Consolidated Kansas

[lizzyGSR]

Duck people, I have another question for you. My niece has two males she got this spring. Her mother says they can't add ducks because she was told by the lady at Tractor Supply that you can't add ducks to an already existing flock (is flock the right word?) and you can't mix flocks. Sounds odd to me, but what do I know about ducks?

It is not true that you can't mix flocks. I've done it twice this year. I originally got two pekins from Orschelns. Both turned out to be males, so I got 4 females, a duckling, and a gosling from my DH's grandmother. I kept the two young birds separate for a while 'till they got big enough to defend themselves and then added them to the flock. Then, just this last weekend, I got 5 khaki campbells. If you get more birds, you should make sure to keep them locked up for 2 weeks to give them a chance to know where home is. I would suggest separating the new birds from the old for at least a couple of days until they can get used to each other so the new birds don't get picked on. I would also suggest getting multiple new birds at a time, to prevent one bird from getting picked on. It is a good idea to quarantine the new birds anyway to make sure that you won't be introducing any illnesses to your existing birds. With the khakis I just got, I TRIED to quarantine them, but they kept squeezing through my barriers and getting in with the other birds.

I need to learn about ducks.. I read that you can't mix breeds - anyone know if that is true or not? I have a large lagoon and would like to keep about 6-10 ducks in there to keep down weeds and eat some bugs.

I'm starting to wonder what I'm going to do with these 3 little ducks with the evening temperatures getting on the chilly side. I've not purchased a heat lamp yet and not really crazy on the idea of having such a fire hazard running all night while I'm sleeping. I think I may just put them in my bathtub and use the spare one I have for a few weeks...

It is NOT true that you can't mix duck breeds. You CAN mix them. I have a mixed-breed flock right now: 1 rouen, 2 swedish, 5 khakis, 1 swedish cross and a goose. They all do very well together.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

It is not true that you can't mix flocks. I've done it twice this year. I originally got two pekins from Orschelns. Both turned out to be males, so I got 4 females, a duckling, and a gosling from my DH's grandmother. I kept the two young birds separate for a while 'till they got big enough to defend themselves and then added them to the flock. Then, just this last weekend, I got 5 khaki campbells. If you get more birds, you should make sure to keep them locked up for 2 weeks to give them a chance to know where home is. I would suggest separating the new birds from the old for at least a couple of days until they can get used to each other so the new birds don't get picked on. I would also suggest getting multiple new birds at a time, to prevent one bird from getting picked on. It is a good idea to quarantine the new birds anyway to make sure that you won't be introducing any illnesses to your existing birds. With the khakis I just got, I TRIED to quarantine them, but they kept squeezing through my barriers and getting in with the other birds.
It is NOT true that you can't mix duck breeds. You CAN mix them. I have a mixed-breed flock right now: 1 rouen, 2 swedish, 5 khakis, 1 swedish cross and a goose. They all do very well together.

The only thing I would add to this is in regards to muscovies. They are geneticly different than any of the mallard derivity domestic ducks. They will still mix with the other ducks, but the drakes are a lot bigger than most of the ducks and if you get any hybrid ducklings they will be sterile. Think donkey/horse = mule. Not necessarily a bad thing, just something to be aware of. I still have two mules that are several years old and enjoy their antics.

 

[Hawkeye95]

The thing with Silkies is that they can make drastic changes. Really great starts can peter out or end up messy show-ers. Late bloomers abound here, but band checks confirm. We hold them more for longer periods than any other breed.

I may know one person with blue partridge I can check with, but I think they are showgirls. We don't do that color.

KAHD is the Kansas Animal Health Dept. Maybe since I'm not being heard, they'll be listened to. We've been to huge shows with thousands of birds without issue. Playing musical cages is just not done and shouldn't be, sick or not. You just don't do it. They're just asking for a major outbreak of something and this needs addressed. Medicating the entire barn shouldn't be necessary. I don't see the fair itself as the problem, we've been before without this craziness going on. Staff this year has really dropped the ball and I blame them entirely. And with vets on hand, why was nothing done besides pulling and putting under a heat lamp. Shouldn't they at least have done a necropsy to determine potential threat to the rest of the stock?

