Rouen Duck thread

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Mine is 6 weeks and his/her head looks green at certain angles but I was told its too early for that to prove anything one way or the other.

Too soon. I've had females with "green sheen" at that age. Watch the bill color too.

 

[Kelsykin]

Could be a golden 300 hybrid

Or a Swedish ( the males look the exact same )

He or She just developed the white patch on the front under his/her bill and the white spots on the wings. When we got him/her s/he was the only duckling that was pure black. I had to have him/her.

 

[wildsam]

He or She just developed the white patch on the front under his/her bill and the white spots on the wings.  When we got him/her s/he was the only duckling that was pure black. I had to have him/her.

Congrats to Ur new addition! I feel u on that. Almost brought home a Pekin duckling last weekend. Then 2 days later suddenly I had 7 instead of 6 ducklings! My wonderful SO went back and got me one!!

 

[Kelsykin]

Quote:
We have a pair of Rouens in the outside pen. Then 3 Pekins in with those four little ones. When we first got him we thought he was a Cayuga. he was pure black. Now his feet are changing colors and the white bits showed up last weekend.

 

[buff goose guy]

I've set my order from Metzer for 3 golden 300 hybrids , 3 rouens , and 1 blue Swedish .

 

[lvmomma]

Too soon. I've had females with "green sheen" at that age. Watch the bill color too.

This is what his/her bill looks like

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

Haven't posted this year, I don't think. Need my rouen eggs to hatch at least a couple birds. Had 1 pair survive winter and they have fertile eggs. But drake got killed last week so I really want some of the 23 eggs in incubation to make it. Letting female keep a nest outside and see if she'll sit on them and get a couple more fertile eggs out and maybe hatch. If not might just stick to chickens and let her live out her days as one of them. She acts like it half the time. Her mother lived with them for nearly 2 years before I got a drake. Will see and keep fingers crossed. I candled some a bit ago and saw movement in 4-5.

 

[KateB39]

Hi Everyone ,
I haven't posted in a very long time.This years has been very busy for me.I lost every single duckling this year due to a power failure caused my lighting strike during a thunderstorm. Our power was out for more than 16 hours.I lost 36 ducklings and 14 chicks.I know that not all of them wouldn't have hatched but it was a sad day when i returned from work to find I had no power and my incubator was cold. I have never let my hens set the nest . So the eggs they started laying this week I am going to let them keep. I never let them set because of rat snakes. I haven't seen one snake this year but it has been unusually cool this year.The high's should have been near 90 degrees by now, instead the high for today is 75 degrees.This may have something to do with our decline in rat snake population.I have consistently lost birds to rat snakes in the past.So much so I would put my chicks and ducklings in a coop in my dog yard.My dog hates snakes and will kill them.He doesn't bother the chicks or ducklings, even lets them walk all over him. Mac( a Neapolitan mastiff/Black lab mix - a very large dog ) would even share food with them, but it's dog food so I had to put a stop to them eating it. Although it was funny watching him try to eat while 2 dozen baby fowl clambered around him.Year after year he watched over my flock.Mac died of old age( he was 14) last year.I have never had a problem with predators because of Mac, he really was my coop guardian.
Last month my husband lost his 3 year battle with cancer. I know I haven't posted much in the last three years but as I said I was a little busy.His health care was very time consuming I had little time to do much else besides work and take care of him. Now I find myself with extra time, I still have about a month before I have to return to work.I have 3 rouoen Ducks 1 drake , 2 hens, i also have 3 barred rock hens 3 production red hens ,one production red rooster, one rose come chin rooster, and one black hen She was supposed to be a production red... she came with all the other production red's I had ordered.The rooster i had gotten from the feed store for free.He was put into a box to keep some goslings warm.He wasn't supposed to live through shipping to the feed store but the clerk said when she opened the box he was the last of the chicks still alive, so I took him home and he has turned out to be a very large beautiful rooster.My brother gave me the other rooster for Easter 3 years ago.He had ordered hens and got one rooster by mistake.He didn't want him so i took yet another rooster.Big red tired to jump our 8 foot chicken yard fence, he caught his foot at the top and broke 2 toes. I found my sweet boy dangling at the top of the fence . He has since healed nicely with a lot of babying for me, he really is spoiled .All my chicken's and ducks are tame, they can be hand feed and even will sit in your lap from time to time.One of my chicken"s is so spoiled i keep feed in the house, little red hen will come running the minute I would get home from work. She would come in the house, have her little bit of chicken feed and then want her petting and cuddle time. after about 15 minutes she would go back to the door and return to the coop for the evening. Yes my animals are spoiled but that's ok with me.I hand raised them all . To them I am Mamma and that's ok with me too.
Thanks for listening or reading Kate

