➡I accidentally bought Balut eggs: 2 live ducks! Now a Chat Thread!

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The Farmers' Daughter said:
So....
I saw online last spring looking for buckeye hatching eggs. I contacted him & it turns out that he's married to an acquaintance of mine.

Anyhow, he wanted 4 doz hatching eggs. I had said that if he would help me build coops, he could have the eggs for nothing. He came to help for less than an hour and took a roo home with him.

Then he said that he had no way of hatching the eggs. So I put 7 doz in the incubator (some not buckeye) . I ended up with 36 buckeyes hatching. Then he says that he can't take them right away, so I brooded them for a week. I took them to him & git 2 muscovy ducklings in exchange.

Then he contacted me & said he'd buy my eggs for $3.50 a doz, as his birds couldn't keep up with his sales demands. So I took him 4 doz eggs. He cracked one open to check the yolk quality and said that he guessed they were ok, but that the shells weren't as brown as he'd like. I didn't get any $.

Then he contacted me and wanted me to start hatching as much as I could, so that we could sell POL pullets in the spring, as well as breeding trios. I'd hatch them & he would overwinter them. So I started hatching... took him 70something. Then he said he could only overwinter 100. A few weeks later I asked how they were doing. He said that the 1st batch was doing well (these are the ones I brooded for a week, using brooding plates) but he had quite a few die from the other batches. Stupid jerk was using 1 heat lamp for 90 some odd chicks! They died huddling.

Fast forward to Oct 21. I'm working @ the polls for the federal election. His wife comes in to vote and asks me if he's contacted me yet. They're about to cull and said they'd do mine as well. There's only 1 abattoir in Alberta, which is 2 hours away & charges $5.50/bird, so I jump at this. As the cull date gets closer, she decides that she doesn't want to get cold and is going to take her birds to the abattoir.
Then I hear from the husband... he's decided that buckeyes aren't the breed he wants. He's wanting meat birds, not heritage dual purpose. And the birds are eating too much...

Last Thursday I take 23 birds to them (they're taking them to the abattoir for me). Guess what happens? They want me to pay for half of the feed tgat they've spent so far & don't want the birds, but still want 50% of the sales money next spring. So... I come home with 46 pullets, and nowhere to house them!

I'm going to deduct half of the feed I buy from now until they're gone, plus incubation & brooding fees. I doubt that they'll see much $ to say the least.
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Good grief. Drop these fools like a bad habit.
What a headache!
 
R2elk said:
It is about 20' long by 15' wide. It used to be over 4' deep but with all the sediment it is only 3' deep until you sink through all the muck. I have never fed them, they feed and reproduce on their own.
The four that survived from the original 10.
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From this year
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Oh wow that is awesome!! Your fish are beautiful. :love

I would love to have such a big pond!! We have a perfect spot for it too... the front yard is basically a giant bowl shape and would make a great pond. :D

But unfortunately I think my parents want something much smaller and in the back so we can see it/sit by it which is totally understandable but still. Plus I think it’d be quite expensive getting enough liner to make such a big pond. But one day.

I will make it a decent size though cause I’ve got the 4 and I want to get some more. It just won’t be quite that big haha

I love those red and white ones! The store has a few of those in now I was thinking of getting but not till after I get the original 4 moved.
 
KDOGG331 said:
Oh wow that is awesome!! Your fish are beautiful. :love

I would love to have such a big pond!! We have a perfect spot for it too... the front yard is basically a giant bowl shape and would make a great pond. :D

But unfortunately I think my parents want something much smaller and in the back so we can see it/sit by it which is totally understandable but still. Plus I think it’d be quite expensive getting enough liner to make such a big pond. But one day.

I will make it a decent size though cause I’ve got the 4 and I want to get some more. It just won’t be quite that big haha

I love those red and white ones! The store has a few of those in now I was thinking of getting but not till after I get the original 4 moved.
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The original 4 all turned completely white before they died. I used to think the dark colored ones were dying young or being taken by predators until this summer. There was one at the start of summer that was all black except for orange gill covers. By the end of the summer it was almost completely orange.

The current biggest one is around 10" with its big fan tail. All of these came from goldfish being sold as feeders.
 
R2elk said:
The original 4 all turned completely white before they died. I used to think the dark colored ones were dying young or being taken by predators until this summer. There was one at the start of summer that was all black except for orange gill covers. By the end of the summer it was almost completely orange.

The current biggest one is around 10" with its big fan tail. All of these came from goldfish being sold as feeders.
Click to expand...

Oh wow that is awesome!!! Yeah in my original 6 I had one that was like a grayish color, thought maybe it wasn’t even a goldfish at first, but now I can’t tell him apart from the rest!! It’s amazing how they change colors like that! It must be a baby coloration or something. It is interesting to me though how some stay the same color. Like the white markings seem to stay but the gray or dark ones eventually turn orange. I originally had 6 but one died early on, probably due to disease, and one accidentally got sucked into the filter. :oops: the other 4 are thriving.

Oh wow that is huge!! Mine are about 6 inches right now although I think the smallest one may be 5 and the biggest one may be 7. Tried to hold a measuring tape against the tank but they wouldn’t hold still long enough to be sure ha

Mine were all feeders too. It’s amazing watching them grow from little teeny tiny babies to big huge fish. :love

I’ve had mine almost 3 years now and I love them. I thought about giving them away earlier this year but now I don’t think I ever could. They’re a lot of fun.
 

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