Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[stake]

Would also like to find someone local that I could get some feeder fish from on a regular schedule, seems a little safer than buying them at various pet shops for the ducks, OK, more my amusement than the ducks...

Wing:

Most feeder fish from pet stores have some sort of koodies....if you ever raised Oscars, they will get pits in their foreheads(somebody may know the specifics)...you might get a minnow trap and find a local pond.....

 

[dheltzel]

Wing:

Most feeder fish from pet stores have some sort of koodies....if you ever raised Oscars, they will get pits in their foreheads(somebody may know the specifics)...you might get a minnow trap and find a local pond.....

That "disease" is commonly called "hole in the head" disease, but it is really a nutritional deficiency and easily reversed by switching to (cheaper) fish pellets formulated with vitamins. For fish that really only eat other fish, it's important to feed the feeder fish on very nutritious food (called gut loading), so it gets passed to the predator.

The diseases in feeder fish are unlikely to cause any problems with your ducks, but I question their food value. It seems like it would be healthier to get a cheap frozen fish and cut that in strips and put a bowl with the strips into the duck pen. Cheaper and better nutrition.

Or catch local fish like sunnies and chop them to size, guts, scales and all.

 

[beaglady]

WOW...I'd love to help you free up a pen! Tell me more

One hen & the roo are 3 years old, and are blue copper. The other hen is 2, and daughter of the other. She is a splash. Roo has frostbite damage to his comb & toes, cosmetically unattractive, but no deterrent to breeding. Both hens have gone broody & raised babies in the past, but are currently laying. Decent egg color.

You pick up at my place about 1/2 hour north of Harrisburg.

 

[wingstone]

 


Wing:

Most feeder fish from pet stores have some sort of koodies....if you ever raised Oscars, they will get pits in their foreheads(somebody may know the specifics)...you might get a minnow trap and find a local pond.....

That "disease" is commonly called "hole in the head" disease, but it is really a nutritional deficiency and easily reversed by switching to (cheaper) fish pellets formulated with vitamins. For fish that really only eat other fish, it's important to feed the feeder fish on very nutritious food (called gut loading), so it gets passed to the predator.

The diseases in feeder fish are unlikely to cause any problems with your ducks, but I question their food value. It seems like it would be healthier to get a cheap frozen fish and cut that in strips and put a bowl with the strips into the duck pen. Cheaper and better nutrition.

Or catch local fish like sunnies and chop them to size, guts, scales and all.

I would really prefer somebody local who raises minnow or something like that, and it is not for nutritional value, the ducks just like them in the pond for awhile, at least till they get hungry...
They kind of have to be still alive for the full effect

 

[chippysmom327]

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/grd/4561475500.html

My ad for my chicks. Is $15 too much for show quality cockerels if I'm not NPIP or a "breeder"? Should I take it down to $10? I just feel like if somebody can potentially win like, hundreds of dollars in prize money on them, that's like, a small price.

And I also got myself into a litttle pickle. My one pullet (or so I think) is too old to be on starter (11 weeks) and too young to be on layer. She's the only one that age, and my other babies are 6 weeks. The only other age I have is layers. I don't really have a growout pen. The only place I can put her is a wire place where the duck sleeps but I'm gonna need it this weekend for Penelope's babies to hatch. The thing is, Penelope's babies willl be guineas. Can I feed the guineas the grower that I'm feeding the pullet? What should I do?

Edit: Just looked up the protein for Dumor Grower/Finisher... def will not work for the guinea keets.

 

[barbiegirl]

Would also like to find someone local that I could get some feeder fish from on a regular schedule, seems a little safer than buying them at various pet shops for the ducks, OK, more my amusement than the ducks...

I have a ton of Rosy minnows that bred in my pond last year and the only thing to survive the winter. I don't know if they would make the trip down to you. They were great at mosquito control in my pond. The koi didn't bother with the mosquito larvae.

 

[dheltzel]

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/grd/4561475500.html

My ad for my chicks. Is $15 too much for show quality cockerels if I'm not NPIP or a "breeder"? Should I take it down to $10? I just feel like if somebody can potentially win like, hundreds of dollars in prize money on them, that's like, a small price.

And I also got myself into a litttle pickle. My one pullet (or so I think) is too old to be on starter (11 weeks) and too young to be on layer. She's the only one that age, and my other babies are 6 weeks. The only other age I have is layers. I don't really have a growout pen. The only place I can put her is a wire place where the duck sleeps but I'm gonna need it this weekend for Penelope's babies to hatch. The thing is, Penelope's babies willl be guineas. Can I feed the guineas the grower that I'm feeding the pullet? What should I do?

