Ask any duck question here and hopefully someone will answer it!

[ChaosTheory]

They are called caruncles and I do believe drakes will develop more of sooner

I have a question! I could just be really excited at the prospect of my first egg, but here goes: Our birds just turned 16 weeks. We have campbell ducks. My question is, do ducks get silent and contemplative and a little twitchy before laying their first eggs? I went out earlier to see one of my females acting this way, and I was a little worried, but when I went up to her, she was fine and retreated as usual. I came back out about 2 hours later to see that she was completely normal, but I noticed that her bottom looked a little, for lack of a better word, warn? I also noticed on the floor there were remenants of an egg shell, but they could've been there for a long time (we sometimes feed them scap egg shells, but we haven't in awhile). Any thoughts?

 

[MotherMal13]

how much space do they need for housing and does anything need to be in it other than food and water?

 

[1lpoock]

to tell you the truth my 12 ducks are in a space thats maybe 5 by 5 ...they dont care though becuases they just sleep in there. During the day they free range and run right down to the creek. Also dont put food or water in the coop ..they will make a mess and you will have to change the bedding the next day...just feed them in the morning and before you put them in at night

 

[MotherMal13]

Okay thanks!

 

[JoJo 95]

Is it easy to raise call ducks?

 

[tia]

Bleepmunk - I have 7 runners born the last day in July and they started laying in December. They are inside during the day with the light on. No light at night.

 

[tia]

Just when I think I have the sex figured out of my ducks... they puzzle me. I have seven runners and got six eggs this morning. I have blue and white eggs and figured that the black runners were laying the blue eggs, but this morning I saw one of the black runners standing by a freshly laid white egg. They all sound the same to me, with the exception of two of them which have a really loud call when I come to get the food dish to fill it up. I'm afraid they are all females because I've yet to see a fertilized egg and they have been laying for a month. Any helpful hints. I thought about video taping each one making their quack noise to see if people can identify the sex. My other thought is go out early in the morning to see who is dropping the eggs... One did appear to be trying to mount another in the pool yesterday, but wasn't very successful. Do females sometime try that too? Any help would be appreciated. I'm thinking maybe they are all females and that is why I can't tell the difference.

A friend has too many Kahki drakes and wants to trade some, but I think I would like to stick with the runners.

 

[Amiga]

About the bleach . . .

It is often used to control bacteria, and there is something to be said for that. There are also safety issues involved, and that is not news.

I don't use it because it gives me asthma. And I have read some ugly things about it. You need to decide for yourself. The following ideas are not something I can show scientific data on (it may exist but I don't have it at hand), but they are things I have done and still do and seem to work for me, without causing me to have an asthma attack.

Here are some alternatives to bleach:

Vinegar
Rosemary oil and Lavender oil in vinegar
Hydrogen peroxide kills aerobic bacteria, and the waste products from it are oxygen and water.
Borax solution kills fungi, sometimes better than bleach (I have done a little research on this and I am not the only one who has seen this) - it doesn't produce fumes, though it is not a good idea to drink it (of course, drinking bleach is not a great idea, either)
Sunshine kills bacteria, but not very well in cloudy water

If the container has very smooth sides, a good scrubbing will get most of the yuck out anyway. Letting it dry out overnight will help, if that is possible (not always, I am sure).

There are other products that may be good alternatives. I hope you find something that cleans things up without harming you or the ducks.

 

[Overeasyplz]

I have a question.. detached air cells in shipped duck eggs.. will they heal in the 24 hour rest before batoring? I hope they do..

 

[duckyfromoz]

I set quite a number of posted eggs this year- with mixed results. Its always such a gamble with postal services- even here in Australia too.
I was quite concerned about the airsacs too. Due to the fact that the air sac increaces in size during incubation- by the time the duckling is ready to hatch - you would know there had been any movement- and a lot of the eggs I had hatched sucsessfully.
A few of the eggs with very slight detachment had no noticable movment after a few days- but most were always still noticeably moving until the airsac was large enough to include the detaced area.
Some of my eggs had more movement than others- and there was no difference with the hatch rate.
However when you do consider how much jostling and impact an egg has had to crate the detachment- it oftens happens that there is more damage within the egg itself which makes them not viable.

I always left posted eggs 24 hours before setting in the incubator, and did not turn them for another 36 hours.
I guess all you can do is set and wait to see when you candle the eggs- or they hatch.
Good luck, hope you have a good hatch.