Keeping Ducks Cool in Hot Weather

Welcome to Episode 13 of the Duck Ladies Pondcast with Host Krissy from  @DunkinDucks   and Emily from ​ @CheeseandQuackersHomestead  ! In episode 13 we discuss how to keep your flock cool in hot weather, homestead updates, and answer questions sent in by our followers.

0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:24 Heat Waves | Keeping Ducks Cool In Hot Weather
0:17:37 Q&A | Can Ducks Hatch Chicks? | Guard Goose Breed Recommendations 
0:29:46 | Homestead Updates | Mr. Whip's Surgery Recovery | Gosling Update | Duck Wedding | Visit to Metzer Farms | Our New Ducklings 
1:13: 32 Closing

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to the Duck Ladies Podcast episode 12. I'm your host, Chrissy, here from the Dunkin' Ducks with Emily from Cheese and Quackers Homestead. And you may have noticed we've been a little MIA recently, but we'll get to that later because we have some other things that we want to discuss today. So I am going to switch up our order of how we do things today. We will talk about our own homestead updates later on in the episode. But right now I want to talk about heat waves and how to keep your ducks cool in heat waves because we are currently going through one right now. It is awful out today.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Here is it said just as bad for you. I went outside and I was like, oh, this isn't happening. I don't even want to be out there.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

I said, ooh, never mind. Not a good day to spend outside.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

And I think tomorrow's gonna be even worse. And I know some parts of the US are having like 100 to 110 degree weather right now. Ours isn't as bad. I think we're like 90s. Yeah. So tomorrow's gonna be worse, don't tell me that.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah, I think I think so.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Great.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

So have you noticed any signs that your birds are hot? Yes, my chickens. My ducks, not as much.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Ducks, so ducks are actually less heat tolerant than chickens, supposedly. However, ducks have a better way to cool off than chickens do because they can get in the pool and cool down their legs. A lot of their core temperature is dependent on their feet. And so when they get in the water, it cools them off relatively quickly. But that being said, there are good ways to cool off your chickens. Like I've been putting out, I'm sure you do this too, the little pool with some ice water and the bricks, and they can go stand on it. But as far as my ducks, I bet if I went out there right now, they're dying. I but I haven't gone out to the to the call duck pen yet today. Yeah. But yesterday they were okay. The calls were okay. They're very dramatic. Like sprinkle will lay in the dead center of the sun and just pant and like sprawl out. Meanwhile, there's like shade and pools available to her. But how are yours doing?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

I would say mine are about the same. The ducks are really handling it very well. I think I've maybe noticed a little bit of panting, but like nothing, nothing too crazy going on here. The chickens are definitely not taking it as well. And they're they're struggling. Yeah, I'm actually kind of surprised because my quail are probably like panting the most, which they don't have waste to cool off. Because if I give them like a pool of water, they're they'll drown. Quail are so good at offing themselves. So we're not gonna do that. So I just bring them out, you know, fresh cool water in a container that they can't actually get into.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

One thing that I love that I have this year for my chicken flock that I'm hoping is helping a lot, and I'm sure you actually, I think you have it too, is the omelet insulated waterer. Yes. That's awesome because usually I would have to bring out cool water because I didn't want them drinking hot water all day. And because of that, I haven't had to do that because it keeps it so cool. So I'm like, that's a worth it investment. Yeah, and it's also not growing algae.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

No, not at all. All of my other chicken waterers get like covered in algae, and they're such a pain to clean. But my omelet water is holding out strong and the water's staying cool. And yes, it is an investment. Like, straight up, we're just be honest on that. But yeah, it's great. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yeah. I actually I'm considering buying another one because they do run through, like when it's really hot out, they do run through it pretty quick. But I have like an exuberant amount of chickens inside that enclosure right now. So I'm like the one thing that I'm worried about the most when it comes to heat waves is broody mamas. Like, I really worry about broody hens, and actually, now that we're talking about it with how hot it is right now, I'm probably gonna go try to situate my tuna bagel oatmeal, tuna bagel oat situation, because all three tuna, bagel, and oatmeal are all sitting on an ass. Oatmeal's sitting on nothing. Oatmeal's killed majority of the babies, which is glorious. Uh, she's killed three eggs so far by just being a problem. And I was considering because of, we'll get to later on my homestead updates, because of the predator situation, I was I was like, I'm gonna break them. I'm just gonna take the eggs. Sucks for them. Realistically, call ducks get over it so easily. Like, if you take the eggs away, they're just like, whatever. They don't they don't really get that upset.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Easy.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

And so I was actually my solution to the heat wave with them being broody was I think I'm just gonna break them all. And I'm just gonna take it.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

I've actually been struggling with my coaching phantom chicken right now. Like even ducks. Mine are so bad. I just take their eggs away and they get over it. My chicken, I didn't want to put her in jail because I felt I felt bad doing it. So I like put her in cold water. I put ice packs up ice packs underneath her. I removed the nesting pads from the nesting boxes, so she's not even sitting on eggs. She's sitting in a box with no nesting pad and just sitting. Yeah. As if she's sitting on eggs. And I feel I feel so bad for her. So yesterday I finally put her in jail. So the the I the concept of putting the chicken in jail to break it from being broody is that you put them like up off the ground because you don't want them to be able to sit, so you want them to get like airflow underneath them and everything. So I gave her like a perch that's not like big enough that she can sit on, but like that her feet can stand on. And I had to flip the like dog kennel upside down because the holes in the bottom are too big. And guess what she did? She got out. She flew out the top. And like, coach and bantoms aren't that small. They're not like little seabrakes. So I didn't think she was gonna be able to do that. But I think I'm gonna have to hardware cloth the dog kennel to keep her in.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Yeah, I I like my coach and bantams are so broody. It's the broodiest animal I've ever had in my entire life. I kind of just gave up. I'm probably gonna have to do something. Now that you say it, I'm probably gonna have to do something about it today. But luckily, actually, the chicken coop is cooler than the run. So I'm actually less worried about her sitting in there than I would be if she was like than all my other chickens because it's so cool in there. I don't know why it just stays really, really cool in there. And so she's probably fine. They actually go into the coop to get out of the heat, and so that works out. So I'm like, probably whatever. But also when they're broody like that, their core temperature is like elevated. Right. And so I don't like that part of it, but I was gonna check on mine because uh mine are just they're like horribly broody. And I'm just like, I if I broody gel them or do anything with them or break their brood, they go right back to it the minute they see a physical egg, and so it's like I can't really, I can't really beat them out. I thought about giving them babies, but then I was like, So I don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

I know, so I let Pepper, my coachin, hatch duck eggs. Like, it's it's it hasn't even been a full month since her babies grew up and I rehomed them, and she's already broody again. So it's like, yeah, you could give her babies right now, but she's just gonna do it again.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah, and she's just gonna go straight back to it the minute she's done with the babies. And I thought about taking the nesting boxes out, like being like no more, or like shutting them, and she'll just sit on the ground. One time I took all the eggs out of the nesting box. I had the eggs sitting next to me, and I was pulling all the eggs from the nesting box. She goes over, gets in the egg basket, and sits on the egg. I was like, stop. This is ridiculous. Like, you gotta give it up at some point. Wow. And whenever I pull the eggs, they'll go behind. I changed her nesting boxes so they don't do this anymore. But they could fit behind the nesting boxes, and so whenever I would pull the eggs from one nesting box, she would go out the back and just crawl into the next one and sit on those eggs and go sit on like oh my gosh. They're very dramatic. But mine seem to be like overall okay. Even we've gone through heat like this before this week, and I mean they they were fine. So I'm like, yeah, not as worried about them as I am with the ducks, just because the ducks tend to be less heat tolerant than the chickens. Yeah. So that's why I'm like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

