The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

more often than not my few duck females will out lay the same number of hens. NO pecking order issue with ducks. They welcome newcomers with open wings. None of the chicken pecking order nonsense. It is simply great. The Pekins eat a lot of food, but the Runners weighing in at 5 lbs max don't eat much and the food to jumbo egg ratio is fantastic. Ducks are always playing... so the entertainment is constant. Give them food, water and a little space to play in and Ducks are happy and entertaining. Not that I don't love my chickens....cause I do. I just prefer my ducks.

I noticed a pecking order with my ducks, but now with my geese.. absolutely none at all. I added a gander, and they hung out non-stop instantly. IT was beautiful! I wish all birds were that way. The geese even accept all the chickens, turkeys, ducks and what not. The only thing they don't like is the sheep and the dogs. Also geese even eat less than chickens and ducks - or should - as most of their intake should be roughage.

They play like the ducks too. Oh and if you get a good goose, they are mighty protective of their flock. Not mine...

 

[Mumsy]

Well I'm a day late and a dollar short but wanted to share pics of a feeder a friend found for me at an antiques store.


I added the candles.

Love that thing! Nice repurpose too.

 

[stonykill]

I noticed a pecking order with my ducks, but now with my geese.. absolutely none at all. I added a gander, and they hung out non-stop instantly. IT was beautiful! I wish all birds were that way. The geese even accept all the chickens, turkeys, ducks and what not. The only thing they don't like is the sheep and the dogs. Also geese even eat less than chickens and ducks - or should - as most of their intake should be roughage.

They play like the ducks too. Oh and if you get a good goose, they are mighty protective of their flock. Not mine...

My duck flock...while small hasn't had any pecking order issues. And I've added...and subtracted duck numbers along the way. My wife and I have been talking about either getting a pair of geese or letting a broody duck hatch some eggs. A friend of mine has China's. He loves them. Personally my wife and I really like Buff Americans. But we are still in the planning stages. I figure it will be like when we got the 1st 2 Runners...Patrick and Penelope. All of a sudden I had a pair offered to me...at the highest price I EVER paid for adult broody born birds. A whopping $10 each

. Before that I never paid more than $3 for a laying hen.

The runners forage like gangbusters. This fall I put deep leaves in their run. A week later I noticed they weren't eating much feed. They were digging through the leaves and eating worms all day long. It is funny to watch them with worms. They run around and suck them up at hyper speed like a vacuum cleaner. They remind me of this cartoon... one of my favorites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnIN52DNydQ

 

[Sally8]

more often than not my few duck females will out lay the same number of hens. NO pecking order issue with ducks. They welcome newcomers with open wings. None of the chicken pecking order nonsense. It is simply great. The Pekins eat a lot of food, but the Runners weighing in at 5 lbs max don't eat much and the food to jumbo egg ratio is fantastic. Ducks are always playing... so the entertainment is constant. Give them food, water and a little space to play in and Ducks are happy and entertaining. Not that I don't love my chickens....cause I do. I just prefer my ducks.

Do you have x number of ducks and just keep those for enjoyment or do you raise more each yr for eating or selling? I had thought about ducks, we have a creek behind the house but all summer it's pretty low. I see some people use children's pool for water. Being raised on a farm, I'm used to ponds. I had that same thought on turkeys but THAT didn't work well for me!

 

[lalaland]

what is that one?

The redwing crock chicken buttermilk feeder I have is like that one, got it at a farm auction last summer. The base has hairline cracks, so I use a glazed plant saucer instead. holds a ton of water, and doesn't heat the water up in hot summer the way the metal ones do.

Ummmm, I paid $35 for it, which seemed a lot of money to me - the hundreds of dollars price tag is a little much to justify for me when I can think of all the things I could spend that money on : fencing, a load of manure, etc., chicks....

edited for spelling errors - am on my first cup of coffee this am

 

[lalaland]

Well I'm a day late and a dollar short but wanted to share pics of a feeder a friend found for me at an antiques store.


I added the candles.

Miss Lydia, I love that too! lucky you to have a friend like that. I like the writing on it, about the difference a start makes.

 

[stonykill]

Do you have x number of ducks and just keep those for enjoyment or do you raise more each yr for eating or selling? I had thought about ducks, we have a creek behind the house but all summer it's pretty low. I see some people use children's pool for water. Being raised on a farm, I'm used to ponds. I had that same thought on turkeys but THAT didn't work well for me!

originally like the chickens they were for enjoyment and eggs. The ducks are actually my wifes even though I am the one who feeds them, cares for them, changes their pool water, cleans their coop etc

. last summer we sold a bunch of Pekin drakes. We had too many drakes. Our plan with the Runners when one or all go broody this year is to sell off some mating pairs, like we originally bought. And keep some of the females.
For the runners I used a kiddie pool for quite a while. Now that I only have Pekin females all of the ducks live together. The eggs are easily distinquishable so that is not a problem. The Pekin eggs are HUGE and the Runner eggs are jumbo and bluish tint. So giving a broody the correct eggs will be easy. The pool the ducks use is a livestock waterer I dug into the ground with my backhoe.
The kiddie pool I used.

the buried pool

 

[aoxa]

My duck flock...while small hasn't had any pecking order issues. And I've added...and subtracted duck numbers along the way. My wife and I have been talking about either getting a pair of geese or letting a broody duck hatch some eggs. A friend of mine has China's. He loves them. Personally my wife and I really like Buff Americans. But we are still in the planning stages. I figure it will be like when we got the 1st 2 Runners...Patrick and Penelope. All of a sudden I had a pair offered to me...at the highest price I EVER paid for adult broody born birds. A whopping $10 each

. Before that I never paid more than $3 for a laying hen.

The runners forage like gangbusters. This fall I put deep leaves in their run. A week later I noticed they weren't eating much feed. They were digging through the leaves and eating worms all day long. It is funny to watch them with worms. They run around and suck them up at hyper speed like a vacuum cleaner. They remind me of this cartoon... one of my favorites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnIN52DNydQ

They sure are good worm hunters. They just slurp them up even in the grass. They are masters at that!

I've never caught my geese eating bugs. American Buffs are nice looking geese. I'm partial to the buff colouring.

How'd you get away with paying that little for laying hens? They are minimum $5 here and that's for a mixed breed pullet that is not POL.

 

[stonykill]

They sure are good worm hunters. They just slurp them up even in the grass. They are masters at that!

I've never caught my geese eating bugs. American Buffs are nice looking geese. I'm partial to the buff colouring.

How'd you get away with paying that little for laying hens? They are minimum $5 here and that's for a mixed breed pullet that is not POL.

a friends uncle was selling off his chicken farm. I got adult RIR's, a black Austalop, a few White leghorns and a few mutts for $3 each. In hindsight I wish I bought more.... but at the time I only had 1 coop and din't think I would get as into this as I am.

We love the coloring of the American Buffs. And I hear they are good natured as well.

 

[aoxa]

a friends uncle was selling off his chicken farm. I got adult RIR's, a black Austalop, a few White leghorns and a few mutts for $3 each. In hindsight I wish I bought more.... but at the time I only had 1 coop and din't think I would get as into this as I am.

We love the coloring of the American Buffs. And I hear they are good natured as well.

The American buffs were used in the creation of the buff toulouse, which are the geese I keep. Gosh I love them. They are real characters.

The Toulouse are like the geese version of Rouens.

You see the similarity right? lol


Gentle giants.