→ 2010-07-30 12:31:44 (31 Comments)
September 1, 2010
The baby ducky episode is quickly coming to a close. Pretty soon these “quacker doodles” won’t want to be seen in public and there’ll be less and less pics of them here at LHITC.
August 24, 2010
Here’s some really cute photos that Justin took of the now 2+ week old duckies – they certainly are growing fast! Just to point out as it seems some folks are confused — this is our THIRD time raising ducklings (started our first flock 8 years ago)
August 16, 2010
The little peepers are sure growing fast! They graduated from the kiddie pool to the big one last week and are eating greens.
August 12, 2010
“Momma duck” took the little peepers swimming today (under close supervision of course)! I know, you are saying, “but they are only 3-4 days all and that goes against all the stuff in books!” We are pretty radical in our approach to raising poultry
August 11, 2010
Khaki Campbell (a heritage breed) babies have arrived on the urban homestead. Khaki Campbell’s are an excellent duck breed for the urban homestead. Medium size, they are relatively quite, good layers (they don’t go broody) and are consider land ducks so all the need is a shallow tray of water to be happy.
July 30, 2010
Raising chickens naturally and holistically has been a passion for Jordanne these last nine years. During those years she’s acquired a lot of knowledge and know how which is now available to help you naturally boost your backyard flock.
June 4, 2010
“.. I was wondering if you could just point me in the right direction towards organic duck feed? I am not finding ANY sources that carry organic feed for them–especially not for the baby ducklings.”
May 18, 2010
Our little Amy peacefully passed away on last Tuesday evening.
Thank you all for your kind words, support during her injury rehabilitation and this latest egg laying issue. What she went thru was enough to stress a normal human out – let alone a wee little animal.
April 23, 2010
Giving her warm baths during the egg binding crisis
We’ve dealt with our fair share of problems & pain – having more animal increases the chance of one running into some illness, injury and even death. That’s a farm life – nature gives and nature takes away.
Dawn had a leg injury awhile back – with a [...]
April 8, 2010
Amy enjoying the new fish pond
It’s been a rough week. Just as soon as we saw such a dramatic improvement in Amy (which made us so happy) there arose some complications – laying. Good news, bad news sort of whiplash. Good news she was looking and doing so much better but it’s been ages [...]
March 12, 2010
It’s been awhile since we’ve posted how Amy’s doing these days.
She’s doing well. Slowly, oh so slowly, improving. Thanks to concern and feedback from one of our readers after I wrote her describing Amy’s present symptoms, we’ve both come to the conclusion that she could be very well suffering from a very, very bad pinched/pulled [...]
January 6, 2010
Amy (in the middle)
Amy (middle center) walking better (more centered in her alignment)
It’s been awhile since I wrote about Amy and I know many of you readers who are interested in Amy’s progress from her (lower neck/wing/back – whatever) injury (read about it here).
Why the guessing? We couldn’t afford to pay for an x-ray [...]
December 11, 2009
Here at LHITC we’ve dedicated lots of entries to the crazy antics of our chickens and goats — even our cats. The ducks have quacked their objection, informing me they are just as cute and would like equal coverage.
They are right (sorry) and I’ve obliged them their request.
Because of the rain, we turned over the [...]
November 19, 2009
The menagerie of animals that live here on the urban homestead provides us with countless hours of entertainment and free “therapy” – bringing smiles to our sometimes stressed brows.
Here’s Lucie (aka Lucie Goosey) digging her way to China (well, grubs or bugs more likely)
Diggity dig!
Estella, seeing Lucie’s hole is bigger, stops her digging and comes [...]
November 13, 2009
Amy walks to the drinking bowl after her daily water bath
For those of you who have been following the saga of Amy here’s an update.
If you are just new to the blog read about her story here, here and here
She molted well and is eating like horse and gaining weight – all good signs. Her [...]
October 20, 2009
Anaïs and Jordanne Dervaes give a video tour of the Pasadena homestead where they keep chickens, ducks, and goats (VIEW ONLINE VIDEO FEATURE running time 4:00 minutes)
LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE ONLINE EXTRA
By Wendy Witherspoon LAmag.com, October 19, 2009
If you’ve ever looked at your pet dog (especially after “cleaning up” the lawn) and wondered when he was [...]
September 29, 2009
I know many of our readers would like to know how our duckie is doing (read about her injury). Like I mentioned she has good days and bad but we are seeing improvements.
This last week we’ve penned off an area in the animal enclosure so she can hang out during the day with her buddies [...]
September 21, 2009
Last week and a half was a rough one, really rough – still is.