Edit: Just looked up the protein for Dumor Grower/Finisher... def will not work for the guinea keets.

Unfortunately, the CL market for show quality poultry is pretty small. I've seen ads for the same birds put up repeatedly for many months. The people looking for SQ birds are looking at the shows and if you want to get good prices, you need to show your birds and they need to win. Saying a bird is SQ means little, but seeing it win in a show makes it valuable. Some breeders know enough to visually see if a bird will win in shows, but those people probably are selling more than buying. If they are at a show and they see a bird they think will improve their line, or a breed they want to show next year, they will negotiate with the owner at the show or at least get the contact info to follow up directly. They are not (generally) trolling CL looking for breeding stock.

If you have pullets, people will buy them for pets and SQ matters only a little (maybe for vanity sake). But cockerels are just hard to sell at all. I don't mean to discourage you, but I would be surprised if you get any takers. Frankly, I think you'll have trouble selling them for any price on CL. Better to take them to a swap or auction.

Sorry if that seems like a negative assessment of the CL market, I do hope I'm wrong in your case and you sell them quickly.

 

[tpolinsk]

Wing, someone is looking for a Muscovy that is going to the swap, I thought you had some extra? I could be wrong...wouldn't be the first time.

Anyone know when to harvest potatoes?

Potatoes are supposed to be harvested when the plants die off. I have been growing potatoes for about 5 years now (in potato growing bags) and I wait until the plants are dead.

 

[chippysmom327]

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/grd/4561475500.html


My ad for my chicks. Is $15 too much for show quality cockerels if I'm not NPIP or a "breeder"? Should I take it down to $10? I just feel like if somebody can potentially win like, hundreds of dollars in prize money on them, that's like, a small price.


And I also got myself into a litttle pickle. My one pullet (or so I think) is too old to be on starter (11 weeks) and too young to be on layer. She's the only one that age, and my other babies are 6 weeks. The only other age I have is layers. I don't really have a growout pen. The only place I can put her is a wire place where the duck sleeps but I'm gonna need it this weekend for Penelope's babies to hatch. The thing is, Penelope's babies willl be guineas. Can I feed the guineas the grower that I'm feeding the pullet? What should I do?


Edit: Just looked up the protein for Dumor Grower/Finisher... def will not work for the guinea keets.

Unfortunately, the CL market for show quality poultry is pretty small. I've seen ads for the same birds put up repeatedly for many months. The people looking for SQ birds are looking at the shows and if you want to get good prices, you need to show your birds and they need to win. Saying a bird is SQ means little, but seeing it win in a show makes it valuable. Some breeders know enough to visually see if a bird will win in shows, but those people probably are selling more than buying. If they are at a show and they see a bird they think will improve their line, or a breed they want to show next year, they will negotiate with the owner at the show or at least get the contact info to follow up directly. They are not (generally) trolling CL looking for breeding stock.

If you have pullets, people will buy them for pets and SQ matters only a little (maybe for vanity sake). But cockerels are just hard to sell at all. I don't mean to discourage you, but I would be surprised if you get any takers. Frankly, I think you'll have trouble selling them for any price on CL. Better to take them to a swap or auction.

Sorry if that seems like a negative assessment of the CL market, I do hope I'm wrong in your case and you sell them quickly.

Thanks for the honest answer. The thing is, I have nowhere to keep 2 cockerels as I have only a roo and two hens. So that really won't work. I was going to take them to a swap the other day, but then my cousins invited themselves to sleep over and I couldn't take them. I figured I'd just post to CL because I'm gonna have to wait another month to take them to a swap and I wanna get em outta my garage. They smell awful.

 

[dheltzel]

Thanks for the honest answer. The thing is, I have nowhere to keep 2 cockerels as I have only a roo and two hens. So that really won't work. I was going to take them to a swap the other day, but then my cousins invited themselves to sleep over and I couldn't take them. I figured I'd just post to CL because I'm gonna have to wait another month to take them to a swap and I wanna get em outta my garage. They smell awful.

Lots of use with too many cockerels can relate. I'm fortunate to be able to just "free range" them, though I know that is death sentence for many of them, especially bantams, they just can't compete. I will be trying to give away some bantam cochin cockerels this fall for sure, once my nieces decide which ones they want to keep as pets. I think it would be neat to swap out all our cockerels for one of yours, but after playing with them as chicks, I doubt they will want to part with any of them.