Duckling Update - Day 16

   The Rouen  duck is still sitting on the eggs, but we are down to just seven eggs, five blue and two white.  I still don't know if the duck is merely getting rid of the bad eggs or if the rats are stealing them. I put out more poison out for the rats just in case they are the problem.  Rats seem to be a perpetual problem in the vicinity of poultry feeders. I haven't seen the runner duck taking a turn on the eggs in over a week so the Rouen duck has sole claim at the moment.

    My little water garden is doing well. The large water lily has a flower that is starting to bloom.  The three smaller water lilies have all sent up miniature lily pads, each new leaf slightly larger than the previous one. The irises are also starting to bloom. The miniature cattails are growing.  I have three feeder goldfish still alive after a month or so. Initially they were eating the mosquito larvae. I'm not sure what they are eating now. I probably should start feeding them.  I have some fertilizer tablets for the water lilies which I put in with each plant when I divided them a month ago. I'm supposed to give each lily a fertilizer tablet each month, but I've procrastinated putting them in. The package claims they won't hurt the fish, but I'm suspicious.  This is my practice water garden.  I'd like to have a much larger one some day. I took a photo of one of my bees (ear tag C-27,119)  foraging for water on a water lily of all things. OK, I don't really know that its one of my bees, but I think the odds are pretty high that it is.

    My bamboo is growing well this spring.  It only sent up four new culms, but two of those are much bigger than last years.  I expect that next year It will finally begin to spread out.  I put in a serious 18 inch deep bamboo barrier soon after I planted the bamboo.  I didn't realize that it would take several years for the plant to finally get its root system established.  Technically the bamboo is part of the vegetable garden as I picked a variety with edible shoots.  Maybe next year I'll get my first harvest of bamboo shoots. The variety I planted is aureasculcatis "Spectabilis".  I got the start for free from someone who was moving and had a lot of bamboo in their garden.  I had a chance to get a free start of black bambo, but I was too busy to dig it up at the time of year when it was best to do that.  According to the folks at the American Bamboo Society March is the best month to do divisions or to transplant bamboo.  March is a pretty busy time at the bee store.