The Quack Shack

[Luv Ducks]

What breed are the Monty-Phytons? Just curious and thanks for the information about your Black Swedish. I am sure that is what my one little Call Duck is. If you saw how little he was you would say "No Way" but where there is a will there is a Way. lol

Can you please tell me what color are the bills on your female Black Swedish Ducks? I just picked my young one up and see that it's bill is going from Black spots on orange or yellow to a greenish color. On Mallards a lot of times that means drake. Can a female Black Swedish have a green colored bill? Thanks for any info you can give me.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Tufts They're all Tufted Romans, only the one in the middle there with basically no tuft is one I got from a hatchery when I was first starting out with geese, and then the one on the other side of the fence with only just a little tuft is her daughter.

The other two, one is that group's gander that has a correct tuft, and a female with a correct tuft.

And a Tuft is not a defect, like crests in ducks? - No hole in the skull or brain damage?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

First things first, my weight really is close to 100 kg so no offense taken nor appropriate

Your reasoning makes sense, a duck's body does a lot of work daily and needs lots of input for that.

As I work mostly with code and numbers my "something doesn't work out" detector triggered though at the calculation of protein needed daily.

Think about protein content of complete layer feed - it's typically around 16%, and the normal daily consumption is around 150 g. That works out to 24 g of protein. So what's "the norm" would actually be a severe lack of protein compared to the egg calculation.

The thing is that an egg is not close to entirely protein; there's a lot of water. Most of the weight is water. An egg's protein content is, if I understand correctly, around 15%.

This is very close to the layer feed percentage. We could roughly say that when a ducks eats 150 g of feed, half of that is spent on the daily egg and the other half is for the duck's "private purposes" which definitely exist as the body is regenerated constantly.

But your point stands: a duck does a LOT of work to produce eggs. Hats off to our ducks. And if it's to happen every day, it also requires a LOT of proper food.

Speaking of which, it is now close to 7:30 and the ducks which have been quacking for the last hour to be let out of the coop have fallen silent... from my very limited experience this possibly means there's another egg. Or it's another thing completely. Let's go and find out.

You're right, eggs contain a lot of water, but so would the (hypothetically) cut out muscle tissue. Idk which would contain more or less water, still it is 3% of the body weight, almost every day.
So what made your ducks fall silent this morning?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

From what I recently heard (and tested) videos can now be uploaded to our personal gallery and used in messages. As I did there.

So I don't have to sell my soul to YouTube.

Too late for me, already uploaded too many videos to YT to switch. Maybe if we get the promised FttH internet connection in the future...

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

You guys have been busy chatting. 10 pages

Well, shipping all these messages from here to Australia takes some time…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I would google that as I am the Google Queen, lol. I know on my bus route I would surely see the one out in the cold weather and it seemed to be just fine. It looked just like yours. It surely is a beautiful bird and I am glad you took it in. It seems to fit nicely with your flock.

I hope not too nicely! - I may end up with real pea-ducks…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Can you please tell me what color are the bills on your female Black Swedish Ducks? I just picked my young one up and see that it's bill is going from Black spots on orange or yellow to a greenish color. On Mallards a lot of times that means drake. Can a female Black Swedish have a green colored bill? Thanks for any info you can give me.

I don't know if they can have a green-bill. My three Black Swedish ducks (a very representative set!) are entirely black, with the exception of their white bibs and a bit white on their bellies. Black feet, black bills and even black eyes. - Well the eyes are actually blue, but you can't see that unless the duck stares you down in bright sunlight.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Happy Mid-Week Day to Everybody!​

Two days to go and it's weekend, or as a popular tomcat would say…

​

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I need to regrow another couple of fingers! - Yet another broody duck! This time one of the Black Swedish hens decided »cool, i can stay the whole day in the house and sleep!«

Did not saw her in time when collecting the eggs, so she bit off half of my left hand…

 

[Supercow]

You're right, eggs contain a lot of water, but so would the (hypothetically) cut out muscle tissue. Idk which would contain more or less water, still it is 3% of the body weight, almost every day.
So what made your ducks fall silent this morning?

Just gave up I guess They must be reading the forum and noticed I was making them out as a little bit less super-hero-y, so no egg for me.

Today they had dandelion and plantain leaves in one of their pools, it was a big feast. Sadly they still don't care about soybeans. I'm thinking of grinding them up and sprinkling over other more popular stuff.