Today I was lucky and could observe how ducklings develop several traits characteristic of ducks, by the end of their first 24 hours of life: they pick at everything that seems interesting, they move in a flock, and they mess around, their feet in food and water. They become interested in water already at the age of half a day.

Hello, World

Yesterday in the morning, our first duckling of this year hatched. Hatching is hard work that takes hours, and once it’s been done it’s necessary to get a good sleep.

Where Does One Find Friends? Pry One out of the Egg!

In the evening, the duckling used quite some force to obtain a buddy. So you can simply find friends, but you can as well pry them out of the egg.

Gang Up and Goof Around!

By this morning, we had four ducklings already and it was time to take them out of the incubator. The first thing was to provide them with water and a bit later during the day, I added the feed. And here we have the typical ducks. With their feet in water and the food in the water.

Yes, you can here quail in the background in this video.

… and Then Go to Sleep on top of Mother

The most important thing in life is sleeping after all, and this cannot be left to the others to take care of. A true Indian runner duck makes attempts to climb as high as possible during its first day of life and the artificial mother is a good choice to climb upon. There is lots of space for taking a nap on top of the mother – and it’s especially cool if you are the eldest and the most courageous one.

Õnnestus täna jälgida, kuidas parditibud omandavad ühe ööpäevaga pärast koorumist olulised partidele omased jooned: nokivad kõike, mis huvitav tundub, liiguvad karjas, läbustavad jalgupidi toidus ja vees. Vee vastu tekib huvi juba poolepäevaselt.

Tere, maailm

Eile hommikul koorus selleaastane esimene parditibu. Koorumine on raske töö, võtab tunde aega ja kui see tehtud, tuleb magada.

Kust leida sõpru? Tuleb munast kangutada!

Õhtu poole hankis parditibu endale ka üsna jõulisel moel kaaslase. Nii et sõpru võib niisama leida, aga võib ka munast välja kangutada.

Kambakesi läbustama!

Täna hommikuks oli parditibusid juba neli ja aeg oli nad inkubaatorist ära viia. Esimese asjana andsin ette vee, päeva jooksul ka söögi. Ja ongi tüüpilised pardid valmis. Jalgupidi vees, toit vees.

Jah, videos on taustal kuulda ka vutte.

… ja ema selga magama

Lõppude lõpuks on siiski magamine kõige tähtsam tegevus ja seda ei saa teiste hooleks jätta. Üks õige endast lugupidav jooksupart üritab esimesel elupäeval ka juba võimalikult kõrgele pääseda. Sobiv koht, kuhu ronida, on kunstliku ema selga. Seal on ruumi magada ja eriti uhke on, kui oled vanim ja kõige julgem.

We often need to switch power off the electric fence to get over or through it somewhere and it’s quite a hassle to always walk to the electric fence energizer to do that. Luckily, wifi-controllable relays have gotten small and cheap enough so that we could easily install one in front of the energizer and can now control it with a smartphone app from anywhere in the world if we so wanted.

Wifi-controllable relays aren’t novel of course – we have used similar solutions in our greenhouse and duck house for over 10 years. What is new though, is that hardware and software has gotten really small, cheap and reliable. You can now buy a simple wifi relay in a nice form factor for around 5€ and control this with a free phone application called eWeLink (a really fitting name for our use case :))

At that price point it’s feasible to use these relays all over the place for many low value convenience functions, whereas previously it was kind of restricted to rather high value solutions.

P.S. In this specific case the small extra fusebox that holds the Sonoff module costs around 3 times as much as the module itself. It turned out that the energizer enclosure itself actually had enough free space inside so that I could have placed the wifi relay module inside the energizer, but we already had installed the fusebox…

Tihtipeale on meil vaja elektrikarjust välja lülitada, et sellest kuskil üle või läbi minna ja suhteliselt tüütu on selleks iga kord generaatori juurde jalutada. Õnneks on üle wifi juhitavad releed muutunud piisavalt väikeseks ja odavaks, et paigaldada üks selline generaatori ette. Nii saab generaatorit sisse-välja lülitada soovi korral suvalisest maailma punktist.

Üle wifi juhtitavad releed iseenest pole midagi uut – ka me ise oleme sarnaseid lahendusi kasutanud kasvuhoones ja pardimajas üle 10 aasta. Uus on aga see, et riist- ja tarkvara, mis selleks vajalik, on muutunud väikeseks, odavaks ja töökindlaks. Tänapäeval on võimalik osta lihtne wifi relee ilusas korpuses kuskil 5€ eest ja juhtida seda telefonist eWeLink nimelise tasuta rakendusega.

Sellise hinna juures on taoliste releede kasutamine muutunud võimalikuks ka paljudes madala väärtusega mugavusfunktsioonides, kus varem oleks see olnud kohatu.

PS. konkreetsel lahendusel kasutasime me eraldi väikest kilpi, mis maksab umbes 3 korda rohkem kui see Sonoffi wifi moodul. Töö käigus selgus tegelikult, et karjuse generaatoris olnuks piisavalt vaba ruumi, et wifi relee moodul sinna sisse panna, kuid selleks hetkeks oli kilp juba paraku paigas…

How do you provide your sheep with comfortable conditions and when is the weather nice for bicycle traveling when the seasons are becoming quite unpredictable? This post was inspired by the bad situation of the wool of our sheep that I discovered today, and in my mind it somehow connected with long distance bike travellers experiencing unpredictable weather.

