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Swampy duck yard odor - any enzymes or other additives that might help?
This warm winter is really messing with our duck set up. They normally spend the cold months up closer to our house without much of a yard, but when it's snowy they don't really want to wander far anyway and frozen poop doesn't smell bad. Then when it thaws, we shovel it out. The bedding in the... -
Aztec drakes - NY state
I have 2 extra juvenile Aztec drakes with a mallard cross a few generations back to strengthen the gene pool. Mama is a lovely darker duck (pearl, I think) and the rest of the family is all the porcelain variant. No charge if you come get them from my home south of Rochester, NY. Would also...- hfchristy
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- Replies: 3
- Forum: Other Poultry - Birds & Hatching Eggs
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Duckling with mismatched legs
I have a duckling that has been having trouble walking and I was thinking spraddle leg. Okay, hoping that anyway. Brought this little guy inside to recover from trampling. When I went to hobble him, though, I noticed that his legs looked very different from each other, but I'm not sure which is... -
Not my chicken...
Found a surprise when I was dropping off books at the library the other day. I'm in the clear since my ducks would never lay anything this clean, but no one else in our local chicken group was willing to claim this egg either. Guess it belongs to the library now!- hfchristy
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- Replies: 4
- Forum: Pictures & Stories of My Flock
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Broody duck on failed nest
I have a would-be-mama duck sitting on a nest of infertile eggs. There was one developing egg in there the last time I was able to candle two weeks ago. They're past 4 weeks now so I was a little more intrusive today and when I peeked in, I realized there was one egg not under her and grabbed... -
Sexy ducks?
Do drakes tend to prefer unrelated females, or are petite bantam girls just sexier? We have some full sized ducks that all hatched out together from the same flock, one bantam who is a cousin to the full sized ducks, and one completely unrelated bantam. We've had to separate out the little... -
incubator vs broody - can you switch?
I have a duck who seems to be flirting with the idea of going broody, sitting on the nest as long as everyone else is in the cage, but running off when the others are let out for a walk. I suspect that if we didn't keep taking her eggs, she might decide to get serious, but I don't really want... -
Iso diaper for bantam duck (BEI)
I can't believe I'm asking this, but does anyone know where I can find a diaper for a Black East Indies duck? Or what size chicken diaper that would translate to? My husband is going to kill me, but if I leave her outside quacking like she is right now, the neighbors will, so might as well... -
Brown Rot (with ducks and chickens about)
All of our stone fruit have had increasingly bad brown rot despite trying to pick every one of the fruit mummies and dispose of them. It sounds like fall spraying is the recommended treatment, and I'm not opposed to using chemicals once more holistic options have been exhausted, especially for...- hfchristy
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- Replies: 2
- Forum: DIY / Self Sufficiency
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How small an opening can a BEI fit through?
We somehow ended up with three bantams (one of them rather runty) and 6 large ducks. I'd like to set up a space for the little ones to get away from the others if they need to, and possibly to set up some extra food for them in there. Does anyone know what would be a good size opening to let... -
Duck laws? (NY)
So, a couple of weeks ago, someone from the SPCA showed up at our back door because they received a report about "ducks with no water". I showed him their full water dish, dumped the muddy water and rolled with clear, and he made some notes and left. Yesterday we got an anonymous letter in the... -
quacki-ish?
Do boy ducklings ever make a quack-ish noise before they go raspy? I have one that was DNA tested as male, but has started making noises that sound like baby quacks to me. They're not very often, so I haven't been able to catch him on film. -
warmth vs air quality?
My child just tried to cook ramen in the microwave. With no water. This has created a very smoky situation! I scooped up the ducklings from the brooder and put them in a cat carrier outside while we try to air out the house. Trouble is that the outside temperature is 48 degrees. Normally I... -
sick duckling
I have a BEI duckling hatched on Monday that isn't looking so great. Hoping I can help her! When I picked her up, I was told she was the "more docile" of the pair, but has just gotten quieter and quieter and is now sitting more than not. When she does get up and move around, she's unsteady on... -
Hatching process and timeline
I'm trying to figure out where my batch went wrong and opened up the 4 eggs that internally pipped but never made it past that point. (No pictures were taken) Two of them were like I picture "internally pipped" with just the break sticking into the air cell and the membrane otherwise intact... -
ISO bantam ducklings in NY or VT
looking like we'll most likely have one lone duckling from our hatch. I'm trying to find some similarly sized friends for it. Rochester NY area preferred, but we may need to drive to VT in the next two weeks, so could consider anywhere along the way if we can figure out how to keep the...- hfchristy
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- Replies: 3
- Forum: Other Poultry - Birds & Hatching Eggs
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24+ hours at "zipped" stage?
Is it normal for a ducking to pup and zip then see no progress for over 24 hours? It's the last surviving baby so I'm feeling extra nervous about not stepping in if needed! -
Dark spot in air cell
I candled last night and there was one egg that hadn't pushed through the membrane yet, but was tapping pretty hard. Today I looked in at them and that egg had a big ominous dark spot. Sure enough, it had died. But the dark spot wasn't like a rotting bacterial sort of thing. When I candled... -
Too hot? Too cold?
I've got a dozen duck eggs in the incubator which frustratingly has a Celsius thermostat. It's currently set to 37.7. I've also got an egg-o-meter in there and a wifi temp/humidity sensor. Egg-o has been reading a steady 100.2, but sensor was reading 99. Figured they averaged out okay and... -
Ugh - shipping date mix up!
I was really pleased to arrange for duck eggs from two different places to be shipped to me next Monday. Or so I thought. Turns out one is going to be shipping them on Monday, but the other shipped to ARRIVE Monday, and USPS is saying they'll actually be here Saturday. Will the eggs that...- hfchristy
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- Replies: 7
- Forum: Incubating & Hatching Eggs