The Quack Shack

[Supercow]

We're in lockdown now. Could not decide about the somewhat-stinky, somewhat-strange one so I left it inside for now. Will keep checking the smell (small ventilation opening) ...

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Yup.
Because my original standard size duck was a Rouen drake that we took in from some friends because his harem was murdered and they didnt want to get any more ducks. Naturally we HAD to get him some friends and that is how I wound up with my first cayugas. A local byc friend gave me two girls.
Annnd then... a few months later
some stray dogs or a fox (not sure which) killed him.
We incubated some eggs hoping some would be fertile and only one hatched. The drake we still have now so he is half Rouen and half cayuga. That is why he has orange legs and a lighter bill color. View attachment 4084934View attachment 4084935

Beautiful dux! - I love how black dux become more and more white when they get older.

I also really love that barn-style dux-house in the background! I wish i had more flat land…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Oh your ducks are beautiful!!! I had not gotten to see the picture of them before I told Wanna Be how a Rouen duck is made, lol. I have thought about putting straw down in my pen but I had heard it could mold and that scared me off. My pens are large and it would take a lot and it gets very wet at times too.

Don't put straw on the floor of your pens when the floors get wet from rain/snow! - Its not because the straw would get moldy. - That is more of a problem with hay! - But straw turns into an indestructible carpet which is almost impossible to remove. And straw takes ages to fully decompose…
My recommendation - out of three years of experience is wood-chips. Usually tree cutting companies are happy if you take those off their hands and the combination of wood-chips and duck poop makes dux-gold, the best compost i have ever had, rich in nutrients, crumbly and able to store large amounts of water without getting soggy.
And don't use sawdust!!! - It clumps and grows mold in large quantities.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

That looks like a nice one. I wonder if it is in Fahrenheit or Celsius? I would rather have one in Fahrenheit but I know some are Celsius.

Fortunately most modern electronics nowadays have a switch to select between metric- and freedom-units.

Personally i prefer to incubate the dux-eggs at 310K.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I don't really know what would be realistic (as an actual result). The previous time we've had a good result with 40-ish %. The room is around 45% (wood fired winter heating) but the incubator's inside humidity keeps dropping because of the heating element. It's a model that automatically pulls water from a jar through a hose so you need to set the target humidity and right now we're using 42.

42 is always correct!

Let's have a pan-galactic gargleblaster on that!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Built a bachelour pad fir my spare roosters yesterday. I must give off some kind of vibe that I'm easy prey because whenever I uave young roosters free ranging, one will always try pick a fight if I sit too long. Yet when they are penned I can go in and do my thing and be respected

The current weather is giving me some hard time, so i was digging up the cabbage patch yesterday, two rows, sit down and rest. Two rows, sit down and rest. During my third rest Mr. Boots approached, made himself as tall as possible raspingly demanded that i shall continue digging because that had already picked up all the worms i dug up (for them).
Karen, Number 12, Fluffy and Flaushi joined the duxcophony, so i had to get up again and continue…

 

[Luv Ducks]

We're in lockdown now. Could not decide about the somewhat-stinky, somewhat-strange one so I left it inside for now. Will keep checking the smell (small ventilation opening) ...

We had a really bad storm last night and lost power for over 8 hours. It came back on but the one egg that I put in with this one doesn't even look fertile and I don't look for the other one to hatch even though it is still alive at this point. Mine always croak toward the end of hatching or around day 18 for some reason. Good luck with yours, I hope that they all hatch!!!

 

[Supercow]

42 is always correct!

Let's have a pan-galactic gargleblaster on that!

Exactly... we know where our towel is

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

That looks like a nice one. I wonder if it is in Fahrenheit or Celsius? I would rather have one in Fahrenheit but I know some are Celsius.

You can usually change them.back and forth

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

We're in lockdown now. Could not decide about the somewhat-stinky, somewhat-strange one so I left it inside for now. Will keep checking the smell (small ventilation opening) ...

Also watch for any light grey patches on the shell. If you have that definitely dead and the clock is ticking