A good breed of ornamental waterfowl for beginners

[HottentotTeal]

Quote:
I noticed that too.

I seem to get APWS issues a lot more regularly.

I think the Gazette sends out fewer, but I only signed up a few months ago, so the only way i can tell is to look down at the floor and notice i have almost twice as many APWS booklets compared to the Gazette magazines.

 

[toejam]

I am still working on which to get... I wont be getting anything until spring or so.

 

[aldren90]

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justin my name is aldren i live in florida and i am 12 i have been raising birds for all my life and i really got into exotic ducks this year the for the most part i raise ringed teal mandarins white faced tree ducks fulvous tree ducks chiloe widgeons and common shelducks also canadian geese and thats just nondomestic waterfowl i really love all of these but my favorite is the whitefaced but anything i listed plus more would be great for you thanks

 

[destinduck]

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
justin my name is aldren i live in florida and i am 12 i have been raising birds for all my life and i really got into exotic ducks this year the for the most part i raise ringed teal mandarins white faced tree ducks fulvous tree ducks chiloe widgeons and common shelducks also canadian geese and thats just nondomestic waterfowl i really love all of these but my favorite is the whitefaced but anything i listed plus more would be great for you thanks

welcome,
I must say , so great to hear of youth getting into these. I was a little younger than you when I started with migratory waterfowl, so I know where you're at, had them most all my life as well. Keep it up!!!

 

[aldren90]

Quote:
justin my name is aldren i live in florida and i am 12 i have been raising birds for all my life and i really got into exotic ducks this year the for the most part i raise ringed teal mandarins white faced tree ducks fulvous tree ducks chiloe widgeons and common shelducks also canadian geese and thats just nondomestic waterfowl i really love all of these but my favorite is the whitefaced but anything i listed plus more would be great for you thanks

welcome,
I must say , so great to hear of youth getting into these. I was a little younger than you when I started with migratory waterfowl, so I know where you're at, had them most all my life as well. Keep it up!!!

thanks everyone boggy what did you raise when you first got in to this um i am starting to think about getting some more birds i am building new pens and i am trying to get good beginner stuff so i can get other kids and inspire them to get in this also if some people would like to start i can start them out with the hatches of what ive got

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

That sounds great.
When I was 8 or so, I started, like everyone with the wood ducks and mandarins, also had the more common teals, shoveler, red heads, a few of the tree duck (some of my favorites too by the way) Pintails, widgeon, pretty much any of the dabbler species are great beginer birds. Watch the shells, they can be a bit grumpy in mixed collections with smaller birds.
After you have been in it a few years and got the swing of it, then move on to the divers. I had them by around 12 or so, they are fairly easy to keep but do need much better water and higher protein feeds (floating catfish feed fixes that). They are a real pleasure to work with though, nothing like the goldeneyes, mergansers, and such. They are the tuffer ones to keep though, I'd start with the red heads and other pochards, then scaup, then the goldeneye, merganser and others.

If you ever have any questions at all, feel free to ask away, I will be glad to help. I also have a migratory /ornamental waterfowl thread in the duck section that may help you some too. It's in the "sticky" section at the top of the duck page.