Indiana 2010 Chickenstock-2011 NEWS!!

[chicken_china_mom]

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Now, I'd take Seramas too! I lost all the ones I had set last month. Quite upsetting. Ok, so tomorrow I'm going to go out there and stalk the ducks and see what color their beaks are, lol. I'm going to go back through their baby pictures now too and see if I can tell. Someone here BYC told me I had the four different colors cause one of them (Jack) has spots all over his chest, whereas Puddles, the other blue, does not. These are my first Swedes. Should I not be paying attention then to their quacks? Does it not work with Swedes like it does with Mallards? I knew very early on with mine that I had a pair. But these Swedes, they're a little trickier...

 

[TK Poultry]

the quack thing will work to. The ticking on the bib is in all colors no matter what. It's hard to get one with out it, but I have a few. IMO there is really no difference in ducks between splash and silver just a different name. and like everything else with the blues the color varies. They may not get a tail curl. My big 2 yo drake really doesnt have a tail curl. From what I could see from the pictures you look like you have 2 blue male and a splash/silver female.. i couldnt see the black. This bill thing is even in the SOP so its a surfire way unstead of trying to "decode" the quack.

 

[chicken_china_mom]

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Ok, I thought I had more pics of the ducks on this computer, but...I guess I didn't. But I found this one where all 4 were actually facing the camera. (That's rare!) Now, are the males generally friendlier than the females? Cause of the 4, the only one that was friendly as a baby was the black one. The other 3 screamed and ran if we tried to hold them. They've always been like that. They are calmer now, but still run the other way when they see us coming. Unless we have food or the hose in our hands. (Figures) I still love them though! If I have 2 pairs I would be thrilled, but I don't know. I figured Jack and Puddles were boys. As babies though Puddles (the Blue drake with the pink legs) and Daffy (the Silver hen) both had brownish beaks with pink. I went through their baby pics to see if I could tell by their beaks. Is that maybe because they are hatchery stock? Here is the pic. Let me know if I do indeed need more hens:

 

[shelleyd2008]

They won't get their curls until they are about 4-5 months old, but you should be able to tell by their sounds. Ducks (girls) have a loud quack and drakes (boys) have a raspy sound. At 8 weeks, you should know for sure what they are.

 

[chicken_china_mom]

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Then it's what I thought. Cause 3 are raspy, and only the Silver is a bid ole loudmouth, just like my Mallard hen. Crap. Crap! Crap! Crap! I'm faced with either rehoming 2 drakes, or getting more hens. What to do, what to do...

Is it ok to get 2 more hens and keep 4 pairs, or will that be too much for the hens to handle? I have no problems so far with the Mallard pair. He doesn't over do it with her, but this is my first time with Swedish, and I've read horror stories about other duck breeds tearing their hens apart during mating season. That's my concern, is them reaching sexual maturity and tearing the hens up, and then possibly going after the chicken hens. What would be my best route? I have zero luck rehoming roosters, so I can't imagine it would be easy rehoming duck drakes either.

 

[k2chickens]

Haven't stopped by here in a while so i figured i would see how everyone was doing. Me...got a bator with 43 egg's in it on day 4. For the raffle i was thinking about bringing the hand painted rooster dish i won last year! Figured i would let someone else enjoy it, "maybe it can be brought back every year as a tradition for our chicken stock!"?

 

[shelleyd2008]

They'd be fine as pairs, though you'd probably have to seperate them into pairs when breeding season gets into full swing. If just kept as a pair, there's not usually much problem, but 3 ducks with 3 drakes, the drakes aren't going to just be happy with 1 girl.

 

[TK Poultry]

No, you wont be able to keep them together during breeding season they will fight ALOT..... I only have one drake and he is a bit stand off-ish i found my hens are more personable but swedes in general are nice temperment wise

 

[chicken_china_mom]

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So how many hens are we talking that I would need? I don't need like a dozen ducks, but I discussed it with the family and they don't want to get rid of any of the drakes. Turns out my mother likes the ducks a lot more than I thought she ever would. So it looks like I'm stuck with them, and now I need some more hens. I suppose I could divide them during breeding season. Put some in with the Standards and keep the rest in with the Bantams. Will they be ok with my Mallards? And exactly how old are Swedes when they become sexually mature? They are about 8 or 9 weeks old now. My Mallard hen didn't start laying til she was about 9 months old. Then she proceeded to lay 3 eggs, and then stopped laying. She hasn't laid since and she just turned a year. I am sitting at 6 ducks at the moment, including my Mallard pair.

 

[shelleyd2008]

If you put them with your mallards, they will interbreed. I'm not sure about swedes specifically, but my pekins and rouens start laying around 5-6 months depending on the time of year. The males mature at about the same age.