Recent content by quackers and me

I am anxious to try and integrate all the females together as I have been worried about the young girls. I actually saw 2 of my older hens gang up on one of the roosters and pull all his tail feathers out because he tried to mate them without being in their good grace. So far none of the...

Thank you for your help I already know it is a problem but I cannot kill the extra roosters. I am trying to arrange to have a separate housing area for them. Also since I can't kill the roosters I also can't kill the drakes. I know that is the common way to do things but I just don't have the...

My existing old girl flock had a rooster until 2 days ago. He just didn't show up for lock down at night. I looked everywhere for him but to no avail. They are now used to having a protector with them daily as they free range. I have another 7 month old rooster that is a promising candidate. I...

Loved this article. I have been talking to my chickens ever since we had the first 3 given to us by a friend. We at present have 32 several of which are roosters and they are all separated out into different groups. I need to bring them all together but 17 of them are still too young to...

That's sad. I guess it's just as well that I don't have an incubator. I can imagine that it was heartbreaking to get them that far along and then lose them due to a mechanical device. I'm sure you will have much better luck with the mother duck setting them. It is such a wonderful feeling to go...

I did not raise Knotty from a baby so she does not allow me to handle her. I was afraid to move her nest or touch her eggs because I didn't want her to stop sitting on them. Since yours doesn't seem to mind I think it would be added excitement to know how many viable eggs she has. I'm not real...

How true. However I blame mama duck for the pool fiasco since she got into the pool and called them to her.

Awesome! I had to drain the big pool I had set up because mama duck (Knotty) decided to take the little babies for a swim. Easy to get into the pool difficult to get out. Didn't want to take a chance on any of them being unable to get out so I dismantled it. These babies are proving to be very...

Glad she got it unstuck. Please keep us informed how the setting is going. Don't be too concerned about her taking personal time off the nest. I think they are born with the natural instinct of knowing how long they can be away from the eggs without doing any harm to them. I also believe they...

I see. That is funny wonder how she got it in there. I didn't start counting days until mine stopped laying and the count stayed the same for 2 days. I was off on the hatch date though so maybe I should have started counting sooner than I did. It was kind of hard for me to tell when she actually...

Wow! 18 eggs. That is a lot. My Indian runner (Knotty) just hatched 9 eggs over the last 2 days. She started out setting on 13 then slowly but surely weeded out the eggs that weren't going to hatch. I think it is wonderful that mother nature gives them the ability to know which eggs to keep and...

Nothing weird about wanting to breed ducks. I think it is a great idea. Good luck to you.

The Cayuga you are holding are so cute. So far as I know they are easier to get to set eggs than Pekins are, when they get old enough. Prissy is 2 years old. I seriously thought about getting Cayuga ducks when I first started looking. Did you get them for eggs or just for pets?

Thank you. How old are yours? Do you have a male? Are they Pekin?

Just wanted to let everyone know that my pekin (Prissy) successfully hatched her own egg. She started with 3 eggs and one disappeared. Not sure what happened to it but I left the other 2 in the nest for her just to see if she would actually set the nest to term. This morning when I went to feed...