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  1. MilburnCreek

    Natural Hatch....and Mama (and Auntie) were AMAZING!

    I have ordered baby ducklings before, but we never had a 'natural hatch' until today. I am simply amazed at what we witnessed. Our Cayuga mom sat on about 10 eggs for a month, so we knew to expect something, if anything, this weekend. She had taken up residence in a bush next to our house...
  2. MilburnCreek

    Our first home-bred chicks!

    The heat lamp we erected is casting a red glow, but here are two of the newbies!
  3. MilburnCreek

    Our first home-bred chicks!

    OK, I just have to share! Every year we have purchased a new set of chicks (a different breed each year, so we'd know how old each one was). This year we had a 1 year old rooster, but he was becoming a bad boy, so we dispatched him. Just before we did,one of our Wyandottes became very broody...
  4. MilburnCreek

    How many duck eggs did you get today?

    6 hens, 6 eggs....same pattern for the last two weeks. Cayugas, 10 months old.
  5. MilburnCreek

    Are ducks so dumb they will starve themselves with food available?!

    I have 7 cayugas (1 Drake and 6 hens) that are 6 months old. They have a secure house (built like a fortress) and a pond. All summer and fall they free-ranged and did very well. We fed them small rations of commercial pellets, and they enjoyed those as well when scattered on the ground. Now...
  6. MilburnCreek

    Loud Cayuga

    This is our first year with Cayugas. We have six hens and one drake. ALL SIX HENS ARE LOUD. They quack when they notice us in the yard or even in the house window. They quack when one gets 'separated' from the group (and by 'separated,' I mean more than 20 feet away.) The quack when a crow...
  7. MilburnCreek

    Amazed at how easy it is to "train" Cayuga Ducks!

    We've always raised chickens, and this was our first foray into ducks (twelve). They stayed in our house from hatching until about 6 weeks, at which time we put them into their new duckhouse, with the hatch closed to get them used to their new "home." At week 7, we opened the hatch and let them...
  8. MilburnCreek

    Legally Selling Chickens, Meat, and Eggs Southampton Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

    Gee, I don't know...seems there have been a lot of people selling pot (not me, of course) for decades in spite of local, state, and federal regulations to the contrary. Guess they just found willing buyers and engaged in voluntary, consensual, mutually satisfactory economic exchanges....
  9. MilburnCreek

    Will ducks " come home" at night like chickens?

    I have had chickens for many years (currently up to 37, because I wanted 8, and well, chicken math...) They free range all day, and as soon as the sun starts to fade, they all head into the coop, and we close them up. But this year, for the first time we are getting a dozen ducks (Cayugas) who...
  10. MilburnCreek

    Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

    I had to say Hawk. We free-range our chickens, and the most numerous attacks are foxes (several each year). But in every case, we were able to scare the fox off (or one of our Wyandottes faced them off and won!) We had injuries, but they all healed. We've lost one hen in all these years - to...
  11. MilburnCreek

    Alert & Healthy but cant stand or walk?!

    Totally weird. She's back to normal!
  12. MilburnCreek

    Alert & Healthy but cant stand or walk?!

    No Rooster, although some of the older hens can be a bit rough at times....
  13. MilburnCreek

    Alert & Healthy but cant stand or walk?!

    She has just come off a molt, and she normally lays. No new chickens added, no toe curling, no weird neck movements. Her legs equally affected; its as if she has little coordination in them. She was not vaccinated for Marek's, but none of my girls were (30 hens), and this is the first I've...
  14. MilburnCreek

    Alert & Healthy but cant stand or walk?!

    I have a 1.5 year old Chanticleer hen. One week ago she was 'waddling' weirdly, and kept losing her balance, as if she was drunk. I actually wondered if she overdosed on an over-ripe, fermented apple in our orchard. It hasn't gotten any better - but it also hasn't gotten any worse. I checked...
  15. MilburnCreek

    Comment by 'MilburnCreek' in article 'Guide to Letting Broody Hens Hatch and Raise Chicks'

    How do you keep the newly hatched chicks from falling out of the nesting box before they're old enough to get themselves back into it?
  16. MilburnCreek

    Review by 'MilburnCreek' in article 'Guide to Letting Broody Hens Hatch and Raise Chicks'

    Loved this article. We've never hatched eggs (always bought chicks), but we've been raising them for years, have a seperate/attached pen already set up (the sick bay/jail/psycho ward), and had a wyandotte that was seriously broody for over a month last summer. With this article I feel confident...
  17. MilburnCreek

    Winter Care Q for ducks in a cold climate

    Hello all, I am a homesteader who is not new to farming (raise several dozen chickens here), and I am looking to start with Cayuga ducks this spring. We have a 1/4 acre pond and plan to anchor a floating duck house in the middle for them, and have plenty of forage area for them. We get rough...
  18. MilburnCreek

    My baby Chanticleers are here!

    Ive waited a long time to find a local breeder I trusted...24 very lively, 2-day old chicks became mine today and I'm psyched! They will join my Buff Orps and Golden Wyandottes....and its perfect timing, as we just landed a deal supplying a local market with eggs for the long-term, and we'll...
  19. MilburnCreek

    Update on Mae West (The Pendulous Crop Problem...)

    A week or two ago I posted about Mae, who had an incedibly large crop and kept jerking her neck around. After receiving some replies, I ruled out generic sour crop and decided the issue was Pendulous Crop. Given the nature of that issue, I decided to try something before creating a chicken-bra...
  20. MilburnCreek

    Chicken with HUGE crop and jerking neck around...???

    I have a 1-year old Wyandotte hen, free range, who developed what looks like two large breasts between her neck and belly (we've been calling her Mae West). She has had this for two weeks, and as she walks around, she is constantly "jerking" her neck around, as if she's having a hard time...
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