So as far as like tips and tricks for dealing with the heat wave with our birds, Emily had mentioned the frozen or the pans of cool water with the bricks in them for the chickens. For the ducks, I like to give them treats that have a high water content, like watermelon and cucumbers. I actually learned this from Emily. You made a video, I think, last year about heat stress and to give them mint because it can help cool their body down. So that's a good tip. You can add like sprinklers into their pen, fans in their coop. Have a fun little what are those things that we a splash pad? Splash pad. Throw up a splash pad and let your ducks play in the fresh, cool water for a bit and have some fun.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Those are mine. Big tip. Big tip. This is very, very important. If you're going to give your ducks a splash pad, or you're gonna like hose. I like hosing my ducks, so I just go in there and spray them all at the hose. Make sure you run your water completely until you're getting cold water again because the water is scalding, and a lot of people make that mistake, and you're actually like blasting your duck with like boiling hot water. So run it on your hand, make sure it's actually cold. Same thing with if you're running it through a splash pad, make sure you run the water before you connect it so you're not actually making a hot tub. Uh, because that is not good. I've almost done it a handful of times. I've like gone to spray and like felt so that it was hot, luckily, every time, and been like, oh my god. Yeah. So keep that locked in because especially this time of the year, your water is gonna run hot for a while.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

So yeah, that's a great tip. Another thing I always make sure to do, my ducks always have two water sources, but especially when it's a heat wave, I really recommend making sure your birds have at least two water sources just in case they like spill one or knock one over or they splash all the water out. You really don't want them to be without water during a heat wave, so make sure you handle that. And then I also sometimes like to like when it's really, really hot like this, I'll add Vitamats into one of their water sources. You want to make sure they always have fresh water available, but I think Vitamins is a great way to ensure that they're taking in all the electrolytes and benefits that they can because they will move around less when they're really hot, so that can lead to them actually drinking less, which is why having the electrolytes will actually give them that boost that they need.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Chrissy actually sent me this vitamins. So this is props to Chrissy. It's my office Vitamin's. Vitamuts is absolutely fantastic. One of the best things you can have, whether it be any form of stress for your birds, but especially heat stress, because it does have electrolytes included. So it makes sure that they're getting good hydration. Hey, you know what I've always wondered? How does this taste? Like, is this you know how Gatorade does it?

SPEAKER_00 10:39

I feel like it tastes like Gatorade. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Do you think it I'm gonna smell it? I've never actually like smelled it. I bet it does. We need Matzer Farms to chime in on the case.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

I think it smells almost like or maybe it's just the color, but to me it smells like citrus. Really? I well, I just feel like it looks like it does, it does not smell like citrus. Okay, that's just my mind tricking me because of the color.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

It it smells like mild seasoning, like like savory. If I was going to bet what it tastes like, it's savory. But yeah, this stuff is awesome. I also hand it out. I I'm pretty okay. I'm a little bit of a Vitamin's hoarder, so like they have to look like they're doing bad for me to give it to them. You gotta save it for the babies. I gotta save it for the babies. And so, but yeah, this stuff in the water, like I will honestly probably be adding this today to my duck's water to make sure that they're all getting through this heat really well, especially broody mamas. Like, if you're gonna go set out a little water bowl, because one thing you should always be doing for like broody moms during heat stress is making sure that they have close access to water. So I like to make sure that they have water near where they're sitting and adding this especially for them because they're gonna be running higher temps. If your coop gets stuffy and hot, then they might be hotter than usual. So this stuff is the best. We love Metzer Farms, and this is an amazing product. It is the only, as far as I know, waterfowl-specific poultry boost on the market. So that's why this is me and Chrissy's bread and butter. Somebody was like saying the other day, they were like, you just love it because it's Metzer Farms. And I'm like, no, unbiasedly, this is the most incredible product.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Like I, yeah, so I had actually mentioned it in the video I posted yesterday at the time we're filming this. And somebody commented on my YouTube and they were like, is this an undisclosed ad? And I'm like, no, I genuinely love this product. They've never okay, so they do sponsor our podcast, but they've never asked us to talk about Vitamets. We talk about it because we genuinely love it, and I have loved it long before we even started the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

And if you ever message me, like this is why I tell people like this is unbiasedly like I love Betcher Farms, that's no secret. But like, genuinely, like this product, regardless of who it's made by, is so awesome and such a tool for poultry keepers. Is every single time I feel like I get any message in regards to anything going on with poultry, my first thing I say to do is this. Like, I everything. It's like the first, like, rule you can rule so much out by just handing them this. You know, you rule out dehydration, you rule out vitamin deficiencies, you rule out niacin deficiency, which everybody's always worried about because you know it's all in here. So you can cover all of your bases that are necessary for waterfowl in one go with this product, and that's why it's such a critical tool for us to have as duck keepers. And it's so amazing that they came out with it because before I wasn't getting the same experience when I gave like a hydro hen, which is covering the or like the bounces for chickens or giving the electrolyte base for chickens, accounting for how chickens consume things.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Gave them these electrolytes for chickens, and then also add niacin and like you don't have to mix stuff anymore. Yeah, I think that's what Metzer Farms just packaged it all up for us.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

As far as other things that I do during a heat wave, you know what's one thing I did, but I also think I'm just very on edge, is I didn't I was gonna move birds from inside to outside. Okay. Baby birds. And typically I'd be like, oh, it's warm out, they'll be fine. This time I actually didn't because it's like so hot out. Yeah. I was like, I totally see that. I didn't want to like shock them to like by suddenly eating them out into like just really extreme heat. So I actually ended up holding off a couple days just to make sure. But younger birds are just less tolerant to everything. And so that's why I held off on that. But those are the only real things that I do differently. You could throw ice in their pond too. That's another thing. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

My ducks are obsessed with ice. So that's I just kind of do that all the time.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

But we should probably talk about signs of heat stress in your ducks if that's something that you don't know how to look for. Honestly, a lot of the heat, so people get very, very freaked out by the way ducks in I would imagine chickens too look when it's hot out because it is they're very dramatic. So they're gonna be panting. You're gonna notice some panting. One thing that I really want to touch on, because I've seen people post this on Facebook groups. I even think I've had it sent to me directly, is sometimes when they're panting, like you'll see the little bill going, they can almost sound a little bit like cr they how do I explain this? I think that's called a f a gutter flutter. They're like noise. You know what I'm talking about when they're like, yeah, it's usually your females that do it, and they're basically like vocalizing while they pant. And it just makes this really weird noise, and a lot of people immediately start to think it's a respiratory problem. And usually, basically, if you're concerned, bring them inside when you see that. See if it stops once they cool down. If it stops once they cool down, you know it's not a respiratory thing. It's just they like to be it loud about panting. I have a Welsh Harlequin who literally quacks a little bit every time she breathes, like when she's panting. So you'll notice them panting. Another thing you'll notice them doing is holding their wings out or like the ducks, like flutter, flutter their wings. My chickens straight up like walk around like their whole Kogan, like with their arms out.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

So someone recently asked me, like, how do you tell the difference between a duck that's just panting because it's hot and that's how they, you know, regulate their body temperature and cool themselves down, and a duck that is excessively panting. And I'm like, that's kind of hard to define, but I would say look at other behaviors as far as like, are they lethargic? Are they willing to get up if you bring them treats? If you let them out of their pen, are they getting up to go full-reach? Because if they're not doing those things, then you might be having like an actual heat-related problem. But just panting by itself, that's just their normal way of regulating their body temperature.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yeah, and if you you'll start to notice, like, if they're really, really, really overheating. I mean, ducks take a lot of naps throughout the day. And it's like getting to the point of like severe medical concern or heat stroke, you're gonna start to notice like at late stages some neurological symptoms, like some inability to function in some degree. Um, and then just like severe lethargy, like Chrissy was describing. And when we say severe lethargy, not just them taking a nap or maybe like off in the corner. I bet if I showed you guys peanut right now, a good half of you would think she was dying because she's very dramatic in the heat, and I don't really worry about her. Because she's probably sprawled out with her tongue hanging out, like, but she's just fine. But like severe lethargy, where like you can't get that bird to like rise to you, like you can't get that bird to react to stimulus. You know, if you're like rubbing their back and they're not really moving, that's when you really gotta start to get concerned. But as far as like the panting goes, I think the first time everybody sees a bird that's just too hot, it's a little bit scary looking. So don't panic immediately.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

