Just got my e-mail from Holderreads! 6 week update, bottom pg.8

[OmaBird]

I was looking over our bank account and Holderred did cash my check for the 20 of Rare Duckling Assortments that I ordered. That sounds like a good sign, doesn't it? I have not heard anything from the first two orders. They where paid with a money order. It wasn't retured to me so I am still crossing my fingers for ducks and geese this year.

 

[NoseyChickens]

I got my email!!!!! I am so thrilled. I was having such a lousy day too. This makes things better.

 

[Bink]

Getting that Email is the best thing isnt it (till they get here anyway)

 

[Sweetfolly]

Quote:
Yay! How old are yours now?

According to Dave Holderread and someone else who raises Hookbills that I've been talking to in Illinois, the Bibbed Hookbills are supposed to be better layers. I've noticed though that the solid Dusky ones that I got have much more of a curve to their bills than the Bibbed ones do.

 

[BeccaOH]

Quote:
Yay! How old are yours now?

According to Dave Holderread and someone else who raises Hookbills that I've been talking to in Illinois, the Bibbed Hookbills are supposed to be better layers. I've noticed though that the solid Dusky ones that I got have much more of a curve to their bills than the Bibbed ones do.

Just a week.

I did get bibbed HB eggs from Birch Run Farm. Those are at least 4 weeks old now. They are starting to show their brown feathers and curved bills.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Quote:
Yay! How old are yours now?

According to Dave Holderread and someone else who raises Hookbills that I've been talking to in Illinois, the Bibbed Hookbills are supposed to be better layers. I've noticed though that the solid Dusky ones that I got have much more of a curve to their bills than the Bibbed ones do.

Just a week.

I did get bibbed HB eggs from Birch Run Farm. Those are at least 4 weeks old now. They are starting to show their brown feathers and curved bills.

Oooh, you'll be able to sex the 4-week-olds soon (if you can't already)! I was picking mine up, listening, and staring at their little feathers every day at that age!

The trick is to look at the feathers on their rump, above their tail. In the males, those feathers are all dark, laced with a green sheen, and in the females, they're laced in caramel just as on the rest of the body. The same holds true for the feathers on their heads in their juvenile plumage. I was sure on the sex of all of mine besides 1 before their voices changed.

I'm thrilled - I ordered 5, hoping for 2 drakes and 3 ducks, and ended up with 2 drakes and 4 ducks!

They're all named now: the solid Dusky drake is "Buddha", the Bibbed drake is "Zipper", the solid Dusky girl is "Lexi", and the three Bibbed girls are "Sparrow", "Meadow", and "Izzie". I'm starting to run out of names here - I have 29 ducks on the property right now (and one little Dark Campbell duckling in the 'bator, halfway zipped!), and every one of them has a name!

I've been working on the new Stanbridge White pen - I wasn't planning on keeping them, but I love those ducks - they have to be my new favorite breed, after the Hookbills.

 

[BeccaOH]

I might need to get some Dark Campbells from you.

Are they Holderread stock?

 

[1lpoock]

I think Annarie's dark campbells are from sandhill preservation center...I don't think Holderreads sell them.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Quote:
Yep - I got them from Sandhill Preservation Center last year. I ordered Hookbills, Dark Campbells, and Runners, but they weren't able to fulfill the number of Hookbill ducklings I ordered (they only sent me 3 and 1 didn't make it - and of course, the one that didn't make it was the most perfect little solid White one), so they substituted the rest of the Hookbill ducklings I was supposed to get with the Campbells.

I'm glad, because I'm actually much more impressed with the Campbells I got from Sandhill than I am with the Hookbills and Runners I got from them. Now I just need a Khaki drake to pen up with some of the Dark Campbell ducks to make sex-linked Campbell ducklings!

Becca - I wish you lived closer! The person who was supposed to be buying the batch of ducklings hatching right now backed out two weeks ago!