I have a batch of almost 3 year old ducks. 3 of them are Welsh Harleqins and 1 of those ladies has never molted after she first got her adult feathers. All my others have molted and produced new healthy feathers once a year at least. She is otherwise seemingly healthy and active. But her old...
Genetics question...How common is the fibro mutation in EEs? We have a common EE roo (parents from the Wilco bin), white with caramel colored wings and just a couple of black tail feathers. We crossed him with hen that is half California White, with some Salmon Favorelle and EE. They produced...
When my chicken was having egg laying issues I was told to give her a calcium pill incase she was deficient. Are ducks similar in that way? If I have a duck that has an egg issue (stuck or maybe internally laid), should I give her the same type of calcium pill in case she is deficient? They have...
I found one of my ducks this afternoon with a bright red patch and a bit of blood on her back by her tail. She was in their puddle so her feathers were wet. She is one of the last ducks that still needs to molt from our flock. When I looked closer I also found a few other much smaller red spots...
What kind of mite is this? I just noticed them yesterday crawling on the waterer in the coop. I have only seen them in the coop not on the chickens or ducks as of yet.
I had a duckling hatch today. It didn't hatch like my other ducklings did with a pip and then circular zip. It made 3 pips in a line going long way down the egg and then about 48 hours later made a hole in the one spot with the pips. It never moved to zip or turned its head. Once it started...
I am incubating some duck eggs. They are on Day 17. 6 of my 7 eggs look okay and have good movement and veins. One egg has a ton of veins but looks a bit behind the others. It also has some random black or dark spots when candling that weren't there a couple days ago. I wasn't able to get a...
I have a polish hen that has gone broody. It is summer right now and in the high 80s and low 90s most days. So inside the bird barn it can feel even warmer in the heat of the day. Is that too hot to let her try? Both for the eggs developing and for her? We had a silkie go broody this spring and...
Our EE Roo and EE hen pair produced a fast feathering (tail feathers by day 5) chick that is a rooster. Then they produced 3 new chicks that are slow feathering, just like flockmates (all EEs/mixes) that slow feathered and are hens. In EEs, can feather speed indicate sex of chicks once you know...
I have 5 duck eggs on Day 24 of incubation. I am using a new incubator (Brinsea Maxi Advance) for this group of eggs. I have been letting the incubator sit at about 40-43 percent humidity for the whole time since that is what filling the one side of the cup maintains. It has been stable. So it...
We hatched out a couple ducklings today. The eggs were from our flock. Our drake is a Welsh Harlequin and we have Welsh, Buff, and Khaki ladies. Has anyone seen a Welsh/Buff or Welsh/Khaki mix duckling? All 4 ducklings we have hatched look very Welsh. Except for the bill color. Do you think...
I have a batch of duck eggs in my incubator on Day 19. Today I saw the egg itself moving as the embryo moved inside the egg. Is Day 19 too early to see that? Should I drop the temp? They are Welsh or Welsh mixed with Buff or Khaki.
I have a Nurture Right 360 incubator and have tried 2 batches of 4 duck eggs each. Always on the inside ring as I thought that would have the most stable temperatures. I only had 1 egg hatch successfully. I have been testing my incubators with various trials after our hatch. I have found with my...
I have 2 NR 360 incubators. The first one I set with four duck eggs and all was going well until day 11 or 12 when 3 of the eggs died. I had 3 thermometers going in the incubator so as far as I knew the temp and humidity were fine. I thought perhaps something went wrong with the incubator so I...
I have two sets of duck hatching eggs from our own flock we have tried to incubate in a NR360 incubator this month. The first set of 4 all lived until Day 12 and 13. Then 3 died suddenly. I noticed first the veins disappearing and the embryo still moving. Then a day or so later they were dead. 1...
I am hatching duck eggs for the first time. I have a new Nurture Right 360 incubator with 2 extra thermometers inside. The 4 eggs were doing well and were alive and moving on day 10. Then I started the cooling and spraying as suggested. On day 12 one egg was dead. The veins were gone and the...
I am incubating some of our eggs from our own ducks. This is our first time trying. We 4 eggs going and they were all alive and moving around as of Day 10. Then I started cooling them for about 15 minutes and spraying with water lightly before returning them to the incubator. Today, Day 12, one...
We found one of our chickens a few minutes ago with this coming from her vent area. What is it? Is there anything I can do? She was fine yesterday and this morning.
We have been having issues with bumblefoot with our ducks for awhile now. We have been treating it as best we can and have talked to a vet. We have been trying different types of ground cover in the run to see if we can help improve their feet. We removed the pavers around the pool and have been...