Maturing hens, water fowl and people, too

Here're a couple of Golden Comet rooster that showed up at the farm three weeks ago. They're real tame on account of being hand raised, held & touched daily by some friends in Asheville.

I don't know too much about chickens, besides that they're the closest living relatives of dinosaurs, in fact, the only direct descendants of the dinosaurs on Earth today.

Here're the hens, about 34 or so of them:
The breed are Barred Rocks, the black and white striped ones and New Hampshire Reds, the orange colored hens. They're all hens except two of the Hampshire Reds are roosters.

Down from 50 hens due to casualties from stray dogs, all 35 or so hens plus 4 roosters enjoy two scoops of grain/day and either starving the rest of the day or else foraging for insects, scratching in cow patties, catching flies, eating seedheads and plants. Seriously, they're quite healthy, growing into maturity and should begin laying eggs by late October/early November.


Last week, we brought 11 Muscovy ducklings onto the farm. They're now 4 weeks old.
Saved from a chance clutch of eggs on Lake Tomahawk in Black Mountain, NC, where the native geese and ducks were dying of botulism, these ducklings have found a home, are growing incredibly fast, and have high expectations to meet. The farmers at Raven Ridge are readying to release these ducks from the hen house in order to 'starve' (like the chickens) and instead of actually starving, obtain their calories from foraged bugs. Generally, ducks are far-better foragers than chickens, especially in the way of catching flies and eating mosquito larvae in ponds. These Muscovies are born fly-eaters and will soon be put on pasture with cows to eat the flies off their bodies. In exchange for flies, the cows are happy, and in exchange for a 'starvation diet', the ducks give people eggs. Wonderful how things work without chemical insecticides and chemical feed, a bit of sunlight, a thought of water, and a touch of human management!

Ducks are considered a wonderful farmstead animal. In addition to providing fly and mosquito control, ducks produce large eggs, used by bakers for their richer-taste, and will eat a massive amount of broad-leafy weeds and insect pests when let into your garden. Still experimental at Raven Ridge Farm, we're planning on releasing ducks into our summer gardens to eat the Harlequin bugs, potato beetles, and others that attack human food. Reducing feed co$ts is not only wonderful for people, it's probably tastier for the ducks (but you'll have to ask them: not an easy thing to do when they're out and about on the land, rather than cooped up inside a hot hen house, eating powdery corny feed...)

Here's the pond, a new addition to the farm since mid-July. It began filling up from the underground spring the day it was dug and filled up with the rain. The longest rain-free stretch of summer has been this week--9 days of hot, drying-out sunshine and the pond has not gone down at all. I'm confident this pond will provide a good source of splashing-around-in + food for the ducks and a cool bath for the cows in summer.

It's not the prettiest waterhole right now, but with a touch of care, and perhaps an eventual fence with 1-door entry for bovines, plus some water-loving plants, will begin it's evolution to perfection. If you're a perfectionist and like ponds please call (828) 649-9261. Be prepared to supervise 3 or 4 people in planting and protecting a waterside plantation from a farmful of cows, chickens and waterfowl.