So moving on from that, we are gonna be answering just a couple of questions sent in by our followers. If you want a chance to have your question answered on our next episode, be sure to look out for our next host asking for your questions on our social media pages, which will all be in the show notes below. So, this question was sent in by Shockby Brock, and they asked, Thoughts on letting my broody duck hatch out baby chickens? And I would not recommend that. I have let my chicken hatch out ducklings, which worked out perfectly fine. The problem with letting a duck hatch out baby chicks is that they will lead them to water. And it's important for your mama duck to swim to maintain her feather health. However, if she leads her baby chicks to water, they are going to drown. So that's why I don't recommend it. Can a broody hen hatch baby chicks? Yeah. If they don't have access to a pool, they'll probably be fine. But I just I don't recommend it. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 18:30

I uh my initial thought, like you said, was that. I've never even considered doing this. So this is my first time even thinking about it. Was what you were saying that it's gonna lead them to water and that's not good for the chicks. Though, what you could do is if you just want to use the pretty head as an incubator, let her hatch the chicks, take the birds. Like, don't like keep them in the coop, don't let her have access to the pond, take the chicks. I don't personally love letting my birds hatch and then taking the babies. Because I'm basically at that point just using them as a machine, which I can do. Right. I'm in a position where I actually wasn't planning on doing that, but I don't feel as bad doing it to my calls because they didn't want the babies anyway. They really just wanted the experience of sitting on the eggs. I'm involuntarily doing that to my call ducks right now. I'm gonna be pulling eggs from my broodie moms, but that's because we had a predator situation, and I don't want to learn the same lesson twice, so I gotta do something about that. I'm not just gonna let the babies be born to die. But so you could do that, you could let her hatch and then take the babies. But yeah, like Chrissy was saying, you don't want them leading the chicks out to water. And also, I don't think a mother duck, depending on your setup, ducks and chickens kind of forage differently. Yeah. And in different areas. I wouldn't really want my mother duck saying, hey chicks, let's go to the edge of the pond and funnel through mud where there's thousands of parasites that her offspring, like her actual offspring, would have been resistant to, the chickens are not going to be. And so she's gonna be teaching the chickens to forage in very high parasitic environments, and that's just gonna increase your risk of a lot of complications when it comes to chickens. So that's why I don't totally love it.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

I did think it was kind of funny when Pepper, my chicken who I let have duck eggs, would like try and show the ducklings how to like scratch. And so she would scratch and then like make her specific mother hen sounds to show them to like get the bugs and stuff, and they would get the bugs. But I think she thought that her babies were just a little stupid because they like wouldn't repeat after her and they wouldn't dust bathe. And I think it's like it's really not as big of a deal with like the the chicken raising and ducklings, but like the other way around, I just that how's the baby chick gonna learn? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

I think there's a few more risks the other way around that just aren't present in the alternative environment. Yeah. I also I was wondering this with your ducks. Did your ducks actually take on any chicken-like behaviors, the ducks that you raised? Pepper's babies? No, they would l like like when Pepper was like dustbathing, they'd just walk away from her. They were like, We're not just I was telling Chrissy the other day, when I raise ducks with geese, the ducks take on geese behaviors, and it's freaking hilarious, and they carry them through their entire life. And so one thing my geese do every morning is they do big wings, right? I call it big wings. The geese put their arms out and they sprint across the pasture with their arms out and just yell. All of them at once, they all do it together. And the funniest thing when you see that in the morning is behind it is a trail of runner ducks who were raised with geese that all go like this, and they have no idea what they're doing, but they do the geese like scream run, and you usually when you see ducks run with their wings out, they flap their wings. The ge the ducks that I raised with geese don't flap their wings, they just look silly and they go like that's my favorite thing. And so I'll oh I'll get into that later. I was about to spoil our surprise again because of the Don't be doing that.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

A few more questions to answer first. I know. Quacks in the City asked, Would you ever consider owning Muscovy ducks? If no, why not? I'll let you answer this one first. First. So, yes, yes, and no.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

No, in my current is the same. I would love to own Muscovy to experience owning Muscovy because I consider it an entirely different experience than anything that me and Chrissy have had in regards to keeping waterfowl. But I would never keep them with mallard-derived breeds because it's just they're they're different and they're different species, they're different animals in my opinion. Can they live together? Yeah, like it they can, but they also will produce sterile offspring. So if I ever go to do any like mixed flock hatching from my big duck flock, uh, you know. If one finds me right now, since I'm not planning on hatching from the big duck flock in the near future, if one appears in my life right now, so be it. And I'll just not give out hatching eggs or hatch, period, because they should not crossbreed. But I'm definitely not seeking them out. And if I ever did do them, I would have to do a completely an isolated flock of them. That's not with my mallard. I don't think there's any like health issues with them cross-breeding, though, right? Like to create a mule duck. It creates a mule duck. I mean, there's no health issues with a mule duck, except then it's a sterile bird going forward. So, like, say it's it's unethical in practice, not and in a health regard to the birds, but for me to then sell potentially sterile offspring, especially if somebody's coming to me to buy birds for homesteading and for their own production, and they want them to raise their out their own young, and then you just have a bunch of sterile birds running around. Yeah. So that's why I won't do it, is because it's also just like a nuance that I don't feel like explaining if I'm selling for hatch eggs, if that makes sense. Yes. People don't really grasp it.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Yeah, so I feel the same way. I mean, I only have phantom ducks. I'm not just gonna add a big bird to my flock. They're huge. I would need a completely different setup, and I just I don't have that. I do think Muscobi can have wonderful personalities, but for me, I'm not really interested in having big birds like that. I like my phantoms.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Until you get geese, because I'm making you get geese. I you need them. You do. I want I love the behavior of Muscobi. I think that they I love their tail wagging and their little like their little like weird quirky behaviors. I love that. I would love to actually have that and experience that. I love when they raise out like seven million children, like they raise out like so many young. That's another reason why I don't really love how the concept of like potentially hatching mule ducks, is because 99% of people that look for Muscovy are looking for a mother bird that's about to raise them thousands of birds. And so if I hatch mules, because the problem with mules is they don't look super specific, like they can look relatively similar to a Muscovy duck. So then say, say I sell a bunch of mule ducks to somebody who I explained to them that these birds are going to be sterile, right? If you hatch these, they're gonna be sterile. They might go on and sell that bird as a Muscovy to somebody who wants a lot of babies because that's what Muscovies are specially known for, and they got a sterile bird, it's just a big bummer for everyone, and I'm the root of it, and I don't want to be that. So that's why I stay away from it. But they are really cool, they're huge. Um, they remind me a lot of geese, and I think that's why I'm so interested in them. Like I want, like they have very similar temperament to geese. A lot of people don't think, well, we're on the topic of muscovies, they don't think that muscovies are ducks. They are ducks, they're just a different species of duck, they're not a mallard duck, mallard dry breed. So that's that's another thing that gets misconstrued a lot. They are still ducks, they're still right, they're just a different species.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

They're their own species of waterfowl, just as though wood ducks and mallard ducks are each their own species as well. Next question is from Quack Shack and Co. I'm looking to add geese to my flock for the first time. I want a good guard goose for my ducks. What breed would you recommend?

