Pekin Duck Club!

[chickery-do]

Unfortunately, unless you know someone who has ACV with the mother, you won't get the fermenting ingredients from ACV bought at the store. It's been filtered and cleaned up.

I thought I would try our farmers market that meets at the town's common every Sunday. I wish someone from around home would of given me a shout in the where are u posting. I know there are people out there but I haven't meet any. That's why this is so interesting. I've had chickens for 2 years now and no one from any of the farmers aid stores have ever mentioned anything like this. They carry lots of bagged food thou! I now have the www.Azurestand.com catalog at home and even thou they don't have a co-op here, they could ship USPS. But I have to have some knowledge as to what I want to order. I guess I could call and speak to them. They should know about this? But I still need to know how much to much ratio.

 

[countrygirl74]

Does it matter what type of feed you use? I have mine on unmedicated starter grower crumbles I'm not sure if i can use this. I have almost a full 50 lb bag left and don't want to waste it. Can the chickens eat fermenTed feed too? And Does the fermentation cause niacin production.
Welcome and Good on you for taking in a disabled ducky! Hope he does well!

No, it doesn't matter what type of feed except for pellets. Pellets have a binding agent in them to keep them together and it doesn't work very well with fermented feed because when the fermented feed starts drying, it hardens. You can use any kind of crumbles, mash, or whole grains...
I have noticed that some chick starters contain fish meal that can make for a bit of a stinky fermented feed but, in my case, it was nothing absolutely horrible - I still kept it right in my kitchen. You can try some and see before making a big batch of it. I prefer fermenting mash feed, but since they were all out recently, I've been fermenting crumble just fine. The ducks like it sloppy anyway!
As far as I know, it doesn't CAUSE niacin production but it does make more nutrients available, which is why they eat less. I would suggest still supplementing with niacin for the first 10-12 weeks of life.

i have always been told that once ducks get there feathers drakes will have one feather to curl up in its tail and females do not and as far as i have ever been it is true and i have been around alot of ducks in my time

You should be able to tell male and female by voice long before you can see their drake feathers.

I'm fortunate, I have several fishing ponds/lakes nearby loaded with minnows. All I have to do is scoop them up! But I haven't actually gone to do it, because my ducks just discovered peas! OMG! They wouldn't come too close to me, except when I brought their feed in. I had a can of peas with dinner last night, and my husband hates most canned vegetables, so I split the peas with the ducks. I took the peas out to their pen, and went in, and started tossing a few at their feet. One by one, they discovered them, and before long, they were chasing them around, scarfing them up! This morning, when I took their feed out, they came running to me, and two even pecked at my feet, grabbing my shoelaces, etc. Fortunately, I still had a few peas left, and tossed them to them. They went nuts over them, again! Then, it was their regular feed, and they just stayed right next to me... no more fear! Ten ducklings (3 @ 7 weeks, 7 @ 6 weeks) chasing the peas was so funny.

Yes, if you want your ducks to practically attack you, have some peas! LOL - although I would limit the amount of canned peas as there's not really good nutrition in them and too much salt. Try frozen, thawed peas. You should video your cute ducks chasing the peas and share with us!

Thank you for the info. on how to make the mother. I appreciate all the work everyone has gone through to getting me started but I still need even more info!

I've been to the web site an I still can't find a way to make the fermented feed. I guess I'm dumb. What supplies do you need.. What food supplies do you need. A start to finished site or list would be great. So much info . I really don't want to make the ACV,. I would rather buy it than wait a month or 6 months for it! At this moment I have Purina Chicken sratch, duMor Chick/starter grower and DuMor Poultry Layer for my big girls. And Home-fresh Duck food pellets. I have a large pail to ferment something in it. A large stirring spoon, cheesecloth. Is there anything else I should buy before I get the fermented ACV and mix it w/ my DuMor Chic/duck feed?
Can anyone help?

