California - Northern

[AnonAMauze]

I'm truly surprised that your chickens don't go in instinctively! Our 4 chooks go in every night like clockwork and all we have to do is shut and lock the door! It's so cute that they put themselves to bed every night! If we had one of the timer doors we wouldn't even have to come home at night!...lol

Haha! 4 chickens are a lot easier to handle than 30.


Quote: I will have a run set up. It will be 23' x 25' and has a few trees in it so they will have lots of shade, although that means I won't be able to put a top on my run. My worry is that I can't find affordable chicken wire in a heavier gauge than 20. Pretty flimsy when one has bears and mountain lions to deal with on top of hawks and coyotes. Oddly, no raccoons up here, although the snakes may replace the raccoons in going after the eggs.


Quote: LOL. That must be strange. Well, like I said, I will be getting 36 chicks next spring: 6 Rhode Island Red hens, 6 Speckled Sussex, 6 Jersey Giants, 6 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 6 Dark Brahmas, and 6 Silver Penciled Rocks, and one Phoenix Roo. The Phoenix is for my mom, who's enchanted by the idea that a chicken's tail can grow so long. The rest are mine, I think I'm getting a good mix, mostly layers but some with really good size for meat.I want to set up a smaller coop or something and get my nieces a few bantams to raise. They really like the Mille Fleur and the Quail Antwerp Belgian.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Haha! 4 chickens are a lot easier to handle than 30.


I will have a run set up. It will be 23' x 25' and has a few trees in it so they will have lots of shade, although that means I won't be able to put a top on my run. My worry is that I can't find affordable chicken wire in a heavier gauge than 20. Pretty flimsy when one has bears and mountain lions to deal with on top of hawks and coyotes. Oddly, no raccoons up here, although the snakes may replace the raccoons in going after the eggs.


LOL. That must be strange. Well, like I said, I will be getting 36 chicks next spring: 6 Rhode Island Red hens, 6 Speckled Sussex, 6 Jersey Giants, 6 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 6 Dark Brahmas, and 6 Silver Penciled Rocks, and one Phoenix Roo. The Phoenix is for my mom, who's enchanted by the idea that a chicken's tail can grow so long. The rest are mine, I think I'm getting a good mix, mostly layers but some with really good size for meat.I want to set up a smaller coop or something and get my nieces a few bantams to raise. They really like the Mille Fleur and the Quail Antwerp Belgian.

lol nothing can keep a bear out if it really wants in. same with Mountain Lions.
Coyotes are pretty clever. No Climb would help keep them at bay with a 2 or 3 ft strand of chicken wire around the bottom.
Hawks? well a good rooster is the best protection for the hens.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Pretty flimsy when one has bears and mountain lions to deal with on top of hawks and coyotes. Oddly, no raccoons up here, although the snakes may replace the raccoons in going after the eggs.

You really need a Livestock Guardian Dog. A big one, maybe even a pair, since you are dealing with those large predators.

Kim

 

[Hangtown Farms]

You really need a Livestock Guardian Dog. A big one, maybe even a pair, since you are dealing with those large predators.

Kim

sounds pricy.. replacement chickens are cheaper

 

[zooweemama]

Actually they do, Khaki Campbells. They are a small breed of duck (eat less food, take less space) and they lay a large egg nearly every day. They are beautiful as well.

Look into them, my son used to raise/show them.

Deb

No they do not. I did my homework on ducks long before I did chicken homework and was able to study the breeds quickly because there are fewer than 20 in totality to easily obtain and even fewer that are decent egg layers. There are a couple excellent egg laying breeds but it is not big like chickens. There are a TON of chicken breeds- not even 1/100th as many breeds of ducks. There are also better egg laying breeds than the KC. Welsh Harlequins are small, weigh between 4-5 lbs, excellent foragers and can lay between 200-350 eggs a year. Runners are a little smaller, forage even better and will lay 180-220 a year on average. Pekins are a very heavy breed and are heavy egg layers (almost an egg a day) BUT they consume quite a bit of food and not great foragers (they weigh between 8-10 pounds).There are some breeds that lay better than any chicken but it's not a 'thing' as it is with chicken farmers. Very few people raise ducks for eggs in the US and most people think eating duck eggs are gross. There is a weird stigma on it. So finding customers wanting to buy duck eggs- not much of a market. You can find- but again people do not breed ducks for eggs like chicken people do.

 

[zooweemama]

Zooweemama, do you have Cayuga or black Indian Runner ducks? If you do, then your almost metallic colored egg is most likely from that duck. Here is a link: http://horsefarmdiaries.com/?p=3876 This person has cayuga ducks, and they can lay black eggs although they can range in color to white.

We have 1 black indian runner. No Cayugas. We suspect it's either a Runner or Buff duck laying the egg right now. Today we got egg #2! Same spot, same size, same color.

 

[zooweemama]

Actually they do, Khaki Campbells. They are a small breed of duck (eat less food, take less space) and they lay a large egg nearly every day. They are beautiful as well.

Look into them, my son used to raise/show them.

Deb

We did buy some hybrids that are called Golden 300s. They were bred specifically for egg laying. They have KC in them. They are also very very pretty! We like them just as ducks even without eggs. But they are medium sized and their feed ratio/eggs is not as good as the Welsh Harlequins or the Runners.

 

[zooweemama]

sounds pricy.. replacement chickens are cheaper

Seriously. I looked into it. While it IS a worthy investment, one needs $1,000+ to buy one. I am not one of those people. I'd have to save for 2 years and hope for no emergency to siphon the funds from it. LOL But I would really love one, one day!

 

[zooweemama]

We got egg #2 today from the ducks! They are all 19 and 22 weeks old.

We installed all the lay boxes and even the chicken fountain (waterer) in the chicken coop. I am not sure the chickens know what to do with it yet haha. And the lay boxes are completely undisturbed. Our chickens are 23 weeks, 13 & 11 weeks old. I really thought they (the younger ones) were older than that! LOL

We have 2 really small BCMs. They are the 11 weekers. They def look like runts. Looks like a male and female. They are half the size of the other 11 weekers. Can that be normal? They are pushed a round a bit, they are active, they forage and run around and do not act ill. But they are pretty lightweight.

At this point the ducks better start kicking down some eggs lol or we will continue to be eggless.

The 4 23wk old pullets should begin laying soon. I assume maybe every other day or so from them- so maybe 12 eggs a week on the low end from those girls once they start laying regularly. We have another 10 weeks to wait for the rest of the chickens. Man it feels like we've been doing this forEVER. haha!

Any other 'new to eggs' people in this thread waiting?

 

[debs_flock]

Quote: Never said there are lots of large commercial duck egg operations like with chickens. The demand just isn't there, at least here in the US.

But I think you may be underestimating egg laying amongst KC. They are one of the best amongst commonly obtainable ducks, at least with feed/egg/meat conversion.
http://albc-usa.org/cpl/waterfowl/campbell.html
Or if you want to go the hatchery route.
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/khaki_campbell.html

We did used to raise runners as well, along with many other duck breeds (KC, cayuga, runner, muscovy (not a true duck), appleyard, ancona, a few others that I can't think of at the moment). I do find the runners a bit disconcerting to watch walking around,

He only raised/showed brown African & brown Chinese geese.

I like waterfowl very much, but chickens are easier for us with not having to deal with the water access. I know they do fine without it, I just feel like they have a happier life with it.

Deb