Oh I totally agree, its an excellent idea to get several opinions! That's what our threads here for, talking out our concerns, getting other folks thoughts! I have hatched about 4 years now, and am really falling short on chicken gender guesses this year. I am working with some new breeds and really missed my guesses on hens. The Scovy are pretty easy once you have seen a few hatches grow up. Adding a new duck is best while they are young. If you can find another female, definitely do it while they are still ducklings! You won't have drake issues until early spring, around March. That gives you time to decide who you like better! Adult ducks can be territorial too, is better if they all grow up together. My Physco, a very good mother but hates other female ducks. She and Huey were friendly, but after we lost Huey, that was that! She is human social unless you touch her ducklings or eggs. We found her 3rd nest last year in the old abandoned chicken coop, in the fish tank we used to brood in! She is hissing loudly warning me not to take her babies that are hatching. Very anti social, with any Muscovy thats not her children. Will pick fights with another hen. I don't dare confine her with other ducks, only the drake she likes. Once she is done with him, Physco will beat him up too! She keeps trying to escape and hide eggs. Her newest hiding spot is about 40 feet up in a huge tree.
Flock planning... Guineas, chicken, ducks we are all set and ready for next year. Mixed colors for Guinea. Chicken will be the same RIR, WL EE/OE, Wyandotte, Orpington, Sumatra and possibly Dark Cornish and Cochin. Still uncertain on Buckeye, I only have 1 hen, 3 roosters ugh. Ducks will be Muscovy and Pekin, Snow Mallard as a pet breed. Those tiny little ducks just steal your heart. Geese..I am going to add new bloodline for my geese next spring. Chinese Geese only going forward. Minimum order is 8, so I may have a couple extra gosling. If anyone is interested in a couple please send a message. Great layers! Will likely order from Meyer or Metzer, but if anyone knows of a good goose breeder please, post. I can't travel unless fairly local, so they have to be shipped. My Whites are 5 years old this spring and the browns are 4, so we need youngsters, and diversity. Coturnix Quail, absolutely! Jumbo and Lavender. Peafowl as long as my fella stays and I can find him some friends!
Turkey...possibly. Its time to try a new breed. Probably a new breeder too. Not sure if I will start over with them, ugh.
I will look, probably not any ducklings. I had 2 bad temp spikes on our incubators this spring and lost several hundred eggs. We had our Brooding and Hatching trailer by the barn, and it got way too hot.. My thermometer showed spikes of 105 degrees. have since moved it but ugh. Impacted my seasonal hatches terribly. Physco has one last brood high up in the dead cottonwood, so I may see a few young ducks yet this year. Just send me a PM (personal message) so I don't forget to check for you!
Adult duck hens will work IF they are low ranked pecking order to combine with your ducklings. I often rehome them when I see a hen that's picked on by ducks and ignored by the drakes.Those ducks do awesome if given a safe start without being bullied.
I will look, probably not any ducklings. I had 2 bad temp spikes on our incubators this spring and lost several hundred eggs. We had our Brooding and Hatching trailer by the barn, and it got way too hot.. My thermometer showed spikes of 105 degrees. have since moved it but ugh. Impacted my seasonal hatches terribly. Physco has one last brood high up in the dead cottonwood, so I may see a few young ducks yet this year. Just send me a PM (personal message) so I don't forget to check for you!
Adult duck hens will work IF they are low ranked pecking order to combine with your ducklings. I often rehome them when I see a hen that's picked on by ducks and ignored by the drakes.Those ducks do awesome if given a safe start without being bullied.
****, in sorry to hear that. If so that would be great! Mine are between 2-3 week.
Also, they don't seem to like the starter food I've hidden for them and shown them, they want what I five the Pekins which is a mix of multi flock pellets, diatacious earth, and a little bit of wild bird seed ( got throw a treat in there some where haha). They seem to have abandoned the chick food in favor of my mix. Should I be concerned that they're eating such large pieces at such a young age?
Flock planning... Guineas, chicken, ducks we are all set and ready for next year. Mixed colors for Guinea. Chicken will be the same RIR, WL EE/OE, Wyandotte, Orpington, Sumatra and possibly Dark Cornish and Cochin. Still uncertain on Buckeye, I only have 1 hen, 3 roosters ugh. Ducks will be Muscovy and Pekin, Snow Mallard as a pet breed. Those tiny little ducks just steal your heart. Geese..I am going to add new bloodline for my geese next spring. Chinese Geese only going forward. Minimum order is 8, so I may have a couple extra gosling. If anyone is interested in a couple please send a message. Great layers! Will likely order from Meyer or Metzer, but if anyone knows of a good goose breeder please, post. I can't travel unless fairly local, so they have to be shipped. My Whites are 5 years old this spring and the browns are 4, so we need youngsters, and diversity. Coturnix Quail, absolutely! Jumbo and Lavender. Peafowl as long as my fella stays and I can find him some friends!