A Southern European Guy “Imprisoned by Snow”

From time to time, we have guests through the Warmshowers portal. These guests are long-distance bicycle travelers. One of them, Paolo from Italy, stayed for a couple of nights last year in the middle of May, as he wasn’t really prepared for snow. For Estonians, this picture doesn’t really look like “imprisoned by snow”, it was more like a bit of some white-colored precipitation in the morning which was gone by the evening. But we weren’t travelling by bike anyway.

Photo by Paolo, https://www.facebook.com/polaroundtheworld/

One Brazilian guy who visited us during his journey, quit his foot hike on the RMK path after a couple of days, because of snow in the middle of May.

Our lambs were born in the end of March last year and we had planned the births so that the cold and snow would be generally gone. However, in the end of April, the lambs could experience snow and temperatures below zero.

Last week, I received a message from a guy from Australia in Warmshowers. He asked when the weather would be nice for a bike trip in our region. What can I say? If you are OK with the cold and the snow in late spring, you will do fine, but if you are used to a warmer climate, don’t hope for stable warmth before June? When I say “warm” I mean “above zero Celsius at daytime” .-) We have had nights below zero Celsius on Midsummer Day lately.

We spent our last two New Year’s Eves in the hot tub near the pond while it was above or around zero Celsius outside. But it has been cold and snowy in October.

When Your Least Friendly Sheep Comes for a Scratch, Your Flock Has a Skin Problem!

Back to sheep. Our sheep live outside year-round and we usually shear them in April or May, depending on our possibilities and skills. They are used to close contact with us and they are very friendly.

Now, why does a sheep really come for a scratch? Is it because she is a great friend? When we have had problems with mites in the summer, I have noticed that even those ewes that are not too friendly, approach the owner and let themselves be scratched well. Unfortunately in this way, the owner becomes the one that transmits the parasites from sheep to sheep, because all of them want to be scratched at the same time!

In the winter, the sheep have nice woollen coats. On the surface and to an untrained eye, nothing is wrong:

The lambs grew nice coats for themselves by the end of the year:

But what is going on under the coat, when rain and snow have been taking turns since autumn, when it has turned cold and warm again, continuously, until it got properly cold (below -10 Celsius) in the middle of Feburary?

The bacteria are thriving, and as a result, the wool near the skin is moist and decaying; the environment is damp and ugly. Half of our sheep have patches like this on their backs, if you separate the wool on the back a bit:

The wool can be picked off easily and looks like this:

If you look at the sheep from above, you will see nothing. You will have to push the wool to the sides a bit:

Based on literature, the bacteria are called Dermatophilus congolensis, and the condition is also called rain scald in English. And, surprise, surprise, some sources say that if you have had the mite called Psoroptes ovis around, the condition can occur with a greater probability. That’s because the skin has been damaged already (Source: The Sheep Keeper’s Veterinary Handbook). Also see the Wikipedia article.

So When Should One Shear the Sheep in a Changing Climate? And Is a Friendly Sheep a Happy Sheep?

Thinking about hugging and scratching sheep as a great way of passing on parasites, the question arises, whether making friends with sheep really is good for them. Yes for sure, spending time with sheep and touching them has a therapeutic effect on the owner…

And when should we shear the sheep, to provide them with maximum well being?

We could shear them in September, but if the temperature drops to -10 Celsius in October and it’s snowy and windy for some time, the sheep will be cold. They will need more food, and suddenly. You should change the feeding pattern gradually but in our experience, the cold comes suddenly in October. And goes away just as suddenly.

We could shear in April, but if the ewes have lambs and the weather turns cold suddenly, the ewes will have to get more energy from their food and they may fail to feed the lambs well enough. And again, changes in the feeding patterns of sheep should be made gradually.

At the same time, an early wave of hot weather may come in May, and if the sheep haven’t been shorn, they will feel uncomfortable.

It’s clear that from June til the end of summer we don’t want to shear our sheep because cuts and wounds can start to rot, and these will also attract flies.

It’s also clear that in its present condition, the wool of our sheep is not suitable for use, and neither is the sheepskin of any value. Or how about this excellent piece?

I will leave this post somewhat open-ended. With our small amount of sheep, the time of shearing doesn’t really matter, we’ll shear them in April and keep an eye on them. But I guess it’s quite a challenge for large flocks, to get used to the changing climate with lots of precipitation. Hereby I can say that the presentation (in Estonian only) held by Ann-Mari Anupõld last autumn in Toosikannu, hit the nail on the head quite a bit.

At the same time, I suggest that hobby farmers and the providers of animal therapy with farm animals, should seriously ask themselves, who is really the one that contributes most to the transmission of parasites in a humid and changing climate?

Kuidas tagada lammastele mugav olemine ja millal on hea rattaga matkata, kui aastaajad tahavad pea peale minna? Mind ajendas seda postitust kirjutama tänane avastus, et kui viletsas seisus on meie lammaste kasukad, aga ühtlasi tekkis peas seos pikamaa-rattamatkajatega, kes on kimpus raskesti ennustatava ilmaga.

Lõunaeurooplane “lumevangis”

Võõrustame aeg-ajalt läbi Warmshowersi nimelise keskkonna pikamaa-rattamatkajaid. Nendest üks, itaallane Paolo oli meie juures eelmisel aastal mai keskpaigas ja pidi jääma paariks ööks lumevangi, sest ta polnud arvestanud sellega, et mai keskel võiks siinkandis lumi maha tulla. Eestlase jaoks ei näe pilt just lumevangi moodi välja, pigem sadas hommikul maha natuke valget ollust, mis õhtuks ära sulas. Aga meie polnud ka parasjagu rattamatkal.

