Peeps in Europe!

[abpatchy]

Thanks for your input...
My coop is one big building I believe about 20 square meters. It is seperated into my area and the chicken area... I have a small room where I keep tools and feed and everything you need.
The chicken area is split into 4 coops of slightly different sizes only by wood and chicken wire. So technically it is only one coop. Each of the coops have their own run and chicken doors. The older hens were in coop 1, the younger hens in coop 2, roosters in 3 and the 8 week old chicks in 4)
The older chickens as well as the young roosters were inside. All of them.
So I have to say they did not learn this from the older hens.
Mites... maybe. but then why are all the other chickens inside... they should feel the mites as well.
They are not flighty. Sulmtaler are very docile and they always go inside... as a matter of fact the older ones are inside realtiveliy early. I noticed they were already in the coop and the other breeders birds were not even thinking of going inside.

I believe they started not feeling comfortable because the coop was getting to small for them. Or there is a bully or two who does not allow them inside? I will have to change that soon. As soon as I am sure all of them are healthy again. What I have done so far is move them into the roosters coop which is slightly larger... I will butcher roosters on Saturday so they will have enough space. Once they are healthy I can start selling off some hens that don't look too promising. Things should (i hope) go back to normal.

I also made sure they were inside at 9 pm last night. They are so hardheaded... took me a while to get them inside.

oops... just realized I wrote but never posted my response! duh!!

Well, guess what? The roosters didn't all go inside now... I really think it's a space problem....why else would just this coop have mites? The coop is all one room and mites can travel any way they want.
I'll see if anything changes after I butcher those 5 roosters. If not I will treat them with Exolt for mites.

 

[abpatchy]

Last night one of my oldest Dutch bantams didn’t return . She is 6 years old.

Because such things happened before I was a bit concerned. But knew that she would probably come back to the coop next morning.

And she did. Clucking. Looking a bit broody. I have no rooster. So this is not a way to go,

For now I locked her up in the run. The others free range and have access to the coop.

Now I am wondering what the best strategy is.

I guess that would depend if you want to have chicks or not. Put her in wire cage without floor so she has to sit on the wire. That seems to help. Just change of scenery (different coops, different hens) helps... but I don't think that is an option for you as you don't have more coops correct?

 

[BDutch]

The problem was that she has a nest somewhere outside. The eggs are infertile so this is a no-go.

The problem is solved in the mean time.

This evening I let the flock free range again. I had time to follow Pino (the broody in question). And wanted to know where she was breeding.

She walked towards the neighbours to a piece of land covered with wild blackberries.
So I couldn’t follow her all the way. After dinner I started to cut of the wild blackberries.

After approx half an hour, I found the broody in a basket that must have fallen of the neighbours terras early spring. My Pino was sitting on 6 unfertile eggs.

I put Pino in the coop and took the basket and eggs away. After their grain-mix/treat moment they all roosted, including Pino.

My broodies have to wait till next spring for fertile eggs and chicks.

 

[ants4t]

Hello, British in Spain here

I have a Brahma rooster, Buff Orpington with her 3 chicks, and an Easter Egger... for now.

 

[abpatchy]

Welcome to BYC and to this thread!
Gosh I love it that there are more and more of us here!

 

[Erba]

Hey Welcome @ants4t !
Our little Peeps in Europe group is growing even more! YEAH. So what region are you in? I'm about 40 minutes from Switzerland and France here in Germany. Grew up in Canada, lived in the States a couple of years. And then I was sent off to the UK for further education. The love of my life, who I actually met in Spain, brought me to Germany and I have been here ever since.

 

[CuddleNest]

Hi from the CuddleNest near Bonn! I joined last weekend but haven't been able to post with a question til today. This seems like a really nice group! I wasn't sure where to start as we have a few things going on here, but it's probably my ducks that I need advice about. Since it is probably a bit related to the food available in my region (or maybe just my inexperience), I thought I would post here. I hope it is ok to post here, if not, please let me know where might be better.