I know many of you who have been following the duckie saga on our Facebook accounts – thanks for your concern and prayers.
One of our duckies sustained a bad neck injury. It happened when the duckies were rough housing – seems to have [...]
June 4, 2009
Dawn (of “Dixie & Dawn” pair of Khaki Campbell ducklings who were our first forays into raising ducks back in 2003) has gone, well how can I put it, absolutely broody.
Dixie, her companion, quietly passed away (in Jordanne’s arms) right before we got four new ducklings in 2007 (all named after Louisa May Alcott Little [...]
June 2, 2009
The documentary FOOD INC is still a hot topic at our dinner/lunch table here on the urban homestead. We are still talking about it days later. This film certainly got us thinking about modern meat consumption and the future of local, sustainable agriculture.
Over at Civil Eats they had this interesting review. Jordanne, who’s every perspective, [...]
April 5, 2009
by Anais in Ammendments & Fertilizers, Barnyard, Chickens, Ducks, Garden, Goats, Homestead, Posts by Anais, Weather
The weather is acting up again – it’s as if winter’s is fighting with her sibling summer. Hopefully the cooler temperatures will bring some rain. In fact, there is a chance of rain mid week. We are definitely praying for rain because we need all the heavens can give us before the long, hot and [...]
February 19, 2009
(please note post was written yesterday – Wednesday )
Amen and pass the pitchfork. It’s a clear and sunny day! Honestly, the rain was getting a little much – too wet all at once.
No more soggy clothes and mucking boots for awhile at least.
It’s been so dreary and wet that we had to rig up a [...]
February 13, 2009
Blackberry sunning herself with Dawn, one of our ducks catching a few rays herself
Ah lookie that face. Basically telling me to get lost. Alright I’ll leave you to sunbathe in peace
A few of the urban homestead’s chickens hanging out together.
Our Belgian Bantie – Estella.
Whatcha looking at?
Nap time for the duckies
Now preening time
Perching on an [...]
August 15, 2008
click here for more videos like this
Part Four: Elizabeth Chambers interviews Jordanne Dervaes about the care of the chickens and ducks and tours the chicken coop.
August 12, 2008
click here for more videos like this
Part Three: Elizabeth Chambers interviews Jordanne Dervaes about the care taking of the farm animals on the urban homestead.
“Heirloom,” “heritage,” “antique,” and “rare” are all names for animal breeds that have been around for a while and may now be in danger of extinction.
These breeds are threatened because agriculture [...]
August 8, 2008
click here for more videos like this
Elizabeth Chambers interviews Jordanne Dervaes about the care and life of the urban farm animals.
August 8, 2008
click here for more videos like this
Host Elizabeth Chambers chats with Jordanne about the benefits of citified farm animals.
Since 2002, Jordanne and her family have shared their urban homestead with a menagerie of animals — chickens, ducks, two rescued cats, red wiggler worms (which compost garbage) and two goats (Nigerian Dwarf and a Pygmy goat. [...]
July 13, 2008
The duckies were a little jealous over all the attention of their fellow mates. They are right, we really haven’t posted many duck photos lately!
Our little quackers – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy
Whatcha looking at?
Ah, there’s Old Clem again. Has to check out everything!
May 22, 2008
Our fellow farmsteaders in South Pasadena have loads of duck eggs courtesy of their flock of over a dozen ducks. Jordanne takes full responsibility for turning them into urban quackers a couple years back when they dropped by our urban homestead one afternoon right after our first batch of baby ducks arrived back in [...]
April 10, 2008
Chicken and duck eggs from our gals (like these green egg baskets, you can get some yourself here)
Our girlies are certainly popping out lots of eggs thanks to the longer days and warmer weather. We’ve been enjoying egg salad sandwiches with homegrown chives, green onions and celery.
Now I really should do something more [...]
February 20, 2008
Surrounded by a plethora of female animals, the urban homestead’s residence goats and chickens “go hormonal” now and again. Thankfully the Khaki Campbell ducks don’t exhibit too many crazed hormonal tendency – unlike chickens, the ducks don’t go “broody” which turns docile hens into wild eyed crazed frantic females. Yeah, what’s [...]
February 19, 2008
Watching our Khaki Campbell ducks enjoy their daily dunk in the pond is so fun and fascinating to watch. Even though we’ve seen their bathing rituals a thousand times, we never tire of seeing them enjoy themselves as they contort their heads/necks in twisted positions , splash excitedly about, spraying water in every direction. The used [...]