Foto: Paolo, https://www.facebook.com/polaroundtheworld/

Üks rattaga meid külastanud Brasiilia noormees lõpetas mais lumesaju tõttu paari päeva järel oma jalgsimatka mööda RMK matkateed.

Talled sündisid meil eelmisel kevadel märtsi lõpus ja olid planeeritud nii, et suurem külm ja lumi oleks möödas. Aprilli lõpus aga nägid talled ka lumiseid olusid ja miinuskraade.

Hiljuti sain Warmshowersi kaudu kirja ühelt austraallaselt, kes küsis, et millal siinkandis ilm rattamatkaks sobilikuks muutub. Mida sa oskad kosta? Kellele sobib hiliskevadine külm ja lumi, saab igatahes hakkama, aga kes on harjunud soojema kliimaga, ärgu enne juunit stabiilset sooja lootku? Sooja all pean silmas, et päeval on plussis .-) Jaanipäevadel on öökülmi viimasel ajal olnud küll.

Uue aasta oleme kahel viimasel aastal võtnud vastu kümblustünnis plusskraadidega või nulli juures, aga oktoobris on olnud külm ja lumine.

Kui su kõige umbuslikum lammas tahab sügamist, on karjas nahaprobleem!

Nüüd tagasi lammaste juurde. Meie lambad elavad aastaringi õues ja püganud oleme neid seni aprillis-mais, vastavalt võimalustele ja oskustele. Nad on harjunud meiega pidevalt lähedalt kokku puutuma ja on väga sõbralikud.

Aga kas lammas ikka tahab seepärast sügamist, et ta on suur sõber? Kui meil suviti on olnud häda sügelistega, olen märganud, et muidu mitte väga sõbralikud lambad lasevad ennast omanikel mõnuga sügada. Ja paraku muutub omanik seeläbi parasiitide edasikandjaks lambalt lambale, sest sügada tahavad ju kõik korraga!

Talvel on lambad kenad villased. Pealtnäha ja võhiklikule silmale pole häda midagi:

Talled kasvatasid aastavahetuseks kenad kasukad selga:

Aga mis toimub kasuka all, kui sügisest saati on vaheldumisi sadanud lund ja vihma, läinud külmaks ja jälle sulanud ja nii pidevalt, kuni veebruari keskpaigas saabus paari nädala pikkune korralikum pakane?

Toimub aktiivne bakterite elutegevus, mistõttu vill naha lähedal kopitab ja laguneb; keskkond on soe ja niiske ja kole. Pooltel meie lammaste selgadel on sellised laigud, kui seljapealne vill natuke lahku tõmmata:

Vill tuleb kitkudes lihtsasti lahti ja on krussis:

Lambale niisama peale vaadates midagi ei näe, kogu värk on korralikult peidus, vill tuleb keskelt eemale tõmmata:

Kirjanduse põhjal on tegu bakteriga nimega Dermatophilus congolensis, inglise keeles nimetatakse seisundit ka rain scald. Ja oo üllatust, meil varem probleemiks olnud sügelise Psoroptes ovis olemasolu soodustab mõne allika väitel ka talvise häda esiletulekut, kuna nahk on juba kahjustunud (Allikaks The Sheep Keeper’s Veterinary Handbook). Vt ka Wikipedia artiklit.

Millal siis muutlikus kliimas pügada? Kas sõbralik lammas on õnnelik lammas?

Mõeldes lammaste sügamise-kallistamise kui väga hea parasiitide edasikandmise mooduse peale, tekib küsimus, et kas lammastega sõbrustamine ikka teeb neile head. Omanikule mõjub lambaga suhtlemine kahtlemata teraapiliselt…

Ja millal siis pügada, et lammaste heaolu maksimaalselt tagada?

Pügaks septembris, aga kui oktoobris tuleb pikemalt -10 kraadi ja lumi ja tuul, hakkab lammastel õues külm ja toiduvajadus suureneb järsult. Toidumuutused tuleb teha järkjärgult, aga elu näitab, et sügisene külm tuleb pigem järsku. Ja kaob sama järsku.

Pügaks aprilli lõpus, aga kui lammastel on talled ja ilm läheb järsku külmaks, peab utt endale toidust järsku rohkem energiat hankima ja ei pruugi tallele piisavalt piima anda. Ja jällegi, toidumuutused tuleb ju teha järk-järgult.

Sama hästi võib mais juba tulla mõni varajane kuumalaine ja pügamata lambal on siis ju ebamugav.

Selge on, et juunist kuni suve lõpuni väga pügada ei taha, sest sisselõiked võivad minna mädanema ja meelitavad ligi ka igatsugu kärbseid.

Selge on ka see, et meie praeguses seisukorras villaga pole ilmselt midagi peale hakata ja lambanahaks selline selg ka ei sobi. No palun, kes soovib?

Selle postituse lõpp jääb veidi lahtiseks, sest meil paari lambaga pole vahet, eks pügame aprillis ära ja hoiame silma peal, aga suurtel karjadel on muutliku ja sajuse kliimaga kohanemine ilmselt korralik väljakutse. Siinkohal tuleb tõdeda, et Ann-Mari Anupõllu ettekanne sügisel Toosikannul oli väga asjakohane.

