Colorado

[cluckcluckgirl]

I've heard sudden death occurs more often in ducks that have lost their mates so if this man has a mate, you might lose her. How old was your drake?

Yeah, he had two "Lady Friends". He was 13 months old.

 

[coloradogal]

I hate that feeling of not knowing why.

Kitty, that will be a very nice coop.

All of my "Mayahans" are now laying. I have 2 green egg layers (yesterday) and 2 dark brown egg layers. Just an FYI!

Sweet! Are they darker olive eggs?

 

[samsr]

Yeah, he had two "Lady Friends". He was 13 months old.

I have a khaiki cambell and Ruan drake you can have so bothe the lady friends will have someone, if you would like. I got them from a friend a couple of weeks ago that was going to take them to a pond and let them go. I just couldnt see signing their death warrant like that. There are lots of predators and they cant fly, so they would not be able to get away from them. They are just over a year old. Probably about 15 months or so.

 

[coloradogal]

Yeah, he had two "Lady Friends". He was 13 months old.

and I have two pekings, one of which is a drake. Mine are just over a year now.

 

[Cellarrat1]

How wonderful for the duck that it passed while in loving arms. It could have been in the water alone. I love to think of the bright side of things. )

I was visiting an uncle decades ago... he had built a house to look like a castle (with a suit of armor on display in a turret-alcove). The pond was filled with friendly ducks that would come to us for a treat, and climb in your lap to snuggle. While I was petting one, it suddenly dropped dead. I felt like I had killed it somehow (I was 9, and had a huge guilt-complex, courtesy of my mom). 

Uncle said "it happens sometimes", and took it to the kitchen for butchering.

 

[suncatcher]

Quote: Wow, that is a long time to incubate. Hopefully they don't explode in the incubator if you have to keep them for 55+ days!!!! How are your new arrivals compared to your hatcher chicks. Can you see a difference in them yet?

 

[Mtn Margie]

Sweet! Are they darker olive eggs?

I have never had a green egg layer before, but they are very easy to tell from far away that they are green. I will try to get a picture in a few days. Assuming we don't lose power in the storm heading our way.......

 

[wsmith]

Got the porch and south side of the feed shed roof shingled. Tired. Taking a break.

 

[Pozees]

Wow, that is a long time to incubate. Hopefully they don't explode in the incubator if you have to keep them for 55+ days!!!! How are your new arrivals compared to your hatcher chicks. Can you see a difference in them yet?

Yes - The day olds have yellow down, which has me thrown, I emailed Tony and am awaiting his reply - I suspect this is possibly due to Light Sussex influence, or else it's just because the only SS I've ever seen before were hatchery birds and the SOP should look different at hatch. He sent 10 that are a week older, and the brown is coming in on them, as well as wing feathers of course, which look like SS feathers. I wish we didn't have so much to do, I'd slam on the brakes and start taking pictures, and maybe I'll steal a few minutes later on to do so, depends how the day goes. I'm backfilling the ditch we dug a few weeks ago to have the septic tank pumped, had to prune the Willow out back, it's already leafing out, and last weekend pruned the apple trees, probably a few weeks too late but better than mid-summer. Disinfected the now-emptied incubator so it's ready for new eggs this week.

I read on Natural Chicken Keeping that one person in California who had some failed hatches with shipped eggs took the advice of an OT and put the eggs into a cold incubator and let them and the incubator come to temperature at the same time, didn't activate the turner for a week, and added no water (as long as humidity didn't drop below 20%) until Day 18, when it was boosted to 60%. Thinking about trying it.

 

[suncatcher]

Quote: I am sure you have the right order, but SOP chicks look a lot different than the hatchery ones! I added two more MJ chicks (hatchery), and looking at them and the ones on the Java Club of American, so different. These have a ton of yellow, where the SOP ones are mostly black with just a yellow on their chest. They also look like two different kinds of chicks. I also wondered if the SOP were bigger in size and more vigorous???

Hope you get all your outside stuff done today while the sun is out!

Interesting on the shipped eggs in the incubator and how people have different luck with different ways of doing it. Hope the new way works for you! IDK what to tell you as I have had NO luck in shipped eggs.