February 19, 2008
Here’s about a week’s worth of eggs collected from the urban homestead’s resident chickens and ducks. We have two of these nifty wire egg baskets (now offered on the Peddler’s Wagon) to collect the eggs in – one is hanging up in the chicken coop and the other in the kitchen. Leaving the “natural coating” on the [...]
December 30, 2007
Duck portrait
Duck eggs!
Duck Eggs
This morning, while doing our regular morning maintenance of the chicken/duck house, I spotted four duck eggs! That means all four of the new duckies are laying. That should be a welcomed load off our older duck, Dawn, since she’s been laying since 2003. I can just hear her say ‘”about time [...]
December 27, 2007
Recycled concrete curbing from old driveway
Recycled Urbanite
We’re reusing nice chunks of concrete curbing from the old driveway to make a bed alongside the north side of the house. Yesterday the guys spaced out the blueberries where they wanted them planted. The blueberries did exceptionally well back in 2005 but had to be removed in [...]
November 27, 2007
Nicknames
One thing neat about having this backyard menagerie of animals (besides hours of free entertainment, fertilizer, eggs and eventually even milk) is the fun one has giving them nicknames. The loud and dominant Khaki Campbell duck who has a “haw, haw” like quack officially got dubbed ‘Lourdes Haw Haw.’ She spreads her own [...]
November 12, 2007
Naughty goat
There’s all sorts of crazy antics goings on in our backyard barnyard. Here I caught Blackberry being mischievous, nibbling at Fairlight fur. Napping beauty, Fairlight, doesn’t want anyone to mess with her while taking her beauty nap. She lets Blackberry know she’s not at all pleased, giving Blackberry a warning grunt and look as [...]
November 8, 2007
The chickens take a nap with Blackberry.
So cute!
Hollywood is filled with news about who’s dating who, here on the urban homestead we have our own love triangle. Our older duck, Dawn who was an item with Mr Duck now has competition from younger rivals. There’s a whole lotta flirting going on as they try [...]
November 8, 2007
by Anais in Barnyard, Chickens, Compost, Ducks, Garden, Journey Reflections, News, Posts by Anais, Weather
City Chickens
After getting our first urban chickens back in 2002 and the last that remain living out their retirement days, it’s good to once again hear the cackle of laying hens (as if they want some sort of applause for their contribution). When we are in the yard and the hens start up after [...]
November 7, 2007
Four little quackers
:: NOTE :: After four days (Nov 3-6) of unexpected technical web difficulties and some serious online incommunicado I will be posting all those entries starting from Sunday.
Thanks for the warm welcome, good to be back!
Little Women {Monday Afternoon Entry}
Here’s a photo of our new darlings we raised over the summer from day [...]
August 20, 2007
by Anais in Barnyard, Community, Ducks, Garden, Homestead, Kitchen, Menu Planning, Outreach, Pickling & Preservation, Posts by Anais, Rainwater Harvesting, Water
canning goodness & garden grown toppings
Busy
Wow, a whole week has passed already without any journal entries. However, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on! On the contrary, we/I’ve been so busy I haven’t kept with the meal postings from the urban homestead. Sorry. I can say it’s been fig this or that, tomato something, peppers [...]
August 8, 2007
by Anais in Barnyard, Community, Ducks, Homestead, Kitchen, Menu Planning, Outreach, Pickling & Preservation, Posts by Anais, Rainwater Harvesting, Water
Roll Out the Barrels?
On the rain harvesting project word has it that we might finally be getting the space saving rain barrels from Australia by the Fall! We are really excited over these barrels or should I sayWATER HOG’s.
These ain’t your typical barrels, these moduleWATER HOG’s can fit in space deprived citified lots, along fence [...]
May 25, 2007
Died of A Broken Heart
In 2003 we ordered some baby Khaki Campbell ducks to start our own little backyard flock. Since we couldn’t keep all that came, we sold pairs to folks in the area. One was to a local couple who used to live in Altadena and now reside in Sunland. They purchased a [...]
February 11, 2007
Rain, Glorious Rain!
After a week’s worth of transplanting and re-landscaping the rainfall is such a blessing!
Reusing materials in the garden
Reusing & Recycling Materials
Edging that lasts is an essential in any garden, finding cheap and lasting materials is always a challenge too. With Habitat for Humanity’s “salvage” warehouse about a 1/2 mile from our house, [...]
February 4, 2007
Fairlight helps with housework
Silly Goats
The goats love to sneak into the house any chance they get. You can see it in their comical expression that they absolutely get a thrill out of coming into the “humans’ home.” Here Fairlight appears to be helping with the laundry. Goats are such inquisitive creatures, always poking [...]
