Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

Hey guys thanks for the advice. I am going to see if I can find some day old chicks in the next few days before I take her eggs away. I have read through some of these postings and you guys seem to have a good time. We have 8 kids and a bunch of animals on our ranch near rose hill. I especially love the birds and hope to find some more through this website. I do have a question about our silver appleyard ducks our hen hatched out along with one sussex and one blue laced red wyandotte (we started the duck eggs in the incubator a week before adding the chicken eggs). Are these girls or boys?

We also have a pair of sebastopol geese, 5 chickens, 14 goats, and 10 cows. We definately need more birds! Thanks again!

Ed

We have some duck experts on here, I'll let them answer you! I have no clue! LOL But those are some beautiful birds!! Sounds like you have quite the farm with 8 kids! You're not alone, there is another family here with 8 too! Are you all in 4-H? Just wondering if you show your goats and cows. We're in 4-H and our county fair is coming up soon! We're excited!!!

 

[chicken danz]

Well the turkeys are here but lost some on the way. Whew! that box stunk! The hatchery was very nice and said they would credit me and any others I lost for 48 hours. I'm trying to find some sulfa to give them to deal with shipping stress. Most of them learned how to drink really fast and then fell asleep. I just put them in with the lavender and lemon cuckoo chicks until the are eating right. Turkeys sometimes need a little extra instruction plus it was very easy to clean the bin and plop them in there until I get something else set up for them. At this point they just look like white chicks with long legs and a little snoodle. Yes It has been less than 20 minutes since I put clean towels in there!

 

[ozarkflyer1974]

We have some duck experts on here, I'll let them answer you! I have no clue! LOL But those are some beautiful birds!! Sounds like you have quite the farm with 8 kids! You're not alone, there is another family here with 8 too! Are you all in 4-H? Just wondering if you show your goats and cows. We're in 4-H and our county fair is coming up soon! We're excited!!!

LOL The kids have been wanting to try 4h, but we just got the goats this year and missed the deadline. Maybe next year, we will see. Do you know who we would contact in Wichita? We go to the state fair every year and the kids have a blast, what do you show?

 

[chicken danz]

Ozark flyer? How old are the ducks? When they get about 5 months old the boys will get a curly feather on top of their tail. If they are younger than that you can tell by their voices. Girls have loud voices and boys have more of a horse sounding lighter voice. If you pick them up and they yell it is pretty easy to tell. I couldnt see the tail feathers in the picture so I can't definitively answer from the photo.
You can also vent sex them which is much much easier when they are still babies.

 

[JosieChick]

Ozarkflyer- Welcome!! Cute ducks!

Danz- Very cute orps and turkeys! I love turkeys

and orps for that matter!

Hawkeye- All my broody girls have cold water in front of them right now, I don't want them to heat exhaust on their nests. I can't believe they are still sitting. I seriously debated on bringing them in the house but DH would kill me because he is really allergic to down and chicken dander! I put food in front of some of them and the hard cores get picked up and set on the ground once a day to stretch and have a potty break othewise they would wither away and die on those eggs!

Tweety- Ducks are filthy aren't they? I think you will be much happier with a kiddie pool you can dump and clean. We thought about burying a pond but I clean the darn pools out twice a day and can't imagine trying to filter out all the duck poo!

Trish- The chicks are wheaten/blue wheaten ameracuanas. I saw the parents and they all have slate legs BUT I think this one is going to have green legs. UGH! I think she may have a yellow leg recessive somewhere in her breeding pen that is causing this to pop up. Oh well. I will just keep the hens to lay and butcher the boys since I am not going to test breed them back and forth to see who is carrying the green leg creation gene!! I do have that one chick that I hatched that is looking pretty good too so maybe it will be a keeper.

Well my pea eggs are at the PO so I am off to pick those up then I have a mile long list of chores to do!

 

[ozarkflyer1974]

Ozark flyer? How old are the ducks? When they get about 5 months old the boys will get a curly feather on top of their tail. If they are younger than that you can tell by their voices. Girls have loud voices and boys have more of a horse sounding lighter voice. If you pick them up and they yell it is pretty easy to tell. I couldnt see the tail feathers in the picture so I can't definitively answer from the photo.
You can also vent sex them which is much much easier when they are still babies.

They are about 2 and a half months old. I read that you can tell by their voices, but since all these are the same sex I dont have anything to compare them too. Boy and girl silver appleyards look totally different, but every picture I have seen doesnt say which is the boys and which are the girls. Just shows one of each. They do make a racket when I pick them up so I think they are girls. Thanks for the help

 

[Hawkeye95]

LOL The kids have been wanting to try 4h, but we just got the goats this year and missed the deadline. Maybe next year, we will see. Do you know who we would contact in Wichita? We go to the state fair every year and the kids have a blast, what do you show?

