How am I supposed to identify each separate bird? All of the larger zipties are too big to put pony beads on for color coding purposes, and the only larger ones I've seen are all black, and even if I could find other colors, I would quickly run through them as I have 7 adults already and am...
I had an idea for a legband, mostly for my geese, but could work for any bird I would think... I can't use zipties for my geese, they pulled on them and stretched them until they broke, may have to rethink them for my ducks too, as theirs also didn't last a year. I'm trying some that are a bit...
Not sure on that. What breed are they? I know with Cotton Patch you can tell male from female at hatch by color, Males are lighter than females, but that is because their color is sexlinked, as well as Autosexing (genders are different colors at birth). If they aren't an autosexing breed there...
I have a pair of Cotton Patch geese that hatched a single gosling, now a week old. I know it will at least be a few weeks, but when can I reintroduce them to the flock? First time letting any bird hatch and raise it's own babies (used to have chickens and never even had one go broody and I had...
We would do a deep litter method, only cleaning it out once a month, possibly longer during the colder months so they can stay warm, adding bedding to the top as needed, and use dry grass from our pasture when it's available. We are on red clay and really need the manure/compost for our garden...
I read somewhere that the temperature doesn't determine the gender, but can keep one or the other gender from developing and hatching at all... I hatched out ducklings last year, and had a significantly larger number of females and lower number of males. I also had them hatch a few days early so...
I'm planning on using bedding on top of the pavers. Pea gravel seems like it would just let the poop sit in it and cause it to stink. How are you supposed to wash the gravel? Does the poop not build up over time to the point it is no longer able to sink into the gravel? There is only so much...
Problem is those don't look like they can really be fastened to the ground? Tornado alley has shifted and unfortunately now includes my area. We've already had 2 major storm systems hit us this year, one we vacated and went to Florida to avoid. I'm not sure they would hold up to the...
I'm not sure about those as a full time coop, though you may be onto something for the breeding coops for my geese when I split them off during the spring.... I've got 2 pairs this year with a trio still in with the ducks. They aren't split off because I didn't have enough smaller coops for...
Maybe I should have mentioned I have 30+ ducks and 9 geese😅 I'd need way too many of them, and I'd be in the same boat, they make the ground so gross so quickly and they would still have to be moved frequently. We have huge bare patches from moving our current coop, before too long we aren't...
I am trying to decide how to do my permanent duck/goose coop. Right now we use a mobile coop but it gets gross and nasty so quickly! My original plan was a lean-to style building with pavers for the floor, with a drain along one wall so that we can spray it out when changing out the bedding. I...
I have been doing research trying to plan out how I'm going to do the pond for my ducks. My original plan was to just do some stock tanks and empty them every few days via a hose and watering our orchard and or garden with them water, but my mom wants in ground (she thinks stock tanks will look...
I was wondering if pavers are a good option for a duck house floor? I don't really like the idea of putting down a slab of concrete in the middle of my orchard in case I ever need to move the duck house for whatever reason, so I thought Pavers might be an alternative, that way if I ever needed...
Is this bumblefoot? I don’t see a scab but his foot is super swollen and hot. He will stand but puts all of his weight on the good foot. He doesn’t want to walk but will to get away. He is thankfully still eating and drinking. Now the question, if this is bumble foot how do I treat it!?! I don’t...
I need help with breeding pen ideas! I have a flock of 30+ Silver Appleyard ducks, sourced from 3 breeders that I'm wanting to do some selective breeding with. I want something affordable, as I need several of them. I want them easy to tear down, set up, store, and move so that I can put them up...
I did, I posted on local farm pages, the silver appleyard group I'm in and went to a local auction, heck I posted in the goose groups I'm part of too since we also have geese and I would have liked to add another bloodline to my starter flock. I ended up biting the bullet and went to tractor...
Bit of an emergency search. I have had a batch of shipped hatching eggs go poorly and seem to only have one hatching and I don’t want the poor thing to be by itself! I may be willing to take something else if I can’t find any silver Appleyards, but they are my chosen breed, so anything else I...
I have a runty baby, took him a full 12 hrs just to be able to hold himself upright, and another day to wobble walk around with his clutch mates, and 48 hrs to keep up. He hatched late, more than a day behind his clutchmates and that was with help. His egg was THICK and he had a hard time...