When one of my ducks catch a frog they all fight over it. If you get grossed out easily, don't watch them. They literally pull it apart, running around trying to swallow it before someone steals it from them. If the chicken sees, she gets her piece too. Our backyard is a swampy forest, and...
Advice needed – who should I cull?
I have ten ducks, four are boys. I just can’t figure out who to keep!
The Pekin, Fluffy, – age 1 ½, Dad of Sir Francis. He’s mated to our Rouen.
The Buff, Sea Star, also 1 ½, Dad of Sophie (who is a boy). He’s mated to our Runner.
These two fought a lot...
Congrats everybody on your peeps and peeps-to-be!
Our ducklings are 3 weeks old now, and growing as fast as the weeds they eat. I was soooo ready for their Mom to abandon them in search of bugs and seeds and berries, but surprisingly, she hasn't! By the end of the first week they were all...
Here they are, one day old, except for one who hatched late this morning. It was starting to get shrink-wrapped, so I helped it a little, and now it is happily cuddling and playing with the others. We started with three rouen eggs, three magpie eggs, and three runner duck eggs. (there was one...
Woke up this morning to this:
One of the eggs is pipped, couldn't see the others, and didn't want to upset Jack, as she's already being such a patient mom.
When I checked the nest today, one of the eggs had broken - stinky yellow goop and Mama was trying to clean out the bits of egg. I helped her, cleaned out the broken shells, dirty straw, tried to get the rotten egg off the other eggs that had gotten dirty (2).Candled them, one of the dirty eggs...
I thought, if any of my ducks went broody, it would have been my magpie. Flock-wise, it doesn't really matter if she actually hatches them or not, but I thought I'd give her a chance.
I have a runner duck going broody! She's stopped laying, is sitting on 7 eggs. Today is Day 3. And my Rouen is really, really grumpy, running around with her neck all scrunched up, feathers fluffed.
Thanks for the suggestion! I went out last night with the Hooligan Chief and this morning the big egg has green on it - so that`s the runner duck egg. The pinky one (now with blue) is the magpie`s and the middle egg is the rouen`s.
I have a which duck laid which egg question too. I have a rouen, a magpie and a runner. They all lay in the same nest and I have no idea whose is whose. My guess is (l-r) rouen, runner, magpie. One egg is always
a bit pink, one is always bigger than the other two, and they all taste great when...
Bad Winter!!! Shoo!
I hope no-one looses any more of their flock due to the weather. :(
We finally got our first eggs ever this week from our one lonely EE hen! Found half a dozen eggs hiding, frozen,between the coop and the straw-filled dog cage we use for travel. So we made muffins. Very...
Thank you, HeartMoss Farm.
I was a little disappointed not to see feathered feet, myself. But the two roos at the farm were AM and Cochin, and the hens were AM, Cochin, and a couple of Barred Rock. I was given eggs that were all blueish, plus a few big Cochin eggs that were light brown. The...
Oops, I forgot the others. Girls?
They are Ameraucana x Cochin.
I realize that there is very little chance that (should they all actually make it to adulthood and lay eggs that get hatched) the next generation of chicks would produce colored eggs, because the cockerel does not have a pea comb.
Thanks everyone. Yes, she's with four other waddlers, no other runners, and they spend a lot of time swimming and looking through the underbrush for goodies. She does stand taller than the others, but not as tall as Walt's gorgeous runner. I'm glad there's no identity crisis.
I took this picture to help sex my chicks. They are about 8 weeks old. None of them have that red coming in on the shoulders that our other rooster did.
Then one crowed.
Coupled the comb with that, I'm hoping there's only one boy.
Being a complete newbie, I hope it's not too silly to ask...