I posted detailed directions on getting your first batch of fermented feed started a little while back - did you miss it? I think you are ready to go!
Here it is in a nutshell again....
1. Fill 5 gallon food-grade bucket a little less than 1/2 full with the feed.
2. Add water until about 3/4 way full
3. Add 1/4 cup UnPACV
4. Stir
5. Add more water if needed - the crumbles will soak it up
*some people keep it really soupy (ducks like soupy) and others keep it more of a wet oatmeal consistency
6. Stir daily and lightly cover (it needs air) - you should start seeing it bubbling in a couple days
*I just place my 5-gallon bucket lid on it cockeyed - mostly just to keep stuff from falling in - the cheesecloth will be fine too
*You can feed the same day you make it - it won't be fermented yet, but still a healthy wet feed with ACV in it
7. Add more feed and water as you feed it out
*the same bucket can keep going for months and months
8. You can add a glug of plain kefir or a spoon of plain yogurt too - just adds some probiotics and balances the ACV

It sounds like you have a lot of different feeds going on and it's getting complicated...
If you get a bag of oyster shell (like $15 for a 50lb bag), then you could limit yourself to just one feed - the grower. You can feed all your chickens (pullets, layers, roosters) and your ducks (drakes and hens) all the same grower or flock raiser feed. It's actually better for them all than feeding layer feed anyway. Just provide oyster shell on the side for your girls to eat when they need/want to. This would bring you to one feed for all - and only 1 bucket of the same feed for fermenting for all. If you ever have brand new chicks, you can just let everyone have a few weeks of starter, then switch back to the grower/flock raiser.

Read what I wrote above about fermenting pellets...

Keep the scratch as a treat for them to scratch around on the ground and eat. Feed less in the summer, more in the winter.

As for the ACV - go to your local health food store and get Braggs unpasteurized apple cider vinegar "with the mother" - you do not have to make it yourself though a lot of people do to save money. Heinz brand also makes one "with the mother", but not all grocery stores carry it. Do not get regular apple cider vinegar - it must say "with the mother".

Hope that helps! Feel free to ask any questions...

Where do you get niacin? I don't have a tsc around here. Probably getting two pekins when school lets out. Have to finish convincing my mom and dad.

I had to go to my health food store to find the right kind. You do not want any niacin that says "flush-free", "time-release", etc. You just want plain old niacin. I found the capsules to be the easiest. I would just break it open and drop the powder into a gallon jug and shake it up. 100-125mg per gallon. It is best to provide this for them for the first 10-12 weeks.

 

[pekinlove1219]

When I picked out several at Tractor Supply, I already had a few adult females and wanted a male. I selected the smallest ones and wanted a male so I also selected a larger one too. I ended up with all females and one male. I think it takes a few months for the rear tail to curl. I think the females may tend to have speckled beaks. Males bright orange.

My tsc doesn't have any?! Is there a certain time they of year they get delivered?

 

[chickery-do]

Thank you Country Girl 74. I though you needed to have special grains flax and seed to get this concoction going!

Now I get it.
So again w/ the ?'s
Do you use a qt bottle +/- to a 25 pd bag of crumble?
Do you set out a large dog bowl out for what you have at your farm

or bowls, and does it freeze up for the ducks?

I know...more questions...such a pain!

 

[zzack354]

i have always been told that once ducks get there feathers drakes will have one feather to curl up in its tail and females do not and as far as i have ever been it is true and i have been around alot of ducks in my time

 

[zzack354]

Thank you, I have read about the curling feather but only one shows signs of any type of curl. According to their voices it seems that I definitely have one quaker and a couple of whisperers. The others are not very vocal.

 

[Younger]

My three ducklings have always been together. Since yesterday the Rouen (who I believe to be male) has started plucking out the chest down of one of my two Pekins. (The one I believe to be male also). He has two bare patches with dried blood and he won't leave him alone. Every time he gets settled the Rouen comes and pulls at his chest or tail feathers. He does it a little bit to the other Pekin, who I believe to be female, but no where near as often. When I put treats in tonight, he continues to pluck despite the treats and the other two just ran around trying to get away from him. He had a mouthful of down. I had to separate him. I placed him in a large dog cage with bedding, food and water for the night. I had sprayed Blu-Kote on the areas but that seemed to make it worse.
Anyone have any suggestions?
They are all calling each other and stressed but I can't leave him in there for the night. They couldn't even sit down as he was chasing them.

 

[JonBoy7]

What is the purpose of fermenting the feed?

 

[Chickiemommie87]

If you got them from the same location, they are likely the same age.  They have pecking order, even with just two... so perhaps Sally is getting the lions' share of the feed?

Yeah she is certainly the leader. You could be right.

Unfortunately, unless you know someone who has ACV with the mother, you won't get the fermenting ingredients from ACV bought at the store.  It's been filtered and cleaned up. 