The Frost was "gifted" to my niece since we have no plans for her beyond eye candy. The white (rasberry blue, cough, cough) hen and all the blues belong to my middle daughter. The nice black belongs to my youngest. The white pullet across the way isn't terrible, but the others???? Especially don't know what the owner of the white boy was thinking.

Those are my DDs best blue show-ers, so we've got to get breeding again this week just in case. My DS is a little ticked about some he took, but grateful for others he decided at the last minute to keep at home. Because of their rarity, I don't want to lose the youngest's Porcelain, but she's going to pursue a different breed for next year. We had planned to go to Sedalia, but now will have to see how this all plays out while we start hatching like crazy.

State Fair has the worst website ever and their entry stuff has been messed up like that for at least 3 years that I know of. Silkies have Bearded White or Black and Non-Bearded White or Black. Your only other option is Non-Bearded AOV. There was a similar issue with DD's booted bantam. I imagine there are other crazy things like that for other breeds too. One of the judges said he thought a lot of the exhibitors were a bit off until someone explained.

It's amazing how the scruffy little chicks can turn out so beautiful in the end, though. They look so ugly when they get in all of those pin feathers and then the next thing you know, they have big beautiful and full crests and it just happened so fast! I've been fairly happy with my hatchings, but not too thrilled with the shipped eggs I got. I did better with my own birds. The shipped eggs ended up having some issues on some of them, and their crests are nearly as large as my own birds. You really do have to wait a good 5-6 months of age before you can really start to judge what kind of quality of bird you have with these silkies. They are tough to nail down before that. They can really swing one way or the other and then back again. I LOVE your frost! I wouldn't mind having that as a project, but I've already decided if I'm going to do a project, it's going to be Columbians. I think Porcelian is beautiful!! Where did you get yours from? I know there is still the running debate on whether to call them Isabel instead, but regardless of the name, I like the soft coloring they have. I want to get a set of black hatching eggs from Destiny-- she raises black on black with NO splits! I still really like the BBS colors, so that is what I'm going to stick with. I don't have enough room to expand out into other colors! ha! Good luck on your hatching, that is exciting! Are you breeding blues in with your splash, or are you doing Blue X Blue? I am breeding blues and splash together. I have been getting VERY dark blues this way. They almost look black. I really like their color. But I also like the lighter blues, too. I have some lighter ones that pop out of those breedings as well-- but not as many. You said you've been to really large shows-- where!! I want to do the Kansas Classic and then...??? Where are the really large ones you speak of? If it's on the weekend, I'd travel to do it. Maybe we could meet up!

Oh and question-- what medication are they treating the whole barn with now down at the fair??? I would LOVE to know what their go-to drug of choice is. Or if they just choose the cheapest... like Duramycin or something of the like.

Thanks chicken danz. About me, well, we have lots of kids and too many chickens too count. We've pretty much always had chickens just for laying eggs. We would buy some here and there or take some that someone had to give and we just love them all. We've hatched a few at times under a lightbulb for fun with excellent hatch rates. This summer we started with a lightbulb and decided instead of buying more chicks we would hatch, so I bought a little incubator instead. We have had so much fun, I love it and I can't seem to stop. So... all of our chickens are sort of mutts and that's fine with me. I can't tell who's boys and who's girls and I really do need to figure that out. I have chicks in several stages in different places and we are in the process of building another coop. We tried counting yesterday, I have 30ish hens/1 rooster from the old group, I have no idea how old they are but some of them have to be pretty old. We are only getting about 8 eggs per day. Then chicks from this summer, there were 6, then 16, then 10, then 25 and more will be hatching this week. We have 7 acres to expand on and a barn that is barely being used, I have heat lamps we purchased at a garage sale last year with extra bulbs that I'm hoping to put to good use. BTW...your silly peachick is adorable. I've never seen one before but it's just so cute! We have one chicken that I thought was just crazy because it kept getting stuck. We isolated it for a while then tried again to put it in with the others. Come to find out, the other chickens are chasing it and being mean to it. I can't figure out why. While we were in there trying to figure out better what was going on, it seems that this little chicken is just too tame. She followed us around where the others didn't, it would fly up onto us. When we walk out of the coop, it paces back and forth until the other chickens notice it again and go after it. I don't know what to think.

sunflowerparrot~ we keep chickens in our freezer for a year and even longer. If they're wrapped well they keep well. I don't look forward to having to harvest chickens but I know it's going to happen. Your little ducks are so sweet.

