So I wanted to give an overview of my scaled down sprouting system today for the new flock of only 10 Rouen Ducks.  The old system was based on 5 gallon buckets but they would not work well for a much smaller quantity.  The key is to keep the mat of seeds nice and thick so they don’t dry out and can fully sprout well.

This is not the best over view of the system due to shooting one handed and due to a few disruptions.  One disruption was great though.  I often discuss how Charlie (our pit-pointer mix) defends our birds and chases away any big birds.  We taught him this by using the command “bad bird”.  This instantly puts him on full alert status and any big bird must be chased with hatred and rage off the property.

We don’t differentiate between actual bad birds (hawks that eat ducks or herons that clean out fish ponds vs. vultures), any big bird to Charlie is bad, and to be chased.  Due to his vigilance we have only lost one chicken in 6 years to a hawk.  I have also talked about how I have had to do a lot less training with Lucy then I did with Charlie.  Charlie has trained her for instance that people are not permitted to come though the gate without being let in.  It has been incredible to watch and makes you feel good as a trainer when you dog, trains your next dog for you.  I talked about that a lot in my episode about “Understanding the Canine Brain“.

Well today you get to see it in action.  I have done almost no “bad bird” training with Lucy, but Charlie has been on the ball.  As I get set up to do this episode a turkey vulture roosts on top of a power pole, the ducks only known a big ass bird is over them head for cover and just watch Lucy Lu make me proud!  Bad Bird you gotta go!

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These are the buckets I used, but as I say you can really use any suitable sized container.  https://low.es/2BNVui5