The Migratory/Ornamental Waterfowl INFO Thread

[kangababy]

I just think the Combs are cool looking. but the way my breeding season is going and the more attached I get to my crazy little babies the more I want to keep them!!Our little smews patinetly wait on us at night as we are cleaning out their water tub and sit there and wait to get back in.. sometimes they get so impatient they get in as soon as it is drained and has 1/2 an inch of water in it! Then to see them wait on their bugs.. man do they love Meal worms.. and the other babies out in the bigger water, they run and get in the water and wait on their floater food like puppies.

more babies last night... Marbled teal this time... and we go thte catch pen pond dug!! wooh!! hopefully by Sunday the babies will be moved!

And I can already tell I have some interesting mixed breeds.. Mom-Wood Duck and dad seems to have been a Cape Teal or Pintail or Ruddy Duck if that is even possible.
I have a little Ring teal too that has to be a a ring teal hottentot mix because it is 1/2 the size as of it brothers/sisters


and to make yesterday a better day... My NA pintail is setting, My Widgeon is only eggs and My eyton is on her second clutch.. and meaner this time around!

We are going to start construction on a Baikal pen since I don;t want ot put them in with all the other birds.. How big a pen woud you think 2 pair would need. I am starting to think the pen I had in mind ot redo won't be big enough for two pair. We have 2 pair of ringneck pheasants in it at the moment.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

all sounds great there Kanga
for 2 pr of baikals, if you want to do it right, I'd go no less than 20 x 20 or the 400 sqft.
Very Very heavy on cover, plants, logs, etc. The thicker and more secluded the pen, the better off you'll be.
You are thinking right on them. I never once got an egg from any baikals in community pens, just too much activity in them for the baikals.
They seem to me to be the most finicky of all the teals when it comes to nesting.
Be sure you can barely see the birds in the pen, then add 1-2 more log/schrub piles and you'll have it just right.

 

[KansasKid]

Ok i'm loosing it. and dad is just setting there shaking his head. So approximately 24 days ago i acquired some pheasant eggs for free after picking some 300+ eggs up on the bird farm for hatching and the guy that had me come do it said that he had some net when they hatch out, so i'm thinking ok used net, i'll pay a little for it no big deal. Well yesterday i had some starting to hatch and he txt's me and says he will call me this morning and have me come get the net again for free so i'm going ok thanks sir, i appreciate it (thinking its not but 25x50 or something) so he shows up at my house with 2 of his buddy's which my dad and the 3 of them are all good friends so they stay and eat burgers with us and he has the net in the back of the truck we unload it and he mentions its 200x25' !!!!! i don't know where i'm going to put that big of a pen!!! Dad wasn't exactly thrilled about it and i have yet to get permission to build anything but i have hope!! I also drove and hour and a half to the springfield bass pro shop (largest in the U.S.) and picked up some mute swans. It was kinda funny making the transaction in the parking lot like (but that was the only place i knew how to drive directly to in springfield) you should have seen the people when i started pulling out those juvenile, gangly, long neck, "ugly duckling" suckers. People were walking by going what was that!! and started talking to the owner about them etc. and was a fun experience.

 

[KansasKid]

To add to it all, my mother bahama pintail hen is severely mad at me because today she hatched out 7 babies and i took them from her. 6 normal colored and one silver. pictures later.

also have you heard of a "polish swan" its supposedly a color morph of a mute swan? i'm 98 percent sure i have one of those...

 

[KansasKid]

I have been adding watermarks lately because i ran across an internet site the other day with pictures on it and found a lot of my own and other BYC pictures on the site.

will that work?

 

[exoticduckluvr]

hon that water mark won't due. They will crop it out of the picture. You have to put it right across the object of the picture to make it useless

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

I know the feeling. I find mine just about every time I log on, even on a few hatchery sites from time to time. And all my stuff is copy right protected

 

[exoticduckluvr]

sadly that's the way you have to do it Kid if you don't want your pics stolen

 

[Speceider]

also have you heard of a "polish swan" its supposedly a color morph of a mute swan? i'm 98 percent sure i have one of those

Yeah, if you got the swans in the pic posted, there was a Polish. Only relates to down color and adults cannot be distinguished. I hope you have a good pond for them. Mutes that spend almost any time on land tend to blow out their tibio-tarsus joints (also known as slipped tendon). I have one blow it out. My vet successfully repared it, but I was glad that I didn't have to pay for it. Also watch closely for any bulges under the bill. They seem to have a tendency to have commercial diets lodge under the tongue. It's easy to fix, just catch the bird, open the bill and clean out under the tongue.

Clint

 

[kangababy]

Quote:
i am jealous.... our bahama ony hatched our regulars

but at least she hatched some this last in the year!! 6 babies for me.. and more marbled teal... and more ring teal! Geez... enough with the ring teal.... trying to get my hands on some blonde ring teal!