SPEAKER_01 25:44

I'm so happy to talk about I'm wearing a goose shirt right now. I'm wearing Metzer's Goose shirt. I'm so happy to talk about geese right now. I'm on a geese kick, okay? Like I'm in my goose era, if you haven't noticed. I was telling Didi the other day that if I honestly had to make a massive change to our homestead, I would genuinely consider no longer doing a big duck flock and only doing a just a gaggle of geese. Just like a ton of geese. I'm like, I just love them so much. So they wanted a good goose breed. I got too excited to talk about geese. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

That's the end of their question. This is a lot for you. A good goose breed to be a guard goose for their ducks. And I know we've talked about the concept of guard gooses before. Guard geese.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Yeah. Yeah. So as I I mean, I'm sure that they are going into this understanding that the geese are at the end of the day still vulnerable. They're more of an alarm system. I like to think of them as the mole cops, right? Mole cops ain't saving you, but they're there. And they're gonna, they're gonna they're gonna try, you know? And I always tell people this is the sad reality of it, is a goose doesn't die quietly. You're gonna hear the goose go down. Like, and that's gonna let you know that something's going on, and you'll be able to get out there hopefully and react to it. Uh, as far as a good guard breed, typically like the African and the Chinese are what people look for. Like, you want the the those are the really like intimidating breeds. Those are the breeds that are known the best. They're also the loudest breeds, as far as I know. I haven't even actually so a lot of the best guard breeds are knobbed geese. And knobbed geese are not something that I've yet been willing to keep because of my climate, because we live in a very cold environment and the knobs are prone to frost. But and so when I was very first getting into geese, I just said I'm avoiding all knobbed geese. And so I haven't even really gone down that alleyway. As far as my best guard goose, which I actually think traditionally would not be considered one of the best breeds for it, because typically those like the African and the white Chinese and all those are gonna be that category of the best guard geese, is my Toulouse goose is my best guard goose. Really? She is my best protector of my flock, she's my best goose, she's my most intelligent goose. All the other geese look up to her. Jelly Bean is worthless. Jelly Bean is the most pathetic animal. I Jelly Bean is so funny though when you scare her, because so she was napping yesterday, or like a couple days ago, with her head tucked in her wing, and I I approached her, and I thought she saw me because like her eyes were open. And so I reached out and I pet her, and she literally went, oh, like that full noise, and like jumped back like a person would. And I was like, Did I scare you? You were looking right at me, and that's like that's jelly beans. Like, and that could have been a fox for all jelly bean. Like, that's so she's a horrid guard goose. I'm doing her actually known to be relatively decent. Jelly bean is the exception to all rules and all things goose. There's something wrong with her. But my Toulouse is a wonderful protector. She is really great against like aerial predators. She went I I I think I've talked about this on here before. When we had a hawk that came down low over my big duck flock, Goosey Goo, which is my Toulouse, she put out her wings and she ushered with her big wings out all of the birds into the coup. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen. She literally took the entire flock and chased them in. She was in the back with her big wings guiding them all. And I was like, that was so freaking cool. That's incredible. So, like, she does a really good job. I don't think that I think a lot of the breeds that I have aren't as loud. And so they don't have as good of an alarm system as like an African, but I've seen some of like the African geese do crazy things to protect their flock. So I would say those are the best breeds, but I I have to speak for my Toulouse because that is my that is my guard. I trust her with my flock.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Cool. I need them. I won't.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

You need them. I'm trying to convince Chrissy.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

I'm trying to convince Chrissy she could get them because I firmly believe she can. She's just stressing. I would love for us to answer every question that we've got. We have a lot of homestead updates that we have to fit into today's episode. So I want to get right into that. So first thing I just want to mention is that I I know it's been a while, so I think the last time I talked about Mr. Wood's eye on the podcast, I talked about potentially having to get it removed. Well, he did end up having it removed. He's recovering incredibly well. He had to be on three medications. It was such a pain to give him to him. But he's doing great. Sugar's so happy that he's back out there with him. And his eye honestly just looks like a closed eye. Like there's feathers covering it, so it's not gross or anything. It was gross in the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

It was very scary. The first update Chrissy sent me of Mr. Rip, I was like, that's beautiful. Keep it to yourself. I think you were also like, I think it looks worse than it did before. Yeah, it's like it was like bloody and like, but like it looked. I mean, it's an eyeball that got removed. It's never gonna look good. It looked how I expected it to look, but I was just like, beautiful, okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Yeah, but yeah, he's doing great. So that's that update. What updates do you have? You got married. Yeah, I think I got we're not gonna talk about Chrissy. We'll just let you go first. So, yeah, I got married. That's why we haven't had many episodes in June. Because I was really busy getting married and then going on my basically duck-themed honeymoon. Chrissy's honeymoon was epic.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Well, we'll do that one after. Um, my homestead updates, my birds died again. Um I've had a year. It's the podcast. Like, oh my god. So we had a I crashed out actually. I forbidly finally, like, I was like, I'm done with keeping birds. We put goslings out. We had gotten a couple Sebastopol goslings, put them out in my coop. And I was so nervous putting them out in the coop. So I was actually sleeping in a camper outside so that I could hear the goslings if they got distressed. And the only reason I even did it was because with the mama goose, I was like, they're fine, like they'll be okay. A freaking rat got in there. We found out it was a rat. Rat is dealt with. Did he was blasting rats with the 22 last night? And then I was all stressed out because I just hear him firing off shots, and I was like, the casings are probably going everywhere. So this morning I had him on like a die hunt, like a hunt for those casings. I was like, you better remember exactly how many shots you set off and find all those casings. So I didn't want the geese to get up. Right. So that's dealt with. But a rat got into the coop and killed her two goslings, and we were gutted. Like we were so upset. We were so upset for goosey goo. It was a whole thing. We ended up doing a lot to make sure that it doesn't look like they're getting back in. But rats are liquid.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

There's no rats are the worst.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

I don't ever really consider anything rat-proof at all. Considering rats get into the top of a soda can and fit their whole body in that. So it's like realistically, I I move from here on out forever. It's just I'm never letting babies be in pens. I'm just not going to. I'm not gonna risk it again now that it's happened once. Granted, I've got a pretty big entrance, which is probably where it got in. I sent a video of it to Chrissy, and that was repaired. So I don't know if they're getting into the coop right now, but I am just not willing to go through that again. It was devastating. It was really hard for everybody. Luckily, we did get new goslings. So a little homestead on the hill, pretty much the next day, literally brought us two brand new Sebastopoles. They're here right now.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Shout out to her, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Yeah. Oh my god, she was so sweet about it too. She was like, because I was like, don't kill yourself. And so one thing I actually haven't talked about on my channel or at all, really. I don't even know if I've told Christy this. No, I think I have. Is the Sebastian so we're planning on doing a Sebastopol breeding project. And I was planning on doing it. DD really, really loves the geese. Like they're his babies. And so he actually said, like right before this happened, like, you know, maybe I'll do the Sebastopol breeding project. It'll be my little thing that I do. And so I was so excited for him. So when these babies died, I was like devastated because really at the end of the day, they were his babies for his breeding project that he decided he was gonna do. And so I was really excited because I was like, don't, if you don't have two, don't bring them. It's fine, right? And I was like, I don't, I just asked her if she possibly had two more, and she actually like moved stuff around and made it so that she could get me two. And they're being raised in my house because I'm like, no, goosey goo has gotten, so it's so cool because like with geese, since they're so maternal, you can like bring them out and then take them and then bring them out and take them, but she doesn't lose that like instinct to raise them, so it's kind of fun. When I first brought her these babies, it was the cutest thing I've ever seen because she literally saw them and I just went like this. I had them, and I wasn't actually gonna show them to her yet, but I was like outside with them, and so I just held them up and I was like, Goosey, look. And I was like, Do you want them? And her face like was like, oh my god. And then she just booked it because we had cleaned out the part of her, the coop where her nest was to make it so that we could try to find like where the rat was getting in and everything like that. So we had cleaned out her whole nest and she like panicked and she sprinted to the coop like full speed and started chaotically making a nest. She's like pushing all the bedding, she's like, There's babies, I have to make a nest. And she was like freaking out. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. She was elated, like she was so happy. And now I genuinely think because like I always talk about how smart I think. I think geese are smart beyond our understanding as people. I genuinely think she understands that I'm taking them. I genuinely think she understands that I'm protecting them. I think she knows that because she does not fight me. She just lets me take them and then I show her whatever I'm outside with the babies right now, whether or not I'm with them, I go goosey! And you hold them up, and she's she yells to them and stuff. So I think she understands. And so that's really cool. So it was a happy ending all in all, but it was like a nightmare of a situation. I'm honestly, we're gonna have to talk about some of the me at Chrissy had a phone call where I vented about this. Some of the predator-proofing aspects of like a lot of people had a lot of advice for me on what to do. And I was like, a lot of the advice would not have stopped this from happening. This was just a very like when it comes to stuff like a rat or a mouse, it's kind of just a surrender, you know.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

It was also like things that you'd already done before.

unknown 35:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Like, yeah, a lot of it was. And I actually have had a very similar experience many, many years ago. I had a rat chew through the floor of our coop, and it ate two of my ducklings. And I felt like I was fighting a losing battle because I would like put hardware cloth on the floor and then it would like find another spot to get in, and it was it was horrible. And then I moved, so we didn't have to deal with it anymore.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

