Birds and Bees

Since we finished the ponds, we've tried every day to get the ducks to find and use the ponds. We tried calling them down. Usually they come a running when Lawman calls them, but they would come as far as our fence, then turn around and go back to the coop. So we struck on the idea of grabbing the male duck and one of the Harley Quinns that are a bit more adventurous than the others, and force them into the pond. The hope was they would run back and tell the other ducks about the pond and lead them down.
So early one morning, Lawman slipped into the coop with a fishing net and planned on scooping up the two test subjects and taking them to the pond. The test subjects were not having any part of that, and flew out of the net several times before Lawman grabbed them by the feet like chickens and walked them down.

He tossed them into the small pond, since it's the closest to the coop.

They swam around for a few minutes, then ran up the hill to rejoin the rest of the crew.

So we thought they would tell the rest of the ducks about the big mud puddle, and lead them down later in the day. We were wrong.
We thought that maybe since they had a kiddie pool full of water at the coop they didn't need to wander far, so we stopped filling the pool and the water bowls. The thinking was they would get thirsty and head on down. We were wrong.
It's been crazy hot and dry for several weeks and by the end of the day without water, the birds were about to pass out. Just our luck, birds so dumb they would die of dehydration within sight of two ponds. So we filled the water bowls up and let them water down before bed.
The next day Lawman cut a path behind the coop down to the ponds with a chainsaw, so we could take The Silver Hornet down. We feed the birds twice a day, once in the morning and once when we gather the eggs, so egg gathering feed was moved a little further down the hill each day. We got the birds to the edge of the pond, and spread the food out along the shore line. After two days of staring at the pond, the little ducks figured out they could swim in it and the big ducks followed suit.

Two days of small pond swimming, and the little ducks wandered down to the bigger of the two ponds, with the big ducks following later. Now the ducks spend all day doing what ducks do.

And a bird related note, our guineas hatched a new batch of keets. The funny thing about it is, the first batch they hatched had 15 birds in it. We caught all 15 but five died before they got old enough to fend for themselves. We released 10 back into the flock.
This second batch, she hatched five keets, so we guess the magic number is 15? They're so cute when they look like cotton balls with feet.

And finishing up our bird related update, the pearl guineas we bought from Rural King and raised with the baby ducks are confused. They still think they are ducks, but wont go near the water. They have found a small tree along the pond that they hang out in all day while the baby ducks are swimming. We think it wont be long until the family of guineas take them under their wings and tell them they are not ducks.

Bees.
We've gone from feeding syrup to the bees to just straight sugar. We understand that by this time of year the bees are starting to store honey for the coming winter, and sugar is a big part of that process.

We also read that this time of year makes the bees moody. We were not lied to, they were none too pleased Lawman was tinkering around the hives.

Off topic from our headline, but we think it's neat.
We read that you can save the top of a fresh pineapple and start it in a pot to grow your own. We thought that would be neat to try, so we did. It's got new growth showing so we think we may keep it alive to grow our own. Only 18 months until we harvest.

We ended the week with baked spaghetti again, because....homemade sauce.
K&K