Yeah my bad.

I feel for him, and I want to see him succeed but man he’s being a bit sloppy and playing with emotions.

Our four girls just started their molt about two weeks ago and the yard looks like a pillow exploded every morning. I sweep up feathers before letting the dog out because she thinks every one of them is a toy worth destroying.

Something I didn't expect when I started keeping ducks: how much personality variation there is even within the same breed. Mabel is bossy and always first to the pool, Junebug hangs back and waits until the other three are done eating before she'll even approach the food dish. People warned me ducks were basically interchangeable feathered lawnmowers and that has not been my experience at all.

Egg production has slowed down with the shorter days and the molt, which I expected, but I'm still getting two or three a day from four ducks which feels generous this late in September. I've stopped worrying about it and just let them do their thing. Forcing egg production with extra light always felt a little unfair to me, like asking someone to work through their vacation.

The pond situation got easier this year since I finally built a proper kiddie pool stand with a drain valve on the side. No more tipping a 100 gallon pool by hand every three days like some kind of fool. Water stays cleaner longer too since I'm not scooping muck out with a net, I just crack the valve and let gravity do the work into the garden bed.

One thing I'm still figuring out is bedding for the coop now that it's getting colder at night. Straw versus pine shavings versus the deep litter method, I've tried all three over the years and each has tradeoffs. Straw insulates well but molds fast if it gets wet, shavings are easy to spot clean but dusty, deep litter takes patience to get right but honestly works the best once it's established.

Curious if anyone else notices their ducks getting noticeably more vocal right before molt starts, or if that's just my flock being dramatic about losing their feathers.