***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[GaryDean26]

The age of the bird, their diet, the time of year, and the heath of the bird all play into egg size.

In the spring when all the new growth is out and birds are newly off their winter molt is when eggs size should be the largest. At 13 months old I am guessing that they probably laid all throught he winter. It that correct? How long are they into their laying cycle?

At that age they haven't seen their largest eggs yet. IF they take a molt this winter you should see bigger eggs next spring that you were getting earlier this year.

The BOSS.may be the reason egg size is going down. That is something that I always relate more to feather quality that to egg size though. So I would guess that is not it. The level of protein in the diet is what I usually think of when it comes to influencing eggs size. Hen on 20% protein laying mash would be expected to have larger eggs than those on 15% protein.

If they are getting a lot of free range or being fed wild greens I wouldn't won't worry about them. I usually see our biggest eggs in March and they taper off after that. Take good car of them and I bet next March you see some monster size eggs if you were getting Jumbo eggs from them in their first year of laying.

 

[Remy_Flock]

I copied your welcome post here....so several duck owners can offer help.
There is a great duck thread in the "other backyard poultry section.

Your two babies are cute!
Yes, the breeds can mate. You won't know the sex on the males until they get a drake curl on their tail...the feathers actually curl backwards. Voices also indicate sex...females are loud and talkative, males are softer sounds.
What are you feeding?
How are they housed?

My ducks are Pekin/Cayuga crosses.

I am building an outdoor area for them, with a pool and covered nesting area. Right now they are still on starter feed with supervised yard time for bugs and plants.

I had a vet check my tiny duckling and they believe it to be a male. I was really not wanting a male, mostly because of the mating... I have not heard good things.

I'm also VERY curious what breed of duck the little black and yellow one is (on my profile pic). Any ideas?

 

[dunnmom]

Thanks @GaryDean26. They stopped laying for nearly 2 mo. this winter while molting. They began laying between 20 and 30 weeks. Most of them did not lay everyday in their first year, but they are beginning to now. If it's protein they need, I'm about to set up a trap for june bugs, so that should take care of it. They LOVED those nasty little dive-bombers last year.

 

[NanaKat]

Okies must be really busy!

​I don't tend to hang out here much. I'm usually on the hatching pages. But yes, I've been really busy lately. I've been hatching out lots of cute fluffy little chicks. So far I've hatched out some silver laced orps, buff orps, spitzhaubens and spitz crosses, and frizzled cochins. I still have eggs from some true ameraucanas, more frizzled cochins, and lavender orps in the incubator. I'm working on making an extra flock that will be used to till the garden. We probably won't use about 3/4 of the garden this year since my husband hurt his back. We are mostly using containers this year. I'm planning to work on improving the soil in the part of the garden that we won't be using. I want to throw in lots of compost, steer manure, and whatever other organic material I can find. We sold off our cattle, (except for the one we had butchered) but still have lots of manure that we can use.
What's easy to grow in a small garden area that I can throw to the chickens?
We just bought 25 meat birds today. We plan to wait two weeks and then get 25 more. That should be plenty for the whole year.
We are almost finished making a simple coop with a mesh wire floor for the meat birds to go into at night. Some of the wood is recycled from other projects and the roof will be made from sheets of tin that we have laying around. There are coyotes in our area and we don't want them snacking on our chickens.
We have also been working on a container garden. My husband loves to garden as much as I do, so I set up lots of containers on the back patio for him to grow veggies in. We have potatoes tomatoes, and a few other things growing in the containers. I set up some containers for rain water harvesting too. The plants always grow and produce so much better when they get rain water rather than well water.

Sorry to hear your hubby is suffering from a back injury! It sounds like you are on your way to a good container garden! And your coop for chickens sounds quite servicible.

Because of my back, we went to raised beds...16 foot X 4 foot by 12 inches high using treated 2x12. I can sit on the side and reach the middle. Each bed has a 16 foot cattle panel down the middle supported on three 6 foot T posts. Put the garden in 18 years ago and still using them.
It took some help from family to build the beds and a tractor to fill the beds with top soil and compost.

 

[NanaKat]

My hatch is still going strong...
The Wyandotte are still popping. 27 out of 32 so far.
The Cochin are at the back of the hatcher tray but I can see 4 pips and 4 chicks.

Sadly only three ducks hatched...there were four that had internally pipped but never externally. And the rest died shortly after going into lockdown.
A friend told me that if the duckling has internally pipped to drill a tiny opening for air as the egg goes into the hatcher...just enough to allow the baby to breathe while hatching. The air cell may not be enough air while the baby hatches. May try that on a few of the duck eggs due on the 27 if there are internal pips.

 

[GaryDean26]

I have two pips. I was hoping for some early hatches today but tomorrow is day 21.

 

[Kassaundra]

One of my girls went broody this week, so whats a crazy chicken lady suppose to do???? Give her some eggs of course.

 

[Karen523]

Sorry to hear your hubby is suffering from a back injury! It sounds like you are on your way to a good container garden! And your coop for chickens sounds quite servicible.

Because of my back, we went to raised beds...16 foot X 4 foot by 12 inches high using treated 2x12. I can sit on the side and reach the middle. Each bed has a 16 foot cattle panel down the middle supported on three 6 foot T posts. Put the garden in 18 years ago and still using them.
It took some help from family to build the beds and a tractor to fill the beds with top soil and compost.

Your raised beds look great! We just removed our two raised beds because we weren't using them and they were just taking up space in out garden. We made them too wide so it was hard to reach to the middle to pull weeds. We might need to make some in the future again.
y husband had an injection in his back two days ago and it seems to have helped quite a bit. I hated seeing him slumped over trying to get up from the recliner, but he is doing better now. We are just going to have to be careful about what he does in the future so he doesn't make it worse.
My husband stopped in Norman on the way home from work yesterday and got a load of compost. It's just $10 to have the pick up bed filled. We get the compost and the free mulch every year to help improve our garden.
The new coop started out to be a chicken tractor. My husband kept "improving" it until it became too heavy for me to move around. This is our 5th coop. We have two that we use as breeding pens, one for a grow out pen, one for the free range layers. And the new one will first be used for meat birds and then moved to the garden for a flock that will be used to till the garden.

 

[susiejl]

Where can I get female baby geese from? Or geese eggs to hatch. I'm asking for a friend. Anywhere local? Or a place online that doesn't cost a fortune? Thanks

 

[OKVet]

I had a great hatch. I think I am done hatching for the year.