The Old Folks Home

[Bunnylady]

My experience with ducks leads me to think that they will form "family groups" like chickens. Birds that are raised together tend to hang out together, and there may be a certain amount of aggression between rival groups - particularly if one of those groups is a bunch of "batchelors."

Duck eggs take another week (28 rather tan 21 days); I've generally had significantly lower hatch rates when I've tried to do it. Duck hens don't seem to have that issue; the times I've had a duck incubate eggs, she hatched almost all of them, even the one that was sitting on 18 eggs.

Just a side note - I had a drake that was raised with chicks that thought he was a chicken, too. I named him Ferdinand, after the duck in the movie Babe ("I tried it with the hens; it didn't work.") I had to lock my Ferdie up with a duck hen for a while for him to get over his species confusion.

 

[Bunnylady]

i just want to see diva on a snowmobile

I'm enjoying temps in the 70's; it has quit raining for the moment. By Thursday, we'll be lucky to get above freezing. I don't even want to think about snowmobiles, whoever's riding them!

*splat*

 

[hennible]

Your ducks sound like fun. Know a lot of people eat duck. I have never tried it and DH does not sound like he wants to. Our male duck is in with our chickens and is trying to make any of the hens his girlfriend. lol but he keeps pulling their feathers out keeping them bald. The chickens don't mind him except for maybe him swimming in their water. Is it harder to hatch duck eggs than chicken or turkey eggs? I thought about getting some eggs. 

Duck tastes good. You've probably heard this but duck anatomy doesn't go very well with chicken anatomy and if he tries to breed them he could harm them...

My experience with ducks leads me to think that they will form "family groups" like chickens. Birds that are raised together tend to hang out together, and there may be a certain amount of aggression between rival groups - particularly if one of those groups is a bunch of "batchelors." 

Duck eggs take another week (28 rather tan 21 days); I've generally had significantly lower hatch rates when I've tried to do it. Duck hens don't seem to have that issue; the times I've had a duck incubate eggs, she hatched almost all of them, even the one that was sitting on 18 eggs.

Just a side note - I had a drake that was raised with chicks that thought he was a chicken, too. I named him Ferdinand, after the duck in the movie Babe ("I tried it with the hens; it didn't work.") I had to lock my Ferdie up with a duck hen for a while for him to get over his species confusion. 

Bunny did he ever try to breed with your chickens?

 

[Amberjem]

what kind of duck........ morning all

 

[Bunnylady]

Quote: Frequently, but the chickens had better sense than he did and wouldn't squat. They just yelled and ran when he grabbed them.

 

[ozexpat]

I raise muscovies for the sole purpose of supplying meat to my workers (and us when we are there)

A group of 12 ducks and 3 drakes hatch out and raise enough ducklings at a constant rate to provide atleast 5kg of duck a week.

They free range so feed costs are minimal and they are pretty quiet.

Their pen is as far from my house as possible - I am not into duck poop on the lanai - and they never even enter the house yard.

They are a great homestead addition.


There are a couple of Pekins in with some of the younger group

 

[Amberjem]

my son had wanted a duck but think that wouldnt be the best option for us

 

[Amberjem]

 

[vehve]

Our walk today was interesting. Älize tok off chasing a white tail, took us half an hour to catch up with her and finally get her back on a leash. That, and the 8km forest walk didn't take out all of her energy though - we just got home from my parents and she disappeared into the forest again, this time she returned after 15 minutes. And now she still has energy to play with a ball.



In addition to the whitetail she was chasing, we also saw tracks of smaller deer, and huge elk tracks.

On the left, Vaiva's track, middle huge elk tracks, right my size 11½ foot.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Your ducks sound like fun. Know a lot of people eat duck. I have never tried it and DH does not sound like he wants to. Our male duck is in with our chickens and is trying to make any of the hens his girlfriend. lol but he keeps pulling their feathers out keeping them bald. The chickens don't mind him except for maybe him swimming in their water. Is it harder to hatch duck eggs than chicken or turkey eggs? I thought about getting some eggs.

I thought it was delicious. It is greasy like people say but I found it delicious. The plucking, however, was very difficult. My hands and fingers were hurting and I was close to giving up. And yes, you need to be worried about the incompatibility of boy ducks and girl chickens. I didn't find duck eggs particularly hard to hatch. I didn't do anything different than with chicken or turkey eggs except let them "cook" a week longer. Some spray them with water once or twice a day during incubation, but I didn't. They are wicked cute coming out.





Apparently I hatched them with a bunch of chicken eggs in there (based upon the picture). I raised them in their own brooder (chicks in a separate brooder) with a "diaper" (chux pad) to reduce the mess. They are messy. I brought them to the bathtub every day so they could swim around while I cleaned their diaper/shavings. Then I had to bleach the tub.