How is your flock today?

[416bigbore]

Hello everyone, how are you and your Flocks this fine day?

We had a few nice dry days of weather finally and I was able to get a few things done around the place which was good. I am hoping the new weather forecast is wrong, because they are predicting four straight days of rain again!

Spring must have sprung, I had to separate the Drakes from the Hens because the boys were starting to get a little to aggressive with the girls. I was so at our one big Rouen Drake because he grabbed our little Mallard hen who is a 1/3 of his size by her neck feathers and started dragging her around as she was trying to get away from him.

Little d has no idea how close he come to being culled and invited for dinner, so It was time to separate them before anyone gets hurt. Our Drakes don't like it, but the girls seem to be much calmer not having the drakes chasing them around all day.

I have the spot picked out for the new coop and had hoped to start on that, but it's looking like another delay with the up coming rain. No worries, my to do list is still plenty long for other inside projects like starting the tomato and pepper seeds.

Our goat is getting close to having her first kid, so hoping that all goes smoothly and the weather decides to cooperate.

 

[Sally PB]

Bright sunshine now. That's always a good thing this time of year.

I shoveled a big pile of snow away from the side of the run, and it's much brighter in there now. Maybe that will inspire my third pullet to get back to work! She's had over 3 months off... She's the bottom of the pecking order, but she lays the biggest eggs, or did last season. Still nothing huge; we're still in the medium range so far. Hope that changes... I don't want to buy eggs anymore!

 

[416bigbore]

Bright sunshine now. That's always a good thing this time of year.

I shoveled a big pile of snow away from the side of the run, and it's much brighter in there now. Maybe that will inspire my third pullet to get back to work! She's had over 3 months off... She's the bottom of the pecking order, but she lays the biggest eggs, or did last season. Still nothing huge; we're still in the medium range so far. Hope that changes... I don't want to buy eggs anymore!

The sun is awesome, too many days of overcast is gloomy weather for everyone, we all need that natural vitamin D !

Maybe add a few ducks to your flock and your fresh egg supply with never shut down all at the same time. Our mixed flock of 4 Isa browns and 8 ducks have never given us an eggless day. We have had as many as 10 a day down to only 2, but never no eggs.

3 months with no egg from her, wow I would have never guessed a chicken would shut down for that long of time.

Hopefully this weather turns around for everyone in their parts of the country and we can all get started with spring.

 

[BlueBaby]

The sun is awesome, too many days of overcast is gloomy weather for everyone, we all need that natural vitamin D !

Maybe add a few ducks to your flock and your fresh egg supply with never shut down all at the same time. Our mixed flock of 4 Isa browns and 8 ducks have never given us an eggless day. We have had as many as 10 a day down to only 2, but never no eggs.

3 months with no egg from her, wow I would have never guessed a chicken would shut down for that long of time.

Hopefully this weather turns around for everyone in their parts of the country and we can all get started with spring.

What breed of duck's do you have?

 

[Sally PB]

I don't see getting any ducks in my future. I think the eggs taste kind of strong and gamey. And then later, they make me rather odiferous.

I do plant to get 3-4 more chicks this spring! Can't wait. Hoping for one of my girls to go broody and do the work for me.

Even though my girls are still pullets, they all went through a partial molt this fall/winter. I'm thinking of making some changes to their run too. I have heavy duty tarps as the roof, and even though it's silver, the run is dark. I put a rope of LED lights in there, but I don't know if that helped.

So I'm talking to hubby about putting polycarbonate sheets on the top of the run as the roof. In the summer, I can put the tarps on for shade.

 

[416bigbore]

@BlueBaby We started our flock with two small Mallard duckling hens from a private breeder. Then three weeks after we added ten unsexed Rouen/Pekin mixed breed ducklings.

It was fun to watch the ten ducklings mature and get their adult colors, we had no idea at the time of the drake to hen ratio. We ended up with four Drakes and six Hens, I knew the day would come to have to separate them to keep from over mating issues.

 

[BlueBaby]

@BlueBaby We started our flock with two small Mallard duckling hens from a private breeder. Then three weeks after we added ten unsexed Rouen/Pekin mixed breed ducklings.

It was fun to watch the ten ducklings mature and get their adult colors, we had no idea at the time of the drake to hen ratio. We ended up with four Drakes and six Hens, I knew the day would come to have to separate them to keep from over mating issues.

What size egg carton to you put those duck egg's in? There's another AZ. member and she has duck's and has been asking me if they would fit into the jumbo sized egg carton's. I don't have duck's, so I don't have any egg's here to try out to see.

 

[416bigbore]

@BlueBaby All we have been using for egg cartons is the empty store large eggs cartons and unless the egg is unusually large we haven't had any real issues with them fitting.

Our two smaller mallard hens do lay a smaller egg over the others, that I have noticed. I would guess there must be an egg size chart on the Forum someplace for all the different breeds.

 

[BlueBaby]

@BlueBaby All we have been using for egg cartons is the empty store large eggs cartons and unless the egg is unusually large we haven't had any real issues with them fitting.

Our two smaller mallard hens do lay a smaller egg over the others, that I have noticed. I would guess there must be an egg size chart on the Forum someplace for all the different breeds.

If there is one, I haven't found it.

 

[416bigbore]

@BlueBaby I will have to look around for an eggs size chart to post, I can't image there wouldn't be one floating around someplace.