The Sedgwick County Extension office also houses the 4-H office! The building there on 21st (across from the Warren Theater) has a 4H Hall where all the meeting rooms are in for more general purposes. Most clubs try to do most of their projects as groups near their home town. But on ocassion, you will want to check out the larger groups, or they will have general information meeting that will tell you everything you need to know. The ladies are VERY nice and helpful! The Sedg office number is: 316-660-0100 Just tell them that you are wanting the 4-H office and they will direct your call there. THEN, tell the 4-H ladies where you live and you want a 4-H club that is nearby. They should give you a couple of clubs nearby and you can choose from those! They can also tell you maybe which group is more into what you are doing. We are showing poultry and foods. We are in other projects, but aren't showing them at the fair. You are only required to show ONE project at the fair.... but you can do more than one if you want to! The Sedgwick county fair is in Cheney, KS on July 11-14th at the Sedgwick County Fairgrounds there. There is judging every day-- first day is the arts and crafts, Foods, Calfs, steer and swine weigh in, and then Thursday really kicks in with most of the judging from there on out-- Thursday is the poultry judging, Beef, textiles, photography, meat goats, and on and on.. that is a BIG day. If you picked one day to go-- I'd do that one.

Well the turkeys are here but lost some on the way. Whew! that box stunk! The hatchery was very nice and said they would credit me and any others I lost for 48 hours. I'm trying to find some sulfa to give them to deal with shipping stress. Most of them learned how to drink really fast and then fell asleep. I just put them in with the lavender and lemon cuckoo chicks until the are eating right. Turkeys sometimes need a little extra instruction plus it was very easy to clean the bin and plop them in there until I get something else set up for them. At this point they just look like white chicks with long legs and a little snoodle. Yes It has been less than 20 minutes since I put clean towels in there!

Sorry about your turkey losses. That is sad. But look at all these little beauties!! These guys look great!! They are so pretty!

Hawkeye- All my broody girls have cold water in front of them right now, I don't want them to heat exhaust on their nests. I can't believe they are still sitting. I seriously debated on bringing them in the house but DH would kill me because he is really allergic to down and chicken dander! I put food in front of some of them and the hard cores get picked up and set on the ground once a day to stretch and have a potty break othewise they would wither away and die on those eggs!


Well my pea eggs are at the PO so I am off to pick those up then I have a mile long list of chores to do!

Yes-- my broody would have died, she was so dumb or determined, I don't know which. Good luck with those pea eggs!!! YAY!!!!

 

[srd5757]

Hawkeye - I currently have a broody that isn't getting up on her own. Everyone says she's prolly up when you aren't seeing her, but I have her in a wire cage w/ next box, water, food, and a lil room to strech... so I would see if she had pooped... wouldn't be any missing that. Even when I take her off she will stand and drink for 5 mins or so, then go dust bath and maybe peck at the ground there a little but hasn't touched the food. And I watch when I take her out... I'm worried she isn't eating at all... but not much I can do. Even offered her scrambled eggs!

 

[prairie]

Ed,
I love your ducks!! I believe that male ducks have a curled tail while the females don't -- but Danz or some of the others are more expert at this than I. We have 2 Ancona males and 2 females

 

[HEChicken]

Hawkeye - I currently have a broody that isn't getting up on her own. Everyone says she's prolly up when you aren't seeing her, but I have her in a wire cage w/ next box, water, food, and a lil room to strech... so I would see if she had pooped... wouldn't be any missing that. Even when I take her off she will stand and drink for 5 mins or so, then go dust bath and maybe peck at the ground there a little but hasn't touched the food. And I watch when I take her out... I'm worried she isn't eating at all... but not much I can do. Even offered her scrambled eggs!

Yeah, they don't seem that interested in food when they are brooding - unlike us women when we're pregnant, huh! My first broody was last August and I believe the temperature was in the triple digits for every single day of incubation. I had her little broody coop set where it was in shade all day under the eaves of the house and she really never seemed that distressed. I only saw her off the nest 3-4 times in 3 weeks. And, each time it was when I stuck my head out the back door. As soon as she saw me - even if I wasn't heading her direction - she double-timed it back to her nest like she felt guilty she'd been caught taking a break or something. I figured she must be taking breaks other times when I didn't see her because she really didn't lose much condition.

My Mama Sultan on the other hand, set her eggs in a location that was difficult for me to access. One other hen used to get up there every day to lay her egg, and that would kick the Sultan off so I saw her off almost every day. She would have a LOT to drink, get something to eat and even take a dustbath while waiting for the other hen to get done laying her egg, so I really didn't have to worry about her.

Prairie - how is your auto door working now you've had it installed for a few days?