Colorado

[Double Kindness]

I adore my brinsea ecoglow50 brooder heater plate thingy. I think they don't get pasty butt under the broody or the brinsea because they don't get too hot.

I'm now looking for quiet duck breeds for good egg production, help? I have muscovies, but they are more for meat and not egg production my bf said he'd build me new coops and pens for them.

Our 2 bee packages arrive April 25th, we're so excited!

Well I'm off to get cleaning out all the chicken and duck pens and coops now most the snow has melted.

I might be adding ccl to my flocks too, because I just adore blue eggs

 

[Ashdoes]

Runners were super fun to have. They don't want water as much as other breeds, because of their upright stance, which makes them even cuter. metzerfarms.com is where I did my research, and purchase for ducks. They were fantastic. I loved having the ducks, but they are just too messy for our liking.

 

[Ashdoes]

I haaaaate the time change! Just had to get that out.
Tomorrow is lockdown on our eggs. We are super excited, and have the brooder all set up. I have to do a final count, two of the SFH eggs quit about four days ago, but we have at least half left.
Our next set of eggs will go in three weeks from the Cinnamon Queens arrival.

 

[COChix]

WOW nice turn around for him. I would not have thought he was the same bird.

Thanks, funny I didn't really notice how dramatically his appearance changed over that time, until I was looking through pictures.

He's looking good! I always love seeing everyone's gigantic roosters.

It was so nice today, I tried free ranging with my flock a few hours after I got home from a bird swap. It was pretty hilarious. No one wanted to walk out of the doorway of the run until I took Penelope out & placed her down outside the run. Apparently, that made it okay for everyone else to venture out.

They didn't stay out or venture very far before they put themselves back in the run (Athena had to lay her egg, so I guess that meant everyone else needed to be there for moral support), but it was nice to let them check stuff out & expand their world a little bit. I'd like to be able to do this more often when the weather turns spring/summer. I'd like to quit my job & just watch them wander around outside with the dogs & ponies all day.

Thanks on the comment on Rocco, I am glad he is looking and staring to feel a bit better. I don't know why but whenever I see pics of Ody and the girls, I get a huge grin from ear to ear. His size is just super cute and then to see th girls with their feathers on their heads just makes me chuckle everytime. Super cute flock. Oh and hanging with the gang during free range time is one of my favs. Allows for great observations to flock dynamics.

 

[Double Kindness]

The lumber for the raised beds and duck pen are being delivered Wednesday!

So yeah.. runner ducks are on my list, and my bf just said I can get turkey chicks too to help vaccines against Marek and to eat at thanksgiving which means I better get a plucker!!

Does anyone local have cayuga and runner ducks, cortunix quails and or turkey chicks?

 

[Mtn Margie]

I will have medium sized Cortunix eggs here in a bit if you want to hatch them out and samsr has quail and also costeveo. If you want quail babies, it will be probably a month or so on my end but you could pm these two. I think costeveo has an all year type set-up, so he may have critters and eggs as we type.

 

[21hens-incharge]

UGH. Home sick today. Nice weather and I am sick, bummer.

So my plan since I do not need 23 new hens was to sell the extras. Last night DH informed me I could not sell any of the BO. I am ok with that. Then he says I cannot sell any of the Brahma. Sigh.
Then he says he likes the EE that is white so I should keep her. Goes on to tell me he likes the little Iowa Blues and the PR.

That is not what I expected..... I am not selling the BA so he will just have to accept that.

This means I am pretty much keeping them all.

Not what I intended. I have already sold (ish) 3 PR and the beardless EE. They want me to brood them to about 9 weeks old while they get a coop built and I am good with that since they also agreed to the price of 15 a bird.

If that falls through I guess I better add a couple more roosts to the coop.


Uzi,
Cool pics of the crew you got there. Nice that they finally stepped out and had some fun.

Ash,
I totally agree with hating the time change. I wish they would just pick one and stick with it. It is not like we can dig into this "savings" and use an hour or two when there has not been enough light to get everything done.
Good wishes with the hatch you have going on. Cannot wait for pics.

DK
The best ducks I ever had for being nice and quiet and laying well were my cayuga. Really interesting color in the beginning of spring and got lighter toward the fall. Mine started the spring with charcoal almost black eggs. Freaked people out for sure but was very cool. I have not seen any for sale lately though.

 

[Double Kindness]

See.. now I MUST get cayuga ducks! It's no secret i have a thing for black birds! Much less the possibility of black eggs.

Do you have any hatching eggs for sale?

 

[21hens-incharge]

I no longer have the ducks. I wish I did. DH is against me getting any, I had to give mine away when we moved to town. Having birds in town then was illegal.
I do know that some of the feed stores get them in close to Easter. Not exactly a good answer at all I know.

Meyer has some available but you would need to act soon since they show only one ship date available before April.

I wish I had a better answer for you for sure.


edited to add:
Metzer has the same date available and a little lower cost per bird.

I also really like the black birds.

 

[maggiemo]

I have a list of birds coming in to Jax's in Lafayette and it says that they are getting Cayuga ducks in on April 3rd. They let you reserve them.