I love milk. And at the cost today it's cheaper to pasture a goat or two and milk myself. I've had dwarf Nigerians before and honestly they didn't produce enough milk fore to want to deal with. I'd be looking for goats that produce milk similar to raw cow. Good for drinking but enough of the...
I have a couple birds that refuse to go outside. They have a pretty big run attached to the outside of the coop. These 2 just never go out. They prefer to be up on one of the roosting boards. Any thoughts? Should I force them outside during a few hours a day?
the ducks came with some free eggs that we found while looking for the chicks. I candled the eggs I put in 2 days ago and some are starting to show some shadowing. I am going to assemble a box with a light..I found a small light fixture and a LED bulb that is just intensely bright. I ran it...
no kidding...what colors do these birds have that males genetically could not? The other males i've seen so far are so far different then their female counterpart there is no mistaking. However, with the "free bird" you usually have no other of it's kind to compare it to.
The place I get my chickens from frequently throw in an extra or 2..along with the "bonus chicken"...which is always something from their "rare" listing. This last time around I got 10 pullets of buff orpington, 10 pullets Araucana, and 15 straight run buff brahma.
so far, one buff orpington...
Ok, I went and picked up some ducks from a very nice lady about an hour away.Here they are! 2 drakes and 5 ducks, and a duckling free. The duckling belongs to one of the ducks i bought. There was supposed to be 2 others, however, they were hiding very well among the high grass so they were...
ok well...i rubbed them with a coarse towel and most of the stuff came off...with the high humidity anything left on there should come off. Does anyone actually disinfect their eggs before putting them in the incubator?
The eggs... They called them farm special. They could be anything. They had runners cambells and pekings. Plus crosses of all those too.
The adults I'm getting are khaki Campbell, Indian runner or a cross of the two. It was hard for her to say exactly what they were.
I am ordering some Jumbo Peking ducks from McMurray. I want to keep a couple hens and drakes so they will continue to lay fertile eggs in the future so I don't have to buy more. Here is the question...What is the size difference between the boys and girls? If I'm looking to buy the first...
I picked up 2 dozen assorted duck eggs. Some are HUGE and white...some smaller and blueish. They'll go in the incubator today...last night fired it up and waiting on the temp to become stable.
One of the dozen was in the fridge for a day....will they still hatch?
I have a few ducks lined up...
Finally pulled the trigger and got some toys. Got a 164' electric poultry fence. I have a rolling coop I'm going to fence off...another newish toy. I have an issue. We have a lot of preditors out here...coyote, fox, hawks..an occasional eagle... My concern is things coming from the sky. Any...
got in the run area to do some work...decided to actually count the birds. There are 43 older birds and 25 from march.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find out which of the older birds are laying? I would like to cull the non laying birds very soon.
I'm going to see if I can get some fresh fertile eggs later. I know of two places that have them very close to each other. I'm also going to be building an egg candler. Is there a maximum wattage suggestion? I'm hoping to make it air cooled.
I found that Blue Seal is now selling an organic line of poultry feed called "OrganicLife" and they say it's good for ducks, geese, and chickens which sounds good to me...wonder what they get for a bag at the farmer supply. I do my grain run on Monday so i'll be able to find out if they can get it.
You made my day! Any suggestions on feed that is not expensive for meat ducks or laying ducks? I feed my laying chickens and meat birds green mountain feed. Would similar feed work for the ducks?