The Old Folks Home

[microchick]

GO DUCKIES!

 

[maddysmamaw]

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GO DUCKIES!

Tomorrow is hatch day, silly

 

[microchick]

Nobody told the Duckling that!

My broody was acting a bit bizarre this afternoon. Once, she came out of her nesting box long enough to grab a drink, then hiss and growl at another hen that was contemplating going into the nest box next to her to lay, and then went back to her eggs. Then she came out long enough to spill half of her water. She hadn't touched her food, nor relieved herself. Lock down for her should start tomorrow sometime so maybe she is sensing some movement in the eggs.

One of my Welsummers laid a 2.7 ounce egg today. It's as big as a duck egg! OUCH! These hens have really won me over. They are two years old now and were a bit distant and flighty till this year. Now they are out socializing more than the Buff Orpington hens who seem to be content to hang around the coop all day avoiding the roosters.

 

[chickadoodles]

Congrats on your duckies!

 

[lilwildrabbit]

I live too close to lake semenole for ducks myself love them but it's just too risky for me

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I live too close to lake semenole for ducks myself love them but it's just too risky for me

If you get fat pekins they don't fly and mine don't wander more than a half mile or so. I live about a mile from a big pond and they haven't left me for it, yet.

 

[microchick]

I'd still have to put them in a pen. Our pond is only 400 feet from the house.

Temptation, thy name is water.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I'd still have to put them in a pen. Our pond is only 400 feet from the house.

Temptation, thy name is water.

Oh yes, you'd never see them again.

 

[microchick]

Oh yes, you'd never see them again.

Yes, and more than that, we have a breeding population of snapping turtles and other predators like raccoons, fox and other things with teeth that habitate the pond and the area around it.

We do have a 40 foot wide lagoon behind our barn that we are trying to rehabilitate into a habitat that would work with a pen, though. When it is filled it will hold 4 feet of water. We are probably going to have to wind up dropping a liner in it as when we cleaned it out one summer when it was dry it stopped holding water.

 

[lilwildrabbit]

No ducks no turkeys both look nice but I did watch when turkeys attack lol and no water for the ducks

so I'm not going that way but I am going the other way I'm going for button quail as a different bird from my chickens that and wife wants some bantams