Ühtlasi tasub hobikarjadel ja ka loomateraapiat pakkuvatel kasvatajatel niiskes-muutlikus kliimas mõelda tõsiselt selle peale, et kes konkreetses olukorras see põhiline parasiitide edasikandja ikka on.

NOTE: This post contains photos of a duck embryo after 2/3 of the incubation period. If such photos may be disturbing to you, please don’t read this post!

I discovered recently that the incubator company Brinsea has issued a book in 2002, called Nests, Birds and Incubators, which seemed interesting enough to buy it. I read the chapters on nests, laying and natural incubation. The contents were very interesting but to be honest, I didn’t get a very good idea of what the inside of a developing egg actually feels like.

Now, a couple of days ago, nature and a bit of my own curiosity brought to me something that was like a true-to-life illustration of the book.

A Crack in the Shell of a Duck Egg

At the beginning of April I set 12 duck eggs to my incubator. I candled them on day 8. To my great satisfaction, all the eggs turned out to be fertile – I guess it’s the first time it’s so. But one of the eggs seemed to have a very small crack in the shell, of which I took a note. I left the egg in the incubator though, because I wasn’t sure if the crack was on the surface only or deeper. Also, it seemed like an interesting experiment.

I candled the eggs again on day 18. It turned out that the crack had become a lot larger and a sunken cracked area had formed around it.

The situation looked quite hopleless from the point of view of the embryo’s development – I though the evaporation would be too intense for example – so I decided to remove the egg from the incubator. And to satisfy my own curiosity, I decided to open and explore it.

Sticky Substance and a Tiny Fetus

My first impression of the inside of the duck egg that had been developing for almost 3 weeks, was that the substance inside the egg was suprisingly sticky. I don’t know if it’s always the case or it was sticky because of the cracks and some sort of rotting process. I couldn’t smell anything.

When still packed, the inside of the egg looks like this:

First I extracted the so-called air sac in the upper part of the egg. The increasing of its size is an important parameter that is observed during incubation. Once a bird begins to hatch, it first breaks into the air sac using its beak, then it rests for a day or two and then it starts to gradually break the outer shell as a result of its biological processes. In the egg I examined, the air sac looked like a slimy bag.

Next, I could behold a complex network of vessels which can also be seen when candling eggs that are incubating, starting from about day 7, and as long as the developing substance is still somewhat transparent.

After some further unknitting, the yolk spilled out. Shortly before hatching, the fully developed embryo withdraws the yolk into its body and uses it as a reserve of nutrients and energy.

And finally I was able to pick out the embryo itself. It had a very large head when compared to the rest of its body!

During the dissection, the heart of the embryo kept beating (but surprisingly seldom, about once a couple of seconds). To calm the reader, I will say right away that I quickly ended the life of the embryo after having taken the pictures. I have no idea what an embryo that has been developing for 18 days, feels, remembers, or understands.

In summary, this was a quite rare chance to learn to know nature in a situation where something had gone wrong, but almost by chance, and hopefully no pain was caused.

NB! See postitus sisaldab fotosid 2/3 inkubatsiooniperioodini arenenud pardilootest. Keda sellised fotod häirida võivad, need palun ärgu seda postitust lugegu!

Avastasin hiljuti, et inkubaatoritootja Brinsea on aastal 2002 andnud välja raamatu Nests, Birds and Incubators, mis tundus piisavalt huvitav, et see endale osta. Lugesin läbi lindude pesitsemist, munemist ja haudumist käsitlevad peatükid. Oli väga huvitav, aga ega päris head füüsilist ettekujutust areneva muna sisemusest ei saanud.

Nüüd aga paar päeva tagasi mängisid loodus ja mu enda katsetamishuvi mulle kätte justkui selle raamatu tõetruu illustratsiooni.

Pragu pardimunas

Panin aprilli alguses 12 pardimuna inkubeeruma ja vaatlesin neid läbivalgustamise teel umbes 8. päeval. Minu rõõmuks olid kõik munad viljastatud – vist esimest korda nii hästi. Aga ühel munal tundus koores olevat imeväike pragu, mille olemasolu ma üles märkisin. Jätsin muna siiski inkubaatorisse, sest polnud kindel, kas pragu on pindmine või sügavam. Tundus huvitav eksperiment ka.

Uuesti vaatasin mune umbes 18. päeval. Selgus, et pragu oli üksjagu suuremaks muutunud ja selle ümber oli moodustunud pragunev lohk.

Selline vaatepilt tundus loote arenemise seisukohalt suhteliselt lootusetu – kasvõi aurustumine on ilmselt liiga intensiivne – nii et otsustasin muna inkubaatorist ära võtta. Ja enda uudishimu rahuldamiseks ka ära lahata.

Kleepuv ollus ja imepisike loode

Esimene mulje pea 3 nädalat arenenud pardimuna sisemusest oli, et sealne ollus on üllatavalt kleepuv. Ega nüüd ei teagi arvata, kas ta kleepubki või kleepus ta seoses praoga ja mingi roiskumise protsessiga. Mingisugust lõhna ma ei tundnud.

Kokkupakituna on muna sisemus selline:

Kõigepealt eraldasin muna ülaosas oleva n-ö õhukoti, mille suurenemine on teatavasti inkubeerimise jälgimisel üks oluline parameeter. Kooruma hakkav lind murrab endale nokaga tee kõigepealt just õhukotti, puhkab seejärel ööpäeva-kaks ja siis hakkab bioloogiliste protsesside tulemusel muna koort katki toksima. Minu lahatud munas oli see õhukott üks paras limakott.

