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  1. corriemartin

    Why won't my ducks use their tank anymore?

    Last year, our duck's first year, they loved their tank. They swam and dunked in it all day long, deep into the winter (down to about 15F, in fact). We had a de-icer on it, and I had to put a board over the top to keep them from going in, but they still dunked their heads in it. But this...
  2. corriemartin

    What can I expect of my ducks the 2nd year?

    Hey folks, This is my duck's second winter. Last winter, they laid all winter, except for two weeks during a super-cold spell. This winter, they stopped laying in late November, and haven't laid an egg since. The ducks lost their drake feathers sometime back then, but now seem to be getting...
  3. corriemartin

    Want my ducks to go broody?

    I get the impression that you can't MAKE a duck go broody, but is there any way to encourage her? Is she more likely to if I don't collect the eggs, but let them pile up? Does it matter if the eggs are all poopy? I've been picking up the eggs every day because we have a couple of resident...
  4. corriemartin

    Why don't my chickens go broody???

    We were counting on our chickens reproducing themselves? Two of our three breeds are SUPPOSED to be setters, but none of them have shown any inclination to doing so. Is there something I should be doing? We have them in a chicken tractor, with raised nesting boxes, and it gets moved every...
  5. corriemartin

    Duck going off on her own

    I've had these ten ducks (8 hens and 2 drakes) for ten months, and up to now they've been pretty much inseparable. But now one of my hens keeps going off by herself. At first I thought she was just missing the memo when the flock was moving from one place to another and getting trapped in the...
  6. corriemartin

    Do roosters increase numbers of eggs???

    I wouldn't have thought so, but I have eleven hens, who have been averaging 5 - 7 eggs/day through these winter months. We just acquired two roosters two days ago, and today--THIRTEEN eggs! (And no, I did not miss any the previous day--they're all laid in the two nesting boxes.). Could this be...
  7. corriemartin

    Why egg anomalies now?

    I have eleven hens which have been laying regularly for months (between 7 and 11 eggs/day), and now suddenly yesterday one of the 11 eggs had no shell and another was enormous (like it had two yolks in it), both things which I haven't seen since they started laying. What's going on?
  8. corriemartin

    My current duck questions:

    Hey folks, here are all the things I'm currently wondering about: 1) My May-hatched Swedish Blue ducks have started laying, but they're laying the eggs in the middle of their coop, and they're absolutely filthy. They're completely ignoring the nesting box (which I only put in the day before...
  9. corriemartin

    Not really Swedish Blues?

    I don't think my Swedish blues are really Swedish blues. I mean, they're gray and all, but they don't have solid bibs at ALL. Some of them have barely any white at all, and even the ones who have more white are all blotchy. And one of my two drakes is developing a lot of brown, and I know...
  10. corriemartin

    Drake Issues

    So we have two drakes and eight ducks, and up until today they were all getting along fine. The drakes both got their drake feathers a couple weeks ago, and there's been a fair amount to mild aggression and duck sex going on. But today, the dominant drake seems to have decided that the other...
  11. corriemartin

    When to stop niacin supplementing?

    Hey folks, At what point is it okay to stop supplementing my ducks' food with niacin. They're 14 weeks old (I think), and doing a lot of free-ranging during the day. Thanks.
  12. corriemartin

    Roost Wrangling

    I have 11 seventeen week old pullets in my chicken tractor. The roosts are step-wise on a ladder-like thing that I can hook up to the ceiling when I move the tractor every morning. Each roost is 4'4" wide. The problem is that 11 of the 10 pullets are constantly wrangling for position on the...
  13. corriemartin

    Duck/Drake question

    So...back when my ducks were eight weeks old, we caught them all one by one, and listened to their voices. Eight of them were definitely quacking, and two of them sounded like little tree frogs. So we thought, "Wow, we're lucky to have ended up with only two drakes." However, now at twelve...
  14. corriemartin

    To clip or not to clip

    I recently moved my 11 chickens from a permanent coop and yard (which they could fly to the top of the fence and out of) into a spacious chicken tractor which (once the wheels are installed) I can move daily. After they have learned that this new place is home, I would like to put up...
  15. corriemartin

    My ducks are in love with my chickens!

    I thought it was the other way around--the chickens always came down and hung out in the duck yard. But now that the chickens have been put into a chicken tractor, and are no longer free come come hang out with the ducks, guess where the ducks spent the WHOLE morning? That's right--right...
  16. corriemartin

    When is it too late in the year to get new chicks?

    I think I'm crazy, but I want to get a new batch of chicks. My first batch is just about to start laying, but I don't think I have enough. We also don't have a rooster (and I really want a rooster). Our local feed store is having a chick day on August 1st (and we can pre-order on Thursday and...
  17. corriemartin

    Mushrooms in the chicken yard????

    I have a pile of hay in the chicken yard (better than mud) that my pullets love picking through (we'll throw things like watermelon rinds and other compostables onto it), but this morning there was a whole crop of mushroom sprouting on it. I have no idea what they are and if they're edible or...
  18. corriemartin

    Training chickens to respect electric net fence

    My chickens are 18 weeks old, and it has become obvious (due to losses to predators) that they need to be kept inside an electric net fence during the day. My question is: How do you train them to do that? They fly over (or to the top of) the current 6 foot fence, which led me to leaving the...
  19. corriemartin

    Buckets to water chickens???

    Is there any reason not to just let your chickens drink their water out of a bucket instead of an official "waterer"? It seems so much simpler, easier to clean and refill, and frankly, they seem to prefer it.
  20. corriemartin

    Duck/drake concerns?

    Hey folks, At what age do I need to start being concerned about duck/drake ratios? My little straight-run flock is 5 weeks old, and they're a really congenial group, but at some point I assume it'll start to be a problem to have too many drakes. Is there a particular age I should do something...
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