The other problem with rodents is there's not really a great way to tell if they're getting into your coop or not, because they can fit through such a small gap, and they're not gonna harm your adult birds most of the time. And unless it's like like if there's like a fragile bird, they might. They're like very opportunistic.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Yeah, that rather like the ducklings, it it it bit sugar, so she had like a puncture wound in her neck.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Sugar is like a valid, like that's a valid rat option. Sugar's arguably fragile and worth a worth a shot, but it's not gonna harm your adult bird. So, like, we had no way of knowing prior to putting the babies in, like that the rat was going in there, or like that there was a breach, or like that there was a problem. And so that's why I said in if you saw my video where I was like pissed off at myself, basically, I said, I'm so upset with myself because I did not stress test the coop prior to putting the babies in, and I had meant to do that, but we had just done so much to lock down that coop because we had concerns that a predator had potentially gotten there overnight. And so the coop was like fully rebuilt, and we had just done it not even a month ago, so I just didn't do it, and I was like, that was my failure. And so I beat myself up a lot for that because I probably would have found that potential point in which the rat got in prior to putting the babies in. That's fixed now. Could I put the babies in there overnight and see? Sure, not worth the risk. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 37:32

So that's totally that's where we're at. I'm so sad that you had to go through that experience, but I'm glad we at least have a happy ending.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

It is a happy ending, and it made me feel much better when we got the new babies. It like really washed away the stress. We all kind of cleansed ourselves of it. We moved on, which we needed to, because that that day sucked. It was awful. We were so I have to pee again, which is so annoying. I'm sorry. Apparently, it's my it's my time of peeing. I'm also eating more. Okay. My other homestead update. Hang on, I gotta start that again. I'm putting this food in my teeth. My other homestead update, because I was just thinking, like, what other homestead updates do I have? Is honestly our homestead update. So I'm gonna let you handle it. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

So someone did I'm not just I'm not just gonna tell you guys about my wedding because I want to, but somebody did ask on my page when I posted that I got married, and they were like, we're gonna need a full rundown of how the ducks were involved in the wedding on the podcast. Yeah, I wanted to know this. How I made this all work. So I had my best friend's mom pick up the ducks and bring them to the venue. We actually we we only brought two ducks. We brought my favorite duck and duck dad's favorite ducks so we brought Blackberry and Frosty, and they are our most well-behaved ducks.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

And I thought the cutest thing about it was like Frosty. I knew, because like I know Christy's birds, like I know them like my own, but I knew that it was your favorite and duck dad's favorite, but also I was like, oh my god, how perfect is it that Frosty was like the perfect little bride-colored duck? And then there was also Blackberry who looked like she was in a little tuxedo. It was the cutest. Your pictures are like my dream, they were beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

I can't believe it just happened to work out that way that like the color scheme, like Blackberry really does look like she's in a tuxedo. It's just so adorable. So they're my most friendly ducks, they are my most traveled ducks, so I don't really get worried about them like going in the car or anything, but I had my best friend's mom pick them up, and her job was to bring them to the venue before the ceremony so that we could get our pictures done with the ducks like an hour before the ceremony, because I didn't want to have to have the ducks there for like a long time, you know, they didn't want to deal with being there all day. So I got that all arranged, and then you know, the ducks came. Frosty wore, if you see in some of the pictures, Frosty has a dress on, she was wearing Munchkin's wedding dress. Oh, wait, that's actually so sweet though. That actually is so sweet. It's like her Frosty had her own something borrowed. That's so cute. Yeah, and so I had Duck Dad build them like a little wagon to go down the aisle because I was like not sure if they would actually waddle down the aisle. So I had my maid of honor like pull the wagon down the aisle. And so it was like a little Yeah, so it was like a little wagon, and then we put like veil material over the top. Actually, okay, I lied, they didn't stay in it. I forgot. I wasn't there for this. So my maid of honor like walks down with the ducks, and Blackberry pops the veil off and jumps out, and then I think Frosty jumped out after her, and then my maid of honor had to catch them, and then my mom went running down the aisle to go help. I had no idea that this happened because I was like hidden in a corner waiting to go down the aisle. But I do have a video of it. I just think my mom would be really bad if I posted it because she's like running down the aisle. Everybody thought the ducks were adorable, and I was so happy that they got to be involved. And I love our pictures with them, and it worked out perfectly because you know how like a lot of people like don't want it to rain on their wedding day. Well, I've always thought I thought that it rained. Because it was like the perfect duck weather. Yes, I have always thought that pictures of people getting married with the clear umbrellas are just so beautiful. So I I could go for a little rain, and it was literally perfect because like all morning and even during the ceremony, we did not have rain. So we got our like good, nice pictures, and then like immediately following the like it was thundering during the ceremony, um, and then it started raining, and so then we got to also take pictures with the ducks in the rain, which was that's so cute. I love it. So yeah, my plan was for the ducks to like be in a little pen that I brought during cocktail hour so people could see them. But since it was raining, we had to move cocktail hour inside, and I'm not that crazy where I'm gonna bring the ducks inside. Ducks inside are off, so yeah. So I actually had one of my because it was so complicated, like it was so stressful for me thinking about how I was gonna get the ducks there and how I was gonna get the ducks home. Because like my best friend's mom could bring them, but like she's basically my second mother, so I'm not gonna make her leave the wedding early to bring the ducks home. So I was like, I need to get somebody that can bring the ducks home, but it has to be somebody that like knows about ducks, but it also can't be somebody that's invited to the wedding. So I ended up having one of my 4-H members who's 18 go down to the venue and pick up the ducks and bring them home and then put the ducks to bed. Oh, that's smart at night that night for me. And I am so grateful to her. She made it happen. Like it wouldn't have been possible if I didn't have all of these things like fall into place and all these people willing to help me. People ask how I didn't get pooped on, and that's impressive. Yeah. I feel like I just have a I know poop.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

You know, I know. There's a I always take when I have a doc or a gosling or anything or whatever, I know when they're about to poop, and I hand them over to Didi and I let him get a shot on, and then I and then I move on. Yeah, when you know them well, you know, and you also always have a mental timer. Like there's always a lot when was the last poop, and then you know that they're just gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

And like if you see like the pictures of me holding both of them, I'm like holding them out like a way. Yeah, because I like don't want them to poop on my dress. But at the same time, I also like I wanted these pictures, so I was like, if they poop on my dress, I'm just gonna clean it. Like, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Yeah, whatever. It's not that bad. But their poop is like just watery. I know. I just like as long as they didn't shit on the front, you're good.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

Yeah, I just like wasn't that concerned. But I'm so glad that the ducks were able to be a part of it, and that just made it all the more special for me. And I love that it rains.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

I loved that. I loved that so much.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Also, like after like the cocktail hour, it the rain cleared up and then people were able to like mingle outside and it was great. And I think the ducks I think the ducks I mean, they love attention, so They were probably pretty loved it. They were rewarded heavily with peas, so was it that helps too?

SPEAKER_01 44:06

A pea party. See, I did not have ducks when I got married. And so now it's kind of funny because if I had a wedding again, it would be entirely duck themed. So you want to know what animal I had at my wedding?

SPEAKER_00 44:18

What? How did you know? Because I feel like they're not like common, but like people love having them at weddings.

