NY chicken lover!!!!

[rancher hicks]

I think you will find that the ducks will make a mess of your coop & it will be wet a lot. At least that is what a lot of people say. Its better to keep the ducks separate. Ducks need to be able to dunk their heads in water every day. They splash it around & make a mess....You could put the water bucket outside in the summer, but in the winter?

In the winter you could have a heated pool for them.

 

[stonykill]

I have to say, Sumatras are looking more and more interesting. What are their eggs like? Color? Size?

medium in size once they are laying a little while. More bantam size when they 1st start. They are either white or a light tan in color. Very rare is a blue egg. But that is really rare.

 

[rancher hicks]

This is what I keep reading...but the way my coops are set up, the chickens have open access to their runs. They can roam freely to their runs from the coops. So what I do is keep the water "outside" of the coop and in the run because it gets messy or filled with pine shavings anyway. It stays cleaner outside the coop. So if I moved the orps back to their own coop and moved the ducks in with them, the water would be kept outside in the run and they would have access to it, but outside of the coop. I guess I'll have the try and see. It sounds like those who have kept the two together had eventually moved them to their own pen because of the mess.


I'll definitely be bringing my daughter in tomorrow, this is starting to bother me now. Stupid ticks!

You could buy one of those big plastic "cement" mixing pans and pour water into it each day. If you put it at one end of the run that is slightly lower than the rest the water would run away from the area. I started reading about ducks and they don't necessarily have to have a pond or a lot of water. They just would prefer it.

 

[stonykill]

OK......................... Broody question : I have an Australorp thats broody. I gave her eggs to sit on Sat. She hasn/t been off the nest to eat ,drink or poop. It's 4 days........ should I be concerned ??

no. They only get off the nest for 10 to 20 minutes a day. REALLY easy to NOT see them get up. But some of mine only get up every 3 r 4 days (that I notice) and it is all good.

 

[Tough Old Bird]

Rancher, here is my # 1 Poop Producer. And he's got friends, #'s 2 and 3 on the production line.

Just say the word.

TOB

 

[stonykill]

no. They only get off the nest for 10 to 20 minutes a day. REALLY easy to NOT see them get up. But some of mine only get up every 3 r 4 days (that I notice) and it is all good.

oops missed Cass's answer.

 

[rancher hicks]

OK......................... Broody question : I have an Australorp thats broody. I gave her eggs to sit on Sat. She hasn/t been off the nest to eat ,drink or poop. It's 4 days........ should I be concerned ??

NO. She gets off when you aren't looking. I have some like that that I never see off the nest. Others I wish I didn't see off the nest. When you see those big piles of poo in the yard you know it was her.

Trust her she knows what she's doing.

 

[rancher hicks]

Nope. (that's the short answer)

I assume that you do not live in your chicken coop so she has been off the nest to poop, grab a bite to eat and drink while you weren't looking at her. She was protecting those eggs from you while you were looking at her. Have you lifted her up to see if others have laid eggs under her? I remove 3 - 5 eggs A DAY from under my broody that aren't part of the clutch I set under her. (I marked the ones I wanted left there with big BIG purple X's and O's.. I got bored making X's so I made some O's for all of you who are gonna say "why O, why not just X on both sides) If you get brave enough to lift her to check for extra eggs and find some you will know that she has been off. (If no other hens have access to her nest, this won't work to calm your mind. Sorry)

In the 1.5 years I have been on this forum, I have never read about a broody dying while sitting on eggs. Anyone else have any experience with hens dying while brooding eggs?

I've had a few I wanted to kill.

 

[rancher hicks]

Rancher, here is my # 1 Poop Producer. And he's got friends, #'s 2 and 3 on the production line.

Just say the word.

TOB

what color eggs do they lay?

 

[Lynzi777]

You could buy one of those big  plastic  "cement" mixing pans and pour water into it each day.   If you put it at one end of the run that is slightly lower than the rest the water would run away from the area.  I started reading about ducks and they don't necessarily have to have a pond or a lot of water.  They just would prefer it.    

I don't plan on keeping much water in the coop other than for drinking. When they get bigger I'm going to buy a kiddie pool and surround it with stones that are used to make raised flower beds/retaining walls so it doesn't look like a random pool in my yard. But the coops are on the top of the hill so anything that spills will roll away from the run.