The Duck Chronicles Episode Fourteen – Chowing Down on the Green
Watch Us Grow Up on Youtube!
In The Duck Chronicles Episode Fourteen – Chowing Down on the Green the ducks have had their first successful outside overnight mission. Accomplished with minimal supervision by Charlie and Max.
Today we cross a bridge where the ducks begin to truly become independent and begin moving toward flock integration, though they are quite a ways from that still at this point.
Our relationship now much change as well. No more daily handling and that means no more daily weighing. They now need to see us as benevolent creatures the hang out with them, don’t bother them and simply give them food and water and lead them to good places to find forage.
It is this relationship that makes managing them easy for the rest of their lives. It allows them to trust you when you want to heard them to a location or put them in for the night. It is why they are excited to see you each morning vs. afraid. All this is mostly accomplished by doing nothing but sitting with them every morning and afternoon.
I also have more Q&A for you today, such as…
- How you can find all episodes of this Series. Your best bets are the playlist http://bit.ly/1KD3DQV or the Duck Chronicles tag on the TSP Blog. http://bit.ly/1yWOpAN
- Why is that little brown adult duck named “Little Bit”?
- Is working with the ducks therapeutic?
- How do we avoid crushed feat when moving the duck tractor?
- Why I don’t want to process my own ducks?
- Will I provide videos of “Geoff Lawton’s Idea” for duck integrated aquatic farming? Yes but not as part of this series.
- How do you keep chickens and ducks from eating your garden? Those really are two separate questions by the way.
Hey jack,
OK my question is- how do u train your dog’s to leave your chickens and ducks and other livestock alone? My details. I have two pittbulls. The black and white one I have I’m not that worried about messing with livestock. He’s just a big goof ball and I’m sure will be more scared of the animals than they are him. My blue pit bull on the other, which looks a lot like the pittbull that had been abandoned and found her way onto u r property years ago, well I’ve kind of taught him to get Lil creatures away from my property before I got my homestead. I got him when I lived in North Carolina and was in the marine corps. Where I lived we had a bad problem with cats. So naturally I got him to chase the cats away from our house. Ironically he turned In to my mouse hunter, and has caught quite a few in the garage and house lol. But he has also caught and killed other things, like ground hogs. I have trained him well and as for the cats he won’t chase them until I give him permission. But the ground hog was a surprise and the mice too. I let both dogs roam the property that I have, a couple acres out in the country while I’m out in there, they also have one part of the property fenced off for them if I’m not out there but they get out occasionally. They don’t run off though. But anyways I’m really afraid that once I get chickens and ducks they will end up hurting or killing them. How did u train up dogs. I hear you talking about them all the time protecting ur animals. What are some pointers. I don’t want to have to keep them pinned up all the time when I let the livestock free range or vice versa. Sorry for your long message. Thanks for the advice in advance. Just really concerned. Hopefully I won’t have a problem but it still makes me nervous to think about. Is there anything I can to help train and prepare them for the animals I will be adding to my place. Thanks again jack for all that you do
Hey Rooster. I free range my chickens and turkeys. I have a pit bull and he’s killed a couple of chickens years ago in my absence. I thought to leave him loose while I was out and eventually a couple came up missing. I suspect he caught and killed two, a chicken and a duck. He played them to death, not eating them. I tied the dead turkey around his neck for a few days. He finally chewed it off. He hasn’t been a problem since, but I don’t leave him loose while I”m gone anymore either. He’s just playful and I figure he was testing the pecking order, if you’ll pardon the pun. If your pits haven’t killed already, I would walk them close to the animals and their pens on a leash and when he gets close to one, yank on him and say no firmly. This will establish a mental baseline for him that it’s unacceptable to get too close to the animals and I mean sniffing range. As for that, he plays and chases the other dogs and goes flying by other animals quite close and I don’t discipline him for that. He’s just having fun. He does mind when I call him. You can’t get around disciplining an animal when they make mistakes. We do the same for humans. If you let bad behavior go unaccounted especially for dogs, they will take a mile when your back is turned, just like some kids. I have a 1″ pvc pipe about three foot long my dogs know. I don’t use it often but will when I have too. They know what it’s for. It’s a walking stick too, so they see me poking and prodding with it, so like a hand, it can be for hurting and healing. You may get lucky and never have your dog kill another animal. But, it that happens, it’s not the end of the world. Dogs make mistakes like people do. Some people tend to overdo it with the “he has to go cause he drew blood” mentality. That may be. But, just let the punishment fit the crime.
Let me just say I have heard of doing this, I find it abusive and unnecessary.