SPEAKER_01 44:27

And I get it. I loved like I always wanted alpacas. I still would love to have alpacas. And I was doing fiber arts full time, so like I had that extra obsession with alpacas. And so my mother-in-law got some alpacas at my wedding. And when they're like, there's the funniest photos of me because I was like so excited that they were there. And I was like freaking out. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

Yeah. You should post them. That's what we give us a little throwback that you want to see it.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

I genuinely would have to hunt them down. I don't even, I haven't looked back at my wedding photos in a long time.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

But yeah. So another thing, I like I didn't want the wedding to be like duck themed. Like I wanted it to like look like a wedding, not like a child's birthday party, you know? Yeah. So I was like very specific in like hunting down duck decor and like how do I make this duck, how do I make there be elements of ducks, but not in like a rubber duck kind of way. So like the center pieces were like lanterns with ducks on them. The ones that you like, they have like duck-shaped holes in them. So if you turn them on, like duck-shaped lights go around. But instead of like using them as lights, we like put a vase in the center and then put the flowers in, so they became centerpieces. And they were like bronze and so cute. And then I had each of the ducks had their own signature drink, and the ducks had mocktails. So Frosty had a frosted strawberry lemonade, and Blackberry had a blackberry, I don't even know what it was called. Well, I came up with a cute name for it, but it was like blackberry syrup and spray and something. That's adorable. So that was so fun, and we had little duck stir straws, and your table also your table thing.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

I saw, I think your photographer's photos came up on my page, and it was like your what's it called? A CBC?

SPEAKER_00 46:14

Escort cards.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, those were.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Yeah, I actually made those myself on Canva. So it was like a little white duck and a little mallard looking duck, so it looked like munchkin and maple, and then hydrangeas, which were our wedding flowers. That was cute. Yeah, I thought that was so cute. And I also got all of the groomsman duck socks, so they were all wearing their mallard duck socks, which you can't like see, but we took a picture of them like pulling up their pants so you could see their cute little duck socks. So yeah, it was so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

I would that's I would do it, I would do it again. It was fun. Funny story. So my brother got engaged, and recently I love my my yeah, my brother's fiance is so cute. She loves the birds. She doesn't have birds, but she loves our birds. And so she sent me your wedding photos as inspiration for hers. Because she was like, What we could do because she loved it so much because she wants to do that with our ducks because she loves them so much. We call them duck on the biggest. Wait, that's so sweet. So I forgot. I meant to text you that last night. I was gonna send you a screenshot of it saying like how she loved it so much because yeah, she wanted the ducks on the show.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

You need uh 15 duck lanterns, hit me up because I don't know what I'm gonna do with those.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

I will. She really wants ducks at her wedding, so she's such a cutie. You have to. She you got she came back.

SPEAKER_00 47:32

You got a big time. You gotta do a tuxedo-colored duck and a silver or white duck.

SPEAKER_01 47:39

Chelby would be a beautiful bride. She would be a beautiful bride. Choby would be perfect. Or sardini weeny.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

So okay, so enough about the wedding. We the most exciting part of this was the honeymoon. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

There the there's a part like a bigger day in Chrissy's life actually came after the wedding.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

There's she got an opportunity that we all dream of. Yeah. So we plan on taking a road trip for the honeymoon down to Tennessee because I want to go to the Peabody Hotel because they have the famous Peabody ducks that like live on the rooftop and march down, uh, or like march to the elevator and take a ride down and then swim in the fountain all day. And I just think that's so cool. So we were like, we'll just like I hate airplanes, they scare me. So I'm like, we'll take a road trip, we'll drive like five hours a day and like you know, stop at places along the way. Duck dad loves amusement parks and car museums, so we did those two. Um, but our end goal was to get to Memphis and do Peabody Hotel, which was incredible, and we got to be duck masters. It was oh my gosh, awesome! It was so awesome. I had to post a video about that, but we got to be duck masters, which is like such an honor. It was incredible. But it occurred to me like two weeks before the wedding, I think, that we were going to Memphis, because Memphis is where the Peabody Hotel is, and I was like, what else can we do while we're there? Well, one, the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid is also a hotel, and they have live ducks there that are like on rent from Ducks Unlimited, I think. And so there's like wild wood ducks and ruddy ducks in the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid, which by the way was awesome. We stayed in a duck-themed cabin. 10 out of 10 would recommend, but I was like, what else can I add onto this trip that is duck-themed? And it occurs to me that Metzur Farms is in Memphis. So without further ado, today's episode is sponsored by Metzer Farms. I reached out to Katie and Mark of Metzger Farms. And I was like, hey, like, do you have any suggestions of duck things to do in Memphis? Like, besides They were like us! And I was like, Are you open to the public? And they're they're not open to the public, so please uh don't show up there. Uh, because they actually have very strict biosecurity in place, of course, as they are a waterfall hatchery, but they gave DocDad and I a private tour of the hatchery. And I literally like bought new shoes because I was like, biosecurity. I was like, bleach yourself. But I tell I should say, I let me just put it out there that before I went to Metzer Farms, I was like, Emily, like I should send you docs. Like, wouldn't it be so fun if I like packed your order? And yes, I did. I will pull up the receipts.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

I did. I thought I thought how it went was when after you left, I said you should have just sent me. No! No, I thought it was a good one. Maybe I didn't see beforehand. Maybe I didn't see your text because I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

I think I think your words might have been that you have too many baby ducks already, or that you were planning on adding more. Then how did I change my somewhere along the line? And I even like said to Katie and Mark, because I I got to pack a family's order while I was there. And I said it came out. I was like, I tried to convince Emily to order ducks this week, but she didn't wanna. I swear. I swear I didn't say that. That's so funny. Maybe I might have, I don't know. I'm gonna pull up the receipts and send it to you. You have to, because that was to see what you said. Me saying no to ducks? Who am I? So let me just say, Mr. Farm's hatchery is incredible. Like the thought that they put into that hatchery is awesome. It was it was and even it was it was even better than I could have possibly imagined.

SPEAKER_01 51:33

Like it wasn't Chrissy's Chrissy's literal text to me after she got done with the tour of Mutzer, it was better than I ever could have imagined. Which was so awesome to me because like yeah, we love this hatchery so much, and so Chrissy being like, it's better than we could have expected when already we had this really high appreciation for what they do was like so cool.

SPEAKER_00 51:57

It's just incredible the amount of care that they put into these birds, first of all. Like they genuinely want to send you healthy birds, they want to send you birds that you know, like they like I don't know how to explain this. They take the biosecurity there so seriously. They take sanitizing everything there so seriously. They take like organizing the eggs and the incubators and the placement of everything so seriously. And I can't, I don't want to like reveal their their secrets, you know what I mean? I don't know like what what I can what I can what I should say and what I shouldn't, but I want everyone to know that I have seen the behind the scenes and every bird that goes through there is deeply cared for. And that just makes me feel even better about getting my ducks from them because I got to see firsthand that like those eggs are cared about from the time they're laid. If you don't know this, they like partner with smaller farms to like raise their ducks, so they their ducks aren't like at the same facility as the egg facility, which is awesome because then it's small farms getting to raise the birds and they're not like all your eggs in one basket per se.

SPEAKER_01 53:15

Yeah, it's much more hands-on for the birds to have a smaller scale with more like better, closer care. I love that they do that too. I've always thought that was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 53:25

But I got to learn more about like the research that they've like put into these ducks and eggs and egg development. I got to see their incubators, which are insane. I think you would call them state of the art. I obviously I've never seen an incubator like that before, but wow. Like the way that they can control like temperature, humidity, everything like that is like just wit. It's so cool. And finally, so we did like from start to finish. So, like, we started in the egg room and then like went around and finally we got to the ducklings because I went on a hatch day. And thank God you went on a hatch day, though.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 54:05

Like, it would have been a bummer, like it would have been cool no matter what, but it would have been a bummer if it wasn't a hatch day. Like that made it that much more special.

SPEAKER_00 54:11

It really did. Like the care that they put into those ducks before ever sending them to their new homes. I like I don't even know what to say. It just made me feel amazing, even better about them.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

We obviously we have the luxury of knowing Katie and Mark on like a personal level. Like, we both like and a lot of I a lot of customers might not get that experience with them, but like Katie, what is incredible to me is just how hands-on they are with everything.

SPEAKER_00 54:41

I don't know if people realize this, but Metzer Farms, they don't just call themselves a family hatchery for it's a family actually running operations with the hatchery, like they are there doing work just as their employees are.

