An update after a long absence.

So, it has been a while since I've been on. Things are good here but my job's hours make it hard for me to get onto BYC.

No more hatchlings for me for 2 months or so.

I have been choosing the "keepers" for my Muscovy. And I now have 3 adult chocolate barred hens, 3 chocolate barred ducklets, 2 ch barred ducklings and FINALLY, a young chocolate barred drakelet. I am excited about the chocolate boy. The funny thing is that all of my older drakes were black barred but started looking chocolate at around 1 yr old. I have decided on a "keeper" flock of 10, 2 drakes and 8 hens. I want to breed just the chocolate barred but my black barred hen had been the BEST mom. She has accepted fosters on her own, even while still setting on her own eggs.

I had also started a mule duck breeding program. I purchased 6 Pekin ducklings about 9 months ago, ended up with 2 boys, the rest girls. I raised them with 2 of my largest, similar aged Muscovy. I had read that raising Muscovy with pekin would result in better breeding. So, I currently have in a separate run a Muscovy drake with 3 pekin hens. One of my Pekin hens appeared to be going broody! I left her to it for 1.5 weeks. I candled the eggs (something I NEVER do with my scovy) and found that out of 21 eggs, 3 looked like they started and failed and the rest were infertile. Now the hens were new to laying and hybrids are supposed to be less fertile than straight breeding, but it was disappointing.

One a brighter note, I have a pair of Pekin running with my other ducks and chickens and that hen seems to want to go broody. I did take her eggs as its starting to get cooler here and I do NOT want winter babies again (reference my crazy idea last year to allow my Muscovy to set in October and she hatched out 13 in December).

I will be keeping my pekin drake and allow my "hybrid" flock to remain through the spring as long as I find fertile eggs. If no fertile eggs, I'll switch to 2 pure flocks, Pekin and Muscovy, and decide if I want to keep the Pekin. I am amazed at how bothered I am by the quaking after the quiet Muscovy.

Other notes. My LGD is great with the birds but is not much of a protector (unfortunately). He is the only Great Pyrenees I have heard of that doesn't bark. We are considering getting another dog to bolster his confidence.

I am also looking at getting a few dairy goats. I am in the research phase and will see what happens.

Thanks for reading! Again and as always, I appreciate the help that I received on BYC in my duck journey. I hope to be able to post more often.

 

Thanks Amiga and GQ.
I'm hoping my X program will pan out.

I know what you mean about the roos. I had a monitor in my coop for a while after a raccoon problem. I was getting woken at 4am by crowing and he'd continue all day. LOL