How is your flock today?

[BlueBaby]

Will you name him/her to commemorate the day?

No, I will let whoever buy's this one to name it. I'm only keeping the one's that have the NN's out of this batch. There's a white one with a fully feathered neck that hatched this morning that can go with that one.

 

[416bigbore]

My April Fool's Day baby that decided to hatch a day early yesterday.

View attachment 2596321

That is so awesome, Thank you for sharing. April if it's a girl ? LOL

 

[StuporMan]

My ducklings seem to be trying to start quacking, they're about 3 weeks old and both of their voices have changed! My little comet pullets have all been growing too, and all of them are super friendly

 

[416bigbore]

My ducklings seem to be trying to start quacking, they're about 3 weeks old and both of their voices have changed! My little comet pullets have all been growing too, and all of them are super friendly

It sounds like you have early Quackers. I think ours were around 5-6 weeks old when they started to get real vocal and we could tell the males from the females.

I think super friendly is a good thing if you ever have to doctor on any of them. Our chickens are over friendly and our ducks do not like to be handled at all and it's always a two person job if we have to mess with them.

 

[416bigbore]

No, I will let whoever buy's this one to name it. I'm only keeping the one's that have the NN's out of this batch. There's a white one with a fully feathered neck that hatched this morning that can go with that one.

How many are you hatching this go around?

 

[Parront]

Being able to supply your own fresh eggs is a wonderful thing and by having a healthy flock is a happy flock for sure.

Thinking back, If I would have known at the time our eight Rouen / Pekin mix duck hens were going to be such great egg layers, I really think we would have passes on the four Isa Brown hens. It can be a bit much at times having a mixed flock.

Currently I have had to separate our two remaining Drakes from the flock because Chewy our young Cockerel started to be aggressive towards them. I am guessing Chewy is thinking that the eight duck hens are his girls also, so he chases the Drakes off.

I just about have everything in place to finally be able to separate our flock to be able to keep peace.

Chewy thinks he owns the world, like a lot of teen-aged boys. Seperate areas is the best for chickens and ducks, if you have males!

 

[416bigbore]

Chewy thinks he owns the world, like a lot of teen-aged boys. Seperate areas is the best for chickens and ducks, if you have males!

Yes I agree, I had hoped they could all get along together. So much nicer with them separated especially at feeding time.

 

[BlueBaby]

How many are you hatching this go around?

It's a split hatch, but all from the same 3 hen's. There was 12 egg's that were supposed to hatch today, and 8 more that are supposed to hatch on the 10th. 2 of the mother's are in the 3rd year of laying, so I'm hatching from them now incase they stop. There will be time for the pullet's to grow out to replace the 2 if they stop.

 

[Parront]

Yes I agree, I had hoped they could all get along together. So much nicer with them separated especially at feeding time.

Unless you have plenty of girls, the boys will fight. I have 1 cockerel and 18 pullets. Happy flock. Drakes: 2 girls to 1 drake, fighting over the ducks. I have some more in the incubator to hopefully correct this problem!

 

[BlueBaby]

This morning the chick's seemed to be more interested in starting to eat. They have dry chick feed to peck at, and I made some of it up as a wet feed for them in a peanut butter jar lid for now. There's 4 little NN's in there now, as I rehomed the 2 fully feathered neck chick's. There's still more egg's that didn't hatch out yet, but might sometime today?