SPEAKER_01 54:57

One thing that I wish people like that I kind of feel like I know from the behind the scenes of like knowing the Metzer Farms family personally, I remember one time I was trying to get some birds through Metzer Farms, right? And sometimes you might place an order, right? And your order doesn't come through how you wanted it to, or it gets delayed, or something like that. I remember one time I was trying to get an order, and at one point Katie texted me and she said, Hey, I know I was trying to get this to you, but this bird's just not doing great. And I can't, in good confidence, ship this duckling. And that is what people need to realize that is going on behind the scenes of the hatchery. And sometimes your order gets delayed or something goes wrong, or even it say something goes wrong during shipment. That a lot of hatcheries, a lot of places would have put that duck in the box because it was alive. And they said, No, I can't give this to you because I refuse to ship you a bird that isn't going to thrive. And that was incredible. And that so, like, when you have errors, know that really I genuinely believe that the healthiest of birds are the birds that are leaving their door. And I think that that is the responsibility of a hatchery, and they are 100% doing that. And I thought that it was awesome that they and when they said that, I was like, no, absolutely. Like, what you need to do, like I just appreciate it because not only did that show that they're they care about the animal, because the animal that was already not doing the best or like not doing optimally, yes, it should not be put into a shipment box. Like it's not, it's not gonna do any better there than it would be, right? And you don't want that as a consumer, you don't want to receive sicker birds, and so that's why I just I I thought that was like such a stand-up character thing to do. And the fact that like that's happening there and they prioritize ethics over like just getting the package out.

SPEAKER_00 56:44

Yeah, so I have always pictured birds in a hatchery being like, okay, so if you ordered six of this breed, they're just gonna go in and like scoop six up, put them in a box. That's what I thought. Let's farms does not do that. They pick up each individual duckling and look it over. And I'm not saying that things can't happen and you could never get a bird, you know, with a genetic deformity or something. But they are actually in there picking up each individual bird and looking it over. And that is what really just like got me. I was just like, wow, like you really look at every individual bird, because I never from Metzer Farms, but uh I've ordered chickens before that have come with deformities. And I think to myself, like, how could they have not seen that? How could they have picked up this chick and put it in a box and not seen that? And I can see how that could happen if you were just like picking up a handful and putting it in a box. But the fact that they actually look at every every single one, I'm just like, I just love them. I really do.

SPEAKER_01 57:48

I love them. So I really do. That's why I get like defensive. Like people always say, like, we're what I like they know people know we love Metzer and they think that we're biased, or like Christie was saying earlier with like I'm just those ads. If there's one thing that you ever gain from me, it's my genuine faith in this hatchery. Like it's not coming from the sponsorship. I would say this if this was not sponsored. I would say this on my channel. I've done hundreds and hundreds of posts talking about Metzer Farms that are not sponsored. Just because I genuinely love them so much. I actually kind of like give them kickback. I'm like, you guys, you guys don't need to sponsor everything because we talk about you so much anyway. But they they genuinely want to support us and we want to support them. Like it's such a like it's I have so much faith in that hatchery and I genuinely have so much faith in the people behind it, and that's the biggest thing for me. Like knowing my birds came from a place of genuine care before I even got them is the reason that I feel confident getting birds the way we do through the mail or shipped because I know that it's coming with the best possible practices that could potentially be in place. And that gives me, I mean, our baby, I can't even talk about it yet. Our babies came in.

SPEAKER_00 58:53

They came in so fast, they came in so fast. Okay, so I like round a corner, and there's the call ducks.

SPEAKER_01 59:02

Wait, so first of all, first of all, I love how we were just talking about how Messer Farms looks over every duck. The ducks that were looked over and moved to the like not approved box are me and Chrissy's dream.

SPEAKER_00 59:15

Those are what we want. Okay, so I like round the corner to the call ducks. And it's so exciting because I love call ducks, and there's just like a bunch of them. And less than you would think, but there's a bunch of them.

SPEAKER_01 59:35

Katie and Mark told me that they they also struggle to hatch them. Yeah. Like we do. Yeah. I I have one right now that's sort of a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 59:42

I think that's just that's just the reality of hatching called ducks. Yeah. But I like, there's a a box with black bibbed call ducklings, and I see this one, and it like it it's not a perfect black bibbed call duck. It has like yellow stripes on its eyes, and I'm like, I wanna take it home. I wanna put it in my pocket. I'm like, I need this duck, it needs to come home with me. But I can't do that. That that's not fair. I'm not gonna bring it in the car with me for another five days. I'm not gonna ship it to my house when I'm not there. I'm not gonna make somebody else pick it up and care for it until I get home. And Emily doesn't want any ducks, so I have to leave it there. And it made me so sad. And then, because it didn't have the correct markings for a black-bipped call duckling, it gets moved to this other box, which is Emily and I's favorite box.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:38

This is the genetic mishaps box where like you can't control everything when you even when you really selectively separate out for colors, there's a bunch of hidden genetics or mishaps that can happen, which happened to be me and Chrissy's favorite, because it's the most unique ducks, right? It's the most variety ducks that you could possibly get.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:56

So they don't have a lot of them that that that go into this box.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:00

No, that was a shockingly small box, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:03

Yes. So, like, for example, they have white call ducklings, they're all yellow babies, and every once in a while they might hatch a yellow baby with a couple black spots. That baby would go into this box, and that box is, I'm under the impression, a ducklings that would go into either assorted orders, or if, say, you ordered a white call duckling and they didn't have enough that like actually were gonna be all white, they would Katie herself will text costumers and be like, this is the duckling that we have available. Do you still want it? It could potentially have a black spot when it grows up, or it could just go away and not have it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:41

I actually know I know somebody that that happened to. So they ordered white call ducks and they really wanted a little white one, and then Katie texted them and let them know that I have one with a little black spot, it's an imperfection. Would you still want this? And she ended up taking that one, and so she has the one with the little black spot. And I remember that happening. So, yeah, no, 100%. They actually do reach out to you.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:06

So their goal is always gonna be to give you the ducks that you ordered, obviously. Um, and they want to make sure that if you order a white called duck, you get a white call duck. But sometimes nature just in genetics throw throw weird things. So I'm looking in this box, and there's a little Ancona-colored call duckling. And I want it so bad. I want it so bad. It's like, and they were telling me that usually when they have a white call duckling hatch with like a black spot, it's usually just like a black spot, but this one had like quite a few black spots. Is this mine? Yeah. Unfortunately, I couldn't take it home because no, Emily didn't want ducks. So that was pretty sad for me. And so we left with no ducks, and then we go to get lunch, because fun fact, I did not eat before we went to the Metzer Farms, which was my own problem. But I was hungry. I was practically hangry. So we go get lunch, and then I'm texting Emily, and I'm like, it's even more incredible than you could ever imagine. Like, you gotta find a way to go go see the hatchery. And you were like, Oh, you should have you should have sent me ducks. Like, wouldn't that have been so fun?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:16

You sent me, you sent me the box of all of the genetic mishaps me and Chrissy. Me and Chrissy literally love those so much. Like, we get whenever we hatch something funky from our own hatches or something, we're always like duck picks. Whenever it's like, wow, we'll be like, we hatched a weird one. And so Chrissy just texts me a photo of the mishaps box. And I think I said, like, you should have just put the lid on that and sent it to me. And then I was like, And you I was like, in all caps, I was like, I told you I could send you ducks, and you said no. Maybe it was me that was the problem. But and then I I st I was thinking to myself, because me and Chrissy don't live far from each other, right? And so Chrissy was telling me that like she loved them so much, and so I was like, eh, what's a couple more ducks?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:00

And so then I was like, you can ship me some. I was like, I will drive back to Mezzo Farms right now. Just say the word.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:08

Yeah. And so I was like, you can ship me some. But then I said to her, I said, also get some for yourself and put them in my box and I'll raise them for you. And so she didn't, she hadn't decided actually, because I think you didn't know if your little ones were still there. And so I didn't know if you had grabbed yourself a couple yet. And then you said I immediately like I'm on my way back to the match.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:28

I like called Katie. Also, like I I left my purse at Metzer Farms, so I already had to go back there once. And so now I'm calling Katie. I'm like, can I come back and ship some ducks to Emily? And she's like, sure. And I'm like, great, I'll be there in 20 minutes. Didi was so mad. Didi was like, are you kidding me? When did you tell him?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

When I got them, I'm pretty sure. Like, okay. Not until it was final.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:54

