INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

I've been laughing for the past 5 minutes from reading this! I thought my situation was funny! Yours tops it!
When I was little, me and my siblings use to take spoons outside to use as shovels in the dirt! We also use to bury them so we wouldn't get into trouble for taking them outside!

So you're telling me that centuries from now, archaeologists are going to dig up the yard of your childhood home to find a multitude of spoons?



Eight years ago when we added our garden, we found several gears and eventually enough pieces to determine we had found a broken, old, wind-up alarm clock. (Perhaps a former owner of this land was not a morning person.) I wonder what we'll discover when we expand our garden patch this spring. Maybe I can dig up some buried spoons!

 

[kanina]

Ah. I'm entertaining the idea of having ducks. But, trying to figure out how it would work out and how to get dh on board. Lol

What would you like to know? I keep my muscovies and my chickens together. There is a bit of a pecking order, but now that Java has grown into himself he doesn't get pushed around. Muscovies don't NEED water like other ducks but they do enjoy it. Drakes eat a considerable amount and muscovies in general must have a water source deep enough to submerge their whole beak (that's been my #1 difficulty this winter). But the tail wagging, head bobby, hissing peeps are so adorable. Muscovies can fly, but you can trim their wings (sounds a lot more terrible that it really is, you're not hurting them).

They also eat mice whole. We've had mouse issues all winter, I can't figure out where they're coming in at. But since they got in and had babies we find nests all over the house. We've killed at least 7 in traps but found nests in a hamper, in Christmas dishes, in fabric piles, in a bedroom drawer, on top of the dish washer, idk where we'll find one next. I usually scream for DH and run away. He takes whatever they're in, most recently a box full of delicately wrapped Christmas dishes, out to the coop and slowly dumps it out. I'm usually standing somewhere nearby to take any extra items in the box from him while he empties is. We had a massacre in the fabric, there were 6 adults and 8 babies. I hecking hate mice.

 

[kanina]

YES they are!! And I'm glad you're loving Java! He was a really sweet duckling growing up!

Java is sweet as pie, I'll have to try to get some photos of him soon. His mohawk is filling in and it's pretty much adorable.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

What would you like to know? I keep my muscovies and my chickens together. There is a bit of a pecking order, but now that Java has grown into himself he doesn't get pushed around. Muscovies don't NEED water like other ducks but they do enjoy it. Drakes eat a considerable amount and muscovies in general must have a water source deep enough to submerge their whole beak (that's been my #1 difficulty this winter). But the tail wagging, head bobby, hissing peeps are so adorable. Muscovies can fly, but you can trim their wings (sounds a lot more terrible that it really is, you're not hurting them).

They also eat mice whole. We've had mouse issues all winter, I can't figure out where they're coming in at. But since they got in and had babies we find nests all over the house. We've killed at least 7 in traps but found nests in a hamper, in Christmas dishes, in fabric piles, in a bedroom drawer, on top of the dish washer, idk where we'll find one next. I usually scream for DH and run away. He takes whatever they're in, most recently a box full of delicately wrapped Christmas dishes, out to the coop and slowly dumps it out. I'm usually standing somewhere nearby to take any extra items in the box from him while he empties is. We had a massacre in the fabric, there were 6 adults and 8 babies. I hecking hate mice.

Eh. Sorry to hear about the mice problem. Have you tried sticky traps? Is it an older home? My in-laws had a mice problem not too long ago. They have an older house and I think the mice squeezed in somewhere from the basement. They got it all patched up and taken care of. They leave a huge dish of dog food out - and it was by the house which attracted the mice and under the dog house - rats! Ugh.

The muscovies sound very interesting. So, would they be considered a good beginner duck? Can you put up netting to keep them from flying or is wing trimming the only way to go about it?
I am going to have to rebuild my coop so that my chickens have better digs. Maybe, I can at least build it with the ducks in mind for the future. Hmmm?
I only want eggs, not duck meat, are they good layers? Can you have a male and female or is there a certain ratio like with roosters and chickens?

Oh, I just rememered. When we first put our house up there were some tiny holes next to the piping that weren't totally sealed in the basement. We had a mama mouse and a nest of babies that we found pretty quickly. Anyway, I was upstairs and heard dh scream like he had fallen and broken something. I come running and see him standing paralyzed by fear from the nest of baby mice.
I was the one that had to dispose of them. Lol I have never let him live that down. We have lived here for over 20 years now!

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

So this morning I was out fixing the chicken run door when I herd a "Caah Coo" Sounds! My rooster is finally crowing. Sadly no fertile eggs yet!

Here is a weird thing for the day!
So some of my family moved in with me do to them being evicted. Since they moved in, it is getting harder and harder to find forks! YES Forks! What are they doing with them? Well I went room to room asking for any silverware they "might" have taken to their rooms. Come to find they were stashing them from one another???!!! Who does this? It's silly! I requested all forks back and announced that by no means is food allowed outside of the kitchen/ dining room area. And NO TAKING THE SILVERWARE AND STASHING IT!. I now have signs through out my house saying that... Had guests come over and they almost died of laughing.... The family member's whom moved in with me (4 kids! 1 is 15 years old, 1 is 11 years old, and 2 are twins 6 years old.), are my 3rd gene. Cousins. Their mother currently does not live with me. She rents a 1 bedroom apartment. Here kids will live with me until she gets a bigger place and stable. I thought dealing with a almost 2 year old son of mine was tiring! I was WRONG!
Has this happened to anyone else?

What the fork...

 

[JanetMarie]

I don't clip my muscovies wings, and in the mornings, and evenings they will fly around, going from the clothes line T to the trellis, to the barn roof, etc. They don't fly away, and why would they? They have everything they need here.