My questions are:

• Am I overfeeding my ducks? Are they likely to get much bigger?
• Has anyone seen this kind of duckling/duck? Could they be mulards?
• Is it likely that they are two drakes? We have grown attached, so I cannot rehome them. No one wants to eat them either. But any advice if they are two drakes would be appreciated.

On April 28, my neighbor (who also has chickens and geese) was at at nearby poultry farm getting ducklings. I asked her to also get two for us. At that point, the ducks were 2.5 weeks old, the farmer said. No one said what the breed was, just that if there is a black line on the heads as the feathers came in, that duck would be a drake. The neighbor took several ducklings to her place and fed/feeds them a bag of oats (Haferflocken) each day with a bowl of water. They spend the day in a large cage in the grass during the day and are in a concrete chicken stall/house at night with the other birds.

We had our ducklings inside in a big flat tiled shower covered in newspaper in a cage (cat and dog are in the house) with a brooder, water, and Kue-Start (20% protein), which is a pellet food we had leftover from just hatching chicks in April. I also tried to mix in oats but they weren't into it. Once the days were very warm, we started having the ducks outside during the day on straw, in a cage/ They seemed lazy and I thought that maybe they wanted to have the freedom to roam around. So, we removed the cage. However, despite some brief walking, they were just slow and very un-chick-like (I know they are ducks, but they seemed really inactive). At some point, I got very concerned because they seemed completely out of energy, and their legs were bowing inward. From various posts here, I realized that I might need to give them more niacin. I started adding brewer's yeast (Bierhefe) to the pellets 4 days after they arrived, wetting the pellets first to make the powder stick to them. They got the brewer's yeast/pellet mix, water, and all the bugs, grass, and whatever else they found outside to eat. I brought them in every night until this week since it is finally very warm out there at night and they have quite a bit of feathers now. They also get veggies and seem to particularly like small pieces of floating cabbage, lettuce, or cucumber. Yesterday, they still scoffed at oats, even in oatmeal form. While inside, they always had access to water, and they always seemed to want a snack before bed. I was rather liberal with their food, I guess, and they always ate all of it. I never threw any away. BYC posters have recommended reducing protein over time for pets rather than meat ducks, unless I've misunderstood. I'm not sure how to transfer the food over or which food is recommended that I could also get here. We go to local "hof" places or the Raiffeisen shop.

I have uploaded some pictures to show their size (they are around 6 to 7 weeks in the pictures) and the darkening spots on their heads. I also have videos but somehow couldn't get them to upload here. I didn't consider weighing the ducks when I first got them, so I cannot say how much heavier they have become. During a recent bath time, I noticed how big they got. My neighbor said that they are at least twice as large as her ducks right now; she appeared a bit shocked. The ducks are currently very active, and the bowing legs issue is completely gone on one duck and almost gone on the other (maybe I caught it too late?). They spent last night and the night before last in a modified Eglu Go coop with no complaints (but a bowl of water, just in case). Am I doing something wrong? How would anyone recommend modifying the food as they become older? Do I keep using the bewer's yeast no matter what? I even worry that they got heavy so fast that it might have influenced their leg growth somehow. I just want healthy and happy ducks. Any feedback would be appreciated!

Sorry this got so long!!!

 

[abpatchy]

Hi and welcome!
Unfortunately, I'm not a big help with ducks. I have no idea about feeding them. They do look like they could be a muscovy or a muscovy cross. If that is the case and they are drakes then they could get a lot bigger than regular ducks. So I guess it would depend on what kind of ducks your neighbor has to be able to compare. I also don't think overfeeding would cause them to grow extra big. Overweight maybe but not in size.
I really can't help you with all your questions. Not sure if anyone here in this thread is keeping ducks. I believe we all keep chickens. Have you posted your question in the duck section here on byc? They will probably be able to answer your questions.

