Our sweet female Blue Swedish lost her companion and is lonely. She needs to be around other ducks. Trying to find a new home for her. We're in the Seattle area.
We just built this handy dandy little brooder for ducklings and seek recommendations for bedding. We used old towels in our bathtub the last time we ordered ducklings and the smell was, shall we say scintillating.
So, outside we go, but we don't want to mess with towels again. Our best idea...
We'd like to share photographic progress on our poultry coop.
Photo 1 is the south side, taken from the walk in front of our house. Photo 2 shows roof progress from the inside. Photo 3 is shot from the northwest. Photo 4 is shot from the northeast.
You can start to see the indoor/outdoor...
I'm used to pullets laying undersized eggs, but this little duck egg is quite a bit smaller than those! From the left--duck egg, small duck egg, chicken hen egg, pullet egg. Think the itty bitty one has a yolk?
Adding ducks to our operation. We want to start small like we did with chickens and grow the flock organically. I understand that a 1 to 6 drake to duck ratio is optimum and am considering whether 1 to 9 or 2 to 8 would be better. (Metzer Farms has a 10 duckling minimum delivery.)
Any opinions?
Taking a poll here! How many flocksters have named a yellow/gold hen Goldie Hen? Secondary question--has anyone else named their Goldie Hen's offspring Kate Henson?
I'm just guessing we're not the only ones.... ;-)
I'm an avid fermenter, making my own sauerkraut, kimchi, vinegars, kombucha,etc. Can anyone think of reasons why chickens shouldn't eat fermented vegetables? I know many folks ferment grains and I use the same wild yeasts.
I've read that hot spices don't register on a chicken's palate and my...
We've got 12 hens, 9 almost two years old and 3 almost one year old. They went from laying 8-9 eggs a day to 3-5. It's a weird time of year to see this, especially since the weather has improved and they are spending most of their days out in the sun.
Diet hasn't changed except that I moved...
We've got a rodent problem on our farm and I think there are enough folks on this site who live in rural areas who might have some advice. We want to get a cat to take care of our problem. Has anyone acquired cats to deal with this issue, and how did you go about it?
I've been successful at raising chickens for a couple years and now it's time to add ducks!
I'd like to acquire ducklings--one drake and six ducks. I'd like to eventually have a duck raise a clutch of ducklings. I have some questions. Can any breed of drake fertilize any breed of duck? Can...
We've got a flock of 16--one rooster and 9 hens in the original flock, and 4 roosters and 2 hens in last summer's addition. The original and secondary flocks each have their own coops with ample space and roosting branches. Their shared pen is 50' X 50' in varying configurations as I move the...
We have two flocks that share the same pen. The original flock is one rooster and 9 hens. In August, one of the hens hatched 7 chicks which turned out to be 3 roos and 4 pullets. The mother hen did the maternal thing for two months, then returned to the original flock. Each flock has its own...
I've got 7 chooks with their broody in a coop inside the pen of a flock of 11 adults, 1 roo and 10 hens. The babies have been inside the flock pen their whole life (1 month) and their mama is still caring for them. I'm ready to let them out into the general population, but I realized they are...
Has anyone tried penning a flock of roosters within sight and sound of hens? We've got a hen incubating eggs and I'd rather put the extra roos in their own pen/tractor to work our soil than get rid of them. We've got our first flock (1 roo, 10 hens) and the next flock (however many females and...
We've got our second coop built and are ready to start a second flock. Problem is we don't currently have a broody hen. Three have gone through the motions over this spring/summer but the third one just stopped last week. Can broodiness be enticed? We're going to let a hen set 10-12 eggs by...