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Breeders, at what age do you pull your drakes and hens from your breeding flock? I've got a wonderful Silver Appleyard drake but he's getting older. I'm concerned about his fertility this spring. One of my hens is getting up there as well and I know her egg production has dropped considerably...

How did things turn out? We had a juvenile duck get trapped in a 5 gallon bucket of water one spring she became waterlogged and died in my arms. It was very sad. We no longer use 5 gallon buckets until everyone is full size.

Is your garage heated? If it is then I would not bring her in at night. Unless you want her to stay in the garage all winter. The shock of going from warm garage to fridgid cold winters can be very stressful. We live in northern MN and have similar weather to yours. Your duck house sounds...

Ducks are terrible protectors. Or, at least ours are. We had a fox problem last spring, guess which birds were the first to go? The ducks. And that's with two drakes in the flock. Our drakes could care less about what happens to the chickens. I've heard of aggressive drakes but I have yet...

Duck eggs are notoriously filthy... I think it has to do with muddy duck feet. We tell ours apart from the chickens' by color but that method doesn't work for everyone. :-) Our duck eggs have a faint ducky odor to them I notice it more when I'm washing the eggs under hot water... they just...

I've seen that. I don't know what causes it though. It has not affected my eggs hatching or eating wise. It's probably just calcium deposits.

There's nothing wrong. The green feathers on a male's head will change with the seasons. Expect it to be vibrant green going into breeding season and then it can fade to almost completely white. Do you have any other ducks or is Puddles your only one? He might be loud because he is lonely...

The white on female cayugas comes in random feathers on the breast and body, not bibs like in the photo. I would expect to see more white feathers in other places on the bird if it was, infact, a purebred cayuga. And I certainly wouldn't want to see that much white at only 7 weeks old.

You might consider cutting a corner off of the lid and putting it on the container. If you haven't already. It will prevent the babies from using the dish as a swimming hole and the bedding will stay drier.

For our breeders we have 1 drake and 2-3 hens but, we have Silver Appleyards...as a larger breed the drake has a hard time keeping up with more than 2-3 hens. You should be fine with a drake and only 2 hens but, keep an eye on them and if the hens are looking picked on then separate the drake...

The black duck with the chest flecks is not a Cayuga. And, you cannot get a Rouen by crossing a Pekin and a Cayuga, or by crossing a Pekin and a Mallard, or any other way besides breeding a Rouen to a Rouen. You might end up with ducks having plumage similar to a Rouen, but they are not...

Could be a Swedish, could be a Cayuga... could be a mix. Either way it will grow up to be a mostly black duck.

The really cold days can be tough for you. But, just remember that they're wearing down coats. And, it's arguably more cruel to bring them in some place really warm when it's super cold out and then kick them back outside when it warms up a little. (I'm talking about -20s and negative teens...

We got our first goose a few weeks ago. I was told it's an 18 month old Production Toulouse female. I've done quite a bit of reading on geese but we've never actually had one before. So far she has been doing just fine hanging out with our ducks but eventually I would like to get her a goose...

That wasn't really my point. We live in the country but I grew up in the suburbs with all kinds of wildlife around. The shocking thing, to me, was to see a fox out in broad daylight within 100 feet of my dogs and myself in a place (I say neighborhood for lack of a better word) where no fox...

Ours free feed on grain and in winter they get a scoop of corn at night. Night is also when we top off the feeders.

We had 6 ducks and a couple chickens vanish this spring. It was a fox. I know this because I saw him take one from the front yard, while I was outside with my dogs, in the middle of the afternoon. There haven't been fox in the neighborhood for many years. I was quite shocked. So, hope she's...

Leave them alone. My hen waited until there were an insane amount of eggs before she sat. After she was setting for about a week I waited until she was "on break" and cleared out the nest. I put only what I wanted to hatch back in. What does the nest area look like? My ducks like the medium...

Duck apartments We live in Northwestern Minnesota so we get pretty cold winters too. Our birds always have 24/7 access to the outside if they choose it. Last year the ducks stayed outside quite a lot except on the very coldest days. We only ever force everyone inside and shut the pop door...

Sorry to hear about your loss. Cayugas are pure black...Khakis are not. I also see a lot of Swedish ducks being sold as Cayugas. A neighbor got scammed last spring. Bought a whole flock of what he was told were Cayugas and ended up with Swedish. I hope your runners work out for you.