Bantam Duck Page

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Any waterfowl from Holderread will be good. His BEI's are very good. They do a good job with waterfowl. My old line of Indies that I have had since the 70's don't quack loud. I have seen Holderreads and they sound like Calls. I am showing 7 Indies this weekend along with 35 other chickens ducks and geese.

Walt

 

[easttxchick]

Quote:
Thanks,,, is the ringed brother a Khaki as well??? I ordered the book that was mentioned on call duck variaties. I hope it can clear up some of this and I will know what to look for before jumping in.

Any ideas what to feed them to get alittle more weight on the breast area? I am thinking of showing at least the mystery drake as a Khaki in about 2 weeks. Might get laughed at by the club members..... LOL

If I had to guess I would say that the second drake with the white is showing partially formed pied genes. I have a pair of blue duskies that are carriers of the pied gene. My blue fawn drake shows a slight white area around his neck and has a small white patch under his chin.

My pair are capable of producing fully pied birds in the range of pencilled, blue pencilled as well as fawn and white.

That is my take on what these birds are. I do agree that they are most likely khaki calls. There certainly is no pastel/butterscotch/appleyard in there!

Anthony

You certainly seem well versed in breeding for color in the Calls.
Think I could pick your brain on a couple of breeding/color questions?

 

[19hhbelgian]

Quote:
I actually got my Silkie ducks from Holderreads. I first got a pair of greys, and then got my white drake with another grey female after I lost my grey drake to a dog attack. Both pairs arrived here in PA extremely healthy and vibrant. My grey drake was incredible and his mate is awesome. My second pair (grey & white) were breeder quality rather than show quality like my first pair, but they are still nice quality birds. I personally would have no problem spending the money to get more birds from them again. They were very helpful when I was looking for birds, answered my many questions, and were very nice the entire time.

 

[turbo]

Quote:
Call duck eggs from exhibition Calls are very difficult to hatch. Many times I use broody chickens.

Walt

I know several call breeders that use East Indie hens to hatch out their calls, or wood ducks...in the believe that the humidity is going to be better on the hatching eggs than using a chicken. I like to use LF wyandottes to set my call eggs..my Blue Wyandottes are broody machines, I normally put the call eggs in the redwood incubator first, pull out the fertile eggs after about 4-5 days and put them under the hens, I will mist the eggs under the chicken once a day. Then I pull the eggs about 3 days before hatch and put them in the hatcher, one pain is the fact that the date on the egg (that is written with a pencil) will rub off while under a chicken..so you need to use a grease pen...some use a Sharpie, but I worry about the chemicals in the sharpie killing the embroy..probably doesnt..but hey call eggs are hard enough to hatch without taking chances..

I have been told that what I do is backwards..that I should place the eggs under the chicken as my first step, then put them in the incubator, but our system works for us. We will hatch out 100 ducklings in a bad season, 300 in a good year...but understand they we have well over 100 breeders. I will set up 15 Butterscotch breeding pens alone...probably about the same number for the Whites, and 4 pens for the Grays....

We normally set up a big plastic bin with a light on our coffee table in the living room and that is where our just hatched call for the first 3-4 days, we have problems with some of the duckings flipping over on their back..which as you know means they will die if they lay there on their back for very long. The good ones are so round that they have problems with flipping over, one thing that seems to help with the flipping is not getting in a hurry to pull them out of the incubator...we will leave the hatched ducklings in the hatcher for at least 2 days before pulling them out and putting them in the brooder...this seems to really cut down on the number of ducklings dying on us.

We do dig them out of the eggs....some breeders wont do this, saying it hurts your breeding program in the long run. We have found that the good ones just wont hardly make it out of the shell, the pet quality call ducklings just zip right out of the shell...the duckling destined to be short billed round balls just struggle to get out. My wife Rebecca is a pro at digging them out and has it down to a science...it normally takes her about 24 hours to get one out. If I try to dig them out...well its a mess and they never make it out alive.

Jerry

 

[turbo]

Quote:

Thank you for your generous offer Linda. I am not quite ready to do it yet. Lee Morey came from Florida to see my Calls several years ago. He is a nice guy. I saw him at Columbus a couple months ago when I judged that huge class of Calls. That was fun seeing all those good ones.

