Are you better to add younger or older hens to the flock?

[Going Quackers]

My ratio is still wrong lol i have 4 and there 50/50 however my one drake is 'disabled' he's almost fully blind in one and has a limp.. he was a victim of a coon attack as a younger one... At this point i am not seeing any issues but i am not daft i know in time there could be since i am lacking in hens.. my ducks are all 12wks now.

I am having real difficulity in getting more hens, i found one person but her hens are older than ours.. and she is really far(hours) and wants a fairly high figure for them.. i could get ducklings for less money and less distance of coarse that brings the old gender problem into play plus um, i have no idea if it's safe to put younger ducks in with older ones that are an established flock..

I'm seriously going crazy here lol

I was going to just get rid of the big healthy drake but he's my son's so yeah that concept fell sorta flat

 

[FenDruadin]

You can order sexed ducklings from Metzer, McMurray, or Ideal and be fairly sure of getting all girls (though they will sometimes include "packing peanut" boys for extra warmth or whatever). You won't be able to add ducklings directly to your flock, but by the time they are six or eight weeks you can start integrating them and it should be fine. Just keep an eye on them for a while.

Good luck. Sorry for your troubles!

 

[Going Quackers]

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Thanks. I don't think any of those will ship to Canada though?

i have to laugh at the 'packing peanut' for the longest time i couldn't figure out what everyone was speaking of

so you keep the 'kids' separate till 6-8wks ok... makes sense... i had no clue this could be so complicated but the majority in my area keep pekin.. i just had to be the oddball

 

[FenDruadin]

Oh, sorry, I didn't think about you being in Canada. But maybe there are similar companies that will ship there? Yeah, I was the same way about "packing peanuts," I thought everyone meant it literally and it didn't make sense! lol Now it makes SO much sense.

 

[birdboy508]

add older hens.

 

[Going Quackers]

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I don't think there are, well i haven't found any that deal in muscovy, i spoke with my hay guy tonight(getting horse food lol) and he made an auction suggestion.. i still giggle about the packing peanut, i to thought those dumb styrofoam things

 

[Going Quackers]

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Reason being? how old is older LOL