Idaho?

[kingbrit]

Hi,
I'm in Sandpoint, we have chickens, ducks and geese that we treat like members of the family, we love our birds and show them as often as we can.

I need some help though please....last week we lost our house chicken. She was a White Crested Black Polish Bantam and we are distraught over her passing. I have checked all the usual local sources like feed stores, Big R, Co-op etc and have an ad on craigslist too.

Does anybody have a female chick they are willing to sell us so we can have our house chicken again?

If anybody is still ordering chicks could you please add one of these to your order and sell her to me?

The least amount I can order online for myself is 8 and with the additional costs for females and expedited shipping it comes to over $150. Not only can I not afford that but I cannot have 8 chickens in my house and I wouldn't want to risk them being in the coop with my regular birds when they are old enough as I believe they will get picked on.

Please help if possible.
Thanks,
Ian

 

[NewToChix]

How do I introduce the ducks and chickens? They will be enclosed in the same area with separate housing, but I am not sure how to introduce them and at what age. The ducks are still inside at the moment because they are so young. We have 5 hens, 1 roo and 1 chick (being raised by mama). Is there a good way to go about this or should we just put them in there when they are big enough and let them figure it all out for themselves? We don't have any particularly nasty birds (chickens that is). Not sure sex or temperament of the ducks yet.

Also, and I know this is a chicken forum, but I am sure there are some duck owners here....

We are going to use a dog house for the duck housing. It will be raised off the ground on stilts with a ramp. We will have to extend our run to do this. Then we will be adding a kiddie pool for them to play in.

Do the ducks need water at night? If so, why and will they die without it? I really don't want them mucking up their sleeping quarters.

Will the chickens be okay with the pool as long as there are some blocks and stuff in there to help them get out? Probably going to lower it into the ground.

Should the pool be surrounded by river rock or anything to help keep the area a little drier?

Thanks.

 

[kingbrit]

We have chickens, ducks and geese and they were all raised together more or less so we may have an exception with what I am going to write.

Our chickens roost high up in the coop and are off the ground. Our ducks sleep in straw on the floor, even though I made some neat nesting boxes for them they just make a nest in the straw a lay in that. The geese however are a different matter....we used to have them in the porch during the winter as the boy ducks would chase our female geese around. Then I took that built in down and used it in the coop to keep them apart. However, I have noticed that the longer they have spent in the coop together the less that chasing is happening and they now are back to following each other around all day.

Word of advice, if you have any bantams, keep those apart from all as no matter how well they seem to get along with each other if something bugs the bigger birds they will pick on the smaller ones when they are in an enclosed space.

As for water, in my opinion, as long as you don't keep them cooped up too long when they are wanting out then you could skip it overnight. The ducks generally only need that when they are feeding. We have had water in the coop with them and they just make a huge mess. Ours don't seem to mind it but we do put water and food in there if the weather is too bad outside for them during the winter.

I'm still a novice though so I will also read the other replies you will get.

 

[kingbrit]

I forgot about the pool.

We use a plastic kiddie pool for them to swim or bathe in and only have a step for them to get into the pool as getting out is much easier for the ducks and geese. I would say it depends how deep it is as to if you need a "ladder" for the chickens but ours only drink from that pool if they are passing and the multiple drink stations we have set up are too far from where they are. My current concern besides finding a new house chicken is where are they now laying their eggs? Some still lay in the coop but last year their egg laying dropped off a little and we found a huge stash of eggs hidden in the yard, now they are doing it again somewhere else we think. So far all I have found is bear, deer and moose scat while looking.
Good Luck

 

[NewToChix]

The mallard duckling just died. And now the other one is going crazy.

 

[kingbrit]

I am so sorry. We have had a few deaths since we started with birds last year and each one devastates us because we raised them by hand, held and loved each one so they would come to us when we wanted them to and they all have names, never to become a meal on our table.

We had 3 Polish chicks last year, one died after a few days because we had taken pity on it being knocked over by the other chicks in the store, whereas it simply wasn't strong enough, the second was actually attacked by a goose in the coop which was why our 3rd became a house chicken and another reason why our geese were kept apart from the other birds over the winter. Our 3rd passed last week and she used to sleep next to us, would come running when we called her name gave us so much joy and even played the guitar a little.

We lost another chick too last year, again a weak one that we took pity on so we have learned that lesson.

This year we lost a duck and a chicken. Our duck is a mystery as to what happened, egg bound, deer stomp or just an illness we don't know as she went so quickly from when we noticed. Our chicken was killed by a neighbors Siberian Husky who escaped from the house, killed one of their chickens and then made it to our birds and started attacking. Our goose was also attacked but survived and is still getting over it . Our chicken died in my wife's arms as she tried to protect our babies, deep snow and bare feet prevented her succeeding by only 2 feet.

We have 3 drakes, a mallard, Cayuga and Indian Runner and 2 hens, a Pekin and a Khaki Campbell.

How many ducks do you still have?

 

[NewToChix]

Just one now. I am not sure what happened. This morning it was fine. Went in there and saw it was stuck in the corner with the neck hanging back over the back and kind of to the side. Looked nearly dead. Picked it up and it started chirping and opened its eyes. Then I set it down and noticed that it's legs were splayed out and when it tried to walk it just rolled over on its back. The neck and head looked like it had parkinson's or something..almost like a seizure though. It lived a little while talking to me and going in and out and then just died.
So sad. Mostly I hope it wasn't communicable.

I am not sure if we should get another one or just rehome this little one. It is so sweet though. I feel awful. I can't help but wonder if we did something wrong. It was wild and lost though so I am not sure if mom could pick up on that kind of thing right away and that is why she left it.

Really, having a duck just kind of fell into our laps and we don't have all this money to spend on more ducklings. Very torn on what to do right now.

 

[kingbrit]

I will take it if you want, my daughter was wanting a gosling this weekend so if it helps you I can have it.
I work at Cygnus inc. In ponderay, 263-4761 x263, call me in 5 and let me know where to come after work if you want. I won't talk much when you call, can do that later.
Ian

 

[NewToChix]

I will take it if you want, my daughter was wanting a gosling this weekend so if it helps you I can have it.
I work at Cygnus inc. In ponderay, 263-4761 x263, call me in 5 and let me know where to come after work if you want. I won't talk much when you call, can do that later.
Ian

I live all the way down by Boise so I don't think that would work. Caldwell to be exact. Looks like a very looong drive. Thank you for the offer though. I appreciate it.

 

[kingbrit]

Sorry, I thought you was in Sandpoint, ok and good luck