The Migratory/Ornamental Waterfowl INFO Thread

[KansasKid]

Ya I'm gonna keep it pretty small. The biggest i might get is maybe a wood duck pair or some ring teal in the spring. So with most breeders shipping in the fall, does that just mean that they are waiting for them to get bigger and shipping "juvie" birds? (just went and looked at a site, 140 for woodies, 95 for mandarins!! WOW. Is there a difference between flying mallards and wild type mallards?)

 

[sgt_dane]

Quick question.. How old do my mallards have to be before i can put them in the flight? Theyre 2 weeks old now, no feathers yet but theyre coming in on the sides of the chest. (not wanting to put them out today or anything, just wondering how old they have to be)
Im looking into getting a pair of pintails and a pair of radja shelducks, pair of mandarins and wood ducks..

Have a supplier for them, just costly is all...

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
most all breeders sell in the fall for 2 reasons, most breeders only sell started birds (better money) and it's best to ship when the weather is cooler (the main reason)
actually over 80 or 85 your arent supposed to ship any thing other than day old poultry by law anyway.
No difference in the 2 mallards you asked about

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
8 weeks is a good number to shoot for on most all birds, by then they can handle being on the ground, outside and without heat. Pretty much they are feathered up other than flight feathers by then too. decent price on the ones you mentioned is $50 on pintails, and mandarins, $40 on wood ducks, and the radjah shels are pretty high, up to $250. Remember now, they are mean too, cant house them with you others. Let me know if you need a one stop supplier for all of them.

 

[sgt_dane]

Quote:
8 weeks is a good number to shoot for on most all birds, by then they can handle being on the ground, outside and without heat. Pretty much they are feathered up other than flight feathers by then too. decent price on the ones you mentioned is $50 on pintails, and mandarins, $40 on wood ducks, and the radjah shels are pretty high, up to $250. Remember now, they are mean too, cant house them with you others. Let me know if you need a one stop supplier for all of them.

Ive got a supplier for the mandarins and wood ducks, $65 a pair, great thing is theyre here where i live. Not but 10 miles from me so it saves on stress of shipping for the birds. The pintails and Radjah, only place i have found for pins sells them for 150 a pair! if you have better prices than that, by all means be my guest! lol!
The Radjahs will have their own flight, i dont plan on housing any of them together.. maybe get a couple more mallards though. The ones i have found are $300 a pair, which is do-able in the near future, once i have a flight set up for them. Also would like Canada Geese, but they will have to wait until i have more land to house them on.
Any help is greatly appreciated.. i did call those other numbers you PM'd me, but they ALL went to voicemail, kept trying, left messages at a couple of them and didnt hear anything back.. maybe because im such a long distance number. lol. Thanks lotts!!

Tayla

 

[KansasKid]

The reason i asked about the mallard thing was because a bunch of breeders sell "Flying mallards" for $4 a piece and for some reason another breeder is selling "Wild type Mallards" $45 for a pair?

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
8 weeks is a good number to shoot for on most all birds, by then they can handle being on the ground, outside and without heat. Pretty much they are feathered up other than flight feathers by then too. decent price on the ones you mentioned is $50 on pintails, and mandarins, $40 on wood ducks, and the radjah shels are pretty high, up to $250. Remember now, they are mean too, cant house them with you others. Let me know if you need a one stop supplier for all of them.

Ive got a supplier for the mandarins and wood ducks, $65 a pair, great thing is theyre here where i live. Not but 10 miles from me so it saves on stress of shipping for the birds. The pintails and Radjah, only place i have found for pins sells them for 150 a pair! if you have better prices than that, by all means be my guest! lol!
The Radjahs will have their own flight, i dont plan on housing any of them together.. maybe get a couple more mallards though. The ones i have found are $300 a pair, which is do-able in the near future, once i have a flight set up for them. Also would like Canada Geese, but they will have to wait until i have more land to house them on.
Any help is greatly appreciated.. i did call those other numbers you PM'd me, but they ALL went to voicemail, kept trying, left messages at a couple of them and didnt hear anything back.. maybe because im such a long distance number. lol. Thanks lotts!!

Tayla

The radjah's price is about average, keep looking on the northern pintails though, that's 3 times what you can get them for bout any where.
I'll get you up a few more contacts, that Guy I PM 'ed you about earlier may have some too wouldnt hurt to ask. You are right though for your local guy, even higher priced it'd be worth it to avoid the shipping cost involved.


KansasKid,
Flying and Wild mallards are pretty much the same, Flying are ones rasied for shooting preserves, wilds are 3 generations of less from wild caught ones, if they arent, they are no longer considered wild "type" all the same bird though, no difference at all

 

[KansasKid]

I thought it was illegal to take waterfowl from the wild. Can you do it with some special permit or is it just the regular permit under the Migratory Bird treaty act.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Honestly, I have oftern wondered how people get them legally too

There use to be a special collection permit back in the day to go out and rob nest, but pretty sure that's a thing of the past, and you had to be some body to get it even then, I'm sure all these "wild mallard" people arent doing all that, most are just the domestic strain or flight pen raised ones if the truth were known, which really are all the same bird anyway, pretty much, a mallard's a mallard, the flying, and wild are just trade names put on them to make them sound more special

 

[Matapatos]

The mallard is a very common duck, the most common, in fact. There are thousands found as ducklings and just raised. Since they are mallards and nobody can tell whether they are straight from the wild or 5 generations from it, they don't even have to toe clip them. I don't think the USFWS really cares all that much. Only in the case of Florida where they are crossing with the already rare mottled ducks... Then they may care.

But anywhere else, someone could have come across a batch on the side of the road and collected them cause they have a friend with ducks, and there you have it. I know of a few people around here that it happens to every year, it seems. I've even had it happen to me and they turned out to be Gadwall. So they usually don't go out of their way to collect them, its just something that happens...

Travis