Farm News 06-25-06
Sunday morning, after chores, 66°
Ducks
There are three groups of ducks, currently. This winter they will merge into one, but for now they are divided by age. The oldest group has three drakes and used to have three hens, but I haven't seen all three of them for some time. Tuesday, Trusty, the enthusiastic dog, showed up with a dead baby duck, but he couldn't tell me where he found it. I'm guessing that one of the missing ducks has hatched a clutch of eggs somewhere, but where, I don't know.
When ducks are allowed to run loose with newly hatched babies they immediately lead them into the tall grass and weeds, where only hawks, cats, dogs, coyotes, opossums, and raccoons can find them. Notice that mother ducks are not in the list of animals that can find the babies. The fatality rate is usually around 50% in the first 24 hours.
If there is a pond nearby the babies will often go swimming. As adults the runner type ducks I keep don't care to swim, but the babies like to play in the water. In Kansas, most ponds have a resident snapping turtle or two who love to grab baby ducks by their little feet and take them home for lunch.
Ting Chronicles: Another Shot at Motherhood
During her last attempt at becoming a mother Ting arranged her eggs in a long line. The egg at the east end of the line was difficult to reach and I never put it on the compost pile. After Ting grew tired of setting on eggs a duck came along and left one egg close to the same place. I've been looking at those two eggs and thinking I needed to get them out of there before they became smelly.
Ting has decided that those two eggs offer her another chance at motherhood. The chicken egg is certainly rotten and the duck egg is probably not much better, but Ting is going to exercise her maternal instincts on them. One might suspect that Ting has simply found an excuse to sit around doing nothing, but Ting has never needed an excuse to be lazy in the past.
Polish Crested hens, like Ting, have what looks a lot like big hair. Drakes, male ducks, have very free-wheeling attitudes about sex, modeling much of their behavior in the style of cave men. So it happened that I had the good fortune to observe a drake grab Ting by her big hair, pull her off her nest, and then launch a sexual attack upon her right in the middle of the barn. Those drakes have some real testosterone.
Ting was, of course, extremely indignant and expressed her feelings by repeatedly pecking my shoes and ankles.
Immigration Ignorance Sweeps the Nation
Maria's son, Juan, is a legal immigrant and now is a citizen. When Maria was 68 she came to the US on a tourist visa to visit her son and grandchildren, all US citizens. Juan and his wife were very worried about Maria's health and asked her to stay in the US and live with them. Maria is now 73 and has been an illegal immigrant for five years. Should we label Maria a felon and send her to prison?
Sam's parents illegally entered the US when Sam was two years old. They are still here and Sam will graduate from high school next year. Is Sam a felon because his mother carried him across the border when he was two? Will that prevent him from enlisting in the Marines when he graduates?
Anna came to the US as an exchange student when she was 17 and then graduated from a US high school. She fell in love while here and married a US citizen shortly after graduation. She now has a daughter who was born in the US. What is Anna's status?
Illegal immigrants are just like other people: about 95% of them are decent, hard working, nice people. The other 5% are jerks of one sort or another. Most of the “get tough” talk about stopping illegal immigration assumes that those percentages are reversed, that 95% are jerks and 5% are decent.
We could build a 20 foot high wall along our southern border and it would slow down the illegal crossings. Or, we could put heavy pressure on the Mexican government to end corruption and stimulate small entrepreneurs and probably reduce illegal crossings by the same amount or more. The world is flat, and we can not rely on tight border controls to preserve our way of life; instead we must recognize that opening the borders to trade, capital, and workers is a better strategy for the 21st century.
Ducks
There are three groups of ducks, currently. This winter they will merge into one, but for now they are divided by age. The oldest group has three drakes and used to have three hens, but I haven't seen all three of them for some time. Tuesday, Trusty, the enthusiastic dog, showed up with a dead baby duck, but he couldn't tell me where he found it. I'm guessing that one of the missing ducks has hatched a clutch of eggs somewhere, but where, I don't know.
When ducks are allowed to run loose with newly hatched babies they immediately lead them into the tall grass and weeds, where only hawks, cats, dogs, coyotes, opossums, and raccoons can find them. Notice that mother ducks are not in the list of animals that can find the babies. The fatality rate is usually around 50% in the first 24 hours.
If there is a pond nearby the babies will often go swimming. As adults the runner type ducks I keep don't care to swim, but the babies like to play in the water. In Kansas, most ponds have a resident snapping turtle or two who love to grab baby ducks by their little feet and take them home for lunch.
Ting Chronicles: Another Shot at Motherhood
During her last attempt at becoming a mother Ting arranged her eggs in a long line. The egg at the east end of the line was difficult to reach and I never put it on the compost pile. After Ting grew tired of setting on eggs a duck came along and left one egg close to the same place. I've been looking at those two eggs and thinking I needed to get them out of there before they became smelly.
Ting has decided that those two eggs offer her another chance at motherhood. The chicken egg is certainly rotten and the duck egg is probably not much better, but Ting is going to exercise her maternal instincts on them. One might suspect that Ting has simply found an excuse to sit around doing nothing, but Ting has never needed an excuse to be lazy in the past.
Polish Crested hens, like Ting, have what looks a lot like big hair. Drakes, male ducks, have very free-wheeling attitudes about sex, modeling much of their behavior in the style of cave men. So it happened that I had the good fortune to observe a drake grab Ting by her big hair, pull her off her nest, and then launch a sexual attack upon her right in the middle of the barn. Those drakes have some real testosterone.
Ting was, of course, extremely indignant and expressed her feelings by repeatedly pecking my shoes and ankles.
Immigration Ignorance Sweeps the Nation
Maria's son, Juan, is a legal immigrant and now is a citizen. When Maria was 68 she came to the US on a tourist visa to visit her son and grandchildren, all US citizens. Juan and his wife were very worried about Maria's health and asked her to stay in the US and live with them. Maria is now 73 and has been an illegal immigrant for five years. Should we label Maria a felon and send her to prison?
Sam's parents illegally entered the US when Sam was two years old. They are still here and Sam will graduate from high school next year. Is Sam a felon because his mother carried him across the border when he was two? Will that prevent him from enlisting in the Marines when he graduates?
Anna came to the US as an exchange student when she was 17 and then graduated from a US high school. She fell in love while here and married a US citizen shortly after graduation. She now has a daughter who was born in the US. What is Anna's status?
Illegal immigrants are just like other people: about 95% of them are decent, hard working, nice people. The other 5% are jerks of one sort or another. Most of the “get tough” talk about stopping illegal immigration assumes that those percentages are reversed, that 95% are jerks and 5% are decent.
We could build a 20 foot high wall along our southern border and it would slow down the illegal crossings. Or, we could put heavy pressure on the Mexican government to end corruption and stimulate small entrepreneurs and probably reduce illegal crossings by the same amount or more. The world is flat, and we can not rely on tight border controls to preserve our way of life; instead we must recognize that opening the borders to trade, capital, and workers is a better strategy for the 21st century.
posted by The Geezer at 8:42 AM
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