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Muscovy Ducks:
August 2006, some dear friends gave
us some Coloured Muscovy Ducks (1 Drake and 2 Ducks). We named the
Drake "Cassanova", and were very original by naming the ducks,
"Blacky" and "Whitey".
In the months preceding as part of
the general Benara Farm House Block improvements we built a 5 star duck
area for them. Here we called upon family connections for the pond.
Jill's dad a well known pond builder and koi breeder kindly
fibreglassed a 3m x 2m scalloped pond for us and set up a bottom
draining system to allow us to easily clean the pond. We then spent
many a weekend and evening constructing a jarrah picket fence around
the pond and pond area The pond area was landscaped with the grassed
area resurrected, reeds, papyrus and canna lillys planted in the water
and surrounds. A redgum tree inside the enclosure plus numerous jarrahs
and redgum trees outside provided plenty of shade. The duckhouse, over
a few weekends, was constructed (see picture). Finally some goldfish
were added to keep the mosiquitoes at bay.
The ducks immediately loved their
pond and surrounds. Interestingly enough after all our work with the
duckhouse, it wasn't until "Blackie" started nesting that it was used.
Early 2007 3 ducklings were born, 1 drake and 2 ducks. Of these 1 drake and 1 duck survived.
Since mid 2007 the ducks have free
ranged around the house block, with the occasional forage into the
paddocks. Since this time we have not seen any snails. Each morning
if we are tardy in feeding them, they come under our bedroom window, and
hiss musically.
December 2007, whilst away on
holidays a hatchling of 12 ducks and drakes were born. These all went
to good homes, some to local orchards to keep pests down and others to
animal lovers. |
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