Regent Park Tasmania - lifestyle of artist in country Tasmania

  <<<this image takes you to youtube We got a few ducks from friends recently and have been learning about them for 2 or 3 months now. The first problem we came across (remember we knew nothing about ducks) was our friends had given us 3 drakes and 1 female.  I soon read up on the fact a drake needs 4-6 females as they are pretty rough on them once the hormones kick in.  So we sourced 3 females and when they turned up, having chosen them from photos, it was obvious the two little call ducks are far too small for the drakes who are campbells cross and twice the size of the little ones.  As spring was kicking in here this past two weeks I noticed the boys were squabbling amongst themselves and quite aggressively.  So .... we created a bachelor pen and moved the 3 drakes out.  My thinking is i also dont want a gazillion ducks where a lot of them might be drakes.  After a short time of settling in we started to find 2 eggs a day - one dropped on t...

 I am doing monthly walks around our place to keep track of changes - monthly, seasonally and annually. this month we received new ducks - 3 girls to add to the 1 girl and 3 drakes.  the drakes are getting angsty as spring is approaching ... we must move two drakes out of the pen as they are fighting regularly. (i lose it in this video!) we may need to move the third drake too as he is very big compared to the new very small call ducks that have arrived.  and within a day 'mini' (the apricot callduck) laid our first egg and has been laying each day.  so sweet.   check out our youtube channel and the playlists which feature various aspects of artist lifestyle in country Tasmania. i am googling and finding suppliers of oyster grit, pea pebbles, pellets and i soon learned (from taking note) they ate the candy (rolled oats, cracked corn, wheat) and ignored the pellets which are more nutritious.  so now i feed only pellets and use the candy as a training t...

 i have got us into quite a pickle - we decided to get ducks rather than chickens thinking ducks are less problematic - they dont need to roost, they dont need a house, and they will just come and go when they begin to free range. well.  we have had them now for around 4 weeks. we received 3 drakes and 1 female who we thought were call ducks.  lesson 1 - too many drakes and not enough females even for a single duck.  so we brought in 3 female call ducks with the intention of moving 2 of the drakes to a bachelor pen.  well ... the new ducks are the 'real' call ducks and they are tiny !!! so i googled yet again and have established our ducks are wels harlequin drakes and duck (Daisy). they are twice the size of the new call ducks so now we have to move all three harlequins to the bachelor pen.   its nudging spring already and the boys are fighting amongst themselves trying to establish territory and the girls have been here 2 days which is not helping te...

George & Archie lots happening in the studio after a #getaway to an art retreat at Enclave organised through Artable .  posts at blackfisharts studio blog about the art retreat here and back in the studio here .   a few drawings on retreat here . a recent published haiku here .  I am an award winning artist/poet working daily out of my studio in Tasmania. in an effort to keep my activities as an artist working daily and living/learning in the country i have blogs dedicated to each area -  my art gallery is at blackfisharts this blog Regents Park is about learning /experiencing #countryliving in Tasmania. a blog about my art, books, printmaking etc is at blackfisharts STUDIO WORK  my poetry is at Emerald13 my favourite recipes (mostly from my mum) - luscious Hungarian fare - as we are heading into winter its time to add a few more. If you are enjoying my blogs do leave a message and let me know and do visit my youtube channel which has playlists featu...

 now to figure out how to get it out! 

 sometimes i am a passenger in my own car so as to give V a go at driving the Diva.  a few images on the road to Burnie using slow exposure.