The Quack Shack

[ShrekDawg]

I'm going to put Olly down. It was an extremely hard to come down to but these past 3 days everything went downhill, he somehow hurt his other leg, his wings are all bruised, and he isn't bothering to near the food or water. I put the water in front of him and he drank for 7 minutes straight. Though I hate to do this, I think it's best. He was my friendliest duck, and loved everyone. He'll be put down tomorrow. I just don't want to watch him suffer anymore

I am so sorry!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’m sorry Kendra. It’s a hard thing to decide but has to be done when they are suffering

 

[Pyxis]

Question.

I have a buff silkie pullet, White under feathers and minimum black feathers, and a pure white silkie cockerel.

So would I get white and possibly some buffs? I read someone got partridge but I'm not sure.

And morning everyone

Most White in silkies is actually recessive white So it's hard to say what you'll get. Depends a lot on what other genetics are occurring that you can't see because of the white. Quite possibly just a lot of buff.

Pfft, let the nerd flag fly high!

​

My genetic experience is with plants, but I never worked with a plant that was mapped out like chickens are. The general concept carries over, its still just breeding, but it was based on 10% science and 90% pheno hunting, aka luck (with hybrids, heirlooms are just reproing seeds). So I understand the concepts (mostly'ish...) of chickens, but I definitely can't hold an educated conversation about it, yet.

So... let me see I'd I've got this right...
Dun, Lavender, and Blue are all dilution genes found on seperate allele, so they are independent of one another and can be expressed together at the same time. Since lacing, a pigment inhibitor, is controlled by other factors, and these dilutions affect the base color they can also be express at the same time

Yes

Chocolate is a sex linked color, seperate of Dun, and produces it's brown color differently. That leads be to believe you can have a chocolate colored bird with a Dun expression at the same time. I'm thinking something like a khaki laced chocolate.

Also yes

The difference between a nice tight bar and a loose cuckoo bar is provided by the feathering speed which is controlled by a gene seperate of the actual barred gene. Is the gene controlling feathering speed also sex linked?

Can you tell visually ther difference between a hetero- or homozygous bared male? Would you just have to breed him and observe the offspring? I understand that a female can only have 1 copy, and that it's only found on the Z chromosome, therefore making it a sex linked gene.

Yep! The barring versus cuckoo is determined by the feathering speed. This gene is designated as K. k+, which is recessive, is rapid feathering. K, which is dominant, is slow feathering. And yep, it too is sex-linked. That's actually how it's possible to breed chicks that can be feather sexed by looking at the growth of their wing feathers when they are a day or so old.

You definitely can see the difference on a male between one with only one copy of barred and one with two. A male with two copies looks overall lighter in color. The white bars are also wider. A male with only one copy is darker, and looks like a barred hen does.

These are wyandottes. The male on the left is double barred. The male on the right is single barred.

 

[Trimurtisan]

So it seems like quite a few of you in this thread have received shipped birds. I have about a month until my ducklings are shipped from Metzer Farms (California) to me (Illinois). I am trying to make sure I have anything I may need for shipping stress or a sick baby. I have nutridrench and save a chick electrolytes so far... any other recommendations? The farm stores around here are pretty limited so I’m most likely going to need to order off amazon so I want to give myself enough time to get it all before arrival.
Thanks in advance!

Some tips...

• Plastic pools at the dollar store are cheaper, but the ones at Wally World are about 30% larger.
• Do not buy a chick waterer for when they are in the brooder. It will only work for a short periods of time as they grow fast, and need to be able to dip their face in there water, up to their eyes, to keep their nares/eyes clean. I'd suggest getting something like a butter/yogurt/cottage cheese container, and cutting holes in the lid. It'll let them stick their face in the water, but restrict them from throwing it EVERYWHERE. I've been using this same tub for almost a year now. Best darn $free.99 waterer ever.

