Our muscovy ducks ♫ ☠Do the ducky dance ☠♫

We just recently picked up a trio of Muscovy ducks and its really starting to feel like a farm around here. With 2 chickens, 2 goats, 3 ducks, 6 barn cats and a caboodle of kittens We are on our way!.

The one thing I can tell you is, out of all the animals we have so far, the ducks are a delight to take care of. They waddle around, with no big hurry, feasting through bugs in the air and grasses on the ground. Corralling them to a certain location is beyond easy, just walk behind, helping guide them in the right direction, and off they go!. The only slight gripe I have is, sometimes, if Im a little forgetful and leave the goat pen door open, the ducks get in and start eating all the left-over seed on the ground, THEN POOP.

Muscovy ducks cleaning themselves

Muscovy duck closeup ( male )

Our male Muscovy has a wonderful demeanor, he shows no bother to our two goats, even going as far as to compete with them over snacks on the ground. When he flaps his wings, you can feel the air move all around you, freaks my goats right out!, Hes also one snazzy dancer, If you walk up and bob your head slightly, he does his little dance and shakes his tale.

One of our female Muscovys has blue eyes and is the more timid of the bunch. The other female seems to like de-feathering her, it was only a big issue when we first got them, everything has seemed to calm down now, Thankfully.

Muscovy closeup

 Our other female is in the background and has been laying eggs quite voraciously.

 Im not sure what these are, if anyone has an idea please chime in!

I dont know too much about flowers but I sure can appreciate them! From what I understand, this is an iris. It grows wild under our maple trees in our front yard and what I find interesting is, How similar in looks it is to a vanilla vine

Our rhubarb has started to flower and I figured I would collect some seeds and see what comes of it.
I understand quite well the complexities of growing plants whose seeds pop out like the roulette effect. Yes, it will not be like the parent plant but thats the whole point!. When it comes to these things, the more genetic variety the better, after all, I would hate to see what happened to the banana happen to rhubarb, I couldnt go on with out my pies and strawberry rhubarb deserts.
I swear on that giant spaghetti monster in the sky!

Are these prickly poppies?

Now, Ive grown poppies before, mainly for leaning about the medical aspects and how theyre grown but I never got that into all the other varieties. They look vary similar, the flower pod, the stem, the spikes on the flower bud, but the leaves are soooooOOOOOO covered in thorns it just didnt look like what I know. Ive only grown papaver somniferum, some Hawaiian blue poppy and a few others I piked up from Richters herbs.

If anyone out there knows what this is please let us know!

Its certainly something living out in eastern Ontario. The amount of wildlife here is extraordinary.
BUT! I feel there is a warning I must give to future property investors,
The one thing that might wreck it for SOME people is......
THE BUGS.

Man OOOO man are there bugs.

Ive never experienced anything like the bug population here. If you breath in to heavily, youve just consumed you protein for the day. The black flies will dive bomb your eyes and the mosquitoes will suck you inside out. Now, there is a benefit to all this chaos. The ecosystem is THRIVING. The amount of bird species here is unlike anything else in Ontario, the butterflies are everywhere, the parasitoid wasps are around in apocalyptic droves. Bees and wasps are a plenty here, at least on the organic farms that is.
So, if you can put up with a mouth full of bugs, you will do fine down here. lol.

Cheers!