My Love Affair With Ducks...

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Oh how well I know. Finding someone to dig the ditches is a different story.

That area actually does drain, or it used to prior to the ducks. They dabble around and rearrange the flow of the land!

Anytime we get that much rain in such a short time the waterfalls start. That particular day (3/25) we received 5.5” of rain and another 2.5” yesterday. Luckily we will be DRY for a week, but COLD for three days.

Digging a drainage trench isn't that hard: It does not have to be something fancy! I dug a shallow trench diagonal across the hill behind my patio to guide the water that runs down the hill sideways down to the dry-creek. I must re-dig it every spring, but the ducks love it and they actually keeping it open during the year. It is not catching all the water, but enough to prevent drowning the tomato-patch, which is in front of the patio.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

The blue pool is still underneath the pink one. I’ve got to get something different for this summer. But I don’t think I want to dig the hole to put a bigger pool in the ground if I’m not certain I want to keep ducks the rest of my life. However, I am committed to these five until they croak of natural causes so I might as well go ahead and make the setup easier for me to take care of. Amiright?

I installed a sink-drain with an adapter to a 1½ inch PVC pipe to a kiddie pool and sunk it into the ground. The pipe can be closed with a gate-valve from valterra and is burried underground and drains the pool into my drainage ditch. I also have a garden-hose attached to the pool, so i only need to open a valve at the sillcock and the pools starts to fill up.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Wow! We live near Seattle and my ducks are jealous of that rain.

I thought Seattle is the rainiest city in the U.S. !?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I took this picture to hopefully document the fact I’m not completely losing it. The morning before I only got two duck eggs. This was strange only because Petey always lays an egg and hers was one of the ones missing. Anyway, I picked up the two eggs and didn’t think a lot more about it...until the next morning, that is. Now bear in mind, I lay fresh straw down every night, so I know for sure that NO MORE eggs were laid during the day. View attachment 2594777

The next morning I was shocked to find six eggs in two little nests. Two Petey eggs, two Hershey eggs, and one each of Peaches and Quinny. How and why would the ducks have NOT laid and egg on one day, but produced IT and another one the next day? It completely baffled me. All of the eggs were in good shape.

I collected 29 eggs today from 28 ducks! - And there were two sunny-side-ups in the garden later this afternoon.
My theory is that some of the new layers have laid an egg in the evening and another one in the morning. Young ducks can lay more than one egg a day, but not for a longer period of time.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Here’s my biggest concern that’s been a few months coming. I have noticed that Peaches, my Buff, has been laying increasingly thin shelled eggs. I’m talking thin as in paper thin. And a few months ago I thought I even had an egg eater as there was evidence in the nest of yolk. The last several days there has been the remnants of an almost shell-less egg in the nest and I found a ‘membrane only’ egg in the pool a couple of days ago.

I have fed an All Flock to all my chickens for several years now with no problems. I have always provided oyster shell on the side. Once the ducks came along I just continued to feed them the same, however, I don’t think they were eating oyster shell like they should have been. Because of these thin shelled eggs I decided to switch to a 16% layer feed. (I do have the two roosters and one drake, but I don’t have any little chicks.) And I have started sprinkling some oyster shell over the ducks feed hoping that would help. After 250 lbs of layer feed I haven’t noticed any change in Peaches’ egg shells. <no Ralphie, Peaches has not eaten all 250 lbs.> Here was what I found this morning and this thin egg shell is what is normal for her. It makes me wonder if ducks are susceptible to reproductive problems as chickens are. Any thought?View attachment 2594823

Zoom in and look at that paper thin shell.
View attachment 2594821

As i wrote in the post before, it is absolutely normal for young ducks to produce quirks before the get that egg-laying business all straightened out. And sadly some ducks never get it right, just ask @Daphne_loves_mealworms .
Peaches is still a young duck and she just came out of her winter-break, so i would keep an eye on her. You can also add some Calcium-Gluconate powder to some cat-food and feed that to peaches - if the other ducks allow. The powder will stick perfectly to the slightly oily cat-food and will be gobbed down.
In my honest opinion "feeding layer feed to drakes and chicks is causing harm to them kidneys" is a myth! There are areas where the water is so "hard" that it leaves white stains everywhere and guess what those white stains are: Calcium Carbonate. That "hard" water is saturated with CaCO3 and still there are no more cases of kidney-stones or arteriosclerosis in these areas than anywhere else.
Here everybody eats layer-pellets, ducks, drakes and ducklings! (Now bash me!) and Everybody is healthy and happy. For the ducklings a high amount of Niacin and some extra protein is important. Both can be supplied with meal-worms and/or cat-foot or by letting them loose outside and have them hunt little insects.
For the grown up ducks, protein is key! Remember eggs are 70% protein! That has to come from somewhere. The layer-feed that i am feeding contains 21% protein.
As for the drakes, they have to get by with what the girls leave them.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Sorry to invade your thread suddenly. I feel compelled to reply as I've had a lot of reproductive issues with my ducks over the last 6 years.

One of the first problems I was having was my ducks barely eating oyster shells and one duck in particular having paper thin shells. I even took her to the vet and had her calcium levels checked. After months of me forcing calcium gluconate down her throat with a syringe I ran out of the white oyster shells I had been using. The store only had grey oyster shells, so I got those and put them out. All six of my ducks quickly gobbled up the grey oyster shells. The thin shell issue disappeared, and the other eggs got even stronger.

Other ducks seem to like the white kind, but I have spoken with other BYC members who have had similar experiences to mine.

So, what color are your oyster shells?

There are different kinds of oyster-shells?! - So far i just bought a 40lbs paper bag of »crushed oyster shells« at my local farm-store and they neither look white nor gray, more speckled…

 

[Mimi13]

Sorry to invade your thread suddenly. I feel compelled to reply as I've had a lot of reproductive issues with my ducks over the last 6 years.

One of the first problems I was having was my ducks barely eating oyster shells and one duck in particular having paper thin shells. I even took her to the vet and had her calcium levels checked. After months of me forcing calcium gluconate down her throat with a syringe I ran out of the white oyster shells I had been using. The store only had grey oyster shells, so I got those and put them out. All six of my ducks quickly gobbled up the grey oyster shells. The thin shell issue disappeared, and the other eggs got even stronger.

Other ducks seem to like the white kind, but I have spoken with other BYC members who have had similar experiences to mine.

So, what color are your oyster shells?

Goodness gracious, you haven’t invaded and it wouldn’t have mattered if you did. I appreciate your answer. I never knew there was a difference in oyster shell. I suppose the ones I buy are white, but there are some gray pieces in them. This is what I buy now, but I’m definitely gonna start searching for another brand and hopefully find some gray oyster shell. It’s definitely worth a try. Thank you for mentioning this.

 

[SolarDuck]

They sell the gray oyster shell on chewy.com, I've never seen it at any physical store near me.

 

[KaleIAm]

I thought Seattle is the rainiest city in the U.S. !?

I believe Seattle has one of the highest number of rainy days per year, but the actual quantity of water that comes down most of those days is quite minimal! Just light misty rain for days and days on end.

 

[Mimi13]

I believe Seattle has one of the highest number of rainy days per year, but the actual quantity of water that comes down most of those days is quite minimal! Just light misty rain for days and days on end.

I would stay in a depressed state all the time.