The Quack Shack

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Happy First Day of the Weekend to Everybody!​

As i have written already, it is hot and dry here, red-flag warning has been issued but i can still smell bbq's and grills being used.
The internet connection of the whole holler has been severed yesterday, county was mowing the road-sides and ditches and somehow managed to cut the phone- and TV-cable that were dangling from the poles. - Twice!
So no pictures or videos from here over the weekend…
There was a huge scuffle in the duck house yesterday late afternoon:
Mr. LeRoy Brown and DrakeWithNoName decided they wanted to mate Blanca Duck who objected and called Erpelchen, Rusty and TweedleDee Drake for help. Then she ran into the duck-house and tried to hide behind Violeta Duck. LeRoy broke through and ran in behind Blanca…
He has never experienced the vengeance of a broody duck! I heart screams out of the duck house and ran inside, experiencing a weasel attack, but if was LeRoy running around in circles all around. Violeta duck attached to his crest, viciously scratching his back. Whenever he stopped, she would let go and pecked at his head with all of her force…
I literally had to rescue - a drake! With LeRoy on my hands, Violeta then started to attack my legs instead, so i had to flee too.
Gave LeRoy a lecture about avoiding the wreath of the broody duck and sent him his way.
Blanca was laughquacking in the Duck House…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I did not know Jr was broody?

I hope she isn't! - That with the broody was just an example of what disgusting images we have already seen here, so @Supercow wouldn't hesitate to post some pop-pictures.

 

[Pyxis]

Thank you very much for your answer! - It is a bit complicated, if you look at the picture below, the heating element is located at the very bottom of the box, under those gel-packs that i have placed in there:

The gel-packs were my idea, the incubator came with two plastic bags, made out of a rather thick foil. The instructions say to fill water in one bag, seal it by wrapping, then placing that water cushion into the second bag and put that on top of the heating element.
I thought replacing the water with a freezer gel-pack is a better solution because:
a. Less prone to leakage and flooding
b. Higher thermal mass compared to water

I like the idea of having the eggs in contact with a large thermal mass, in fact a hen, sitting on top of the eggs is nothing more than a thermal mass too. And the heat is transported from the hen to the egg through conduction not convection…

You're right that the gel pack is likely better than two water bags. I'm not sure how you could get more heat, though - if it's topping out at 93.5, the only way to get it hotter without adding another heat source would be to make the space it's heating smaller. Eggs themselves also act as heat sinks, and take up space, so just adding the eggs might end up helping.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

You're right that the gel pack is likely better than two water bags. I'm not sure how you could get more heat, though - if it's topping out at 93.5, the only way to get it hotter without adding another heat source would be to make the space it's heating smaller. Eggs themselves also act as heat sinks, and take up space, so just adding the eggs might end up helping.

It's not that i couldn't crank up the heat, that heat pad has 20 Watts to spare, which is a lot for that little box. In fact, the temperature right on top of the gel-pack is between 37.5° and 37.7° (99.5-99.8F) which should be pleasantly warm for a duck-egg in its later development stage.
Remember: I'm not going into the hatching business, that thing is just for the likely case of a staggered hatch under two broody ducks.

Edit: Three broody ducks! - It looks like one of my White Layers contracted the broody-virus too.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

The dog food I buy is for small dogs I have a mini dachshund so it's perfect for my flock

Forgot to ask: How much protein does that food contain?

 

[Pyxis]

My geese have a baby! Couldn't get pictures because it was too dark when I was out looking.

A hen went broody on ONE egg, because the darn ravens kept stealing the rest. So I let her keep it. Tonight all the geese were bunched up around the nest being idiots and hissing, so I figured it hatched. Went over to see and yep, a gosling! But they got up and skedaddled away from the nest and surprise, another hen has been adding eggs to it. After candling they are all developing at different stages. So I now have eight more goose eggs in the incubator.

And I have goslings hatching too! From the eggs I found from the other breeder of Tufted Romans, some of which are colored and not just white. The first one is out, and I'm waiting for it to dry, but I suspect it will be grey. Has a good tuft on it, too.

 

[Canadian Wind]

My geese have a baby! Couldn't get pictures because it was too dark when I was out looking.

A hen went broody on ONE egg, because the darn ravens kept stealing the rest. So I let her keep it. Tonight all the geese were bunched up around the nest being idiots and hissing, so I figured it hatched. Went over to see and yep, a gosling! But they got up and skedaddled away from the nest and surprise, another hen has been adding eggs to it. After candling they are all developing at different stages. So I now have eight more goose eggs in the incubator.

And I have goslings hatching too! From the eggs I found from the other breeder of Tufted Romans, some of which are colored and not just white. The first one is out, and I'm waiting for it to dry, but I suspect it will be grey. Has a good tuft on it, too.

GRATS! Can't wait to see pics!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

My geese have a baby! Couldn't get pictures because it was too dark when I was out looking.

A hen went broody on ONE egg, because the darn ravens kept stealing the rest. So I let her keep it. Tonight all the geese were bunched up around the nest being idiots and hissing, so I figured it hatched. Went over to see and yep, a gosling! But they got up and skedaddled away from the nest and surprise, another hen has been adding eggs to it. After candling they are all developing at different stages. So I now have eight more goose eggs in the incubator.

And I have goslings hatching too! From the eggs I found from the other breeder of Tufted Romans, some of which are colored and not just white. The first one is out, and I'm waiting for it to dry, but I suspect it will be grey. Has a good tuft on it, too.

Congratulations to you and the geese!

Waiting for pictures…

 

[Canadian Wind]

Greetings! Hope Sunday is good to all of you.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

I traded three drakes for two baby geese.