HEChicken, we've had chickens for many years and I have no idea what bumblefoot is. Shoes for chickens? I'd like to see what that is, just curious. Are they sewn? I sew, it is hard to sew tiny things. I can't imagine paying that for a chicken shoe though. The thought of chickens wearing shoes makes me giggle.

Well, I know I can't remember everything with everyone. The recipe sharing has been fun, I needed some extra motivation. Anyone do freezer cooking? I love cooking for later so I can have days where I don't need to be in the kitchen all day long. I always cook extra to put away for other times, but I also have 9 in our house every day, homeschooling keeps the kids home too so feeding everyone is always a big part of my day. It's late, I still have eggs to turn. Night.

Sounds like you've had some great luck hatching! It also sounds like you all have a lot of fun with your chickens, too. As for cooking-- i make a lot of casseroles and then I don't have to cook the next day. We eat half and then eat the other half the next day. But with so many people in your family, I'm sure you'd get thru an entire casserole pan in one night! I use the large 9 X 11 pans. You could double the recipes and freeze a pan and eat a pan, I guess.

I'm going up to meet the lady in Newton tomorrow to get my little male peachick, I can't wait to see him in person & get him home to meet my peahens. They're exactly the same age, so I think it will work out well. I never have heard from the other one with the yearling, so I have given up on her catching him & at this point I really don't care since I found this one at a better age. Maybe next year I will just order some opal peachicks in the spring when the peafowl farms start hatching again. I wouldn't mind having a trio of opal black shoulder, I think they're really pretty. Danz, the lady I'm getting this little cock from has a white peachick too, she was quick to tell me in her email since it was in the pics with the others that NO I couldn't have the white one. She has purples I think & blue besides the little white one. She said she hatched them from eggs she got from someone in Greensburg. I don't know what they will be like when they get out to free-range, but I can walk into their pen now & they come fairly close to see what I have brought in for them. I think even the females are pretty, mine are getting a lot of green on their necks now & I love their little feathers on their heads. I can't believe yours sits on your lap like that!

I want to see a picture of your new pea!! Be sure to post one! Cant wait to see what he looks like!

I need to learn about ducks.. I read that you can't mix breeds - anyone know if that is true or not? I have a large lagoon and would like to keep about 6-10 ducks in there to keep down weeds and eat some bugs.

I'm starting to wonder what I'm going to do with these 3 little ducks with the evening temperatures getting on the chilly side. I've not purchased a heat lamp yet and not really crazy on the idea of having such a fire hazard running all night while I'm sleeping. I think I may just put them in my bathtub and use the spare one I have for a few weeks...

Fern goes to the vet one week from today to be checked (she'll be sedated and probably spend the night...) I'm hoping the leg has healed and the splint will be ready to come off. Tomorrow morning is her last antibiotic and pain pill. Yay for progress!

I have wild ducks that live in my lagoon, but they don't keep the weeds down. There are 3 sets of pairs out there and they hatch babies. I still have to mow my lagoon pretty regularly anyway. Maybe geese would be better instead of ducks? Atwoods has pretty good deals on heat lamps. Hope Fern will be healed up!

 

[chicken danz]

Duck people, I have another question for you. My niece has two males she got this spring. Her mother says they can't add ducks because she was told by the lady at Tractor Supply that you can't add ducks to an already existing flock (is flock the right word?) and you can't mix flocks. Sounds odd to me, but what do I know about ducks?
I Mix ducks all the times. I have three breeds that run the yard. I mix babies in with larger ducklings, but not adults. The babies tend to follow the adults and get behind or lost and then you can loose them. I separate breeds for breeding season. When I am hatching eating eggs they all run together. I wish people in stores that sell chicks would do their research before they tell people a bunch of bunk. They probably get their information from some novice person who walks in the store and pretends to know what they are talking about. I've suggested to a couple clerks that they should do a little research and leave it at that.
Wouldn't you think if they are going to actively sell stuff they would at least try to learn about them from a reliable source?
Sorry! I didn't mean to get on a soapbox! Obviously I haven't had enough coffee yet this morning!