Walt

I thought you were a Judging Genius at Columbus Walt! And not just because I had 1st in old white males, 2nd in white pullets...and 1st in old gray males....LOL

Jerry

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Call duck eggs from exhibition Calls are very difficult to hatch. Many times I use broody chickens.

Walt

I know several call breeders that use East Indie hens to hatch out their calls, or wood ducks...in the believe that the humidity is going to be better on the hatching eggs than using a chicken. I like to use LF wyandottes to set my call eggs..my Blue Wyandottes are broody machines, I normally put the call eggs in the redwood incubator first, pull out the fertile eggs after about 4-5 days and put them under the hens, I will mist the eggs under the chicken once a day. The I pull the eggs about 3 days before hatch and put them in the hatcher, one pain is the fact that the date on the egg (that is written with a pencil) will rub off while under a chicken..so you need to use a grease pen...some use a Sharpie, but I worry about the chemicals in the sharpie killing the embroy..probably doesnt..but hey call eggs are hard enough to hatch without taking chances..

I have been told that what I do is backwards..that I should place the eggs under the chicken as my first step, then put them in the incubator, but our system works for us. We will hatch out 100 ducklings in a bad season, 300 in a good year...but understand they we have well over 100 breeders. I will set up 15 Butterscotch breeding pens alone...probably about the same number for the Whites, and 4 pens for the Grays....

We normally set up a big plastic bin with a light on our coffee table in the living room and that is where our just hatched call for the first 3-4 days, we have problems with some of the duckings flipping over on their back..which as you know means they will die if they lay there on their back for very long. The good ones are so round that they have problems with flipping over, one thing that seems to help with the flipping is not getting in a hurry to pull them out of the incubator...we will leave the hatched ducklings in the hatcher for at least 2 days before pulling them out and putting them in the brooder...this seems to really cut down on the number of ducklings dying on us.

We do dig them out of the eggs....some breeders wont do this, saying it hurts your breeding program in the long run. We have found that the good ones just wont hardly make it out of the shell, the pet quality call ducklings just zip right out of the shell...the duckling destined to be short billed round balls just struggle to get out. My wife Rebecca is a pro at digging them out and has it down to a science...it normally takes her about 24 hours to get one out. If I try to dig them out...well its a mess and they never make it out alive.

Jerry

Whatever you are doing that works...keep on doing. That is the way I roll...hahaha There are variables that some people don't think of because they are too ridged in their thinking. Things that work for you might not work for me and visa versa. I do whatever works here. Same goes for helping them out. If you can do it and they are viable, do it, those ducklings are valuable. No one gets hundreds of ducklings from a trio of Calls, but some people think they should.

Walt

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Thank you for your generous offer Linda. I am not quite ready to do it yet. Lee Morey came from Florida to see my Calls several years ago. He is a nice guy. I saw him at Columbus a couple months ago when I judged that huge class of Calls. That was fun seeing all those good ones.

Walt

I thought you were a Judging Genius at Columbus Walt! And not just because I had 1st in old white males, 2nd in white pullets...and 1st in old gray males....LOL

Jerry

Thanks! I will put that on my business card under "title". (judging genius). Glad you did so well, I didn't know who won what. That was a huge class of bantam ducks.....maybe the largest class I have ever judged. I like to hear the results as I seldom know. You fly in and fly out and never know who won.
Right or wrong it seems like I might have been consistent.
Glad you folks did well! Is the check in the mail???

Walt

 

[jbear]

Quote:
I know several call breeders that use East Indie hens to hatch out their calls, or wood ducks...in the believe that the humidity is going to be better on the hatching eggs than using a chicken. I like to use LF wyandottes to set my call eggs..my Blue Wyandottes are broody machines, I normally put the call eggs in the redwood incubator first, pull out the fertile eggs after about 4-5 days and put them under the hens, I will mist the eggs under the chicken once a day. The I pull the eggs about 3 days before hatch and put them in the hatcher, one pain is the fact that the date on the egg (that is written with a pencil) will rub off while under a chicken..so you need to use a grease pen...some use a Sharpie, but I worry about the chemicals in the sharpie killing the embroy..probably doesnt..but hey call eggs are hard enough to hatch without taking chances..

