The Migratory/Ornamental Waterfowl INFO Thread

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
They are very addictive, and you'll be hard pressed to beat them in beauty. You dont have to be 18 to own they though!

and like I said a, all the forgein species are free of all that paper work anyway...
Kepp at it, always love to hear of all you young folks being into birds, yall are the future of the hobby!

ohhh alrite then. well im going to be building some pens soon so maybe i will just get me some of them. good thing for me to get into i think. thank again aubrey. lots of good info.

LOL
Did I twist your arm, didnt sound too hard!!

Yep try you some of the cheaper, forgien guys to start, there are loads of teal species that are beautiful and dont require the permit.
Ring, marled, hottentot, silver, puna, sharpwing, chilean, chestnut breasted, and several others, also Treeducks in java, wandering, eytons, cuban dont

None of the shelducks do, but they are aggressive and need to be house seperatly from any other breeds, except maybe the treeducks, they can hold their own with them.
A lot of the divers and other dabblers do require it though. If you are wondering about a particular species, just ask, I'll tell you if it's on the list or not.

Get them pens ready!

 

[lcwilson2010]

Quote:
ohhh alrite then. well im going to be building some pens soon so maybe i will just get me some of them. good thing for me to get into i think. thank again aubrey. lots of good info.

LOL
Did I twist your arm, didnt sound too hard!!

Yep try you some of the cheaper, forgien guys to start, there are loads of teal species that are beautiful and dont require the permit.
Ring, marled, hottentot, silver, puna, sharpwing, chilean, chestnut breasted, and several others, also Treeducks in java, wandering, eytons, cuban dont

None of the shelducks do, but they are aggressive and need to be house seperatly from any other breeds, except maybe the treeducks, they can hold their own with them.
A lot of the divers and other dabblers do require it though. If you are wondering about a particular species, just ask, I'll tell you if it's on the list or not.

Get them pens ready!

were would i get some of those forgien species at??? LOL

 

[HottentotTeal]

Quote:
I am on a waiting list at Mallard Lane Farms for a pair of Hottentot Teals.

They have quite a few non-domestic types to choose from.


Thank you for this thread. I can't wait to read more!

I am going to update my own thread later in the week. Hopefully I can start building the Duck housing this weekend or next.

I am ordering some dirt and bought some gravel and pebbles last week for the water areas.


I need to raise the dirt level, because I dug out all of my bushes, mulch, etc., and want to bring it back up to the proper level and then dig the pond and figure out what i want to do as far as replacing the dirt itself with other material, etc.

I figured if i did replace the dirt i am putting in, I can always move it or set the dirt i dig out from the pond into a little area to attract some bugs and snails or grow some herbs for them.



I have some questions on the interior floor, but I want to wait until I have the framing done and the dirt laid out before i work on the floor.

I have a few ideas already and you made some suggestions in my thread.

I will take a pic once the framing is done and get your best recommendation and post some of the things i am thinking about later in a week or 2 (weather permitting) We had a drought for a while, but then it rained for 2 days straight last week so that put off the construction. The area is recessed from all of my digging and of course ponded a little in one area, so it's still drying out. It's in a well shaded area too, so it's going to take a miracle or really hot weather to dry it up if i want to get this done anytime soon.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
LOL
Did I twist your arm, didnt sound too hard!!

Yep try you some of the cheaper, forgien guys to start, there are loads of teal species that are beautiful and dont require the permit.
Ring, marled, hottentot, silver, puna, sharpwing, chilean, chestnut breasted, and several others, also Treeducks in java, wandering, eytons, cuban dont

None of the shelducks do, but they are aggressive and need to be house seperatly from any other breeds, except maybe the treeducks, they can hold their own with them.
A lot of the divers and other dabblers do require it though. If you are wondering about a particular species, just ask, I'll tell you if it's on the list or not.

Get them pens ready!

were would i get some of those forgien species at??? LOL

If you seriously wanting to do it, I would suggest subscribing to these two publications
The Gamebird and Conservationist Gazette, and the American Pheasant and Waterfowl Society (APWS). They are both great magazines and the back half of them are loaded with classified ads from around the country with waterfowl and pheasants. A lot of times, the prices in these will be way cheaper than on line sources too.

