The Duck Thread

[City farm]

Good to hear she is fine.. Hopefully you will be able to make your run bigger.. you can run into to many problems if they don't have room to roam.. Plus injury

We were mentioning on the So.Dak forum about space and confinement, seems as though the bigger flocks (commercial) have the flu around here and you just don't hear about it in the back yard flocks.  But, I am sure part of that is they aren't as monitored by the media.

Yeah, they are in it for the mula, not a pet like us. They're living conditions are, well, gross.. We hand raised both our chicken's & duck's.. They
are just to much fun to hang out with.. We want to be able to check on them when needed.. I don't keep the chicken's that are so freaked out by us being around.. We always re-home those to people that will keep them as pet's and don't care much to hold them like us.. We go in at night when the mom is raising the chick's and carry them around. They don't like it, but they get a personal tour of our property.. Then they figure out they are not going to get hurt.. It's funny, the last flock we raised for friend's had one chicken that thought we were going to kill her. It was awful, I felt so bad for her.. But from day 5-7 she would run away when we would go in to hand feed treat's.. We let all of our chicken hen's go broody once.. We have 2 that we let raise more than one because when they see us they come running to me.. So did the babies.. Now the babies are good with eating from our hand.. Same with our duck's.. They don't mind being handled, we give then a handful of kitty kibble every morning.. They come running & if I'm not out their to feed them they let us know they are waiting..


What breed's of duck's do you have ?

 

[City farm]

Good morning everyone! So I'm trying to prevent a problem before it happens.... And I did post in incubating and hatching. So if anyone has a second to go look, I'd appreciate it. (Before I have to beg for help in 28 days!!!!) long story short, duck laid 11 eggs over 11-12 day time period. My issue, instead of getting off the nest, she has stayed in it from start to finish.... If I think on this, am I looking at a 10 day hatch........ Is this possible??? What do I do???? So, any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Huh, are you sure they are all from her?
So then you are at the end & ready for hatch day, right.. I don't have time to go back and read the other post's but if I understand your question..
If they were all from her than yes you might have some that won't make it, at least the ones that were layed at the end.. If you can candle, go out at night with..2 Mag light's, towel, garbage bag,marker and some help. Depends on if she will let you get under her.. Our chicken's are so easy, even the jungle fowl.. They would screech as though they were going to bite.. But they only tried to bite the first few times.. I just took it then after a bit I would go in a pet, sometimes...

If she GET'S upset, then try putting the towel over her so she doesn't go any where or have your helper hold her.. Then you can go threw the egg's quickly right there, get rid of the dud's.. Or mark them if your not sure.. You don't want any dud's left out there, they will stink after they explode.. Yuck.. You never for that smell!!
Can't wait to hear about your new babies..

 

[RedIII]

Jordanr3, how is your feather baby today? I love her sweet face in the picture you put up

I'm so with you about the dumping of any animal. It's so cruel. We are sure this is what happened to our Toulouse goose too. I'm still on hold about liking ducks. We bought 3 adults from an old man who runs a feed store of sorts here. Thought they were mallards til I put up a pic here and learned they are Welch Harlequins. We have 2 females and a drake and now 3 babies. My momma duck I call Neurotica bc she is just that-neurotic as all get out-loud and crazy.The others are quiet. But the daily mess, the flies-I had no clue all this comes with having ducks. I don't have these issues at all with my chickens, goose or quail. They are all 6 here to stay now, but just not sure I'd ever want anymore now that I see how high maintenance ducks are.

I'm with you guys. I don't understand how people can justify dumping animals somewhere. I also think that sometimes the animals run away from their home, which is just as sad. On a happy note, I work with someone who rescues abandoned animals. He and his fiancé have a couple of needy chickens and the cutest crested duck who were all rescues They're just happy as clams in their current home!

 

[City farm]

Can ducklings go in brooder with baby chickens without spreading diseases or conflict

Yes, but they time is different on hatch day.. The rate of hatch dosen't seem to be as high.. We bought our from a feed store, so the Moma duck was not there to put the oil on the babies, which is needed for them to float.. Our hen Lauren seems like her oil is not like our drake Rick.. Their feathers are different.. His are regular looking to me, Lauren feathers seem different I don't know how to explain it.. Anyway.. They can be raised together, but the ducklings have to have a deeper water container.. So honestly, I did not like that a baby chicken could drowned in the deeper container.. We did out the water container up on a brick platform so the chick's would could drink from standing..

 

[City farm]

Well if little miss snotty pants even let's me near them... I do have an incubator, with 6 eggs on day 3! So now, when to candle... I'd ask what day, but as a general time frame...? She's now 3 days past the last egg laid... Grrrrr

Oh boy, can't wait to see what happens, the saga continues..

I hope she will let you candle them!  Asap!  I would pull the least looking developing ones and put them in the incubator with yours.  Mark them, because it will probably cause you a bit of a staggered hatch, but I'd say its worth a shot.  If you could get the final few that she laid, then she might be ok with the first several on her own, and the latter ones would more closely match up with the ones already in your bator.

Good idea, we have done that as well.. We even snuck the new babies udder our hen at night, right away.. They will learn what the Moma is talking, "quacking" about.. We put other chicks out with the others, over a week old. Ther was a learning curve for them, but it worked.. They would get lost and not follow the mom.. I would go out and they would be crying .. So then I put the Moma & her original babies plus the new babies in a separate tractor for about 1 week. Then at about 2 hours of daylight left, each day, I would let the rest of the flock out to mingle with them as a whole flock, supervised.. All went well.. Now duck's do the same, just in a large area fenced off for a bit..

