Montana

[karlamaria]

Can anyone tell me what the incubation period might be for wild duck eggs? Last week, a wild duck decided, for whatever reason, to make her nest in a flower container outside of the building at work. Everyday, there was one more egg added to the nest. This morning, there were 9 eggs, and I believe she is probably done with her laying, as she was in her "nest" all day. I took several pictures at different times today with my cell phone. The nest of eggs was early this morning while she happened to be gone, then the one of her, after lunch today. don't have a clue why she decided to come this far from the river to do this. --- the river is about 4-5 miles away. Since she is so far away from water & food, we decided to get a kiddie pool, fill with water, and set it to the side of her nest. Also leaving oats, bread, etc. on the ground near the barrel. Call us silly if you want, but we all are really hoping that at least some of the eggs hatch! Don't know how she'll get the ducklings to the river, but I'm sure she'll figure something out. Anyone have any ideas?

hand feed her if possible to tame her sme, when she has her chicks you will need to transplant her by that river as she will not make it there with these babies. Traffic, kids you name it. There lives will be cut short and fast. Is there a city pond ? It would great if they hatch if by the river or a pond, but really not wise in the city. You guys can catch her and her babies and take them to water a few days after they hatch, this would be the wise thing to do. Leaving them there in a kiddie pool will attract teens who may be apt to harm them ( it happened here )

 

[montanachicks]

I have already thought about the "what's gonna happen" afterwards. We do have a city park (Gibson Park) that has loads and loads of different ducks, etc. It's HUGE, as is the park. I guess we need to be putting ideas into place now, and find out who will come & get her (maybe the Parks & Rec people, who are in charge of the park & the pond & the ducks.) All of us are shocked that she made her way this far from the Missouri, to lay eggs or no. I think the Parks & Rec is the best first choice. We want to be prepared.

This flower planter was originally in the grass, right next to a main sidewalk, and when someone first discovered the eggs, it was decided to move it about 40 feet over next to the building, under a window, away from traffic. The lawn service people came about 10 today to mow & boy, did she have a hissy fit! Who knows why birds do what they do. I've wondered if maybe she is a first time mama ?

The main reason for the kiddie pool is so that she has easy access to some water, plus if it gets hot, she can go for a quick dip (if ducks even do that while sitting on eggs?? -- I dunno). otherwise, she would have to go a long ways, even to get water to drink.

I appreciate anyone's ideas., and again, wondering the incubation time? All I know is chickens. LOL

 

[ReptileMom]

Most wild and domestic duck eggs incubation time is about 28 days. There are some breeds that have a longer incubation time, but you can expect them to start hatching around 28 days.

 

[montanachicks]

Most wild and domestic duck eggs incubation time is about 28 days. There are some breeds that have a longer incubation time, but you can expect them to start hatching around 28 days.

thanks, ReptileMom -- I'll be marking the calendar.

 

[FlySammyJ]

Well, the ravens are sacred to the Apsaalooka Nation (called Crow but translates better to Raven), but I don't know if they're actually protected. We encourage the ravens to nest here because they drive off hawks and sparrows (which make an ungodly mess when they build a colony in the barn). Then again, we've never had a lot of poultry out here and I'm sure if the got into my chicks I would be mad. I'm not sure I would recommend poison as it's hard to control exactly where it goes....there have been a few eagles dropping from the sky after eating poisoned mice around here. It seems like your best options might be covering your run or getting a Livestock Guardian Dog if your birds range, I'd wager trying to kill the ravens would be an ongoing battle.

 

[DuginMT]

Yeh, my ex-sister-in-law, who was Crow, claimed to be able to communicate with ravens and crows, and correctly predicted my father's untimely death after a crow "talked" to her.

Taking KarlaMaria's advice, I am switching my chicks off medicated feed and going to All Flock until about the 18 week point, when I plan to switch to Layer. I have the All Flock in the feeder box but it won't reach the bottom for a week or two, so my chicks will be 10-11 weeks old when they transition over. I mixed the first 7 lbs with the medicated starter so it will be a transition lasting several days. Hope it will be positive for their health and for the quality of their eggs, expected for about August. I picked some green grass and threw it in with them tonight and they loved playing with it and eating a little of it. I know those few handfuls will be gone tomorrow! Also I am giving them 1/2 quart of Nutrena chicken scratch per day and they seem to enjoy that too. They have access to lots of natural grit in their run.

All 13 are still doing great and I feel very fortunate that we haven't lost any yet. Also, no signs of predation or rodents yet in the run. Maybe those Nite Guard lights really help, but time will tell.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Doug

 

[Azriel]

RoyalT sorry about your Raven problems, I didn't know they would take a chicken, but I guess if its a little one and they are hungry and trying to feed a nest of chicks anything is food. I don't have alot of Ravens in the summer, my big problem is hawks, and I've been having a big hoot owl hanging out in the tree right by the coop so I have to keep the coop closed till its light.

We have been getting some wonderful rain, I can almost hear the grass and trees sighing with relief. Everything looks so fresh and green.The sun is trying to shine right now, but I still have plenty of dark rain clouds that look like they are ready to let go of another downpour.

