The Migratory/Ornamental Waterfowl INFO Thread

[Quail's Hollar Farm]

,

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Just did

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

hows' those mallards looking sgt_dane?

 

[phikhanhs123]

I have a question

but how to toe clip??? do we have to toe clip left feet or right feet??

 

[exoticduckluvr]

uh oh I clipped the left foot. Does it matter? I didn't know which foot but knew it had to be done

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

they request the right, but never care from my experiences. Many breeders use it as a line marking so they can tell who came from which pens, by going left or right. as long as it's done, you're in good shape, but right is what the book says.

 

[exoticduckluvr]

Thanks Aubrey

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

any time,
feel free to ask any questions you may have on them

 

[OSUman]

How many sq ft per bird do you recommend in an aviary. I'm planning on starting to plan one in the next couple weeks for my mallards.
thanks

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

that can vary a lot on several things.
1) species
teal obviously dont need nearly as much room as say shelducks, pintails, or mallards
more aggressive species also do better with larger pens, if crowded, they pick
2) pen cover and structure

If you have heavy landscaped avaiaries they are more comfortable and need less space than barren, open pens. They can be sort of, out of sight, out of mind with the others in the pens.

3) aggressivness of breeding males

pintails, widgeons, mallards, you know, the frisky boys. They need larger pens so not to over work the hens. If in small pens, they will continuously breed the hens because she's always right there under their feet sort of speak. (cover goes a long way with this too)


My mixed collection aviaries were 10,000 sqft each and could easily hold a couple houndred birds.

I wouldnt go below 50 feet per pair on any of them. The aggressive and larger species, 100 feet minimum.
As always, bigger is always better, try not to build the bare minimum you can, but more the largest you can in your budget, if you're like me , you're always going to add on new birds, so what may be an oversized pen now, will be just right later on.