 

[wildsam]

Hi Everyone ,
 I haven't posted in a very long time.This years has been very busy for me.I lost every single duckling this year due to a power failure caused my lighting strike during a thunderstorm. Our power was out for more than 16 hours.I lost 36 ducklings and 14 chicks.I know that not all of them wouldn't have hatched but it was a sad day when i returned from work to find I had no power and my incubator was cold. I have never let my hens set the nest . So the eggs they started laying this week I am going to let them keep. I never let them set because of rat snakes. I haven't seen one snake this year but it has been unusually cool this year.The high's should have been near 90 degrees by now, instead the high for today is 75 degrees.This may have something to do with our decline in rat snake population.I have consistently lost birds to rat snakes in the past.So much so I would put my chicks and ducklings in a coop in my dog yard.My dog hates snakes and will kill them.He doesn't bother the chicks or ducklings, even lets them walk all over him. Mac( a Neapolitan mastiff/Black lab mix - a very large dog ) would even share food with them, but it's dog food so I had to put a stop to them eating it. Although it was funny watching him try to eat while 2 dozen baby fowl clambered around him.Year after year he watched over my flock.Mac died of old age( he was 14) last year.I have never had a problem with predators because of Mac, he really was my coop guardian. 
Last month my husband lost his 3 year battle with cancer. I know I haven't posted much in the last three years but as I said I was a little busy.His health care was very time consuming I had little time to do much else besides work and take care of him. Now I find myself with extra time, I still have about a month before I have to return to work.I have 3 rouoen Ducks 1 drake , 2 hens, i also have 3 barred rock hens 3 production red hens ,one production red rooster, one rose come chin rooster, and one black hen She was supposed to be a production red... she came with all the other production red's I had ordered.The rooster i had gotten from the feed store for free.He was put into a box to keep some goslings warm.He wasn't supposed to live through shipping to the feed store but the clerk said when she opened the box he was the last of the chicks still alive, so I took him home and he has turned out to be a very large beautiful rooster.My brother gave me the other rooster for Easter 3 years ago.He had ordered hens and got one rooster by mistake.He didn't want him so i took yet another rooster.Big red tired to jump our 8 foot chicken yard fence, he caught his foot at the top and broke 2 toes. I found my sweet boy dangling at the top of the fence . He has since healed nicely with a lot of babying for me, he really is spoiled .All my chicken's and ducks are tame, they can be hand feed and even will sit in your lap from time to time.One of my chicken"s is so spoiled i keep feed in the house, little red hen will come running the minute I would get home from work. She would come in the house, have her little bit of chicken feed and then want her petting and cuddle time. after about 15 minutes she would go back to the door and return to the coop for the evening. Yes my animals are spoiled but that's ok with me.I hand raised them all . To them I am Mamma  and that's ok with me too.
Thanks for listening or reading Kate

Sorry to hear about your hubby and dog. At least they will always stay in your heart!

Nice bunch if animals you have. And maybe, when you're ready, you can even get another LGD to protect your babies and to have some protection yourself.

I hope your future is looking up and you and your animals will continue to be healthy and well!

 

[KateB39]

With that extra time I have on my hands I have dug a duck pound in my chicken yard. I lined it with very large impossible to cut and very thick truck liners. My husband was a truck driver and he hauled a product called petroleum coke. This stuff was a very fine powered substance used in a lot of of everyday products from garbage bags to Twinkies.
The liners they use in the trucks are like hefty bags but as thick as a tarp, and about 30 feet long and 20 feet wide.
I hand dug the pond lined it and piled on dirt around the edges to prevent slippage.I also plan on hauling in slab stones to go around it but for now the dirt will do.( Just so you know liners are never reused, every load has a new liner.This one was sterile before I stuck it in a hole in the ground.)
My ducks were very excited, they had gotten in as soon as the water started to flow.It was fun to watch them try to swim in less than an inch of water, in a 3 foot deep hole.Remember this is a hand dug hole so it wasn't very big just about 8 foot across and 3 foot deep. They really love it. I have a fairly large chicken yard.about 30 X 40 feet. I had a duck pond in the past but over 3 years it filled in with leaves and pine straw , you couldn't even tell where it was in the chicken yard.I had been using a large wading pool for them. It was really to shallow. I started at day break and by 9:30 I had my pond dug and lined with water flowing . I sat there for more than 2 hours watching my ducks play. Ok so they were mating and preening... But my grand kids think they are playing.So playing is what they will be doing until my grand kids get old enough to realize what is really going on.They can dive now and this is more than they could do in a shallow wading pool. All in all it was a very good day.every morning i go out with the hose and refile the pond and remove and debris that might have collected over night.It gives me something to do with my extra time. Kate