The Migratory/Ornamental Waterfowl INFO Thread

[toejam]

OK, question time!

1. Whats species need a nest box? Not evey species, like groups. Ex: sea ducks, divers, and dabblers.
2. What should I feed ornamental ducks in a mixed aivary?
3. If the aivary was big enough, would it be ok to have peafowl and pheasants in it?
4. I know of lonnie bougie, but who are some other reputable breeders? Or people to stay away from? PM me this if you dont want to give their info away
5. What is a good pond size? More than likley the ponds will all be those premade ones.
6. Which do you prefer, wet brooding or dry brooding, or a combo. Please tell why.
Ill be thinking of more questions.
Sorry if this has been repeated. I havent read any of this online. I want some base knowledge then read more in depth on certain things. Sorry for all the questions, I just want to know about them before i try to get any.
Thanks,
justin

 

[roocrazy]

Quote:
what is a good price for a ferruginous white eye pair? or a ruudy shelduck?

thanks,
justin

 

[KansasKid]

I think Ruddy shelducks are typically 100 ish.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
what is a good price for a ferruginous white eye pair? or a ruudy shelduck?

thanks,
justin

yep, ruddies go for $80- $100 per pair.
I dont know what happened to the white eyes', they used to be $60- $80 for ever, now all I have seen are in the $120+ range for some reason.

 

[roocrazy]

what is a faily easy beginner bird besides mallard.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
Hi Justin,
Yep most of that is all covered in the first few pages of the thread, but I dont mind re doing it for you


1) That cant be done really by groups, certain ones like teal, about 1/3 are cavity nesters ans 2/3 ground nesters

treeducks are all ground nesters

most divers are ground nesters, some cavity nesters are goldeneye, buffle head, smew and hooded mergansers

most sea ducks are ground nesters, except harlequins
Shelducks for the most part are actually burrow nesters

puddle ducks go both ways, wood ducks, mandarins, and a few others are cavity nesters.
If you have certain individual species in mind, will be glad to let you know which way the go.

2)a good game bird layer is all that is needed, with floating catfish feed tossed out as a supplement. Some folks love Mazuri waterfowl diet, but in my opinion, it is highly over rated and no better than the Purina Game Bird/ duck diets, after all, it's made by the same people and 1/2 the price.
If you do have divers, the fish food is mandatory as a daily supplement. There are also certain species that will need meal worms to start them, mostly divers, especially the sawbills. All that's covered up front too.
3)I have kept several species of pheasant in my 10,000 sqft aviaries with duck before. They have to be non aggressive species though, and watch how nasty the pens get for the pheasant's sake. Goldens, amherts, silvers, swinhoe, I have kept. I have also kept a few peafowl in there before too, no harm no fowl, either way. But it must be large in the true sense of the word, not a 10-20 or something like that.
4)There are loads of good ones out there, Lonnie is up there, Mallard lanes is a good one, Mark Hall in AL is a good one, Arnold Schouten is an award winning one, Sylvan Heights are great ones, just all depends on what you are wanting. Check their prices, if they are fair, then usually they are a reputable breeder. If they are double the norm, usually they are just buying and reselling, or gouging people off the internet.
5)I hate premade ponds, so I may not be a good one to ask. In general, 50% + of your pen should be water area. Depth really isnt important, 10-12" is fine unless you have a lot of divers, then you need to get to 2 foot or so. I always did hand made concrete ones, but just go as large as possible. Some species like tree ducks and shelducks are more grasers than others and dont really care about water area, but all the others need it to be happy. Some divers like the stiff tails, really only exist on it, they are very awkward on land, and for the most part , avoid it all together
6)for the most part, I always dry brooded. Reason being, wet brooding is a mess. Think about it, ducklings with swimming water in the brooder.... Now there are pluses to it, much healthier birds, better feather quality, no need to acclimate ducklings to water (a lot of dry brood young will nearly sink their first trip to water due to lack of oils on the feathers, being in water triggers their instinct to preen and spread the oils, on wet brooded birds, they start this from day one, so there is no issue there) And finally, some species almost require it, we're back to the stiff tails and seaducks there though as they have difficulty on land.

 

[toejam]

Quote:
I don't have any of these, but what I have been told is mandarins and most teals are good. Especially ringed teal.

 

[toejam]

Thank BBB that helped a lot. Would you still need the pen 50% water if you had,let's say, 1 pair of mandarins, a pair of teal, 3 peafowl and 4 pheasants. I ask this because my dad is not a duck person by any means, and doesnt want very many. And if At all possible not wanting to build a separate aiviary.

 

[exoticduckluvr]

mine is only 1/4 water and they all do just fine. It is hand dug and hand concreted with a drain to the outside of the cage approx. 850 to1000 gal. It is approx 12" on the shallow end and 15" on the deep end. I keep a swimming pool pump going 24/7 to keep the water circulated and aireated and I put 2 stock tank water purifiers in it that are changed 1 x a month as directed. I drain it completely every 3 days and spray out the pool
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2304176550039658816HuhOUw
The aviary is sprayed down everyday. I use deep layer pine straw for the floor so I don't have mud everywhere
Mandarin and Ringed Teal are a great first choice for a beginner

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
OH no if you're just talking 2 pr of birds or so, a small pond will be fine. I thought you were wanting to GET INTO WATERFOWL, lol

Yep as exoticduckluvr mentioned, small scale ponds like that wrok just fine.

Now on the other hand, with 3 peafowl and 4 pheasants, just how big of a pen are we talking here? They usually will not mess with the ducks, it's the duck mess that can hurt the others. If the pens so small that the ducks make a mud hole out of it, then your peafowl and pheasants will suffer more from possible disease from the mud. Just keep that in mind.
Usually, unless the pen is huge (several thousand sq feet) it is best not to pen upland birds with waterfowl for this reason.