Show off your house ducks!

[Julie Birb]

My ginormous incubator full of EEs from Rancher is due on the 31st - just set them this morning after letting them sit overnight to recover from the 2 hour drive home, and my first batch of calls is due on the 4th for the Easter Hatch-A-Long, the siblings to your babies will be due on the 9th if I set them this Saturday, and somewhere in there, there will be some Malays... It will be a fuzzy butt explosion!!

I am unbelievably excited about the call siblings!!! Their parents are drop dead gorgeous, so it will be fun to watch them all as they mature!

u r hilarious.

 

[Julie Birb]

My mother loves to watch the baby birds, and really enjoys checking the brooder regularly when I'm in full swing production.  She has no idea how the little birds arrive in the brooder at this point, but the soft, friendly, babies always make her happy.  I have 39 eggs in 2 incubators already, and am expecting another 16 just for the March/early April hatching cycle, and will run the incubators pretty much non stop now until my ladies stop laying and/or I don't feel the weather is conducive to good hatch rates from shipped eggs. It's a wonderful distraction for both her and myself - and I'm glad they work for you too!  The next two batches of ducks hatching out will be calls, with chickens in between.  Then it should be on to geese, ducks and chickens, then ducks, quail and pheasant, and whatever else I can fit in the incubators each month!  (I can see myself building a third before long....) The calls will be staying indoors most likely, as well at least one Saxony - the one my husband named "Mr. Perfect" will be completely impossible for me to not keep with me at all times...

ah, that's sweet about your mom and the bator. The soft friendly babies would get to me too. How do you manage your time between your birds and practice? It's impressive.

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

Penny the pheasant is back in the aviary. The cock called for her until she came back, again. I tried to recruit the family to help me coax her back in (she knows where she belongs, and a few days out in the real world and she decided it was totally not as cool as she had thought it would be) - nobody was interested. So I went out, and she and I walked in slow circles around the aviary. The door was open, but she couldn't wrap her head around the idea that because of the snow, she would have to hop up to get inside. So around we went. The dialogue was the same as for the ducklings, minus the "Don't put that in your mouth!" "Drop that!" and "Give that to mommy!" Instead it was me telling Penny what a good girl she was when she headed towards the door, along with "Oh no! Don't go back that way!" Did watch one of my Khaki drakes try to put the moves on Mama Saxony. Her mate was otherwise engaged by the dominant gander, who was in the process of explaining that he was the top bird in the yard. When she figured out what the Khaki was up to, she grabbed him by the neck and whipped him around like a rag doll. Apparently, No meant No...

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

ah, that's sweet about your mom and the bator. The soft friendly babies would get to me too. How do you manage your time between your birds and practice? It's impressive.

I have Systemic Lupus, so I retired when I got too sick to keep a regular schedule, and got the birds as physical therapy for myself. I have to get up and move, no matter how much I hurt, and no matter how sick I feel, and go out to care for everyone. I had to talk my daughter and husband through an assisted hatch while hospitalized last year, by text, in the middle of the night from my hospital bed, but for the most part, it is pretty much just me, and an ever expanding group of birds. I can't not keep busy, so the birds have been a perfect low impact activity! Plus, shortly after I retired, my mother's condition deteriorated, so I can be home with her to allow her to remain in her home instead of being in a nursing home. It was a winning situation for all!

 

[Amykins]

Penny the pheasant is back in the aviary. The cock called for her until she came back, again. I tried to recruit the family to help me coax her back in (she knows where she belongs, and a few days out in the real world and she decided it was totally not as cool as she had thought it would be) - nobody was interested. So I went out, and she and I walked in slow circles around the aviary. The door was open, but she couldn't wrap her head around the idea that because of the snow, she would have to hop up to get inside. So around we went. The dialogue was the same as for the ducklings, minus the "Don't put that in your mouth!" "Drop that!" and "Give that to mommy!" Instead it was me telling Penny what a good girl she was when she headed towards the door, along with "Oh no! Don't go back that way!" Did watch one of my Khaki drakes try to put the moves on Mama Saxony. Her mate was otherwise engaged by the dominant gander, who was in the process of explaining that he was the top bird in the yard. When she figured out what the Khaki was up to, she grabbed him by the neck and whipped him around like a rag doll. Apparently, No meant No...

So...your daughter is responsible for allowing her to get out in the first place, and then refused to help get her back in her pen? Man, I'm glad I don't have kids...

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

So...your daughter is responsible for allowing her to get out in the first place, and then refused to help get her back in her pen? Man, I'm glad I don't have kids...

She is working on her second degree, and had run off to class. It was my husband's day off, but he flat out refused, thinking Penny would just spook and do the gamebird pop and fly into the woods again. That is the beauty of ducks - they come when you call, don't eat much, and are always home!

 

[jannakaye]

Have any of you guys ever entered your ducks in a show? Planning on putting my Nibbles in one this april.

 

[18angovem]

Have any of you guys ever entered your ducks in a show? Planning on putting my Nibbles in one this april.

Yeah I have been in a few..... What breed is Nibbles? What type of show? Remember to be disease cautious! I only go to shows where disease testing is required and then after that I quaranteen all my birds afterwards. That is the birds that went to the show.

 

[18angovem]

She is working on her second degree, and had run off to class. It was my husband's day off, but he flat out refused, thinking Penny would just spook and do the gamebird pop and fly into the woods again. That is the beauty of ducks - they come when you call, don't eat much, and are always home!

What type of degree?

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

What type of degree?

She has a BS in biology from Colgate University, and is now completing an AAS in medical laboratory technology - histotechnology from our local SUNY school. She discovered that even with a degree from a good school and research experience, it was difficult for her to find a job. She could complete the histotechnology degree in a year, since she already had all the prerequisites, and after a summer clinical rotation at NYU Medical center, can pretty much go anywhere for a job because histotechs are in short supply and her program is the only accredited program in the country. It was my first college degree, so I still have much of my old blocks and slides for her to see and learn from. She is looking for an eventual MD or PhD, but wants a steady income to fall back on while she applies for programs, and the specialized skill set makes her more marketable for science based graduate programs.