 

[Lynn Manes]

Do you enjoy your geese? These here are wild ones that were forcibly domesticated (not by me and dumped here)(pinioned). I've wanted to get a pair, but want to do some more research. I'm lucky to have a large pond and some land, so there's plenty of room. Flies are an issue here too and I'm looking into fly predators. Because my flick free roams, my upkeep is mainly in the winter. This year they learned to climb snow!!!! Geese are definitely next though. In my flock there's Peep (white mallard? My avatar) Big Momma jumbo pekin, 3 of peeps duck babies, 1 pekin mystery cross drake, 5 Cayuga x Swedish blue babies (sex undetermined) 2 chocolate runner x mallard and 4 Canadian geese. (4 dogs, 4rabbits

and a partridge in a pear tree!) and Neurrotica, love that!

We only have the 1 male Toulouse. B
I call him Loosey bc at first we thought he was a girl and had named it Lucy.He's wonderful. Gentle as a lamb. He only gets mouthy if he wants attention or to be fed which really isn't often bc he gets both on a regular basis.although my Frizzle roo does get him going early in the a.m. when he starts crowing, but not for long.Everyone says that geese need partners but he's doing great on his own. One thing I recently learned is to never carry the big red bag of dried mealworms into his pen. He practically attacked me one morning,(scary bc he's huge); and at first I didn't know why. Then I realized it was bc of that bag of mealworms. Now he still gets his worms daily but I put them in a container I use to take him his food and no more incidents since then. That bag of mealworms is how I call my chickens back into the coop too. One of my Delawares, Henrietta, comes running to where we keep the feed when she thinks I'm ready to pull that bag out. But she listens and minds me when I say,"not yet",& she'll turn around and go back to her business. I swear last night when I went out for the last egg gathering she was talking to me. I said "Henrietta, I love you" several times and OMW, I could swear she said "I love you" back!! Lol But sorry to digress-about the geese-I'd say if you have that kind of space and can find gentle ones like my Loosey, go for it you have a menagerie similar to us: 7 dogs,1 parakeet, a desert tortoise, chickens, 1 goose, 6 ducks, 25 quail & 22 rabbits

 

[City farm]

I'm hoping for 42 years someday... Life is so unpredictable that I'm always grateful for today. Sometimes I think Todd wished Peep hadn't been left here, but he's the first one to count ducks every morning on the weekends! If he takes a duck on the road, I'm posting pictures EVERYWHERE! He's already talking diapers and small portable pools....

We had a other BTC member take her 3 chicken's on the open road.. Her hen's never layed a egg.. She ended up giving them away after about 1 year.

If he's talking diapers and portable pools, he's getting serious.   I imagine he'll also be taking a crate.   I can just see the other truckers remarks about his cab mate!!     I think you will get to year 42.   It just takes some work and tolerance.   I do find the tolerance difficult at times but after gritting my teeth, I manage.    Looking forward to those photos of Todd.    Yeah, I think Dave wished my neighbor had never introduced me to ducks!   Once I duck-sat her ducks, I got hooked.

Same here can't wait to see photo's..
If anyone comes thre this part of the States, pop on over for a cup of tea..

He doesn't know what he is getting himself into with diapers.. Duck's projectile poop, A LOT!!

 

[terris]

Our two Mallards, female "Mimic" and drake "Oliver" are 3 months old now. Our two Welsh Harlequin females finally arrive tomorrow. They will stay in the house for awhile of course but when and how do I introduce the babies to the bigger ducks? I appreciate your advice.

 

[City farm]

Oh wow, just to cool!! We live in a boring desert.. And the city, so thanks for posting up wonderful photo's & finding BYC..

So nice you have an area for your fowl like this. I'm hoping that I too will be able to find a better area for mine with a real pond and acreage.

Thank's.. We have the duck's in the frontyard & the chicken's on the long side of our home.. The top is covered with bird netting..
The duck's have a ton of shade and a horse trough for their swimming.. They don't always get in the trough, "pond".. So we have the roasting pan & a deeper bucket for them to eat the treats out of & give them fresh clean water daily.. Our water that comes out of our garden hose is filtered.. They are fenced off with 1/2 of the front yard. We have get-to-gethers here on a weekly basis during the cooler months.. We built a large front paved area with a deep fire pit for cooking over.. The duck area is a bonus, along with the above garden bed's I will post up a photo later.. I need to go to the pet store and add in some fish for them.. On that list of things to do..
The poop get's watered into to grass and plant area.. We love having them & the people that walk by say they enjoy seeing them.. Our neighbor's & i would rather hear duck's than that of city noises.. Planes, sirens, traffic & the light rail.. We live by A.S.U. In Tempe.. Oh and the fireworks during their games.. We had our property certified by the National Wildlife Federation.. We have the plaque at the entrance of our property. It is funny when passers by see & hear the duck's if I see the I say, " they are highly trained duck's" it is hard not to laugh & hold a straight face, knowing they are not migrating duck's.. I have posted the plaque up before but here it is again.

Here is our Clair with our new flock, eating out of the duck's food bowl..

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'm so with you about the dumping of any animal. It's so cruel. We are sure this is what happened to our Toulouse goose too. I'm still on hold about liking ducks. We bought 3 adults from an old man who runs a feed store of sorts here. Thought they were mallards til I put up a pic here and learned they are Welch Harlequins. We have 2 females and a drake and now 3 babies. My momma duck I call Neurotica bc she is just that-neurotic as all get out-loud and crazy.The others are quiet. But the daily mess, the flies-I had no clue all this comes with having ducks. I don't have these issues at all with my chickens, goose or quail. They are all 6 here to stay now, but just not sure I'd ever want anymore now that I see how high maintenance ducks are.

I use these they really work well,

You have to dump them about 1X a month or boy do they get stinky full of flies, then add more attractant but well worth it then at end of season I scrub them out let them dry and put up for next year. I dig a hole and pour the liquid and dead flies into it cover and done.