Thanks chicken danz. About me, well, we have lots of kids and too many chickens too count. We've pretty much always had chickens just for laying eggs. We would buy some here and there or take some that someone had to give and we just love them all. We've hatched a few at times under a lightbulb for fun with excellent hatch rates. This summer we started with a lightbulb and decided instead of buying more chicks we would hatch, so I bought a little incubator instead. We have had so much fun, I love it and I can't seem to stop. So... all of our chickens are sort of mutts and that's fine with me. I can't tell who's boys and who's girls and I really do need to figure that out. I have chicks in several stages in different places and we are in the process of building another coop. We tried counting yesterday, I have 30ish hens/1 rooster from the old group, I have no idea how old they are but some of them have to be pretty old. We are only getting about 8 eggs per day. Then chicks from this summer, there were 6, then 16, then 10, then 25 and more will be hatching this week. We have 7 acres to expand on and a barn that is barely being used, I have heat lamps we purchased at a garage sale last year with extra bulbs that I'm hoping to put to good use. BTW...your silly peachick is adorable. I've never seen one before but it's just so cute! We have one chicken that I thought was just crazy because it kept getting stuck. We isolated it for a while then tried again to put it in with the others. Come to find out, the other chickens are chasing it and being mean to it. I can't figure out why. While we were in there trying to figure out better what was going on, it seems that this little chicken is just too tame. She followed us around where the others didn't, it would fly up onto us. When we walk out of the coop, it paces back and forth until the other chickens notice it again and go after it. I don't know what to think.
Wow! You have you your hands full.Your family is almost as big as Karens's. Mixed breed chickens are the heartiest breeds around. I just sold near 175 of them. They lay the best eggs and suffer less sickness. If I didn't depend on chicks and hatching egg sales I would have kept them. My feed bill was getting, still is, rediculous. I still have several mongrells running around but most are from broody hens and they aren't tame.
Where do you live? I'd be glad to help you sex your birds if you are close. Sexing chicks is pretty easy when they get their feathers. Prior to that it is a guessing game unless they are a feather sexing type. I'm currently looking for a lighted magnifying mirror to use to vent sex with. I don't trust my old eyes to see good enough without it.
sunflowerparrot~ we keep chickens in our freezer for a year and even longer. If they're wrapped well they keep well. I don't look forward to having to harvest chickens but I know it's going to happen. Your little ducks are so sweet.
Everyone says you can't keep chicken frozen for very long but I do. I think the trick is making sure you have the air out of the container. I often double bag mine squeezing the air out. My son has one of those vacuum type food savers and it works wonders.
HEChicken, we've had chickens for many years and I have no idea what bumblefoot is. Shoes for chickens? I'd like to see what that is, just curious. Are they sewn? I sew, it is hard to sew tiny things. I can't imagine paying that for a chicken shoe though. The thought of chickens wearing shoes makes me giggle.
Me too! But I am guilty of diapering a duck!