My baby calves are doing great, I've got them both drinking their milk out of a pail now-that is so much easier than having them on a bottle. They are in a good sized pen, but the other night I thought I'd take them for a little walk, in the pen they stay right by me, so I thought they would do the same thing outside, Wrong!! They took off running and bucking over the hill and out of sight in the blink of an eye. I thought I had lost my calves for ever, but pretty soon they came running back, made a big circle around me and were off again. They did that for a good 15-20 min before they stopped by my side and followed me right back into their pen.

I should be having some chicks hatching this weekend, I shipped in some Ameraucana, Buff Brahama, and Crested Cream Legbar. They were a spur of the moment thing, I had someone wanting to trade eggs for some of my eggs, so thought why not, but this is it. I'm way to busy right now to mess with baby chicks, and my coop is busting at the seams, if anyone could use some roosters for their freezer, let me know.

 

[FlySammyJ]

Rain for the third day in a row, and this morning's has been slow and sustained ever since I woke up. There are standing puddles in the yard, which I haven't seen in the couple of years I've lived here in the rain-shadow of the Beartooths. So glad I got the soil amendments and early seeds out in the raised beds Thursday, now they're out there drinking up the moisture and getting ready to grow me lots of radishes, lettuce, and carrots. The wild asparagus have been absolutely top-notch, extremely mild and tender with purple tips. The Clark's Fork Valley is in for a beautiful spring!

Azriel I see my in-laws' calves play that game with their moms all the time in the pasture, just running in huge orbits for the joy of it. I love to watch the babies play. The funniest to me is when they start having shoving matches, pushing each other with their foreheads and kicking up turf like big toros.

 

[karlamaria]

Wish it rained as much as you all got, not so much here, just cold. I'm thrilled the grass is growing some, my chickens ate my back yard, the front is nice and hog and we will be mowing it this week to give to the girls. The chicks are getting huge. Those leghorns grown so fast :0 they eat so much also. I was told they do not eat as much as other chickens, oh my babies can testify there full on full on pigs lol. Everything I give my girls those leghorns are there first and et top pick. What's funny is they steal from the other big girls, there really the top of the clan right off the bat. I can tell oly one is not a rooster, but will wait a few months to see who crows then the rest are heading to the table, also going to rotate my flock so the 2 year olds are replaced by new blood.
If I get a broody this fall again I will be growing all them up for spring this time instead of just a few, sadly nly 1 was not a rooster but that laying machine laid early and has never missed but a few days since she started laying ! She is an amazing layer, thinking she is leghorn and amaracauna , er egg laying is off the charts.
Today I gave the girls a huge pie plate full of crumble laden full of apple sauce, and yogert, it was hilarious to see the leghorns standing in the middle eating the food and the big girls trying to get bites. I'm definatly only keeping one or wo, there to bossy lol. ( if I have 2 hens in the batch)
Not sure what the two black chicks are, but I'm thinking both are female, they are astrolorp and aracauna . One is smaller then the other, but I'm thinking aracauna are smaller birds so took after moms, side?
Anyways the buff o broody is laying again, she is the broodies and is usually broody 4 or more times a year. I break it but then a week later she is at it again. It's all good, I'm going to let her brood falls chicks so I have egg layers in the spring agan. Love not having to wait unti
Fall lol.
This fall I will have the same amount of girls that I like to have in the city, 8-10 and that's it. By rotating I'm never out of eggs and get them all winter.
This coming winter I will use the heat lamp to keep off the bitter cold, it really brought my egg count up right away. Besides, when they molt in the fall I feel bad for them .
My mom is now home from rehabilitation, she is doing ok, but has her ups and downs. She looks so frail now. I go back to work on Monday as my nephew is still here with me, I'm going to miss staying home during the day. But having mom back home makes me so happy.
Last week she sat in the yard with my chickens, she was sad she did not have any but said she was glad she did not have that burden . It's something she dearly wanted but see's it's not possible any more.
School is almost out, making plans for my daughter to take the kids to silver wood and other places. Maybe lagoon this year. Summers around here are important. I will be working, but my daughter can now take over the traveling !
I'm off to bed, have a good night all.

 

[Azriel]

Its still raining here, its been pretty much non-stop since Fri. I've been waiting this morning to open the pop doors on the coop till the rain lets up a little, but that doesn't look like is going to happen any time soon. I know most of them won't go out anyway, but they like to have the door open so they can if they want.
I don't think I'm going to get too good of a hatch on the chicks due this week, I have 2 Cream Crested Legbars hatched, both are girls. I was really hoping for 1 boy. I put a few of my eggs in as test or control eggs, they have all hatched, but again the shipped eggs are not doing great. I don't think I'm going to get any of the Brahamas and I was really looking forward to them, and the Ameraucana I might get a few, but nothing so far. I'm really burned out on chicks right now, so a small hatch is fine by me.
With all this rain I would love to get out and see what the water fall behind my house is looking like, here's a couple of photos of it frozen this past winter




And a photo looking off my back deck yesterday when the rain had let up a bit