Saturday, November 14, 2009

Walking compost bins


Aren't they cute? The blue duck in the middle is Schnitzel, and he is enjoying the last of the garden's tomato's.

One of the great things about having runner ducks is that they are great foragers. Unlike chickens, they won't tear up your yard looking for worms and bugs, but they will hunt for them, and eat leaves, grass, etc. I take out all my kitchen scraps, all the stuff that I toss in the garden for compost anyways, and then let them into the garden, and they typically will eat the scraps and then leave their "presents" (ah-em....poo) to freshen the garden for next spring. I am perfectly fine with this, saves me from paying for fertilizer next spring.

Found out late this summer, that they LOVE tomato's! I would toss out the split cherry tomato's, and they would fight over who got to them first. And chase the dogs off of them. Today, I was pulling the very last of the pink tomato's off the vines. We had a hard frost last night, and lets face it, the tomato plants are over. So, I picked the last of the half-ripe tomato's and threw them out into the yard. Since the skins are too hard for the ducks to break into, I stepped on them with my foot. After that, it was goodie time for the duckies!

So fun to watch them play "Keep Away" from the other ducks, as they pick up a big hunk of it and try to hide it from the others. That, and the dogs wanting to get their piece of the tomato's, with the drakes chasing them off as the hens are going to town while the males are busy! It's back-yard entertainment.

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