Pirate ducklings with chicken mama!

[PirateGirl]

Yes! My hubby is helping today and we are finally building our run expansion!! It’s about 40 feet x 20 ft and the existing duck and chicken coops and runs are within that area as well as my raised beds.

 

[Kiki]

Candle everyday!

Yes! My hubby is helping today and we are finally building our run expansion!! It’s about 40 feet x 20 ft and the existing duck and chicken coops and runs are within that area as well as my raised beds.

 

[PirateGirl]

I was wrong, it’s actually gonna be about 60x20 when we are done, just measured out the rest!!

 

[Kiki]

I was wrong, it’s actually gonna be about 60x20 when we are done, just measured out the rest!!

Take lots of pictures!

 

[PirateGirl]

Take lots of pictures!

Maybe when it’s done. It’s just a short welded wire fence around everything. Definitely not predator proof, but a place where their territory can expand when someone is home. And it makes kinda a chicken most around the garden and will allow the duck pool to be further away from their house and sleeping area so I’m hoping it will be less mucky.

 

[aart]

Maybe when it’s done. It’s just a short welded wire fence around everything. Definitely not predator proof, but a place where their territory can expand when someone is home. And it makes kinda a chicken most around the garden and will allow the duck pool to be further away from their house and sleeping area so I’m hoping it will be less mucky.

We probably need a drone video to see it all!

 

[Knighstar679]

Maybe when it’s done. It’s just a short welded wire fence around everything. Definitely not predator proof, but a place where their territory can expand when someone is home. And it makes kinda a chicken most around the garden and will allow the duck pool to be further away from their house and sleeping area so I’m hoping it will be less mucky.

Over the next week or two my pen is getting a tarp roof. So I know how the expansion experience can be. But the little duckies will have a 22x 34ish size pen this year. And this year it will be covered in tarp instead of netting. The netting didn’t survive the snow super will. As hawks are the worse of the predators I see regular those are the ones I am worried most about.

 

[choncy77]

ive been watching your story unfold, and i can relate. I built my own incubator from extra things around the house. the structure is made of structural foam panels, scrap left over from a construction project. I found a piece of lexan, cut it in half, and glued it in the front for a viewport. I put a strip of foam window insulation between the panel edges to create a dual-pane window so it wont fog up as much, nor cause heat loss thru the lexan. for the egg basket tray, I found a shelf made of vinyl-coated wire, and rigged up some legs to elevate the tray off the floor about four inches. I had some extra electrical supplies in the form of an outlet box with a dimmer and an outlet. I bought a porcelain lamp holder for about three dollars at lowes, and two 60-watt clear teardrop bulbs for the heat source. Last but not least, I dismantled a nonfunctional tower computer and took out the fans to use with a misc power converter that comes with cheap electronic toys that my kids never use anymore. took me three days to get the incubator up and running, and total cost was less than 15 dollars. here it is, day twenty-seven of our incubation of one leghorn egg, 7 Muscovy eggs, and 19 indian runner eggs. runners take 28 days, Muscovy 33-37 days. I candled the first time at ten days, had two questionable eggs, movement in most others. I candled for the second time on day 21, and the difference was remarkable. the leghorn egg and one runner egg were non-fertile, and got tossed. the remainders of the runners are all solid and dark, while the Muscovy are not as well formed, as I expected to find since they take longer to cook. hopefully, we will be seeing some runners pipping tonight or tomorrow. If I had anything to do different, I would buy a thermostat so that I could spend less time being worried about the temperature stability in the 'bator. I did pretty good at keeping the temp around 99-100, but occasionally it fluctuated , so I hope it didn't cause any harm. I guess we will find out soon enough. I will let yall know how things turn out....

 

[PirateGirl]

ive been watching your story unfold, and i can relate. I built my own incubator from extra things around the house. the structure is made of structural foam panels, scrap left over from a construction project. I found a piece of lexan, cut it in half, and glued it in the front for a viewport. I put a strip of foam window insulation between the panel edges to create a dual-pane window so it wont fog up as much, nor cause heat loss thru the lexan. for the egg basket tray, I found a shelf made of vinyl-coated wire, and rigged up some legs to elevate the tray off the floor about four inches. I had some extra electrical supplies in the form of an outlet box with a dimmer and an outlet. I bought a porcelain lamp holder for about three dollars at lowes, and two 60-watt clear teardrop bulbs for the heat source. Last but not least, I dismantled a nonfunctional tower computer and took out the fans to use with a misc power converter that comes with cheap electronic toys that my kids never use anymore. took me three days to get the incubator up and running, and total cost was less than 15 dollars. here it is, day twenty-seven of our incubation of one leghorn egg, 7 Muscovy eggs, and 19 indian runner eggs. runners take 28 days, Muscovy 33-37 days. I candled the first time at ten days, had two questionable eggs, movement in most others. I candled for the second time on day 21, and the difference was remarkable. the leghorn egg and one runner egg were non-fertile, and got tossed. the remainders of the runners are all solid and dark, while the Muscovy are not as well formed, as I expected to find since they take longer to cook. hopefully, we will be seeing some runners pipping tonight or tomorrow. If I had anything to do different, I would buy a thermostat so that I could spend less time being worried about the temperature stability in the 'bator. I did pretty good at keeping the temp around 99-100, but occasionally it fluctuated , so I hope it didn't cause any harm. I guess we will find out soon enough. I will let yall know how things turn out....

Photos as they hatch please!

 

[PirateGirl]

The chickens and ducks have never mingled before, but they are enjoying scratching through the compost together inside the new fence! We still have to finish stretching it and put in quite a few more staples, but it’s usable!