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

[Conan]

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The pink daisies are actually a variety of mum. They are having their way with my flower garden in the fall.

Beautiful! Both the chickens and the mums. I may to find myself some pink mums. Love the wild looking perennials in a garden, or just everywhere.

 

[Conan]

Jace LOVES being held in winter. If I sit down, she burrows right into my lap and won't get up unless I move her.

In summer, I'm just chopped liver. I suppose it's good, because she's also smart enough to avoid the hawks.

It's your "lizard-y-ness" rubbing off on her. She's using you, Banty. It's time you acknowledged this.

 

[Molpet]

Dogloo. Frame a door and add hardware cloth for ventilation. Pop a bolt through the back and bungee the door on at night. I did this for a trio and it worked like a charm. DUCKS.

The varmints chewed through a bungee holding the metal trash can lid on . Ate the bird seed overnight..

 

[Conan]

Well, Annabelle survived the night. She was the last one to come out of the coop and she ended up laying her egg on their "covered porch" area where their food and water is at, instead of inside of inside. So we had a chilly egg this morn but at least it was easy to get to.

Awesome! Great news. Sounds like they're going to get along just fine.

 

[Conan]

The varmints chewed through a bungee holding the metal trash can lid on . Ate the bird seed overnight..

Excellent point. I should clarify. The dogloo was in the pig pen and there was never any food kept inside. Never had an issue with critters getting at them or even trying to get them, but that's not to say it couldn't or wouldn't happen. I've found that having pigs on my property keeps the larger predators at bay.
My call ducks also live in a dog house with a framed and hardware cloth door, but it is closed with a hook and eye. It definitely wouldn't hold if something went at it, but we don't really have large critters coming right up to the house. The main group of ducks live in a large hoop house at night, which is fully reinforced with hardware cloth.
Best to keep in mind the predators in your area when setting up housing.

 

[The Farmers' Daughter]

Orpingtons don’t make it around here. Not agile enough for preds. To be fair we’ve got a bumper crop of fox. Nonetheless big slow and friendly is Not traits you want to have in our piece of woods. Flighty Ameraucana or EEs they always survive the attacks.

Someone was just telling me similar about RIR the other day. They're too docile and just stand there when a predator comes.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Here are the results!

Although Chow Chow was really surprising and I am not sure I believe it. Also a huge portion unidentifiable. But their sample also wasn’t the best, like not for the full time frame, cause he wouldn’t let her do it/hated it, but I guess they found something. But I also find it a little suspicious it’s the same exact percentages as Libby for parts. They are different dogs. You would think the percentages would vary a little bit. Like they are both supposedly 37.5% Great Pyrenees and 12.5% something else (for Libby it’s Boxer, for Franklin it’s Chow Chow), and then Libby is 25% Lab and 25% unknown, so the Lab and Unknown bit is slightly different but I find it odd the main breeds are exact same, like exactly 37.5% and exactly 12.5% but idk. Wisdom is supposed to be one of the most accurate ones though, there are some that are not very accurate at all. The next most accurate is Embark which also tests for like 200 genetic diseases, which would be nice to know but not really necessary, and supposedly uses a lot more genetic markers (so more accurate), and it is a university that does it, but that one is like $200 so I don’t think they’ll do that one. But it would be nice to see if they both say the same thing and find out the unknown bit. Anyway, supposedly the test only goes to great great grandparents so the unknown is great great great grandparents. We thought for sure he would be like Aussie, Collie, or setter or Golden or something. But maybe that is what the unknown is. A little disappointing there is so much unknown on his.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Also apparently my dad does not want ducks. Which stinks because we have a near perfect set up for them. But he says he hates their eggs, they are too rich for him, too creamy, whatever, does not like them. Then I suggested we could just get 2 males for pets and not have the eggs (though I did suggest they are supposed to be really good for baking) and he confesses that he got attacked by ducks and therefore does not like them, does not want them, and does not think they are cute.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I bet if we had our own though he would like them! Lol

 

[littleprairieheartsfarm]

Here are the results!

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Although Chow Chow was really surprising and I am not sure I believe it. Also a huge portion unidentifiable. But their sample also wasn’t the best, like not for the full time frame, cause he wouldn’t let her do it/hated it, but I guess they found something. But I also find it a little suspicious it’s the same exact percentages as Libby for parts. They are different dogs. You would think the percentages would vary a little bit. Like they are both supposedly 37.5% Great Pyrenees and 12.5% something else (for Libby it’s Boxer, for Franklin it’s Chow Chow), and then Libby is 25% Lab and 25% unknown, so the Lab and Unknown bit is slightly different but I find it odd the main breeds are exact same, like exactly 37.5% and exactly 12.5% but idk. Wisdom is supposed to be one of the most accurate ones though, there are some that are not very accurate at all. The next most accurate is Embark which also tests for like 200 genetic diseases, which would be nice to know but not really necessary, and supposedly uses a lot more genetic markers (so more accurate), and it is a university that does it, but that one is like $200 so I don’t think they’ll do that one. But it would be nice to see if they both say the same thing and find out the unknown bit. Anyway, supposedly the test only goes to great great grandparents so the unknown is great great great grandparents. We thought for sure he would be like Aussie, Collie, or setter or Golden or something. But maybe that is what the unknown is. A little disappointing there is so much unknown on his.

Genetic breed testing is incredibly inaccurate. They test for DNA markers found in different breeds but they still show up in other dog breeds than the original ladder that is used. Genetic marker tests in general are not very accurate, as the “roan” test in horses is a marker test and several visibly roan horses came back negative, and non-roan horses came back positive. It can only do so much. A direct mutation test is the most accurate form of genetic testing and with breed testing it just isn’t possible.

Many breeders had their purebred dogs that had traceable lineage tested with these groups and they came back as almost negative the breed they were and full of the “typical” breeds like labs, goldens, and Pyrenees.


So definitely take the test results with a grain of salt.