Chat room for non religious poultry keepers! :D

[fluffycrow]

Hi

Holla

 

[ShrekDawg]

Holla

What’s up!?

 

[fluffycrow]

What’s up!?

Nothin' much. How about you

 

[ShrekDawg]

Nothin' much. How about you

Same. Debating taking the dog for a walk but I’m not really feeling up to it. I probably will though cause he needs the exercise.

 

[Canadian Wind]

If you're planning on breeding them and hatching in the spring, then keeping a back up male is always wise.

My thoughts too, but *which one*??! I'll have to talk to my daughter about culling 'her' Cayuga mix drake. That's in brackets because she hardly even looks at them anymore, much less cares for them. I'm the one who's been buying all the feed for them for the past year and a half or more, even when I'm not working.

I think I'm going to bring it down to three drakes, at least for the winter. The Magpie, and the two blue boys (Smokey and The Bandit).

As far as the white mix drake, I believe white is always recessive in ducks, which means that that drake would either have to have two white parents, a parent carrying the white gene (as a first generation Pekin mix would) and a white parent, or two parents carrying the white gene.

I probably have a few recessive whites then. Interestingly, the Magpie female is white. As a duckling, she was a Blue. When she grew her adult feathering though, they all came in white. Same with her sister. Their brother was a black, and he retained those colours.

If ducks are anything like chickens, then you can't really achieve the best of both worlds as far as egg laying and meat goes.

Yeah, I'm not interested in having them lay constantly, since that's hard on their bodies. So I have no qualms with reduced egg production. I'd rather have healthy and long-lived stock at the cost of a few eggs and a bot of meat, than go to extremes.

I find it shameful what we've bred some species for.

Ultimately, yes, it's up to you and what you want from your flock. Good luck narrowing it down! I'm kind of in the same boat because I have somewhere in the vicinity of 50 Cochin bantams that I need to narrow down to something more like 15 for the winter.

Oh geez! That's one heck of a cull! I need to do the same with the Muscovy. I have 19 remaining babies from this year (sold some, yay!), and the males will be going to the freezer. I then have to hold back a bunch of females since I lost quite a few last Spring. I may try to sell some of them for a bit of extra cash. I just don't feel like processing so many! Not until I get a plucker.

 

[Canadian Wind]

I think two of my chickens got into something... Of course, it would be the cockerel I was planning on holding back and one of the prettier pullets. Both are having trouble staying up on their legs and walking. I have them in a separate pen right now and they seem a *bit* better? But it's been several days. No curled toes, just weakness/stiffness.

Gonna give them at least another week. If they don't get better, I'll probably have to cull...

 

[ShrekDawg]

Forgot to update but I did walk him lol just a short one but still.

 

[RebelFord81]

It's 46 here today im not going anywhere near the outdoors

 

[ShrekDawg]

It's 46 here today im not going anywhere near the outdoors

Was 56 this morning. 62 now. Supposed to get to 64. We’ll see.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I think I might sell A$$hole next spring before I let them nest. My old ee hen slipped in their pen when I was feeding and watering and she just went after her, ripping feathers and trying to grab her head with her bill. She just loathes chickens for some reason. I'm a bit nervous she would act the same with ducklings. I'm not sure why she acts that way though, she wasn't raised any differently than her siblings