I don't let them outside when it's too cold. They're back to going outside since it's no longer frigid.

They are also intelligent.

 

[kanina]

Considering adding the babies

Eh. Sorry to hear about the mice problem. Have you tried sticky traps? Is it an older home? My in-laws had a mice problem not too long ago. They have an older house and I think the mice squeezed in somewhere from the basement. They got it all patched up and taken care of. They leave a huge dish of dog food out - and it was by the house which attracted the mice and under the dog house - rats! Ugh.

The muscovies sound very interesting. So, would they be considered a good beginner duck? Can you put up netting to keep them from flying or is wing trimming the only way to go about it?
I am going to have to rebuild my coop so that my chickens have better digs. Maybe, I can at least build it with the ducks in mind for the future. Hmmm?
I only want eggs, not duck meat, are they good layers? Can you have a male and female or is there a certain ratio like with roosters and chickens?

Oh, I just rememered. When we first put our house up there were some tiny holes next to the piping that weren't totally sealed in the basement. We had a mama mouse and a nest of babies that we found pretty quickly. Anyway, I was upstairs and heard dh scream like he had fallen and broken something. I come running and see him standing paralyzed by fear from the nest of baby mice.
I was the one that had to dispose of them. Lol I have never let him live that down. We have lived here for over 20 years now!

I clip mine because I've lost one to flying off before. I clip rather than netting because I let them free range in the backyard which is when I lost Starla. I don't know where she went, we searched for a week. I clipped Abigail and Susan because they came from a different farm that's fairly nearby. I don't plan on clipping my ducklings once they grow out. The idea of clipping their wings terrified me and I did way too much research before I did it for the first time. Now I have a picture saved on my phone for the path to go down. You just take a pair of shears after their molt and cut the feathers down on the ducks. The drakes get too fat to fly. Java can make it about two feet up for about two yards and then he's back down. Abigail was molting when she came home so we didn't clip her until she cleared the run to come say hi at dinner time.

I too am in the process of building a new chicken house with the ducks in mind. But mine refuse to go inside. I caught them sleeping in their house once, but not since. They sleep below the chickens (poop pan inbetween) in the current coop. But they do have a wind break of straw on two sides, which they've been content with even in the below 0 temps. Crazy things.

I have no idea how they are as layers. I do know they're seasonal, laying from spring to fall. From my research they lay 3-4 clutches a year and are great broodies. The other ladies would know more than me on that.

I'm not positive on ratios, but again from what research I found the prime ratio was 1:3. I have 1:2 and they're content, I plan on adding a blue female next year. Since Java is chocolate and my ladies are silver I'll have chocolate and lilac female ducklings and everyone else will be male. I'm pumped for the auto-sexing

On the mice front, we had several holes that were the result of moving appliances when we first moved in. DH went into the crawl space and I turned on all the lights so he could find all the holes. I've grown accustom to them this year, so while I scream, we have this mutual understanding that we're parting ways. lol I think this spring I'll have DH climb under the house again and look for new spots. And hopefully next winter we'll not have such an issue.

We've done sticky traps, but we've only caught one so far vs the snap trap. I'm also not a fan of sticky traps cause the mice are still alive. We're going to get some ultrasonic plug ins as well and hopefully that helps.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Spoons, here.

Kids would take them out to the sand box to dig with.

And, yes, @Faraday40 .
In the future, archeologists will find those spoons in the sandbox and they will tell future generations that people in this century made their children eat their meals in a square, sand-filled box-like item in their back yards. They will theorize that parents found it easier to clean off their children (and any food that dropped to the floor) after eating by hosing them down (fragments of hose will also be found there), allowing any spilled (or dropped) food to wash down into the sand which made clean-up much easier. Spraying a little more water onto the sand - or just waiting for it to rain - would allow modern parents to save time by not having to clean the floors and/or walls in the house. Depending on their socioeconomic status, the box might be quite large - or small, thus accounting for the varying sizes of the box-like, sand filled structures found in backyards across, what was then, America.

 

[Faraday40]

Quail question here:
How long does it take for quails to start back up laying?

My quail stopped in early September due to some cage renovations & I believe they simply stopped for the season as well. I had them in a sheltered outdoor cage WITHOUT suppl. light, but took pity on them when we got hit by those sub zero temps. I brought the lot into my garage. Since then they've had a light on them to slow the freezing of the water. I just heard my 1st male quail call last night. (You know that cute laser gun sound...) So I'm hoping the females will also be laying soon. A few days? A week or two? A month? I at least hope to hear more laser gun blasts so I can weed out the extra males. Many of these quail were hatched in mid July & never reached sexual maturity before the end of the season. We've eaten a few, but I'd really like to make them more comfortable by reducing the number.

 

[Nyla]

I've never kept my quails outside. They've always been kept in spare bedroom or Shed with heat and a light turned on at night till morning giving 14 hours of light. It also allowed me to collect fresh laid eggs in the mornings instead of the afternoon.

But if your males are now crowing, it shouldn't be too much longer for the females to pick back up. I'm guessing 1-3 weeks.

Quail question here:
How long does it take for quails to start back up laying?

My quail stopped in early September due to some cage renovations & I believe they simply stopped for the season as well. I had them in a sheltered outdoor cage WITHOUT suppl. light, but took pity on them when we got hit by those sub zero temps. I brought the lot into my garage. Since then they've had a light on them to slow the freezing of the water. I just heard my 1st male quail call last night. (You know that cute laser gun sound...) So I'm hoping the females will also be laying soon. A few days? A week or two? A month? I at least hope to hear more laser gun blasts so I can weed out the extra males. Many of these quail were hatched in mid July & never reached sexual maturity before the end of the season. We've eaten a few, but I'd really like to make them more comfortable by reducing the number.