I have been watching the nests where I have hens sitting on eggs but the first hen lost her ducklings to the crows (her nest was right under a tree where they can see everything below) and the second hen must have got off her nest too long during incubation because all but two eggs were rotten and the two remaining look questionable. Then today I was out in the yard and a mother duck came out of the bushes with eight ducklings following her. They were so cute I should have taken pictures but instead I scrambled to move them to a safe pen with netting over the top so the crows won't get them. Now it has been raining so I have not taken pictures yet.
This greenhead hen is in the yard with greenhead drakes but she had two bluehead ducklings that I think must have been from my silverhead hen before I penned her with the silverhead drake. The silverhead had been on a nest of her own so I took her eggs and put them in the incubator so I can keep her ducklings but she must have used this other hen's nest for two of her eggs and then this hen took over the nest. I even find chicken eggs in with the duck eggs so they seem fine with sharing their nests. It is even possible that not all six greenheads are her biological ducklings, so it makes it hard to know who is related unless I have them separated. Right now I am selling all the greenhead ducklings as straight run but I will need to separate my lines soon in case people want breeding pairs. I actually have three greenhead drake lines with one line of drakes penned with the hen who lost her ducklings (she is laying so her eggs are going in the incubator and getting mixed with the others for now) but the separated drake line is related to a few of my hens so I need to sell them with hens that are unrelated.
I am going to sell this family of ducks with two unrelated drakes as a starter flock since the hen is unrelated to the drakes and the ducklings are unrelated to the drakes. The unrelated drakes can breed with the mother and daughters and then their ducklings could be paired back with the drake ducklings if someone wanted to create a second line instead of selling the drake ducklings. I have avoided inbreeding and even linebreeding by bringing in new bloodlines but I know some people just let them breed without keeping track of their lines. I believe the genetic diversity is critical in a rare breed where it may not be as much of an issue in common breeds that already have a wide gene pool.
I am excited to have my first hen hatched ducklings of the season so I will take pictures when it stops raining. I have more hens on nests and I have more ducklings in the incubator so I should be making an impact in bringing up the numbers of this endangered duck breed. This has been my daughter's Girl Scout Silver Award service project so she needs to present her outcome before she moves up from Cadettes to Seniors this summer.
This greenhead hen is in the yard with greenhead drakes but she had two bluehead ducklings that I think must have been from my silverhead hen before I penned her with the silverhead drake. The silverhead had been on a nest of her own so I took her eggs and put them in the incubator so I can keep her ducklings but she must have used this other hen's nest for two of her eggs and then this hen took over the nest. I even find chicken eggs in with the duck eggs so they seem fine with sharing their nests. It is even possible that not all six greenheads are her biological ducklings, so it makes it hard to know who is related unless I have them separated. Right now I am selling all the greenhead ducklings as straight run but I will need to separate my lines soon in case people want breeding pairs. I actually have three greenhead drake lines with one line of drakes penned with the hen who lost her ducklings (she is laying so her eggs are going in the incubator and getting mixed with the others for now) but the separated drake line is related to a few of my hens so I need to sell them with hens that are unrelated.
I am going to sell this family of ducks with two unrelated drakes as a starter flock since the hen is unrelated to the drakes and the ducklings are unrelated to the drakes. The unrelated drakes can breed with the mother and daughters and then their ducklings could be paired back with the drake ducklings if someone wanted to create a second line instead of selling the drake ducklings. I have avoided inbreeding and even linebreeding by bringing in new bloodlines but I know some people just let them breed without keeping track of their lines. I believe the genetic diversity is critical in a rare breed where it may not be as much of an issue in common breeds that already have a wide gene pool.
I am excited to have my first hen hatched ducklings of the season so I will take pictures when it stops raining. I have more hens on nests and I have more ducklings in the incubator so I should be making an impact in bringing up the numbers of this endangered duck breed. This has been my daughter's Girl Scout Silver Award service project so she needs to present her outcome before she moves up from Cadettes to Seniors this summer.
