked under her wing).  But now that she's over the initial shock, she's more restless and she follows us everywhere.  She even cries when she's lonely.  Yes, it's true...she can turn her quack into a whimper.  It breaks my heart every time.

So the other day Todd remembered that "only ducks" will often be given a mirror so that they think they have a companion.   It worked like a charm!  She immediately settled down and I could actually leave the room without her following me. But after awhile she got a little agitated.  She kept pecking at the mirror...and her new friend kept pecking her back!   Finally she settled down and simply watched her friend, but there are still times we have to cover the mirror so that she'll settle down.

After several days of near non-stop mirror-pecking, we decided that she needs a real, live friend.  We went to the feed store where we got our first three...they did have a few ducks about 2 weeks old, but they were mixed breeds.  Dewey needs a companion that speaks her own language.  So instead, we bought an incubator, came home, set it up, turned it on and spent the weekend regulating the temperature and humidity level.  Early this morning, we put in the 16 most recent eggs, those without any cracks or other blemishes.  Dewey provided 5 of them and Huey was responsible for 11.  No, we will not have 16 ducklings!  We expect that perhaps not all will be fertile and some may simply not develop due to their age.  We will check them periodically throughout the next 4 weeks and remove the eggs that are duds.  Our goal is 1 or 2 ducklings.

Here's what they looked like when they were put into the incubator this morning.  We had to mark them with X's and O's so that we can be sure we're turning them adequately.  Yes, I'll be turning eggs 5 times a day for the next 4 weeks.  Normally, the mama duck would do this with her bill, but Dewey has not exhibited any signs of being broody.  (I guess she's too busy playing with her new friend!)  If we want ducklings, we have to do it ourselves.  At the left of the eggs is the thermometer that came with the incubator.  We have to keep it at a steady 99.5 degrees F.  At the right of the eggs is another thermometer that we bought because it displays the humidity level (this picture cuts off that portion).  We will need to keep the humidity at 65% until the last few days when they're getting ready to hatch.  Below the eggs is a water tray.  Since the humidity wasn't high enough with that amount of water, we had to add a little cup of water to the incubator...not very scientific or precise, but it works. 

And now we wait and watch.  And rebuild our outdoor pen.  You see, yesterday morning, our next-door neighbor watched as a coyote walked the top of the fence between his house and ours, then jumped into our backyard.  This was 10:00 on a Sunday morning!  Broad daylight!  Then last night, just after 11:00, Todd was in our kitchen and something in the back caught his eye.  It was a coyote leaping into our backyard.  He ran outside and scared it off.  It's very frustrating and I know it will only get worse.  I'll be calling the AZ Game & Fish Dept today to hopefully get some suggestions for what to do.

In other ducky news, Dewey has started her fall molt.  The feathers come out with every flap of her wings and every splash in the bath.  In another week or so she will look rather scraggly, but that will be followed by new, beautiful feathers (and another egg-laying season). 

The Things We Do For Pets

To say this past week has been unusual would be an understatement.  Since the horrific experience of losing two of our pet ducks to coyotes last week, life has been a little surreal.  Dewey has been spending time with me inside, alternating between keeping me company in the office and floating in the tub.  The first few days she was exceptionally good and well-behaved.  She would simply sit in Todd's office chair and watch me work.  But whenever I would leave the room, she would follow me.  She can't stand being alone.  Yesterday and today, however, she's been a little more restless. 

So yesterday I took her out to the pen and took a break while she splashed and played in the pond. After 20 minutes or so we walked back to the house together and she was fine for the rest of the day.  Then this morning she decided she wanted out again.  No problem.  It was beautiful outside, sunny and 70 degrees.  I opened the door and we started toward the pen.  Next thing I know, she's in the air, has overshot the door to the pen and is on her way into the neighbors' back yard.  Argh!

I ran (yes, RAN) over to the neighbor's and rang the bell.  Not home.  I went around to their gate...locked.  Now what?  I went back into our yard, found something to stand on and peered over the fence.  There she was, just on the other side, looking up at me.  Well, she flew over there so surely she can fly back, right?  I ran (yep, ran again) into the house to get some tomato pieces to lure her with.  For 20 minutes I hung over the side of the 6' block fence, calling her name, dangling tomato at her, bok-bok-ing like a duck, trying to get her to fly up to me.  How thankful I was that nobody could see me! 

But Dewey didn't take my bribe. She just looked up at me like I was the most ridiculous creature on the planet.  And I couldn't just leave her there.  She might fly over a different fence and be gone forever.  This is the duck that flew over the house a year ago and was gone for 3 days before someone down the street found her.  It was 10:00 in the morning...I had no clue when the neighbors would get back home.  I figured my only option was to climb over the fence, pick her up and put her back on our side.  But then how would *I* get back over? 

Todd has a couple of 50-gallon drums and I figured out that I could stand on one and lift one over the fence to the other side.  So that's what I did.  I hoisted one of the drums over the fence, scaring Dewey in the process.  I knew I had to move fast or she would totally freak.  So I began my climb over the fence, something I haven't done in, oh, about 40 years or so.  And there I was, straddling the fence with one leg on each side, unsure how I was going to finish this.  I was stuck.  But adrenaline is a wonderful thing and believe me, it was pumping.  I wasn't about to lose another duck.  Somehow I got over, landed on my feet without too many scratches from the fence.  I scooped up Dewey, she put up a fuss and tried to fly out of my arms.  I had visions of her flying over the front fence and into the street, so I held on for all I was worth and got her into our backyard.  Then I had to hoist myself over AGAIN.  Quite frankly, I don't really remember how I did that, but I made it to the other side, corraled Dewey and got her into the house.

Now she's standing on one foot, head tucked into her wing, taking a nap like nothing ever happened.

And I get to explain to the neighbors why they have a bright blue 50-gallon drum in their backyard.

And yes, Dewey's wings will get clipped tonight.  No more shenanigans for her...I can't take it!