Eastern Tennessee Thread

[grawg]

I was thinking about duck too! Do they free range in the day and come roost in a pen at night? Cause Not much would survive here unprotected at night. I have too many critters including a pack of coyotes.

Well... how to answer that, without writing three pages on duck species, class, and breed and the behaviors more or less common with each

My flock is a indian runner and khaki campbell that have a 1000sq daytime pen. I can fairly easily herd them in at night and they are locked up in a duck house, but that wasn't always the case.

Dabbler ducks don't roost, they just stay on the house floor. Muscovy ducks will roost, but usually the drakes are too heavy to fly. Another thing to keep in mind is muscovy duck are as different from the mallard breeds as horses are from donkeys. They can breed on occasion but the offspring is a sterile "mule" duck.

If you want really good answers, ask the questions in the duck forums. There are some folks over there that are very knowledgeable on raising ducks. I'm still learning as I go as this is my first year with poultry of any kind.

 

[chigger bait]

When I lived and worked on the Eastern Shore of Maryland alot of the locals had large flocks of Muscovy ducks that they would fatten on whole shell corn an then sell to folks for Christmas dinner.

 

[bairo]

looks like the little back up cooler bator is going to work fine. One out this morning before I even noticed any shell pipping. Broadcasting live now

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chicktv

 

[TNChick82]

@Bario
So you have 2 that hatched? I just went to the live broadcast. My connection is to slow. My hubby thought the cooler idea was great.

 

[NellaBean]

My little barn cats are doing well. They cornered a possum in the garage/barn area last night....same stupid old possum who killed a chicken here a couple years ago and that I've never been able to track down. My neighbor came over and killed him for me. Good kitties!

 

[bairo]

@Bario
So you have 2 that hatched? I just went to the live broadcast. My connection is to slow. My hubby thought the cooler idea was great.

I'm not broadcasting 24/7 (need my computer, lol) we start when we see some action basically. We have 3 now. 1st at 11:30 am on Friday and two Sat. early afternoon. 2 more have been pipped since sat. am. but no more action. Getting kind of worried about the rest. the live channel has a recorded video of #2 that plays when we are not broadcasting. That cooler was supposed to be a small backup for us, but I am going to take it apart after this hatch and build another big one. I modified a 1940's floor brooder plan to include an incubator space above and the brooder below. I'll try to post some pics and/or plans of that one when I get it built. It will be a beast...probably 2x4. it's a very different design with the light parallel to the floor.

 

[bairo]

My little barn cats are doing well. They cornered a possum in the garage/barn area last night....same stupid old possum who killed a chicken here a couple years ago and that I've never been able to track down. My neighbor came over and killed him for me. Good kitties!

 

[stanglover2001]

Thanks TNChick721 for the hens! They look good! Nice to meet fellow BYCers!

So, today found out definitely have baby bunnies due in 9 days!!! My first litter of Mini Lops!! SO EXCITED!!

Gonna start collecting eggs from my BLRW to do a test hatch, they'll go to incubator on the 6th.

 

[NellaBean]

Congrats on the baby bunnies!

I had 3 does kindle today....2 live babies each. Have 1 doe due tomorrow and then no more til February LOL. 6 due in February so far. Planning to breed a few tomorrow.....

I might have 30 babies under 5 weeks right now. Maybe. You can't prove anything. LOL

 

[NellaBean]

One of my netherland dwarf babies.