Dog Breaking the Duckies

Kearney - We are at PR's (our country home) for the long weekend.  TM got up bright and early this morning and went to work in the garden.  She is putting out weed barriers and then using hay on top.  She finally figured out to put the hay UNDER the plastic so the rain will slide off to the plants.  She only has a little bit to rework.  Her goal is to get the garden done this weekend.

Then she took us down to the barn.  We had to sit in our crates while she finished putting up duck fence around the field.  But, she is done!  We have a regulation sized duck field to work in now.  I am SO excited!

TM caught the six 6-week old baby ducks and put them out in the new field.  They are almost as big as their mama!

Lowri - That would be the mama who hatched them out and then deserted them when they were about 10 days old, so she could start a new nest.  She hatched out four baby duckies and a baby pheasant last night!  Since everyone was being mean to the baby pheasant, TM brought it up to the house and put it in the pen with the four other baby pheasant that just hatched from the incubator.   We have babies everywhere!  And more on the way!

Then TM took us back down to the field.  Kearney and I both got to work the young ducks.  Kearney got to go first (he always is first at dog breaking our stock).  I got to go next.  By then, TM had caught the white mama duck and put her in the field too.

I should explain - the white duck isn't really a mama duck.  She is just a stupid duck.  She built a nest and sat on four duck eggs and half a dozen pheasant eggs.  Then she moved the nest - eggs and all - about six inches.  Then she moved again.  Then she moved again.  TM checked under her at one point and she had only the four duck eggs.  This morning, she had one duck egg and three pheasant eggs.  All in all, she moved about four feet and then around a corner and a foot further.  She is a dumb duck.  TM put her eggs in the incubator and put her out in the field to be herded.

I was the VERY GOOD DOG!  I moved the ducks around the field and sort of got the idea of driving.  TM was very happy with me.