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- #21
Mrs. Turbo :
Actually some of your smaller typey call ducks that you see at shows were fall hatched ducks, Charlie Hodum ( who probably shows the best whites in the country ) has an awsome December hatched white cockerel that he has been showing. All of my calls are breeding and laying like crazy this fall for some reason, I am not going to hatch any out since I dont want to keep call ducklings in the basement all winter.
Call Ducks do not have a set amount of eggs they can hatch each year, if they lay in the fall, they will lay just as many eggs in the spring. Now if you put lights on them and force them to lay in early Jan-Feb, they will molt out at the wrong time and stop laying by spring...also ducks that are laying eggs look like crap and normaly you cant show them...so most people who show try to stop their good SQ hens from laying and breeding in the fall...when most of the shows are happening. The best way to stop a call from laying would be to put them in a dark room...no light and they will stop laying.
Most call duck breeders will sell you their early spring hatch ducklings, since they know the latter hatched birds are more likely to be SQ than the early hatched ones...
I like the duckling in the last pic...nice big round head...small bill, bet that duckling will be a good one.
Jerry
Yes I stole my wifes user name again..
Thanks Jerry - I stole my daughters user name also - we both use the ID. I do not show ducks nor do I plan on showing ducks as here in North Dakota there are not any shows. My daughter is in 4H and will probably show some at the county fair but that will be the only show any of my ducks will ever be at. However, I do like nice looking ducks and will try to only breed the nicest looking ones. This is all new to us and we kind of jumped in these ducks with both feet and now they take up a lot of our time. It has been fun. When the calls started to lay, we were excited and have kept every egg they have laid. However, even though most are fertile, we only have gotten just a few to hatch. This last group, I decided to try to help out any that make it into their air sack - 8 out of the 8 I helped hatched. I think there were 20 eggs that didn't make it that far. It was quite tedious and each egg took about 36 hours to hatch after I put a small hole in the air sack end of the egg. Only one got out itself and only did after I took off the whole top of the egg. I do have a heated shop that these ducks will be wintering in - That is where my broody mom is also. It looks like she is going to sit on the 7 eggs we gave her this morning.
Actually some of your smaller typey call ducks that you see at shows were fall hatched ducks, Charlie Hodum ( who probably shows the best whites in the country ) has an awsome December hatched white cockerel that he has been showing. All of my calls are breeding and laying like crazy this fall for some reason, I am not going to hatch any out since I dont want to keep call ducklings in the basement all winter.
Call Ducks do not have a set amount of eggs they can hatch each year, if they lay in the fall, they will lay just as many eggs in the spring. Now if you put lights on them and force them to lay in early Jan-Feb, they will molt out at the wrong time and stop laying by spring...also ducks that are laying eggs look like crap and normaly you cant show them...so most people who show try to stop their good SQ hens from laying and breeding in the fall...when most of the shows are happening. The best way to stop a call from laying would be to put them in a dark room...no light and they will stop laying.
Most call duck breeders will sell you their early spring hatch ducklings, since they know the latter hatched birds are more likely to be SQ than the early hatched ones...
I like the duckling in the last pic...nice big round head...small bill, bet that duckling will be a good one.
Jerry
Yes I stole my wifes user name again..
Thanks Jerry - I stole my daughters user name also - we both use the ID. I do not show ducks nor do I plan on showing ducks as here in North Dakota there are not any shows. My daughter is in 4H and will probably show some at the county fair but that will be the only show any of my ducks will ever be at. However, I do like nice looking ducks and will try to only breed the nicest looking ones. This is all new to us and we kind of jumped in these ducks with both feet and now they take up a lot of our time. It has been fun. When the calls started to lay, we were excited and have kept every egg they have laid. However, even though most are fertile, we only have gotten just a few to hatch. This last group, I decided to try to help out any that make it into their air sack - 8 out of the 8 I helped hatched. I think there were 20 eggs that didn't make it that far. It was quite tedious and each egg took about 36 hours to hatch after I put a small hole in the air sack end of the egg. Only one got out itself and only did after I took off the whole top of the egg. I do have a heated shop that these ducks will be wintering in - That is where my broody mom is also. It looks like she is going to sit on the 7 eggs we gave her this morning.