So I was not letting him really get in the way. Yeah, I was definitely on the phone with you the other day, and DocDad says something to me about me like feeding your problem and sending you more ducks. And I'm like, I had to. It's fine. So it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:08

We had not much. Like, this is a once-in-a-lifetime. Also, like, there is nobody that knows my taste in ducks like Chrissy does. Like, if Chrissy, if anybody on this planet needed to pick me out a little duck, it is this girl right here. So I was like, I like I need what whatever she sees that I am going to love, I know that I'm going to love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:29

And I need to just give like you you actually gave me permission to just pick the ducklings and send them to you. So Emily did not know what ducklings I was sending her until she not until I opened it. Which we will post a video of me.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:43

We're not gonna, yeah, we're not gonna show you here because you have to wait for the grand reveal. Because we've they're so they're in my office with the biggest.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:49

Well, you can go get the little black bits because I already talked about that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:52

That's true. Plus, you just want your little time with your little black bibs. I do. So I've been taking raising the Dunkin' Ducks. Very seriously. It's been like, it's been very intense for me. Um, and I've been sending Chrissy, like, I'm like, like her, what is it called? It's like child support. You own me child support. I am their aunt. Yeah. You own me child support. And I've been sending Chrissy like photo updates, and it'll be like just clean to their brooder, like, here they are. And they're just like in the corner of the brooder. And so they're being raised as some of mine. But let me grab her little black bib to the one that she picked out of millions. And it's my problem child.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:28

It was not millions.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:31

It's my problem child. It's a bad duck. I can hear them.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:36

It was just sleeping very strangely. Hi, baby! So you see how it has all that like yellow on its face? It's not supposed to have that. But I love it. Okay. It's so perfect.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

It was just sleeping weird. Now it's awake. It's saying hi!

SPEAKER_00 1:06:54

It's saying hi, mama. Hi, baby. Baby, do you remember me? Remember, I saw you when you were just hatched. And I held you and I said I wish I could take you home. And then I put you in a box.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:05

Chrissy was so excited when she got back, and this was still there. Because she was like nervous that it was gonna be gone.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:12

Yeah, I was. So also Emily has been the best aunt to my ducks. You'll never guess what she did. She took them and let them have their first swim in a watermelon, which is what I always do for my ducklings. So I'm like really excited about that. And I'm so happy that they still got to have their Dunkin' Ducks experience.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:31

I couldn't get them to swim in the watermelon. I was out there and I was like, wait, how does Chrissy do it? It was so funny. The first time we did it was hilarious because we're like holding our hands over them in the watermelon to be like, stay. And they were just like winging them. And so what I did is I was like, okay, maybe they're like afraid because it's like a new thing. So then I ended up doing it again the next day, and then they finally, Pickerl, actually, my duckling, went in, and then yours followed. Which I was gonna try to do yours separately from mine, but they just all needed to be together, I guess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:01

So I think that's so fun though that our our babies are like growing up together. Oh, I can't wait. Wait for you guys to see the duck reveal of the ducks I picked for Emily and me, and also the other two I threw in the box. Prissy picked out the most epic duck for me. Mine's my favorite of all of them. Like mine. I actually like the best ones. I wanted this one duckling. I wanted it for myself, but I was like, this duck belongs at Cheese and Quacker's homestead. It's the perfect duck. You need it more than I do.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:31

It's the perfect duck I've ever had. I'm obsessed with it. It's incredible. I named it zucchini, so it's already named Zucchini. And I, oh my god, I love it so much. It's so cute. Also, really, really fun surprise at the end of this, since me and Chrissy's since like I have to raise her ducks now and meet up with her in order to bring her her little nuts or farms babies that she picked out. I thought to myself, I'm hatching a bunch of butterscotch. I can get Chrissy a butterscotch. And so then we actually we just sent out so many DNA tests, guys. Me and Chrissy were on FaceTime because I'm the I'm parenting for both of us right now. And I have all these little butterscotch, and we're doing all these DNA tasks so that we can figure out which ones go where. So all pending all goes well. Chrissy will also get added to her little group of ducks that I'm bringing her a butterscotch call duck, which she has never had. And so we're so excited about that. We're having so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:23

So excited. Every year we really are. Every year we have to do this now. Every year we have to do this. We need to alternate. Like, you go down next year and you send me a surprise box of ducklings. And I it's just so fun. I I had like I got to film a video like packing your order, and I just had so much fun thinking about like how you were gonna react when you open the box. I was so excited.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:44

I I honestly was so excited to open the box that like I tried to film a reaction video, but it was like it was like serious.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:50

Like I was like, okay, and I couldn't couldn't tell you, I didn't want to ruin the surprise of what ducks were in the box, so I couldn't tell you which ones were mine and which ones were yours. And I was like, you can pick like whatever you want, but you can't have my little black beard baby because that's my baby that I picked out and like decided was mine.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:07

I when I saw the little Ancona baby, I knew you had gotten that for me. Like I knew that was mine. Just because I know that you keep on you always say to me you need an Ancona. And so that's why I was like, this is mine. Like I know she put this up for me. I had one color. I knew Pick Girl was for me, and that's because I told Christy, if there's one color that you could get me that would, I would I kind of need it. I told her I'm not gonna spoil a lot of this. And I was like, if you could grab this, that would be great because I needed them for like some breeding goals. And so there was there was a couple things. You guys are gonna have to actually stay tuned for our content because we're gonna we're gonna be posting about them soon, finally. I'm so excited. And yeah, you'll have to stay tuned and see the actual unboxing and boxing video. But that was the most Chrissy and me were texting each other so frivolously because we hadn't talked for much as you were we're like you were like, are they there? We were like so nervous. Also, let me say your packaging was immaculate. They they came like unscathed, like they it was like the most it looked like it was so freshly packed, they came so fast, yeah. So it was like primo.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:14

Like when we say they came so fast, we are literally saying I packed the box, okay? So I know the exact time that they were packed, and then you got the box in like quite a bit under 24 hours. Oh, yeah, it was like 16. Like it was 16, 17 hours. Yeah, wow, that was like nothing.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:35

They were fine, they had barely touched their grow gel, like we were so excited. But me and Chrissy were like, we've never been more eager for them to arrive. We were like texting constantly that day, and when they got here, I was like, it was so much fun. It was literally like one of my favorite things. Like, I'm so glad we did that, and also just because these babies have like the best story to them.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:56

Yes. And so And it's a perfect excuse for us to meet in person. I love Metro Farms. Metro Farms, I love you. I do too. We love you. We need to wrap this up.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:05

We won't wait over. We were trying to go under. We're just so excited to finally tell people about these ducks. We're like, wait a minute. I know because we've been like keeping it a secret and it's been hard. But we have more little butterscotches that could potentially any of the butterscotches that are happening right now, because there's a lot of butterscotch activity, could potentially end up being either mine or Chrissy's. So we'll see who's the final picks to keep and stay once me and Chrissy are done with my like big brooder of birds that we've accrued right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:34

This is so exciting. I can't wait to get the DNA tests back and find out who's male and female. We did the DNA test over FaceTime. It was it was.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:41

They should have arrived. They should have arrived today, so hopefully soon. And then we get to officially pick them out because every time I picked up a butterscotch, Chrissy would be like, Is that my baby?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:50

And I'd be like, I don't know. So, thank you so much to Metzer Farms for sponsoring today's episode and giving me a tour of the hatchery because it was incredible and I'm so grateful. And I hope I get to go back and send you.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:02

I hope I get to go. I wanna go. I'm hoping to go out. I'm sending you geese, whether you like it or not, they're coming. Worst case scenario, you're driving them over to me, I'll keep them.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:12

I'd be like, duck du I told Emily not to send me geese, but she did it anyway. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:17

What are you gonna do? Stay tuned for our baby unboxing. I'm so excited for you guys to meet the Dunkin' Ducks and Shees and Quackers babies that are all one big mashup right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:30

And as always, you can support our show by following us on all of our social media channels, checking out our merch lines. We each have our own, and we have a Duck Ladies Podcast merch line. And don't forget to check out Messer Farms in the show notes. They have over 30 breeds of ducks and quite a few breeds of geese, and we love them so much. And that's all we got for this one. Bye, guys.