Edasi võis imetleda keerukat veresoonte võrgustikku, mis on näha ka inkubaatoris olevate munade läbivalgustamisel alates umbes 7. päevast senikaua, kuni arenev mass veel läbi paistab.

Mõningase harutamise järel eraldus munakollane, mille loode juhul kui ta lõpuni areneb, vahetult enne kooruma asumist endasse tõmbab ja mida kasutab toitainete reservina:

Ja lõpuks sain kätte ka loote enda. Väga suur pea tema üldise suuruse kohta!

Lahkamise hetkel loote süda veel tuksus (aga üllatavalt aeglaselt, paari sekundi tagant) ja kõigi lugejate rahustamiseks ütlen ka ära, et tegin peale pildistamist lootele kohe kiiresti otsa peale. Mul ei ole õrna aimugi, mida tunneb, mäletab, teadvustab 18 päeva munas arenenud loode.

Tegu oli kokkuvõttes suhteliselt haruldase võimalusega õppida tundma loodust olukorras, kus miski läks valesti, kuid poolkogemata ja loodetavasti valutult.

Today I was lucky and could observe how ducklings develop several traits characteristic of ducks, by the end of their first 24 hours of life: they pick at everything that seems interesting, they move in a flock, and they mess around, their feet in food and water. They become interested in water already at the age of half a day.

Hello, World

Yesterday in the morning, our first duckling of this year hatched. Hatching is hard work that takes hours, and once it’s been done it’s necessary to get a good sleep.

Where Does One Find Friends? Pry One out of the Egg!

In the evening, the duckling used quite some force to obtain a buddy. So you can simply find friends, but you can as well pry them out of the egg.

Gang Up and Goof Around!

By this morning, we had four ducklings already and it was time to take them out of the incubator. The first thing was to provide them with water and a bit later during the day, I added the feed. And here we have the typical ducks. With their feet in water and the food in the water.

Yes, you can here quail in the background in this video.

… and Then Go to Sleep on top of Mother

The most important thing in life is sleeping after all, and this cannot be left to the others to take care of. A true Indian runner duck makes attempts to climb as high as possible during its first day of life and the artificial mother is a good choice to climb upon. There is lots of space for taking a nap on top of the mother – and it’s especially cool if you are the eldest and the most courageous one.

Õnnestus täna jälgida, kuidas parditibud omandavad ühe ööpäevaga pärast koorumist olulised partidele omased jooned: nokivad kõike, mis huvitav tundub, liiguvad karjas, läbustavad jalgupidi toidus ja vees. Vee vastu tekib huvi juba poolepäevaselt.

Tere, maailm

Eile hommikul koorus selleaastane esimene parditibu. Koorumine on raske töö, võtab tunde aega ja kui see tehtud, tuleb magada.

Kust leida sõpru? Tuleb munast kangutada!

Õhtu poole hankis parditibu endale ka üsna jõulisel moel kaaslase. Nii et sõpru võib niisama leida, aga võib ka munast välja kangutada.

Kambakesi läbustama!

Täna hommikuks oli parditibusid juba neli ja aeg oli nad inkubaatorist ära viia. Esimese asjana andsin ette vee, päeva jooksul ka söögi. Ja ongi tüüpilised pardid valmis. Jalgupidi vees, toit vees.

Jah, videos on taustal kuulda ka vutte.

… ja ema selga magama

Lõppude lõpuks on siiski magamine kõige tähtsam tegevus ja seda ei saa teiste hooleks jätta. Üks õige endast lugupidav jooksupart üritab esimesel elupäeval ka juba võimalikult kõrgele pääseda. Sobiv koht, kuhu ronida, on kunstliku ema selga. Seal on ruumi magada ja eriti uhke on, kui oled vanim ja kõige julgem.

We often need to switch power off the electric fence to get over or through it somewhere and it’s quite a hassle to always walk to the electric fence energizer to do that. Luckily, wifi-controllable relays have gotten small and cheap enough so that we could easily install one in front of the energizer and can now control it with a smartphone app from anywhere in the world if we so wanted.

Wifi-controllable relays aren’t novel of course – we have used similar solutions in our greenhouse and duck house for over 10 years. What is new though, is that hardware and software has gotten really small, cheap and reliable. You can now buy a simple wifi relay in a nice form factor for around 5€ and control this with a free phone application called eWeLink (a really fitting name for our use case :))

At that price point it’s feasible to use these relays all over the place for many low value convenience functions, whereas previously it was kind of restricted to rather high value solutions.

P.S. In this specific case the small extra fusebox that holds the Sonoff module costs around 3 times as much as the module itself. It turned out that the energizer enclosure itself actually had enough free space inside so that I could have placed the wifi relay module inside the energizer, but we already had installed the fusebox…

Tihtipeale on meil vaja elektrikarjust välja lülitada, et sellest kuskil üle või läbi minna ja suhteliselt tüütu on selleks iga kord generaatori juurde jalutada. Õnneks on üle wifi juhitavad releed muutunud piisavalt väikeseks ja odavaks, et paigaldada üks selline generaatori ette. Nii saab generaatorit sisse-välja lülitada soovi korral suvalisest maailma punktist.

