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Mom swapping goslings
We had a new mother hatch out 8 goslings a couple days ago and yesterday was their first day out off the nest. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great day for it - cold and rainy. The mom wasn't doing a good job looking out for them and they got pretty wet. She eventually took them back to the nest... -
One of our geese has decided that it is a duck
We have a flock of 14 geese. Back in spring, when they were hatching goslings, one of the big males got repeatedly run out of the flock. The rest would gang up on him and keep him at a distance. For a while, he orbited the geese and then one day he started to orbit the ducks. Before long, he... -
Surprise ducklings
I woke up this morning to unexpected ducklings. Apparently one of our ducks has been hiding somewhere. We've never had any luck getting the ducks to hatch their own before, so now I'm not sure what to do. Currently, this duck is alone in the large yard, while the remaining ~20 are locked in... -
Geese and bindweed / morning glory (Convolvulus sp.)
Our geese are weeders and lawnmowers as a first order of business. They do a great job on grass, dandelions, and a few other broadleaf weeds, but ignore one of our biggest problem weeds: bindweed. I've read that geese may eat other plants when introduced early and we are raising a new batch... -
Eggs too orange
I've heard people report this sort of thing before, but never experienced it myself. A coworker who bought some eggs from us asked if something is wrong with our eggs, because they scrambled up to such a bright color. She threw them out "just to be safe" until she checked! In fairness, our... -
Determining if ducks are getting enough to eat on pasture
We have given the ducks access to a much larger foraging area and have cut back feed significantly as a result. We are now feeding them about 40% of the ration that they received when they were enclosed in a small yard most of the time. They act very hungry. When we enter the yard, the ducks... -
Duck tribes
Do your ducks form tribes? Ours have split themselves nearly by generation, except for one older drake that likes the younger ducks and one younger duck that hangs with the old tribe. They do this despite the fact that they are locked up in the same enclosure every night. When we open the... -
Looking at adding some geese - help me pick a breed
We're looking at adding some geese this year and I have been researching, but haven't come to a clear conclusion. We have a fenced acre that is about half grass and half potatoes, strawberries, cane fruits, gooseberries, and some other perennials. My goal is to introduce the geese as weeders... -
Golden Cascades?
I bought out somebody getting out of ducks today. Got some KCs, some runners, some mutts, and six ducks that the owner claimed are "Golden Cascades". They females look a lot like buffs but the drake looks slightly different than buff drakes that I've seen. They're really nice looking ducks... -
Duck composting - a different way to look at duck living arrangements
Two years ago, we built a large outdoor duck enclosure and we've spent the time since learning about all the things that we did wrong. We've found that our biggest errors centered around expectations of what is comfortable for ducks. We read that you need to be careful with managing water... -
Ducks like to play in the sprinkler
I don't know why this never occurred to me before. I was out hosing out the duck pond earlier and noticed that the ducks were crowding in and trying to catch the spray. It has been a while since it rained much. So, when I was done, I put out a little sprinkler and turned it on. Next thing... -
Distinguishing pure Swedish ducks from crossed
I posted a similar message in the Swedish duck thread, but it seems that thread is not seeing a lot of action these days. We have a bunch of ducklings this year, some of which are pure Swedish and some of which are not. We have two possible fathers: a blue and a black Swedish. We have nine... -
The benign negligence method of duck hatching
The first time I tried to hatch ducks was a disaster. They were days late, I eventually tried to assist, the assisting didn't go well, and the few ducks that hatched eventually died. I was surprised because I carefully tracked timing, turned frequently, managed humidity carefully (although our... -
Finally hatched one!
Luck so far has been dismal with hatching, but we finally got one. This is the first of a batch that we took back from our broodies who had too many eggs. They had shifted them out to the sides and left them to get cold, so I'm pretty happy to get anything. It is a staggered batch with 7... -
Ducks aren't doing any better at hatching than we did
Earlier in the year, we tried to incubate and hatch and ended up with a total failure. I had higher hopes for our ducks to pull off a hatch, but that is now looking unlikely. About six weeks ago, our ducks started sitting. We have two really dedicated sitters and two that are not quite so... -
Hatch crisis?
Well, it is day 28 + 6 hours on our first hatch. They've been in a Hovabator the whole time, with constant temp at 99 degrees. Humidity has been about 70 all along. I expected to see some signs of hatching by now. Having seen no external pips, I just opened the incubator for the first time... -
2 nests, 4 sitting ducks
We were excited that two of our ducks built nests and decided to sit. Then, all nine ducks decided to lay in those two nests, so we have been pulling out the new eggs every day. Today, four ducks are sitting on the two nests. I don't think the newcomers are just casual sitters either -... -
Finally sitting (plus nest pics)
I posted a few days back that my ducks were sitting part time. This morning, one of our black swedish ducks stayed on the nest and hissed at me (well, not really a hiss, more like a mime suggesting a hiss). ;) There are two nests in the enclosure. The other is still being tended part time... -
Part time sitting
A couple of our ducks have been acting like they want to sit (I think), so I have been letting them amass eggs. The problem is that they appear to be sitting on them at night, but not during the day. I assume that is going to cause a problem, right? The eggs will get warmed up at night to... -
Turns out I have digestive intolerance to duck eggs
Our ducks just came into production about a month ago. We got them because I have an allergy to chicken eggs, but have been able to eat duck eggs. Well, after a few weeks of regularly eating duck eggs, I've discovered that I now get terrible digestive upset after eating them. It didn't...