Debbie's Silkies

[Mother of Chaos]

This thread was intended for my silkie breeding adventures, but since we were semi-forced into these two ducks, they've become a joy to both of us.

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They were moved from a chick-grow-out pen with two hens in it to a grand new place nearly two weeks ago, and they've been locked in ever since, until today.
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They got out today. They found chickens again!

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It came time to go to bed, and I figured they'd never do it on the first night, as chicks and chickens take a few days.

They came for the door.
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The first one took a shortcut.
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Then the other couldn't figure it out and went around, then came back and eyeballed it. Got it!
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Mission accomplished! They were sure happy, and so was I!

@Jenbirdee, I wanted you to see that you've been some inspiration to me, that we could do this duck thing!

They’re beautiful!

Google Image says that they’re buff ducks. Did they get this right?

I know zippo about ducks.

 

[Debbie292d]

They’re beautiful!

Google Image says that they’re buff ducks. Did they get this right?

I know zippo about ducks.

Oh, I didn't say the breed in that post I see. Doh! Yes, they are Buff Orpington ducks. I had never heard of them, just Buff Orpington chickens.

We've not raised ducks before this, since I was a kid, and then it was mallards, so this was very new to us.

Jenbirdee was a great help. I had read her posts for years, so I was learning and didn't realize it!

 

[Debbie292d]

What happened today, I couldn't just post here. I had to share it here for others: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...nd-accepts-4-week-old-chicks-instead.1668458/

 

[Debbie292d]

A whole lot of peach-looking chicks! Most are from the buff pen and a few red pyle.

One of my latest ventures is to try to breed the cuckoo out of the buffs and get a good couple of good clean buffs. I have one purely buff hen, so I'll save a couple that are in that pile of fuzz that seem to be purely buff. I'll have @2ndTink DNA sex a couple for me that I choose, so I'll be sure to have at least one hen and a roo.

In the incubator(s) are some buff eggs I purchased...yes, I did it again! So we'll see what those look like, and I might change my mind on what I keep.

There are also chocolate paints in there, so I'll figure out what I'm doing with the B&W paints, as they haven't been hugely successful, albeit I get a couple of good ones now and then.



I've never seen a "three-eyed" silkie, so I kept this one for now.

I've got @2ndTink's eggs coming any day, so that's going to be fun seeing a few different breeds, and I should get a few from her beautiful silkies. They are stuck in transit, so hoping they make it in one piece!

I had a rule about not keeping any chicks after July 1. The reason being was wanting them to be 5 months old before winter hits. I think as the years go by we've modernized enough that chicks even three months old could be in one of our growout pens over winter quite safely. Thus, I'll officially change my rule to not keeping chicks past August 1.

Rules were meant for changing, right?

 

[Debbie292d]

@BoundlessLove got me inspired to take a picture of our two ducks this morning, so here they are:

They usually fly the distance from their duck house to the house first thing in the morning. I guess that bucket of water and scraps we toss out the back door are worthy of a first look by them.

They don't use their pond though. It now has algae in it. They used it before and kept the algae off of it. Not sure why they don't like it anymore. They still haven't figured out we have a creek either. They just hang around in our yard free ranging just like the chickens. That's cool though!

I've had some bad luck with shipped eggs, so trying to find some things to be thankful for with my chicken ventures.

These 7 are still in the house. Two, a gray and a white one are two that hatched from 16 eggs shipped. They're about two weeks old. The tall buff one, is one of ours that had a disconnected hip or something. Its legs would do the literal splits, way worse than the usual splayed legs that take a few days to correct.

After weeks of therapy, leg bindings with vet wrap and rubber bands, it now seems almost normal. It still walks a tish weird, but at least it walks! He/she happens to be a great buff I'd keep anyway!

Before:


After, with the other six:

In the Four Seasons pen are others we're keeping. There's 3 hens in sight, those are sold. There are two mottled, two paints, two partridges, and some whites, one of which I think will be lemon and the other I'm not sure, as it was silver.

I have to check the settings on my phone camera as this picture looks like the fence is collapsed. It's not. Weird!

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with what we've kept and have growing up around here. Next year will be even more fun than this one has been!