Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Ana is officially broody again. I knew she was thinking about it. She has awful timing! Is FREEZING out!

Haha, one of my new girls from the neighbor just decided she would go broody too. Good grief. I will see if I can break her this weekend, I already will have a new Mama her soon to handle.

I'm planning to buy adults so they should start laying in the spring. I'm never in a hurry to get ducks hatching, the ducklings are very messy indoors. Well, outdoors too, but it's less bothersome there. Still, every egg they lay will go into the incubator, regardless of the timing.
I've never had bantam ducks before, just the Welsh Harlequins and a few brief stints with Pekins that didn't work out for various reasons. Calls are quite difficult and often poor layers, so I'm avoiding them in favor of Australian Spotteds, a little larger than a good Call, but smaller than Mallards. Very few people keep the Australian Spotteds because they are not a recognized showable breed like the Calls. I'm hoping to popularize them around here if they are as good as the reports.

That sounds awesome. That will give me some time to construct a duck house and enclosure. I'm sure you will success with them in the area, since you are able to sell to feed stores. Ducklings are so cute to begin with, and if people know that they will stay small, that is an easy impulse buy. I impulsed right away!

 

[dheltzel]

That sounds awesome. That will give me some time to construct a duck house and enclosure. I'm sure you will success with them in the area, since you are able to sell to feed stores. Ducklings are so cute to begin with, and if people know that they will stay small, that is an easy impulse buy. I impulsed right away!

I knew you would!
I should take some pics of the pen I'm building for them. It will have a wire floor run with a plastic pond with a drain, so I can open the drain, then come back later to refill it and watch them play in the clean water.

 

[dheltzel]

This is what I'm adapting: http://www.faithvalleywaterfowl.com/housing_directions.html

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

This is what I'm adapting: http://www.faithvalleywaterfowl.com/housing_directions.html

Here is what you need, I'm sure you could make an offer...

https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/grd/d/feed-bin/6407144441.html

 

[fangedknight]

Feed store chicks create a stir, but you are right, ducklings steal the show every time. The bantam breeds are less trouble to house too. If I can find someone to collaborate with that can build and sell pens made for them, something like a large rabbit hutch with a large plastic pan for a pool, I bet they would be very popular pets. That's why I want to try them. I love to watch ducks playing in a pond, but the big ducks need a large pond and get it muddy so fast. If the pen had a wire floor with a recessed pond they could swim in, but no dirt to make the pond muddy, that would be perfect.

Thissss ALL OF THIS! And hey, if you need someone to help with the duck stuff, lemme see if I can pimp Keith out a bit or at least bounce some ideas off of him for pens and such. He's been building blueprints in his head all year.

Absolutely! I didn’t even know they existed. I wanted to add ducks next year. I wanted to start with ducklimbs sinc they ar thI cutest animal ever! Where do you think you will get them from?

I only had my friends ducks for a weekend, but they were adorable!

Oh darling they are amazing, messy, but amazing. I have two of dheltzel's welsh harlequin ducks and they are the sweetest things (Also ridiculous). And I'm hoping to be hatching out some ducklings from said ducks this spring if I can. They'd be full size and possibly barnyard mixes since Daffy (my drake) has been reaaaallyyy doing his job with the girls.

Well here she was, sitting on the insulation on the wall, behind the row of chickens above. If you look closely, you can see her feet in the picture above. Silly chickens. Anyone else ever "lose" a chicken like that?

View attachment 1207842

Oh yeah. We stuffed the straw for the insulation behind the tarps and made sure it was secured and what all, next morning I go in there and I here someone clucking from inside the wall!! Took me a half an hour to dig her out of there! Silly girls. Even Thunder, my roo got stuck in a panel at one point, had to pull the idiot out by the leg.

 

[fangedknight]

And double post because update on the hatch! (Yes @AnneInTheBurbs it is my first hatch by myself! I'm super excited!)

So far so good, one of my eggs has a hairline crack in it which @LeBlackbird noticed when we first candled them on day 4 but it seems to be doing just fine since we're at day 16 and everyone's on the same page for development! (So blacked out I can't see anything!! Blue shells aren't helping either...).

I'm nervous and excited and freaking out all at the same time. And my poor therapist is going to be wondering what the heck is wrong with me since the last day of lockdown is the same day as my next appointment with him.

Oh oh yes, I almost forgot, it's only the 3 Black Ameraucana eggs because the ones from my gang weren't fertile yet, trust me we're getting plenty of fertility now so hopefully soon I'll be able to get some different eggs in the Colemabator

 

[dheltzel]

Here is what you need, I'm sure you could make an offer...

https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/grd/d/feed-bin/6407144441.html

I do need a feed bin like that, I've been looking at them for a while. They are expensive and so far, it would take over a year to pay for it from the 2 cents per lb savings on the feed.

 

[dheltzel]

Thissss ALL OF THIS! And hey, if you need someone to help with the duck stuff, lemme see if I can pimp Keith out a bit or at least bounce some ideas off of him for pens and such. He's been building blueprints in his head all year.

Oh darling they are amazing, messy, but amazing. I have two of dheltzel's welsh harlequin ducks and they are the sweetest things (Also ridiculous). And I'm hoping to be hatching out some ducklings from said ducks this spring if I can. They'd be full size and possibly barnyard mixes since Daffy (my drake) has been reaaaallyyy doing his job with the girls.

Muddy pens is a huge drawback with ducks for sure. I got a pretty good start on the duck pen today. I'm engineering the pen to be repeatable (in construction) and transportable (in the bed of a pickup). I've done the research and think I have a good plan in my head, now to see how it turns out.
Ducks are ordered, 5 females and 4 males. They will arrive sometime in January, depending of shipping weather. 2 males will go into a bachelor pad as backups and 2 will be in the main pen with the females. 4 males would be too hard on that many females.

 

[Ellagance]

Hello everybody! I live in West Chester (Chester County) and I have two crested drakes that I need to rehome. We took them from someone while desperately hoping that they would somehow magically turn into females, but they turned out to be quite the opposite. They're super friendly and they obviously love each other, but two males to my female is not a healthy ratio. I would rather they go together because they haven't lived a day in their lives without each other, and they cuddle up like two peas in a pod. The woman said they're white crested (which is not a breed), so we believe they are jumbo crested Pekin because they are HUGE! They have bright blue eyes, and though they may be shy, I think they could really turn out to be like lap dogs. They didn't have much socializing at their last home, and I really wish I could've been able to provide it myself but my Ancona comes first (I know that sounds selfish, but I hand raised her and brought her home the day she hatched). They're not aggressive towards her, but I fear that they will when she becomes broody in the spring. I have a few pictures although I'm not sure how they'll come out. Let me know if you have any inquiries, or if you would like them or know someone who would! Thank you so much, Ella.
(P.S. We have named them Toupee and Beret (I'll bet you can guess which is which))

 

[dheltzel]

Welcome from northern Chester Co (almost Pottstown) !
I think the perfect solution for you is to build another pen for the these 2 boys. Then in the spring, buy about 6 or 7 female ducklings. When they are grown, you should be able to put them all back together because you will have enough females to spread out the "attention" from the males.