​

• Use a tray under your waterer to help save on mess. Then use a second tray under the first. Redundancy is the key to having a clean duck brooder in my opinion. I do this for all my youngsters though, indoors/outdoor ducklings/chicks..​

​

• Do you have a brooder yet? Do you know where it's going to be kept yet? If possible keep it somewhere the babies will see you often. It'll help them be comfortable with you.​
• Get them used to treats of some kind. Try to associate it with a call. Just like chickens when they hear the "treat call" they'll come running. It makes rounding the youngsters up if you plan on free ranging at all.​

This may or may not help you out, but it's how I kept my brooder dry with 17 ducklings in it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/keeping-my-wood-brooder-floor-dry.75108/​

 

[Trimurtisan]

I'm going to put Olly down. It was an extremely hard to come down to but these past 3 days everything went downhill, he somehow hurt his other leg, his wings are all bruised, and he isn't bothering to near the food or water. I put the water in front of him and he drank for 7 minutes straight. Though I hate to do this, I think it's best. He was my friendliest duck, and loved everyone. He'll be put down tomorrow. I just don't want to watch him suffer anymore

I'm sorry to hear that, Kendra. It's not an easy decision but sometimes it is the right one. I've always believed in providing compassionate euthanasia, but nothing has put that to the test like keeping poultry. We'll be here for a hug if you need it.

 

[Trimurtisan]

Most White in silkies is actually recessive white So it's hard to say what you'll get. Depends a lot on what other genetics are occurring that you can't see because of the white. Quite possibly just a lot of buff

One of the Silkies I just hatched is a recessive white from a buff flock. I was told it's the first white bird she's seen from her girls. I got one that looks partridge, but she said it'll likely grow out to be fully buff. I really hope they turn out to be ladies, I need some broodies in here.

You definitely can see the difference on a male between one with only one copy of barred and one with two. A male with two copies looks overall lighter in color. The white bars are also wider. A male with only one copy is darker, and looks like a barred hen does.

These are wyandottes. The male on the left is double barred. The male on the right is single barred.

That's awesome, and thank you for the picture. From a visual aspect I like the single barred appearance better. Now I really hope this new fella is single barred. I'm actually not a big fan of the barred look, so if it goes beyond an f1, I'd really like to see some solid or mottled Dun birds.

Time to go research the K gene!

 

[Tooshay89]

I'm going to put Olly down. It was an extremely hard to come down to but these past 3 days everything went downhill, he somehow hurt his other leg, his wings are all bruised, and he isn't bothering to near the food or water. I put the water in front of him and he drank for 7 minutes straight. Though I hate to do this, I think it's best. He was my friendliest duck, and loved everyone. He'll be put down tomorrow. I just don't want to watch him suffer anymore

Aww, I'm sorry. That's got to be hard to do. Watching a bird suffer and trying to figure out when to say enough is enough is the worst.

 

[jaykayhuff]

Some tips...

• Plastic pools at the dollar store are cheaper, but the ones at Wally World are about 30% larger.
• Do not buy a chick waterer for when they are in the brooder. It will only work for a short periods of time as they grow fast, and need to be able to dip their face in there water, up to their eyes, to keep their nares/eyes clean. I'd suggest getting something like a butter/yogurt/cottage cheese container, and cutting holes in the lid. It'll let them stick their face in the water, but restrict them from throwing it EVERYWHERE. I've been using this same tub for almost a year now. Best darn $free.99 waterer ever.

​

View attachment 2042050View attachment 2042051​

• Use a tray under your waterer to help save on mess. Then use a second tray under the first. Redundancy is the key to having a clean duck brooder in my opinion. I do this for all my youngsters though, indoors/outdoor ducklings/chicks..​

​

View attachment 2042057View attachment 2042068View attachment 2042070​

• Do you have a brooder yet? Do you know where it's going to be kept yet? If possible keep it somewhere the babies will see you often. It'll help them be comfortable with you.​
• Get them used to treats of some kind. Try to associate it with a call. Just like chickens when they hear the "treat call" they'll come running. It makes rounding the youngsters up if you plan on free ranging at all.​

This may or may not help you out, but it's how I kept my brooder dry with 17 ducklings in it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/keeping-my-wood-brooder-floor-dry.75108/​

I think I have every size of plastic kiddie pool they make and then once they outgrow that they move out to the garage. I’ve only had 5 at most at a time so I’ll have to definitely look into getting more pans for water control. Thanks for the tips!!!

 

[shawluvsbirds]

 

[Tooshay89]

View attachment 2042209View attachment 2042211

Who is this cute pupper? Cosmo says hi!