Üle wifi juhtitavad releed iseenest pole midagi uut – ka me ise oleme sarnaseid lahendusi kasutanud kasvuhoones ja pardimajas üle 10 aasta. Uus on aga see, et riist- ja tarkvara, mis selleks vajalik, on muutunud väikeseks, odavaks ja töökindlaks. Tänapäeval on võimalik osta lihtne wifi relee ilusas korpuses kuskil 5€ eest ja juhtida seda telefonist eWeLink nimelise tasuta rakendusega.

Sellise hinna juures on taoliste releede kasutamine muutunud võimalikuks ka paljudes madala väärtusega mugavusfunktsioonides, kus varem oleks see olnud kohatu.

PS. konkreetsel lahendusel kasutasime me eraldi väikest kilpi, mis maksab umbes 3 korda rohkem kui see Sonoffi wifi moodul. Töö käigus selgus tegelikult, et karjuse generaatoris olnuks piisavalt vaba ruumi, et wifi relee moodul sinna sisse panna, kuid selleks hetkeks oli kilp juba paraku paigas…

I had already happily concluded that we successfully raised 6 new young female ducks this year. However, a couple of days ago I found one of them killed under our duckhouse, at about 3 pm. We suspect the predator was a hawk – a couple of years ago in August, we also lost a duck to what we though was a goshawk. And the style of eating looked like that of a predator bird, rather than an animal.

The duck was about to turn 4 months old and I presumed she was just about to begin laying eggs. That’s why we did a quick dissection, to satisfy my curiosity. And yes, we found an egg. It was almost the regular size of a duck egg and totally OK to eat.

When covered, the egg looked like this:

… and after we opened the skin around it, it looked like this:

So now, due to this unlucky incident, I’ve seen what an unlaid egg looks like inside a duck, and where these eggs are situated in the duck’s body.

Jõudsin juba rõõmustada, et saime sel aastal 6 noort emast parti juurde. Nüüd aga paar päeva tagasi leidsin pärastlõunal kella 15 paiku pardimaja alt ühe neist noortest partidest maha murtuna. Kahtlustada võib kedagi kullilist – meil läks ka paar aastat tagasi augustisüks part arvatavalt kulli nahka ja söömise jäljed olid ka pigem sellised, mis viitavad röövlinnule.

Part oli just saamas 4-kuuseks ja eeldasin, et just munemist alustamas. Seetõttu tegime kohapeal kiire lahkamise, et mu uudishimu rahuldada. Ja leidsimegi muna. Peaaegu pardimuna tavasuuruses ja täiesti söödav.

Kaetuna nägi muna välja selline:

… ja pärast teda katva naha avamist selline:

Nüüd olen siis õnnetu juhuse tõttu ära näinud, kus ja kuidas veel munemata munad pardi kehas paiknevad ja millised nad välja näevad.

This January, we added quail (Coturnix), the Estonian variety, to our family of birds and animals. They live in a special cage in a quiet corner of our living room. With stable, automated lighting, ample food and automated drinkers – everything they need for a safe, predictable and peaceful environment, to ensure they lay eggs as well as possible.

Our quail learned to use the automated drinker in a couple of days. To get water from it, one has to push the nipple a bit.

The available literature states that Estonian quail will lay an egg per day on average, at least during the first year of their life. We bought 10 female birds that were born around New Year, and in February they all started laying eggs. During spring, we got 9 to 10 eggs each day.

A Hot Summer and a Decline in Laying

This year’s summer was very hot, beginning from May. Sometime in June or July we noticed that the quail have started to lay fewer eggs, the eggs are smaller and some have lost their pattern. The photos below depict a comparison of egg sizes (a smaller one to the left, and a regular sized egg to the right). The second photo depicts two eggs by the same bird, with a pattern and without. As we have read, losing the egg’s pattern is a sign of stress in quail.

But Have You Ever Watered Your Quail?

Our first thought in relation to heat was that perhaps the amount of water that the birds got from the automated drinkers, wasn’t enough. Somehow I got the idea of taking a sprinkler bottle and directing the stream of water towards the bases of their drinkers. It turned out though, that our quail really enjoy being watered and so they took baths under the water stream. So I watered them about twice daily during the whole summer, in a manner you can see in this video.

The Hot Summer Was Over But the Quail Were Still Thirsty

We saw some improvement in the egg laying rate when watering the quail daily, but it still remained at about 7 to 8 eggs daily. After the heat was over, we almost stopped sprinkling the quail because, well, they should be independent after all.

In September, the situation got worse and suddenly we were only getting a couple of eggs each day. Because we’d had an experience with the effect of water in the summer, we decided to check how the automated drinkers were still working.

Taken apart, the pieces of the nipple mechanism look like this:

So the pieces of the mechanism had some limescale on the surfaces, but cleaning these up didn’t solve the issue. It seems more likely that the reason for the failure is that the spring has got tired or loose somehow – but only a bit so we didn’t notice the difference. After having replaced the nipple mechanisms with new ones (we had some extra drinkers at home), the drinkers started working again. When you push the nipple a bit, water flows and the quail can drink.

In general, it seems that dry bases of the drinkers are a good sign of insufficient water supply. If quail keep drinking continuously, the base gets enough of water so it will not dry up.

Back to Laying in a Couple of Days!

After we’d fixed the drinkers, the rate of laying eggs quickly rose from 2 to 3 eggs a day to 10! At the time of writing this post, we have got 10 eggs the last 4 days and we’re really happy. The average mass of the eggs has risen from 12.5 grams in the summer to 14.5 grams – from the low end to the upper end of the average mass range of the eggs of Estonian quail.

