Colorado

[suncatcher]

Congrats on your local Production Reds all hatching! Did your cabinet incubator arrive yet? Not hatching any here, too cold and egg laying is still hit or miss..........

 

[Mtn Margie]

Burrrrr! No hatching here but starting to get more eggs and some blue ones too. This fall has just been hard on the chooks up here for what ever reason. Haven't lost any, but they sure hunkered down and just took care of the business of fattening up and staying warm. 6 inches of snow and 18 degrees - no wind at the moment. Happy Hatching!

 

[jime]

Hey guys, been awhile since I posted, but I've been thinking about getting muscovy, does anyone know if they do fine by themselves with the chickens or is it best to get a pair? Will they be quieter if they are paired? Can't find anything on this information.
Thank you!

I have Muscovy, they are great, I keep them with my chickens, they don't like water as much as the other ducks, they are really friendly, I has a few until I left to Canada for holidays and the pet sitter was not on time to close my animals and Mrs. fox got a fest with my animals (ducks and chickens included), now I am only left with three males.
They do fine been just one but need to be around the chickens, other wise you will end up with a puppy that looks like a muscovy, at least that is my experience with mine.

 

[Pozees]

Congrats on your local Production Reds all hatching! Did your cabinet incubator arrive yet? Not hatching any here, too cold and egg laying is still hit or miss..........

Thanks No, no incubator delivery yet, I was hoping it would be here yesterday, maybe Monday. I'll set today's eggs in the tabletops and then move to the cabinet once it's set up and stabilized.

 

[chlskt]

Thanks Jime. We ended up getting a pair. They are doing well, keeping away from the chickens, and hissing at me if I get to close, but I'm still hopeful they'll get better with me over time. Been trying to give them treats to bribe them lol.

 

[jime]

Muscovy ducks will fly if they need to but: The boys are too big to even get high up and the girls are really attach to the farm/house or humans to even leave.The girls are great moms mine hatch 21 babies in one, then 17, and then just two because I only gave her 2 eggs,all this in the spring and fall.Sadly I have no girls any more after the visit I got.


Now I am not even gonna try to post because I can not remember who say what but I guess I need to talked a bit some chicken here, I was 3 weeks with city people now I miss my chicken talk, hope you guys don't mind.


-I will have some mottled d'uccles hatching eggs by March of April they came from wwimicasa1, I only have a pair left (after the visit) but I am getting two more pullets from Lynne.

-The brooders:
I have try the rubber maid containers, the play pens, a wood frame thing with wire and just loose in the barn with a fence to keep them contain, they all work but I find each is good for different stages.I use sand on the floor and I love it, easy to clean and not so much mess but I have them in the barn so dust is not an issue, The fist two weeks I use paper towels on top of puppy training pads (inside the house) then i transfer to sand and finally when they are in the barn all loose I change for wood shavings and now in winter straw.

-I have the 3 ecco glow 20 and love them, I have each one in a different level so i just need to change them once the chicks don't fit under, and the last stage they will fit and if not they will just put their bums in there or others will just lay on top of the echo.I love them.
But in winter and in the barn they are not able to keep the chicks warm.


-I purchased a dickey's incubator last year Sep, and I did not have a good experience with it , I lost every single one of my eggs, so this year I am gonna practice again but if I don't get it I guess I will be selling it and with the money getting me more brinsea ones or even a R-Com incubator.
I ma gonna try to get the temperature lower and play a bit with humidity and see what happens but I am not gonna loose more eggs on that, so if some body want a really nice build incubator maybe this will be your chance.


- Now for the silky expert I got 3 pullets and 1 boy (that was suppose to be a girl) the colours are silver birchen pullet ,black birchen pullet, splash pullet and a buff blue cockerel.
I know nothing about silkies I only got them for broodiness (after my bad experience with the big incubator), so since I have a boy will the babies be any kind of colour or I will have decent colouring I don't want to get a house full of silkies because no body want them after the terrible colouring.
Do I need to get another boy of specific colour and get rid of this pretty boy I was thinking that I can use a black at least with the splash girl and then I will get the black/blue/splash going on but what about the birches and the but boy what do I need for those. They are Hattrick and Hinckley lines.

 

[trsturself]

no egg setting here yet. I'll be out of town 2-3 almost every week this month. I don't trust DD or DH to remember to turn the eggs or watch the temps for me so I'm waiting until the end of the month to hatch my first batch. I'll be doing some backyard mixes first. I think she has cochin and EE roos over cochin, EE, and some wyandotte hens.

It's 19deg and snowing here. I don't expect the girls to be coming out of the enclosed area today. After seeing them staying in there in bad weather we have decided to expand their enclosed area (it's 40sqft but was intended for 4 chickens not 10!). We started getting things ready yesterday when it was 60deg out but didn't have time to get it built before this storm hit.

Here is their coop (on the left) and their current pen. It's wrapped in plastic right now to keep the snow and wind out. This is looking at the front side of the coop with the door. On the ground you can see the wood, that's where the pen will get extended to.



This view is from the main gate of their whole area.You can see we'll be doubling the width of the pen. Yes, those are my neighbors houses in the background of both pics. We live in suburbia (for now at least)!
This tree is the one the hawk was sitting in after it tried to carry off our smallest chick. That was before the netting that's up now. There are still a few holes in our netting as you can see in the above pic above the pen. Luckily this will get closed off after this extension because we are making the new part taller than the old part so it will fill in this hole.

 

[jime]

Thanks Jime. We ended up getting a pair. They are doing well, keeping away from the chickens, and hissing at me if I get to close, but I'm still hopeful they'll get better with me over time. Been trying to give them treats to bribe them lol.

The hissing is normal, if the head feather go up then they are mad, and if you get the tail wagging then you are perfect.
Are you sure you got a pair? boys hiss girls make little noises.The girls will hiss but will be accompany buy a noise as well so check for that little extra sound, is there a difference in legs size by now the difference in legs has to be really big specially if they are the same age, and the size should be lots different too.
I am not expert with this ducks in my country are pretty much the only ducks we have so I am kind of familiar, but here I found some variations: now you can get some with little less caruncles witch will make difficult the sexing since boys are suppose to have lots of that and girls not much.By your pic I will say they are girls because of their face but there is the caruncle problem.
If you get two boys they will be fine they fight everyone in a while but for most of the time they are best of friend, if you get two girls the better you will be able to hatch tons of chicks, and ducking when you get a boy muscovy.And if it is for sure a pair then you are in heaven jut need to get eggs of the special colours you like and you are set to go.
Like I say they don't need much water just ned to clean their nostrils, and they are great foragers and love flies and mosquitoes.
You will really like this ducks.

 

[chlskt]

I think they are a boy and girl. Groom what I read about their legs, the boy one has thicker legs and they are farther apart then the girl. Their hair does stand up when I get too close, but I just got them 4 days ago so I expect it'll take some time to get to know me.
They are only about 5 1/2 months old, so maybe to young for the caruncle to be big yet? I'm sure if they end up being 2 females I can swap one out, but I think for now I'm ok. We'll see as they age. I'm pretty sure they are a pair. Thanks for all your help. I'll keep you up to date.

 

[teep]

I set the first batch of 30 last week. Fired up the Humidaire and now I need eggs...LOTS of eggs!! Its cold, snowing and blowing like crazy, but chick orders start up the middle of February, so I'm going for it! I try to do primarily COLORADO eggs. The chicks are just so hardy. Let me know if anyone has eggs!!