You can get acv with the mother from GNC And it is organic too. That's where i get mine.

 

[countrygirl74]

Thank you Country Girl 74. I though you needed to have special grains flax and seed to get this concoction going!

Now I get it.
So again w/ the ?'s
Do you use a qt bottle +/- to a 25 pd bag of crumble?
Do you set out a large dog bowl out for what you have at your farm

or bowls, and does it freeze up for the ducks?

I know...more questions...such a pain!

No, you're not a pain at all! I had tons of questions too when I first started! Once you add the first bit (I added 1/4 cup, but you can add 1/8 cup or just a couple Tablespoons - just something to get it going) of ACV to your 5 gallon bucket, you shouldn't ever need to add anymore as long as you keep adding feed and water to the bucket, it will keep going. The ACV is just a help to get the ferment started. However, you can use the rest of your bottle on yourself! Lots of great uses. And, if you should ever run out with your bucket or something happen where you need to start a brand new batch, then you will have it on hand...
There are lots of different options for feeding. For my ducks, I found that a glass (round bowl) casserole dish worked well. But you can use trough feeders (I use plastic trough feeders for my chickens) or even homemade feeders. I've seen some people come up with some creative stuff out of PVC piping! The important thing is that you don't use metal - use plastic or glass.
As for freezing, in the winter, if they still have ff left in their dish overnight and it's frozen in the morning, I will just add some hot water and stir it up again. Some people will also use heated dog water bowls for their ff in the winter. Or, you can bring the dishes in at night out of the cold and just take out with fresh ff in the morning. It depends on where you are and how cold it gets day and night in the winter and what is easiest for you to handle dealing with.

Thank you, I have read about the curling feather but only one shows signs of any type of curl. According to their voices it seems that I definitely have one quaker and a couple of whisperers. The others are not very vocal.

Sounds like you have 2 males and 1 female... You will need to get some more girls!

You should really have 3 females to 1 male. Now you have an excuse to get more ducks.

If you can't get more, then you will have to at least re-home a male and then TRY to get at least one more girl.

My three ducklings have always been together. Since yesterday the Rouen (who I believe to be male) has started plucking out the chest down of one of my two Pekins. (The one I believe to be male also). He has two bare patches with dried blood and he won't leave him alone. Every time he gets settled the Rouen comes and pulls at his chest or tail feathers. He does it a little bit to the other Pekin, who I believe to be female, but no where near as often. When I put treats in tonight, he continues to pluck despite the treats and the other two just ran around trying to get away from him. He had a mouthful of down. I had to separate him. I placed him in a large dog cage with bedding, food and water for the night. I had sprayed Blu-Kote on the areas but that seemed to make it worse.
Anyone have any suggestions?
They are all calling each other and stressed but I can't leave him in there for the night. They couldn't even sit down as he was chasing them.

My Rouen female did this to one of my Pekin girls too - my JUMBO PEKIN! My regular Pekin wouldn't put up with it and would kind of fight her back and she would back off but my Jumbo would just sit there and let her rip her chest feathers out til she was bald and sometimes bleeding. We noticed it happened mostly in the pool but when they weren't in the pool she didn't really do it. I sprayed her with blu-kote and I don't think the Rouen liked the taste of her new purple bra. It helped for a while. She eventually grew out of doing it and now only does the feather picking once in a while - not enough to cause any damage. If she had been doing it as aggressively as yours sounds like, I think I would have separated them too. Does he/she eat the feathers even with blu-kote on them? While you have the Rouen separated, try upping his/her protein and maybe give some poly-vi-sol. Sometimes it's a nutrient or protein deficiency. Maybe after being separated, he/she will be so happy to be with the others again, he/she will not be such a stinker? Also, if it's indeed one male doing it to the other male, it could be a "male" thing and you will definitely need to get more girls if you end up with only 1 female to the 2 boys. As stated above, ratio should be at least 3 girls to 1 male. Some people have had their girls killed, badly injured, or drowned due to "gang-rape" from the boys. They need enough girls to go around.

What is the purpose of fermenting the feed?

It makes the nutrients more absorbable thus causing your flock to not need to eat as much, which can greatly help with feed costs. I've cut my feed by 1/3-1/2 by fermenting. It is also great for their digestive systems and overall immune system - people report less losses, healthier feathers, little to no pasty butt in chicks, etc. It also helps to solidify their poo and is actually less stinky!