I also know several breeders still who have a lot of them.
DM Farms on here is one of them. Doug is a great guy and have serveral speices. The hottentos are a great breed, very small, but a bit pricey $150-$200.
Id go with the ring teal to start, they are in the $50 range, stay in full color year round, reproduce very well, and are easy to care for.
If you'd like me to PM you with a lot of breeders info, I will be glad to, or I can send you the links for those two magazines. They should be on line though under the same names.
Hope that helped
Aubrey

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
I am on a waiting list at Mallard Lane Farms for a pair of Hottentot Teals.

They have quite a few non-domestic types to choose from.


Thank you for this thread. I can't wait to read more!

I am going to update my own thread later in the week. Hopefully I can start building the Duck housing this weekend or next.

I am ordering some dirt and bought some gravel and pebbles last week for the water areas.


I need to raise the dirt level, because I dug out all of my bushes, mulch, etc., and want to bring it back up to the proper level and then dig the pond and figure out what i want to do as far as replacing the dirt itself with other material, etc.

I figured if i did replace the dirt i am putting in, I can always move it or set the dirt i dig out from the pond into a little area to attract some bugs and snails or grow some herbs for them.



I have some questions on the interior floor, but I want to wait until I have the framing done and the dirt laid out before i work on the floor.

I have a few ideas already and you made some suggestions in my thread.

I will take a pic once the framing is done and get your best recommendation and post some of the things i am thinking about later in a week or 2 (weather permitting) We had a drought for a while, but then it rained for 2 days straight last week so that put off the construction. The area is recessed from all of my digging and of course ponded a little in one area, so it's still drying out. It's in a well shaded area too, so it's going to take a miracle or really hot weather to dry it up if i want to get this done anytime soon.

I hear ya Hottentot,
It's always a job when working on a new aviary. I've been keeping up with your post on your thread, looks like you are getting there though. Keep me posted, will be glad to lend some more advise as you need it.
Aubrey

PS

Hope to start adding the individual bird info here soome for them. Housing/aviaries/ponds, nesting, weather effects , etc will try to cover all those points in each section

 

[jsvand5]

Quote:
Aubrey, I just swithched mine off of Mazuri breeder to purina gamebird Flight conditioner. It seems pretty comparable to the mazuri stuff. It's 19% protein and 2% fat. I also throw a handful of catfish chow in the water each day mainly for the Mergansers to scoop up. My only problem with the gamebird chow is that it is crumbles in my area. I really prefer the pellets from mazuri, but I still can't justify going from $14 a bag for gamebird to $30 a bag for Mazuri just because one is pelleted. Even though a bag last me about a month it still bothers me to pay so much more.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

That's how I felt about it too, not much of a difference to be twice the price and 10 lbs less. Personally I never used the stuff at any point, was always out of my price range.
Pellets are nice, but they'll make a mess either way. Mine was always pelleted here, check into the Layena, I know it comes pelleted still and I think is 18% or so. With the catfish feed, it really doesnt matter, they'll get loads of protein from it. And yep, if you have divers, especially sawbills, or goldeneyes, you just about have to feed the fish food to them...

 

[Matapatos]

Quote:
No problem.
And no, you will not have to do a report for this. As long as you are not selling,and not a permit holder, you are not under their license requirements for the annual report. However, any produced by you MUST still be properly marked in accordance to the laws of that permit.
You must either clip the right hind toe, pinion them, or properly band them regardless of being a licensed seller or not.
I was going to suggest if you werent pushed to sell any, to just wait til Jan 1, 2011 and get the permit. Them you would be 18 and have no trouble with it.

Does it have to be the right foot? I know some breeders clip both feet to distinguish between split birds, etc. Can it be one or the other? Reason being is if I have 2 pairs of woodies and I want the ducklings to be separated and thus sell them as unrelated pairs from the same pen, I would want to clip the right toe on one batch and the left toe on the other batch...

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

They say right foot , but as long as it its done on one or the other they wont say anything about it, can do both or band them for id too

 

[PrinceSandwich]

Quote:
What is clipping toes?