 

[ants4t]

Hey Welcome @ants4t !
Our little Peeps in Europe group is growing even more! YEAH. So what region are you in? I'm about 40 minutes from Switzerland and France here in Germany. Grew up in Canada, lived in the States a couple of years. And then I was sent off to the UK for further education. The love of my life, who I actually met in Spain, brought me to Germany and I have been here ever since.

Thank you. We are in the Alicante province about 25mins inland from Alicante City just at the base of the mountain range here.

 

[chickengr]

Hi from the CuddleNest near Bonn! I joined last weekend but haven't been able to post with a question til today. This seems like a really nice group! I wasn't sure where to start as we have a few things going on here, but it's probably my ducks that I need advice about. Since it is probably a bit related to the food available in my region (or maybe just my inexperience), I thought I would post here. I hope it is ok to post here, if not, please let me know where might be better.

My questions are:

• Am I overfeeding my ducks? Are they likely to get much bigger?
• Has anyone seen this kind of duckling/duck? Could they be mulards?
• Is it likely that they are two drakes? We have grown attached, so I cannot rehome them. No one wants to eat them either. But any advice if they are two drakes would be appreciated.

On April 28, my neighbor (who also has chickens and geese) was at at nearby poultry farm getting ducklings. I asked her to also get two for us. At that point, the ducks were 2.5 weeks old, the farmer said. No one said what the breed was, just that if there is a black line on the heads as the feathers came in, that duck would be a drake. The neighbor took several ducklings to her place and fed/feeds them a bag of oats (Haferflocken) each day with a bowl of water. They spend the day in a large cage in the grass during the day and are in a concrete chicken stall/house at night with the other birds.

We had our ducklings inside in a big flat tiled shower covered in newspaper in a cage (cat and dog are in the house) with a brooder, water, and Kue-Start (20% protein), which is a pellet food we had leftover from just hatching chicks in April. I also tried to mix in oats but they weren't into it. Once the days were very warm, we started having the ducks outside during the day on straw, in a cage/ They seemed lazy and I thought that maybe they wanted to have the freedom to roam around. So, we removed the cage. However, despite some brief walking, they were just slow and very un-chick-like (I know they are ducks, but they seemed really inactive). At some point, I got very concerned because they seemed completely out of energy, and their legs were bowing inward. From various posts here, I realized that I might need to give them more niacin. I started adding brewer's yeast (Bierhefe) to the pellets 4 days after they arrived, wetting the pellets first to make the powder stick to them. They got the brewer's yeast/pellet mix, water, and all the bugs, grass, and whatever else they found outside to eat. I brought them in every night until this week since it is finally very warm out there at night and they have quite a bit of feathers now. They also get veggies and seem to particularly like small pieces of floating cabbage, lettuce, or cucumber. Yesterday, they still scoffed at oats, even in oatmeal form. While inside, they always had access to water, and they always seemed to want a snack before bed. I was rather liberal with their food, I guess, and they always ate all of it. I never threw any away. BYC posters have recommended reducing protein over time for pets rather than meat ducks, unless I've misunderstood. I'm not sure how to transfer the food over or which food is recommended that I could also get here. We go to local "hof" places or the Raiffeisen shop.

I have uploaded some pictures to show their size (they are around 6 to 7 weeks in the pictures) and the darkening spots on their heads. I also have videos but somehow couldn't get them to upload here. I didn't consider weighing the ducks when I first got them, so I cannot say how much heavier they have become. During a recent bath time, I noticed how big they got. My neighbor said that they are at least twice as large as her ducks right now; she appeared a bit shocked. The ducks are currently very active, and the bowing legs issue is completely gone on one duck and almost gone on the other (maybe I caught it too late?). They spent last night and the night before last in a modified Eglu Go coop with no complaints (but a bowl of water, just in case). Am I doing something wrong? How would anyone recommend modifying the food as they become older? Do I keep using the bewer's yeast no matter what? I even worry that they got heavy so fast that it might have influenced their leg growth somehow. I just want healthy and happy ducks. Any feedback would be appreciated!

Sorry this got so long!!!

welcome!

you should ask these questions in a duck forum.