Death

Our duck pair was killed last night.  But it is a personal responsibility as the hutch door had not been relocked after feeding it seems.

Fresh livestock greens!

I found a local grocer that prefers to give its produce scraps to people with animals rather than throw them away.  I picked up a box this morning before work.  All the animals were thrilled to see something besides alfalfa - especially the ducks.  With the snow on the ground this is a veritable pot of gold for me - it is the end of the pay period and I need to wait another day to get a new bag of feed.  Although the hens love leftovers, like for us, fresh greens are better. 

eggs

The ducks are still not laying - the books say they won't start again until mid winter.

The quail have stopped laying also, I don't know why.

About 1/2 the laying hens are molting so their production is down.  Only 4 eggs a day on average.  With 8 hens that is less than ideal.

But one of the cochins left us a tiny gift (we suspect one of the frizzles)  All 5 of them should start laying this month. (although Hubby suspects that the 2 frazzles are roosters  - they don't crow but their posture is more upright than the other hens and they are more assertive.)

Either way I better have more eggs daily in time for holiday baking!