Pekin Duck Club!

[susychick]

mine loves lettuce have two ducks and a 12 hens + couple of more they all love lettuce apples and such the ducks are most freindly one does peck the little kids but not hard.

 

[chickery-do]

U just google it or u go to Meyer hatchery site and they have a YouTube video that shows u how to do it. It takes a bit of practice with those fighting and protesting duckies but u'll get the hang of it.
According to that method I should have all females and only one drake. Also I got Susie as a "leftover" duckling at the feed store from their previous delivery. That's why she is bigger. Couldn't resist taking that sole big one with me...

Be nice part with 2!,

 

[wildsam]

Anyone close to OK who wants/is looking for ducks? Found this on the messy thread for rehoming.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-good-adoptive-homes-central-ok#post_11261739

 

[chickery-do]

Quote:

Northern part of NH is looking to replenish her raccoons midnight snack on 2. and 2 females to keep 1 male company. Keep on the lookout for me too!

Oopsss. I typed in their heading! Tha'ts partly me up there!!!

 

[countrygirl74]

Nibbler surveying the new pool...

Did he jump in? Yes.

Love it!!!

I have 2 a male and a female. Can someone tell me, at what age do they start laying, and do they lay daily? Mine are 6 weeks old

My Pekins started laying around 24 weeks and those girls haven't taken a day off since the beginning of April!! They are awesome layers! My Rouen takes a day off every so often, but she's pretty good too...
Have you considered re-homing one of your males or getting some more girls? Or do you have more girls of different breeds? (looks like you might from the pic??) - one girl to 2 boys is dangerous...

Important!!!! So sometimes my pekins eyes get bloodshot. It's random not all the time but still worries me. When he's outside he's gated off and I clean him daily so I don't think it's any disease. Any ideas? Help! Also he's only a month and a half old and now all white so is it normal he still picks at his feather and alot come out? I think they are still growing in but idk

Do they have fresh water to dunk their entire heads into? They need to be able to rinse their eyes regularly... If so, it could just be irritation from dust, wind, etc... you might want to increase the protein or vitamins for a little while and see if that helps with the feather picking. However, some of that is normal - it might seem a lot of feathers coming out to us, but it's just the way they preen while they lose baby feathers and grow in new ones. I would only be concerned if there's really bad bald spots.

Ok so I just took the eggs into the bathroom and held them over a flashlight. One of the eggs (7 total) doesn't look like it had anything at all in it. No veins and no duck. 4 of them I can see the ducklings inside of the egg, one of which I am pretty sure was moving. And the other two look veiny. Wouldn't they all be at the same stage by now? I thought that's how duck eggs work lol forgive me for I don't know much about them. My pekins were 6 weeks when I got them.

How fun! I would post all your info over here on this thread and there are lots of duck hatching experts to help you out through the process. There are some great candling pics to know what to look for too. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ead-for-ducks-2013-edition/1070#post_11401408

g
I was reading that they lay one a day but it didn't say if they start incubation immediately or wait until they have many to do so.

They will continue to lay until they feel they have enough in their nest, then will start sitting on them.

my girls haha Webber is like I'm trying to eat mom! Jeesh! They are 12 weeks now? Gosh it's getting hard to remember !

And just cuz I like showin em off here's my gosling babes! Only 13 days old ! Eeekkkkk! My girls have warmed up to them thankfully so now ima start putting them outside during the day in a day cage when it's nice so they can all mingle

So cute!! I can't wait to do geese someday!

 

[summer9498]

My Pekin just recently became broody for the first time. She had a clutch of 6 eggs and I had not seen her come off of the nest for the past 3 days. I was doubtful that she would carry it out for the full 28 days, but I was hopeful. Today when I got home she was not sitting on them. I went in to check and 1 had become cracked and I assume my chickens ate the yolk . Is there a good chance that this will cause her to give up? I know it's very early in, but I was excited about the possibility.
Also the remaining eggs are now sitting in the yolk. I guess these things happen in nature and the eggs remain that way. I did not want to put fresh hay under them for fear that it would be to much disturbance to them.