In contrast to ducks who go into a molt as a reaction to stress, and who stop laying for several months, it turned out that egg laying in quail can be controlled really easily! Praise to the birds and to the breeders!

P.S. We bought our quail from the Väljaotsa quail farm in Raplamaa, Estonia. Information about the Estonian quail can be found at http://www.evutt.ee/ but it’s in Estonian only.

Meie lindude-loomade sekka lisandusid selle aasta jaanuaris Eesti tõugu munavutid, kelle panime tuppa puuri selleks sobivasse rahulikku kohta elama. Stabiilse valgusrežiimiga, automaatjooturitega. Kõik selleks, et vuttide elutingimused oleks võimalikult muutumatud ja et munemine oleks tasemel.

Vutid õppisid automaatjooturist joomise paari päevaga ära. Vee kättesaamiseks tuleb jooturi niplit natuke lükata.

Eesti tõugu munavutid peaksid kättesaadava kirjanduse andmetel munema igaüks päevas umbes ühe muna vähemalt oma esimese eluaasta jooksul. Me võtsime kümme aastavahetuse kandis sündinud emast vutti ja veebruari jooksul hakkasidki kõik munema. Terve kevade jooksul tekkis 9-10 muna päevas.

Kuum suvi ja vähenev munemine

Lõppenud suvi oli juba maikuust alates väga kuum. Kusagil juunis-juulis märkasime, et vutid on hakanud vähem munema, munad on väiksemad ja osal on kadunud muster. Siin on piltidel võrdluseks üks väiksemat sorti muna ja kõrval tavapärase suurusega muna. Allpool ühe ja sama linnu muna mustriga ja ilma. Mustri kadumine peaks vuttidel olema üks stressi tunnuseid.

Aga kas sa kunagi oma vutte kastnud oled?

Esimene mõte seoses kuumusega oli, et äkki automaatjooturist saadav vesi pole piisav. Kuidagi tekkis idee võtta pritspudel ja lasta sellest vuttide jooturite alustele vett. Selgus aga, et vutid naudivad väga, kui neid kastetakse, ja suplesid ka ise veejoa all. Umbes nii nagu näha allolevast videost, kastsin neid suvel mitu korda päevas.

Kuum suvi sai läbi, aga vutid ikka janus

Igapäevase kastmisega läks munevus paremaks, aga jäi siiski pigem 7-8 muna kanti päevas. Kui suur kuumus läbi sai, hakkasime vutte jälle vähem kastma, sest lõpuks peavad nad ikkagi iseseisvad olema.

Septembris muutus olukord aga selliseks, et saime vuttidelt ainult paar muna päevas. Kuna suvel olime veega seoses saanud kogemuse, siis uurisime lähemalt, et kuidas automaatjooturid töötavad ja ega nad umbe pole läinud.

Lahti võetuna on niplimehhanismi osad sellised:

Juppidele oli ladestunud veidi katlakivi, kuid selle eemaldamine probleemi ei lahendanud. Pigem tundub, et probleemiks on vedru väsimine, venimine vms – piisavalt väike, et silmaga ei märka. Kui asendasime niplimehhanismi uuega (paar jooturit oli õnneks kodus varuks), siis hakkas jootur jälle tööle, st nipli kergel lükkamisel tuleb vett ja vutid saavad vee kätte.

Üldiselt paistab, et heaks märgiks veevarustuse puudulikkusest on ka see, kui jooturite alused ära kuivavad – kui vutid pidevalt joovad, siis pritsib alusele piisvalt palju vett, et alus püsiks niiske.

Paari päevaga uuesti munema!

Pärast jooturite parandamist tõusis munevus kõigest paari päevaga 2-3 muna pealt kümneni! Selle postituse kirjutamise hetkel oleme lindudelt saanud 10 muna juba 4 päeva järjest, nii et võib väga rõõmustada. Munade keskmine mass on tõusnud suviselt 12.5 grammilt 14.5 grammile – Eesti vuti keskmise vahemiku alumisest äärest ülemisse äärde.

Erinevalt partidest, kes stressi korral hakkavad sulgima ja ei mune mitu kuud järjest, osutusid vutid väga hästi juhitavateks munejateks! Kiidan linde ja tõuaretajaid!

P.S. Ostsime oma linnud Raplamaalt Väljaotsa vutitalust. Ja Eesti vuti teemalisi materjale koondab veebileht http://www.evutt.ee/.

The young ram that we were planning to obtain this year, arrived a month or so earlier than initially planned. This means that lambing can be expected in early March next year.

If we take into account the quite unpredictable climate of the last years, it’s very hard to guess what kind of weather we’ll have in March next year. Anyway, we’ll probably need to do some culling of our ewes due to their skin issues next spring or summer, so lambing in early March means they will have more time to raise their lambs, and we’ll have time to cull some of them before it gets really hot. With some probability.

We named our previous ram Llouis (he was a cross between Lleyn and Merino and some others) and since the new guy is also mostly Lleyn (87.5%) and we are kind of used to the name, we named him Llouis II.

With young rams (and ewes) one can observe how the initial mutual shyness is replaced with quite straightforward behaviour in a couple of days.