I have been told that what I do is backwards..that I should place the eggs under the chicken as my first step, then put them in the incubator, but our system works for us. We will hatch out 100 ducklings in a bad season, 300 in a good year...but understand they we have well over 100 breeders. I will set up 15 Butterscotch breeding pens alone...probably about the same number for the Whites, and 4 pens for the Grays....

We normally set up a big plastic bin with a light on our coffee table in the living room and that is where our just hatched call for the first 3-4 days, we have problems with some of the duckings flipping over on their back..which as you know means they will die if they lay there on their back for very long. The good ones are so round that they have problems with flipping over, one thing that seems to help with the flipping is not getting in a hurry to pull them out of the incubator...we will leave the hatched ducklings in the hatcher for at least 2 days before pulling them out and putting them in the brooder...this seems to really cut down on the number of ducklings dying on us.

We do dig them out of the eggs....some breeders wont do this, saying it hurts your breeding program in the long run. We have found that the good ones just wont hardly make it out of the shell, the pet quality call ducklings just zip right out of the shell...the duckling destined to be short billed round balls just struggle to get out. My wife Rebecca is a pro at digging them out and has it down to a science...it normally takes her about 24 hours to get one out. If I try to dig them out...well its a mess and they never make it out alive.

Jerry

Whatever you are doing that works...keep on doing. That is the way I roll...hahaha There are variables that some people don't think of because they are too ridged in their thinking. Things that work for you might not work for me and visa versa. I do whatever works here. Same goes for helping them out. If you can do it and they are viable, do it, those ducklings are valuable. No one gets hundreds of ducklings from a trio of Calls, but some people think they should.

Walt

I had to help one of our ducklings out last year.. he is the smallest roundest guy out in the yard too, he would never have hatched on his own. I only had a trio then, and hatched 8...felt pretty good about all that, 'cause it was my first season of hatching. Lost 12 in an incubator, and that was really hard. Then hatched 3 under silkies and 5 under the momma call. Both females raised those 5--which was kind of fun to watch. This year I have above ground pens to put them in, and a better incubator.. and those lil silkies are going broody already so I am looking forward to more little fuzzy ducklings soon!


Linda~I love reading your posts! You shine through in your words

Very fun to read.

 

[turbo]

Quote:
I thought you were a Judging Genius at Columbus Walt! And not just because I had 1st in old white males, 2nd in white pullets...and 1st in old gray males....LOL

Jerry

Thanks! I will put that on my business card under "title". (judging genius). Glad you did so well, I didn't know who won what. That was a huge class of bantam ducks.....maybe the largest class I have ever judged. I like to hear the results as I seldom know. You fly in and fly out and never know who won.
Right or wrong it seems like I might have been consistent.
Glad you folks did well! Is the check in the mail???

Walt

I thought you did a good job, I didnt hear any complaints and that is a compliment since call breeders can be hard to please (we think we know it all..LOL). Your BB in calls belonged to Ciera Endsley and she has what I think is one of the best hen lines in Whites, the call she won with was a really nice bird, Charlie had RB with a great white. The White I got 1st in old males with placed RB at the next show in Shawnee, OK under Dave Anderson...I think you were liking the same things that everybody else likes..Hell your a call breeder from way back, you know what you are looking at.

I think the calls are really bad about showing well on minute, then looking like they are asleep the next minute...then you walk back down the asle 5 minutes later and a different call is really fluffing up and looking good.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Here is a question. Using a number two pencil to write on a chicken eggs works great. On a duck egg you will loose the marking with the spraying or the mama hen getting on and off the eggs . Is there a wax pencil or a magic marker you can use that wont go through the egg and hurt the little guy inside. What products have you heard that works well.

Wax type marker should last and not penetrate the shell. The marks a lot or magic marker runs trough a shell in my view and could cause contamanation to the inside thus causing a death or defective baby duck. bob