I use old sheets / towels while they're babies.
Then they graduate to pine pellets ( horse bedding). It breaks down into sawdust as it gets wet.
I use pine peletscin the nest box.
May I suggest offering your boys some greens in a shallow dabbling pan? They may be bored or need more green...
I buy the Corn cob pellets from tractor supply. They're expensive, around $30 or $40 for 20 lbs. A little goes a long way and they hold up well once you put them out in the pen.
I just use those around the areas i know the ducks make the most water mess.
I dont mix them together but in...
I don't know the answer. I offer chick grit and full size grit to my adult hens because i have an abundance of both. Each bird eats the grit they need. I don't know what I'll get once they finish off my current stock.
I soak in peroxide. For open wounds like that i dilute with sterile water. One drop of iodine every 7-10 days. Cover wound with medical ground manuka honey (exotic vets use it to protect tissue and heal wounds like bumbles).
I don't do bandages unless vet recommends it. My girls are too...
I've been really happy with pine pellets and corn cob bedding. My hens like nesting in it. they can really make a nice deep nest in it.
It holds up well in wet weather and spills/splashing/crazy duck swimming.
I don't mean to alarm you. I had one hen that seemed to constantly get open wounds on her feet this past summer. She died suddenly a few weeks ago. They found a circulatory/ liver congenital problem in her. While she was alive I couldn't find the cause/source of her bumbles at all. Soft...
I used DLM last year in our relatively mild winter.
I switched over to horse stall pine pellets this year because straw is just too expensive in my area if you're not buying it in large quantities.
I live in a cold climate. I stirred the bedding every time it wasn't frozen (about once a...
In warm weather I float their favorite fruit and veggies in water for them. Halved watermelons also provide hours of entertainment.
Last year I added about 2 lbs of composting earth worms to their pen. They hunted those all winter and had a blast looking for them.
In winter I put out whole...
I'd rather not say where I live but its near the Appalachian trail in the northern section of the trail. Our leaves are already changing (Elms poplars and maples) and it's been unseasonably dry since August.
They're broad winged hawks...
The easy way to ferment it is yo disk it on water over night before feeding the next morning. It's not a real ferment but it's easy.
Here's a link that describes an actual ferment system:
http://ohlardy.com/fermented-chicken-feed/
This is my second year raising ducks and Cayugas.
My year old ducks didn't start laying until December. They hatched in May.
Only one of this year's hatchlings have started laying. She was 4 months and 1 week old. Her hatch mates are showing signs that they're sexually maturing.
I collect daily but I only do it when my hens are busy with their daily water play. I used to collect them with them around but I observed one of my hens "deflate" after I gathered the eggs she had just been sitting on. My girls all share the same nest for laying.
I think it's OK that they have a food preference. I'd feed them what they like and use the mazuri as a treat/scratch grain. If you're OK with them potentially wasting the mazuri you could mix it all together to see if they'll eat it that way.
Two other ideas:
1) try offering the mazuri as...
I have experience with Cayugas but they're the only domestic ducks I have experience with. I don't have any drakes so I can't answer any questions about drakes. I'd imagine that any drake will mate with any available females.
My cayugas eggs a slightly larger than the jumbo chicken egg...
I feed my extra eggs back to the ducks. They love the cooked shells and my non-layers like to eat the yolk.
If you have other pets cooked eggs are good for them. My weirdo dogs don't like eggs.
I've been reading that you can also use them as plant fertilizer when you repot plants. I...
At the moment I can't remember. It was either from Amazon (solar heated water bowls) or a backyard bird seed/watching catalog. I looked at them in both places.
They're used to provide drinking water to winter backyard birds, feral cats and outdoor pets.
Both of mine made it through the winter...
One of my cayugas has laid double yolkers. They were the size of goose eggs and smooth eggshell on the outside. This particular hen didn't start laying double yolkers until she started winding down production for her first molt.
The first picture compares one of her double yolkers to a...