I'm going up to meet the lady in Newton tomorrow to get my little male peachick, I can't wait to see him in person & get him home to meet my peahens. They're exactly the same age, so I think it will work out well. I never have heard from the other one with the yearling, so I have given up on her catching him & at this point I really don't care since I found this one at a better age. Maybe next year I will just order some opal peachicks in the spring when the peafowl farms start hatching again. I wouldn't mind having a trio of opal black shoulder, I think they're really pretty. Danz, the lady I'm getting this little cock from has a white peachick too, she was quick to tell me in her email since it was in the pics with the others that NO I couldn't have the white one. She has purples I think & blue besides the little white one. She said she hatched them from eggs she got from someone in Greensburg. I don't know what they will be like when they get out to free-range, but I can walk into their pen now & they come fairly close to see what I have brought in for them. I think even the females are pretty, mine are getting a lot of green on their necks now & I love their little feathers on their heads. I can't believe yours sits on your lap like that!
Trish, if you don't mind see if she can give you the info whom she got her eggs from. I would love to have some new contacts for next year. My two babies the hen is raising are doing great too by the way. (Knock on wood) The peahen is an excellent mom. It will be interesting to see what sex they are. I will probably end up selling them at some point.
Yeah this silly little white peachick is a card. I started to put him out in a pen yesterday and changed my mind. I got worried he would get chilled or something. I love the fact that he feels safe with me. I'm afraid that will end if he goes out into the peafowl world. Not that I desire having a full grown peacock wanting to sit on my lap but I would like him to stay tame. The babies out in the pen with the Mom run from me. Such a difference.
KarenS, those Speckled Sussex roos you have were those hatchery birds? I have a Speckled Sussex roo & he is starting to get a little more ornery than I would like. He has flogged me twice now in the last week or so, I have wounds on my left leg from him.
Wow! I can't imagine an ornery sussex. Mine is such a sweet boy. He is more cautious than the hens but never acts aggressive at all. Of course he came from Karen so that may be why. Mine isn't a very large rooster but he does the job and takes good care of his ladies.

I need to learn about ducks.. I read that you can't mix breeds - anyone know if that is true or not? I have a large lagoon and would like to keep about 6-10 ducks in there to keep down weeds and eat some bugs.

I'm starting to wonder what I'm going to do with these 3 little ducks with the evening temperatures getting on the chilly side. I've not purchased a heat lamp yet and not really crazy on the idea of having such a fire hazard running all night while I'm sleeping. I think I may just put them in my bathtub and use the spare one I have for a few weeks...
I have a simple box type shelter with a heat lamp hanging from the top. It is outside. I brood baby ducks in there year round. There is no floor and the heat lamp is hanging from a hook with a wire tie around it to hold it secure. No fire danger. Baby ducks only need heat for about 3 weeks especially if there are a few of them to keep each other warm.

Hawkeye, once again your daughter is a little cherub. Your chicks are adorable too so what a sweet combination!

 

[chicken danz]

Oh I forgot, Sunflower. Ducks like bugs better than greens. I would opt for geese as well for weed eating. Just be aware that lagoon water may not be totally healthy for them. If I were going to do that I would be sure to provide fresh water for drinking and supplemental food. Maybe a goat would be a better choice but they too would need supplemental food and water.

 

[michelleml]

Our rooster crowed for the first time today. My 3 years was so excited to hear him.

 

[michelleml]

Newest additions!

Sunflower those are cure ducklings what kind are they? I want some ducks but i think will wait till next year and things settle down around here

 

[checoukan]

Hmmm looks like I am about 100 pages behind! Oh, well, just have to start all over again.

 

[cherwill]

Our rooster crowed for the first time today. My 3 years was so excited to hear him.

Isn't it exciting?! I love all the firsts, and I still get a little thrill every day when I go get eggs.

Hawkeye, once again your daughter is a little cherub. Your chicks are adorable too so what a sweet combination!

Huh. This was the only part of your post that would quote! Anyway, I can't agree with you more about the woman at Tractor Supply. That's why I came here, because what she said made no sense to me. We've run into the same thing at Orscheln, where the guy in charge of the chick pens can't answer any questions about chickens. At least he says he doesn't know instead of making something up or passing along misinformation.

 

[Trish44]

checoukan, glad to see you back. I think there is someone interested in your OE you have listed on the KS Poultry Swap.

Well I'll be off to go get my little peacock in a couple of hours, I can't wait to see him! That will take up my afternoon driving there & then back, so when I get back from there I will have to get him settled in & do all of my chores so it will probably be dark before I'm done with all of that.

My DH & I managed to get the two GP pups stitches out awhile ago, so we don't have to load them into the car again, so that was a relief. They were healed pretty well except one spot Jasmine has that is still a little raw, so I sprayed some antiseptic on it. He did some kind of strange suturing, so it took me awhile to get all of it out, but we managed. They were really pretty good about it, I was surprised Jasmine laid so still, she just doesn't like being messed with usually. Lily you can do about whatever you want to her & she doesn't mind, but Jasmine is a different story.