The Duck Thread

[jenniferlamar70]

Thanks! And yep, I'll have to pack the stuffing out of the eggs to make sure they make it safely across the country to you, lol.
Aren't goslings just the cutest babies?

Oh yes for sure. These ones have to hatch lol. Goslings seriously melt my heart!!

 

[Ravynscroft]

What do you know about barred and chocolates? I am clueless. 

-Kathy

I don't know tons, just what I've picked up trying to figure out some things within my flock and helping friends... but I do believe chocolate works the same across the species, not sure if barring is the same way or not??

But chocolate being recessive and sex linked, a female can show chocolate with just a single gene, but it takes 2 copies to express in males... and barring depends on whether it is double barred male, single barred male or a barred female that you started with... females can only be single barred, yet males can express barring with 1 copy or 2... females only pass their barring to their male offspring, but males pass their barring to all their offspring...

See how it gets complicated?

 

[Ravynscroft]

I know what it's like to have slow internet, and lots of people are too lazy to look at links, so seemed like the right thing to offer. 

-Kathy

Not all would though...

And some are strictly mobile (like me) and have issues with some links, lol...

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Not all would though...

And some are strictly mobile (like me) and have issues with some links, lol...

Yup I'm strictly mobile also. I couldn't post pictures for the longest time...

 

[casportpony]

Quote: Way over my head, lol. All I know is that choc x choc = choc, black males can carry choc, but females are either chocolate or black (or other colors, but my flock is blacks and chocolates), and I probably said that wrong. I am a genetic idiot.

Hatched over 200 this year. Lots of chocolate drakes and hens, quite a few barred blacks boys and girls, and barred chocolates girls, but only one barred chocolate boy.

-Kathy

 

[Ravynscroft]

Way over my head, lol. All I know is that choc x choc = choc, black males can carry choc, but females are either chocolate or black (or other colors, but my flock is blacks and chocolates), and I probably said that wrong. I am a genetic idiot.

Hatched over 200 this year. Lots of chocolate drakes and  hens, quite a few barred blacks boys and girls, and barred chocolates girls, but only one barred chocolate boy. 

-Kathy

You said that right!

Like I said, it's complicated, and lots more than that, lol... I was trying to give a quick, simplified version... I get lost in it too...

ETA: if you can do a pairing or small flock separated, put your barred chocolate boy with either/or chocolate, chocolate barred girls... *I think* you should get more barred males that way...

 

[casportpony]

Quote: Thanks, I think I will try that when he's mature.

-Kathy

 

[LittleLakePhil]

I don't like the idea either, and I think most don't... but we also never know what we are capable of doing until we are in any given situation...

I never thought I could ever shoot someone's dog... last year our neighbors 2 dogs got out twice in 2 days... I lost 47 birds in that time, slaughtered for fun... they tore though welded wire, hardware cloth, all of it... neighbors response was that they were bird dogs doing what bird dogs do... sheriff responded and his advice was that I had a right to protect my property in any way I see fit, lethal force included... this year when one of them got out again, I didn't wait for it to kill a second bird...

Am I proud of that? Nope... but neither will I be ashamed of doing what was necessary and legal to protect my charges...

And just an FYI... in most states it is highly illegal to relocate possums, raccoons, skunks, etc... check your state laws before doing so, please... and unless you live within city limits, animal control usually won't deal with them... so most times if you trap it, you are required by law to dispose of it...

I don't know Rav I'm proud of you.... Because even we have clashed over my dislike for wolves. But you had to do what it took even though it's against your nature..... To protect your flock.
That in itself makes you a loving duck owner. It's the same thing when a person has to put a suffering bird down.....it's hard ...but the right thing to do .

Guess we see drama in a different light. I'm just as entitled to my opinion as others. It's upsetting and overly dramatic to me to hear someone talk about poisoning wildlife over them not enclosing their baby livestock. Ravens don't go after full grown chickens, Guinea, etc hence them getting attacked by the flock when the Ravens went out into the persons yard. If a raven could have gotten to them so could a cat, dog, rat....No one said anything about locking your birds up their entire life. Doing it when their young and their number of natural predators is doubled is a no brainier. I've had an entire flock of 19 wring neck doves I had been breeding for years wiped out by a family of raccoons in one night. The next coop we built we made sure we put coyote sent around and more properly predator proofed. I never once got mad at the raccoons and they never came back. Ravens keep Hawks away. There is a good reason to have a symbiotic relationship with them and many homesteaders with large flocks try to keep them around. There is always different ways of dealing with predator issues. Prevention to me is always the number one option over killing off nature.

I feel like you think is your way or no way. And you all must have tiny Ravens cuz they will go after adult birds here. At least the big ones.....

 

[casportpony]

Bride of Chuck and Chuck
Chuck is a duck that was raised by a chicken, so he think he's a chicken. He does bathe, but never hangs out with the other ducks. Here he is following his girl around.

-Kathy

 

[Pyxis]

I feel like you think is your way or no way. And you all must have tiny Ravens cuz they will go after adult birds here. At least the big ones.....

Right? These things are as big as my roosters. As I said in my original reply, the guineas were fighting with them, but the ravens weren't backing down. If I hadn't gone out there, there's a good chance the ravens would have teamed up and killed the adult guineas. It's not one bird, it's a pair and all their offspring.

And I just caught that this poster has now said that if the ravens could get my duckling, so could a rat, cat, or a dog. Um, no. They were in an elevated brooder the bottom of which is three feet off the ground and the latch is even higher up on the top. The ravens literally flew up there and knocked the latch loose. No way I could have foreseen that and no way another predator could have done it. I will of course be switching to a different type of latch now.

And it also seems they did not read my reply about all the trouble these birds have caused me over a course of an entire year that I did nothing about because they are convinced I want to poison them over the loss of one duckling and two keets, which is not the case at all.

But! I said I'd stop talking about it and I will. I can't let myself get all worked up, lol. I want to thank everyone for the support, though. And now we should probably let this subject drop and get back to talking ducks