 

[Strawberryswyrl]

Here are my two Pekings, Billie and Raptor. We had sexed them wrong when they were 5 weeks old. We thought the large one that was quacking loudly was the male, but after another month or so passed I read about "quack sexing" and found that the female begins quacking right away, whereas the male has a hollow, raspy voice and continues to peep well into being a few months old. The male, who we thought was the female, was named "Beakie," but soon grew much larger than the other duck and eventually began to develop his drake vocals. As his drake vocals were coming in he sounded like a little dinosaur! So I started calling him "Raptor," which has been his name ever since! And now Billy's name is spelled "Billie," and we're not changing it since she knows her name so well! Raptor was a runt when we got the pair but is now much larger than the female and has a longer, thicker bill and thicker neck. In the first photo, which is the most recent one of them at three months old, Raptor is in the back, and in the second photo he is in the back, as well, and that second photo is them at two months old when they were about the same size as one-another. In the bottom photo I had brought them inside and put them in the bath tub because it was too cold outside, or so I believed at the time, and was keeping them inside at the time anyway. In this photo I am feeding them Purina dog food in the tub (they LOVE it!!!) Now that they are older they like to stay outside overnight. It was hard getting them to stay outside at first. When the sun would go down the female would sound off with a super-loud "QUACK QUACK QUACK QUAAAAAAACK!!!!!" to let me know it was time to come out and supervise them lol they were such scaredy-ducks!!!!! These are my first duckies and I got them for myself on Easter from a girl who had a couple extras to sell off from a flock. I look forward to possibly having baby "beakies" eventually! I call ducks and birds "beakies" lol

 

[Deleted member 94844]

Here are my two Pekings, Billie and Raptor. We had sexed them wrong when they were 5 weeks old. We thought the large one that was quacking loudly was the male, but after another month or so passed I read about "quack sexing" and found that the female begins quacking right away, whereas the male has a hollow, raspy voice and continues to peep well into being a few months old. The male, who we thought was the female, was named "Beakie," but soon grew much larger than the other duck and eventually began to develop his drake vocals. As his drake vocals were coming in he sounded like a little dinosaur! So I started calling him "Raptor," which has been his name ever since! And now Billy's name is spelled "Billie," and we're not changing it since she knows her name so well! Raptor was a runt when we got the pair but is now much larger than the female and has a longer, thicker bill and thicker neck. In the first photo, which is the most recent one of them at three months old, Raptor is in the back, and in the second photo he is in the back, as well, and that second photo is them at two months old when they were about the same size as one-another. In the bottom photo I had brought them inside and put them in the bath tub because it was too cold outside, or so I believed at the time, and was keeping them inside at the time anyway. In this photo I am feeding them Purina dog food in the tub (they LOVE it!!!) Now that they are older they like to stay outside overnight. It was hard getting them to stay outside at first. When the sun would go down the female would sound off with a super-loud "QUACK QUACK QUACK QUAAAAAAACK!!!!!" to let me know it was time to come out and supervise them lol they were such scaredy-ducks!!!!! These are my first duckies and I got them for myself on Easter from a girl who had a couple extras to sell off from a flock. I look forward to possibly having baby "beakies" eventually! I call ducks and birds "beakies" lol

What a gorgeous couple!!

 

[lauranickerson]

I got 4 Pekins mid-March: one duck, three drakes. I noticed for the first time today that the female was laying low in the pool today, and the male in there with her was quacking and bobbing his head up and down right next to her. Are they going to start mating soon? Looked like what I would call some sort of mating ritual.

My Pekin drake I had as a kid did that all the time, with no ladies around but chicken hens, which he took advantage of anyways...

 

[Deleted member 94844]

I got 4 Pekins mid-March: one duck, three drakes. I noticed for the first time today that the female was laying low in the pool today, and the male in there with her was quacking and bobbing his head up and down right next to her. Are they going to start mating soon? Looked like what I would call some sort of mating ritual. 

My Pekin drake I had as a kid did that all the time, with no ladies around but chicken hens, which he took advantage of anyways...

Three drakes to one female equals a non-stop gang bang... that duck will be in bad shape once those boys hit puberty. If they are bobbing their heads, mating season has begun. A ratio of 1:1 is bad enough... 3:1 will likely kill her as they could all pile on her in the water and drown the poor thing. The recommended ratio is 1:3 male to female and you've got the opposite! We had a mated pair and our girl was in the SVU at least once a month to recover from her sex-related injuries. You really need to get more females, separate them, or rehome somebody.