Turkey...possibly. Its time to try a new breed. Probably a new breeder too. Not sure if I will start over with them, ugh.
I'm incubating the eggs Sweetie and Syd lay already. Doubt anything will come of it, but had to try. I have Major Tom (MW) and seven jennies/hens, so this spring, hopefully, I'll have poults. They'll all be crossbred, but we're going for things like disease resistance, temperament, free-range ability, good eating, etc. You don't need to show them or sell them for that purpose anyway--you just want something that's going to live on your property, get along with everyone, and eventually get big enough to lay eggs or grace your table. Crossbred birds likely have better hybrid vigor anyway, so they're a good bet. Plus, they're less expensive, so losing one isn't going to be the financial kick to the face in addition to being an emotional disaster.
Should have a ton of colors possible, so they'll be neat to watch and hopefully easy to tell apart in case you want to keep some and eat the rest. Because white is a recessive epistatic condition over bronze and black, it should come out and give us some beautiful babies. Major is possibly hiding bronze and Palm genes, and we know Sweetie's hiding bronze. We'll probably see barred black, bronze, red bronze, and a bunch more. Porter's website isn't working for my 'puter tonight, so I can't look up all the nifty combinations just yet. F2 would/will be even cooler to see
****, in sorry to hear that. If so that would be great! Mine are between 2-3 week.
Also, they don't seem to like the starter food I've hidden for them and shown them, they want what I five the Pekins which is a mix of multi flock pellets, diatacious earth, and a little bit of wild bird seed ( got throw a treat in there some where haha). They seem to have abandoned the chick food in favor of my mix. Should I be concerned that they're eating such large pieces at such a young age?
More protein. Buy meatbird feed or puree some cat food. Big pieces isn't going to hurt them unless they're choking. Adults are probably calling them to the other feed. The custom mix may have something in it they need that the chick starter lacks.
@Indyshent As a well trained Marine Veteran, trained at USMC San Diego, two years in Japan, 7 months Afghanistan and a year and a half in SoCal, I have seen many nasty, inhuman, and absolutely abhorrent things.
But I cannot STAND the smell of cat foods. Makes me want to vomit
What if
I take the adult mix, run it through a food processor and mix it with the starter/ grower mix?
@Indyshent As a well trained Marine Veteran, trained at USMC San Diego, two years in Japan, 7 months Afghanistan and a year and a half in SoCal, I have seen many nasty, inhuman, and absolutely abhorrent things.
But I cannot STAND the smell of cat foods. Makes me want to vomit
What if
I take the adult mix, run it through a food processor and mix it with the starter/ grower mix?
The most important thing ducklings need in feed is protein and B vitamins. I use a 24% protein starter feed for them until the primary feathers start coming in. I then switch them over to flock raiser (usually 18% protein.) But there are lots of ways to increase protein and supplement vitamins without buying more expensive feed.
I have 2 boys that are 100% free ranged and raised by Physco, and she taught them well how to feed themselves until a few weeks ago. She now has a new nest so the boys are excellent foragers. If its raining they dart around grabbing tons of worms for example! Even those boys come to me for treats, and thats always starter feed.
Raw meat scraps are an excellent treat also. I keep all my scraps from processing our hogs, and take a bag out of the freezer every other day. Winter months especially I really push protein for all my birds. Increases vigor, keeps them warmer in winter. Any of my birds that I can't allow free range gets a daily protein treat.
@Indyshent As a well trained Marine Veteran, trained at USMC San Diego, two years in Japan, 7 months Afghanistan and a year and a half in SoCal, I have seen many nasty, inhuman, and absolutely abhorrent things.
But I cannot STAND the smell of cat foods. Makes me want to vomit
What if
I take the adult mix, run it through a food processor and mix it with the starter/ grower mix?
Yup. Works fine. Most commercial soft cat foods are pretty much pureed chicken feathers anyway. Give 'em ground dry mix. So long as it's small enough they can eat it, you're good. When they get bigger, you can just toss out the cat food or feed it mixed in with their normal feed. Cat food is super high protein compared to other commercial animal feeds because cats are obligate carnivores, and they're popular enough pets that you can get the food in bulk fairly inexpensively.
Very anti social, with any Muscovy thats not her children. Will pick fights with another hen. I don't dare confine her with other ducks, only the drake she likes. Once she is done with him, Physco will beat him up too! She keeps trying to escape and hide eggs. Her newest hiding spot is about 40 feet up in a huge tree.
