Muscovy (JM Hatchery) Grow Out Journal

[SteveH]

Thanks for the update . By the way , thats a very nice grow pen you have going .

 

[crperdue]

Thanks! Here it is with the top on it:

Im running some production red pullets and pekin ducks in it to test it out. They were
on special a few weeks back and I couldnt resist. (1.50 and 1.60 respectively)

 

[95yj]

sweet tractor, it looks like some kind of under cover military bird raising operation.

 

[Trenary Ducks]

Quote:
Last year I bought 15 muscovy ducks from JM Hatchery, and raised out 13. There were two deaths within a couple hours of arrival after their two day trip.

From viewing your picture of your brooding pen, I get the impression that your heat lamp was directly in the middle with very little area left for the ducks escape to and cool down. Furthermore, due to the red tinge of the heat lamp, I am assuming it was a 250 Watt bulb. With infrared heat, you could have very well baked their brains, which would explain the seizures. In close quarters like that I put the lamp over to one end which allows them a place to go if it gets too hot, and use a 125 watt bulb.

edited head to heat

 

[crperdue]

I doubt it was the lamp.

All of the losses occured during the 1st 12 hours. The lamp is indeed a 250 watt red heat lamp but it is
aimed toward one end and I use a digital thermometer to monitor the heat.

I have baked some birds by mistake like that when I was 1st getting into poultry but Ive learned from
that mistake.

 

[ultasol]

Here is a possible explanation as to what happened to your ducks. It has been mentioned several times in the duck forum. When baby ducks go a time without access to water, they may gorge on water when it becomes available. Drinking too much water can cause the symptoms you describe, seizures and death. If you do reorder or get a replacement order try giving them a little water at a time for several hours until they are fully hydrated again.

 

[crperdue]

I didn't know that about ducks!

I have another order shipping in the 6th. I will control the water intake.

Thanks!

 

[pringle]

Yep thats probably what caused it with my mallards I put the water in there for 5 mintutes took it away for 15 minutes I did this about 3 times and they didnt gorge on water.I just set 4 scovy eggs in the bater like an hour ago just 5 more weeks for them to hatch lol

 

[Brunty_Farms]

I've heard of the water thing too. However I had an order of 180 assorted ducks that came from Ideal and didn't loose one to that. They came from Texas to Ohio so you would think they would have been dehydrated so it's hard to say.

I would try it with the new ones, it wouldn't hurt.

Do you have any pics of the other ones? I'm curious to see how big they are.

 

[crperdue]

Weekly Weigh-In:

Average: 1.24
High: 1.31
Low: 1.13

They really put on some weight this week! They are very quick the way they run around the brooder.
I made them a new brooder. It's 88"x20"x20". I'll post some pics of that later.

They seem to have a real talent for snapping flies out of the air. There was a little swarm of black flies
that got in there one afternoon and I watched these little guys just snapping them out air like it was
a buffet. It was neat to watch.