Here is Llouis II on the day he arrived, hiding away under a lilac tree:

Two days later he is more active, seeking ewes in estrus, sniffing under the tails of the ewes and the spots where they have urinated. Every once in a while he gets beaten and chased away by a more experienced ewe that’s currently not in estrus. But he circles back soon enough. In the photo below, he is the leftmost one.

Among other things, Llouis II reminds me that one should not become too friendly with rams, and you should not turn your back to any ram. He approaches me bravely and tries to chew at my pants. I guess that in a couple of days, he’ll try and butt me. I’ll have to get Sven help me then, to turn him upside down and show him his position in the “flock”. The effect of this willl last for only some days, though …

In a small hobby flock, the fate of a brave ram is to become our meal quite soon after it has carried out its main task successfully. Until then, I wish the young guy strength and perseverance!

Meie selleaastane noor jäär saabus karja umbes kuu aega varem kui algselt plaanitud. See tähendab, et tuleval kevadel on poegimist oodata märtsi alguses.

Arvestades viimaste aastate väga heitlikku kliimat, on tegu paraja õnnemänguga, et mis ilmad tuleval aastal märtsi alguses on. Kuna meil on aga ilmselt vaja kevadel-suvel tegelda nahaprobleemidega lammaste väljapraakimisega, jõuavad uted oma talled piisavalt suureks kasvatada ja meie tegelda mingil määral uttede praakimisega, enne kui ilmad väga kuumaks lähevad. Mingi tõenäosusega.

Esimesele jäärale panime kaks aastat tagasi nimeks Llouis (ta oli lleyni ja meriino segu, sekka muud) ja kuna ka seekordne jäär on lleyni veresusega (87.5% suisa) ning nimi on juurdunud, siis nimeks sai temale Llouis II.

Noorte jäärade (ja uttede) juures on hea jälgida, kuidas algne vastastikune häbelikkus asendub paari päeva jooksul suht konkreetsete tegudega.

Siin on Llouis II oma saabumise päeval, üksi sireli all:

Kaks päeva hiljem aga otsib juba julgemalt indlevaid uttesid, nuusutab sabaaluseid ja kusemise kohti. Vahepeal saab mõnelt kogenumalt utelt, kes parasjagu ei indle, kolki ja siis jookseb käheda määgimisega eemale. Kuid tuleb taas. Alloleval fotol on ta vasakult esimene.

Ühtlasi tuletab Llouis II mulle meelde seda, et jääraga ei tasu liiga häid suhteid sisse seada ning et talle ei tasu selga pöörata. Tuleb julgelt ligi ja üritab pükse närida. Karta on, et paari päeva jooksul üritab juba minuga ka puksida. Siis pean Sveni appi kutsuma, et jäär paika pandaks (üldiselt jäära selili keeramise ja mõned sekundid kinni hoidmise teel). Selle paikapanemise mõju kestab paar päeva…

Väikeses hobikarjas on julge jäära saatus paraku selline, et kui teod edukalt tehtud, ootab jäära suhteliselt varsti ees meie toidulauale sattumine. Seniks aga soovin noormehele jõudu ja sihikindlust!

We often need to switch power off the electric fence to get over or through it somewhere and it’s quite a hassle to always walk to the electric fence energizer to do that. Luckily, wifi-controllable relays have gotten small and cheap enough so that we could easily install one in front of the energizer and can now control it with a smartphone app from anywhere in the world if we so wanted.

Wifi-controllable relays aren’t novel of course – we have used similar solutions in our greenhouse and duck house for over 10 years. What is new though, is that hardware and software has gotten really small, cheap and reliable. You can now buy a simple wifi relay in a nice form factor for around 5€ and control this with a free phone application called eWeLink (a really fitting name for our use case :))

At that price point it’s feasible to use these relays all over the place for many low value convenience functions, whereas previously it was kind of restricted to rather high value solutions.

P.S. In this specific case the small extra fusebox that holds the Sonoff module costs around 3 times as much as the module itself. It turned out that the energizer enclosure itself actually had enough free space inside so that I could have placed the wifi relay module inside the energizer, but we already had installed the fusebox…

Tihtipeale on meil vaja elektrikarjust välja lülitada, et sellest kuskil üle või läbi minna ja suhteliselt tüütu on selleks iga kord generaatori juurde jalutada. Õnneks on üle wifi juhitavad releed muutunud piisavalt väikeseks ja odavaks, et paigaldada üks selline generaatori ette. Nii saab generaatorit sisse-välja lülitada soovi korral suvalisest maailma punktist.

Üle wifi juhtitavad releed iseenest pole midagi uut – ka me ise oleme sarnaseid lahendusi kasutanud kasvuhoones ja pardimajas üle 10 aasta. Uus on aga see, et riist- ja tarkvara, mis selleks vajalik, on muutunud väikeseks, odavaks ja töökindlaks. Tänapäeval on võimalik osta lihtne wifi relee ilusas korpuses kuskil 5€ eest ja juhtida seda telefonist eWeLink nimelise tasuta rakendusega.

Sellise hinna juures on taoliste releede kasutamine muutunud võimalikuks ka paljudes madala väärtusega mugavusfunktsioonides, kus varem oleks see olnud kohatu.

PS. konkreetsel lahendusel kasutasime me eraldi väikest kilpi, mis maksab umbes 3 korda rohkem kui see Sonoffi wifi moodul. Töö käigus selgus tegelikult, et karjuse generaatoris olnuks piisavalt vaba ruumi, et wifi relee moodul sinna sisse panna, kuid selleks hetkeks oli kilp juba paraku paigas…