~*Third Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatch-Athon*~ all poultry welcome!

[chicken pickin]

Game bird come in a variety of protein levels 20-27% depending on the mill. Recently Ihave switched to 27% for my buckeye at the breeders recommendation-- i might start the poults that way this year.

Which percent is your start for poults??

I start my poults on 28%

 

[Arielle]

the 16 french white muscovy that hatched the other day...

I love my muscovy-- especially the no quack aspect. lol Probably my easiest bird here.

I was reading about them last night-- bred as a meat bird. I like the colors of the blues, black and browns and chocolates, especially the magpies. THough have a vew solids. Strombergs site provided the reminder that these have claws-- since we have cats, dealing with a clawed duck was a natural next step. lol

I'm keeping the largest males and females for breeding to get the size up a little more.

 

[chicken pickin]

I love my muscovy-- especially the no quack aspect. lol Probably my easiest bird here.

I was reading about them last night-- bred as a meat bird. I like the colors of the blues, black and browns and chocolates, especially the magpies. THough have a vew solids. Strombergs site provided the reminder that these have claws-- since we have cats, dealing with a clawed duck was a natural next step. lol

I'm keeping the largest males and females for breeding to get the size up a little more.

I have been thinking about getting into Muscovy. Do they fly? Im looking for heavy birds that don't fly. I would need to keep them penned and would feel awful penning a bird that flies. Also my ducks now wander far in the roads to the neighbors houses. How do you find your muscovy to be? Do they stay close? Also do they roost? I thought I read there was one breed that's roosts and I feel it was the Muscovy.

 

[chicken pickin]

These are my ducklings hatching now. Mixed bred light weight ducklings.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Yes, muscovy fly, even the males. I sit on 15 acres deep in the woods. Did find one girl down at a neighbors-- she was clearly lost and going house to house looking for home. THese are not tame ducks-- mine are hard to catch at times and we had to trick her. While she was perched on a elevated porch railing I distracted her with handfuls of corn and talking to her 12 feet away and DH came up behind her from ground level and grabbed her leg. She hasn't left since. When young they perch up high, we try to start teaching them to go into a coop, and sit on the floor under the hens. Takes some effort but they learn. They are also the last to come in at night-- the last out grazing, and need to be shooo'd in to a coop well after dark.

In the morning when I let them out, they all went to roost off the cold wet ground. And sometimes they go to the elevate pole ( beginng of a pole barn) to sit and survey their surroundings.

THey don't need much water . . . enough to wash their faces everyday. But not bathe. BUT being a duck they sure like water and jump in the horse troughs and dirty it up . . . so better to fill a kiddie pool even in winter every couple of days and then dump.

THe ONLY bird I have that stays grounded is the adult tom turkeys. I've been wondering about clipping wings-- doesn't always work. Did clip my first trio of muscovy their first year to help them know this was home. Yinepu pinions the wings-- I would need someone to teach me that. Not sure what age to do it. BUt I am at the point with the turkeyhens that I would like to keep them grounded and in the right pen.

 

[HEChicken]

Game bird come in a variety of protein levels 20-27% depending on the mill. Recently Ihave switched to 27% for my buckeye at the breeders recommendation-- i might start the poults that way this year.

Which percent is your start for poults??

Mine is 28%. Only one store around here carries that - the rest carry 22%. So I go out of my way to the store that carries the 28% because I like to give them a really good start.

I have been thinking about getting into Muscovy. Do they fly? Im looking for heavy birds that don't fly. I would need to keep them penned and would feel awful penning a bird that flies. Also my ducks now wander far in the roads to the neighbors houses. How do you find your muscovy to be? Do they stay close? Also do they roost? I thought I read there was one breed that's roosts and I feel it was the Muscovy.

Yes, muscovies fly quite well. Mine free-range and we have a pond halfway down our property. They regularly fly back and forth to the pond. Our west border is a hedgerow where the trees are 20+ feet tall. One day last fall my neighbor on that side came over to show me a photo of a duck on her phone, asking if it was mine. Yup - a muscovy duck made it over the hedgerow and was on their pond over there. Like Arielle's, mine are not handleable so there was nothing I could do to get her back except hope she figured it out. I did try but all she did was fly out and land in the middle of their pond and no way was I going out there to get her! Next day she was back and as far as I know has never made that mistake again.

They are really huge birds and it is amazing to watch them take off and fly as it looks like it should be impossible. Especially the drakes.

Yes, they do roost, but not all of them. I have a couple of ducks that will regularly sleep on the roosts - the drakes and other ducks just sleep on the floor of the coop. However I also have one duck who will jump up to lay her eggs in the nest boxes.

I do not like to pen birds period. I have a few small pens that I use when transitioning chicks outside from the brooder, or when a broody hen has just hatched chicks, to give the new family a few days to bond. And I have a hoop coop that I use for short-term projects where I want to collect eggs from a particular pairing. I put the rooster/tom/drake with the appropriate females in there just long enough to gather the eggs I need and then they are let out again. Other than that, all of my birds sleep in the same coop at night and free-range the same property by day. The muscovies do well at staying home. Other than the one mistake last fall, they've never left - just wander around our property, fly to the pond, fly back to the coop for the night….and so on.

Nine months of the year I am fond of muscovies. They are terrific meat birds, good broodies, good mothers and, during laying season, good layers. Unfortunately, laying season is only about half the year and the rest of the time I am feeding them and not getting any eggs. And in winter they're a pain because they are ducks and therefore…..like to bathe. Most of the year I have a gravity waterer for all the birds and if the ducks want more than that they can fly to the pond. But in winter the pond freezes over so they quit going down there. Meanwhile, I have to plug in a heated dog water bowl in order to provide water for the birds. And, I have to haul water as I can't leave hoses out in winter either. So it is especially annoying to haul water down there from the house, clean out and refill a heated 1-gallon dog water bowl and turn around a moment later to find a duck sitting in the bowl (too big so they take up the whole thing) happily splashing all my hard-won water out onto the ground where it can turn into ice, making it treacherous for everyone. Somewhere around mid-winter every year I decide I'm done with ducks and will butcher all of them. Then I think "well, I've fed them this long since they last laid and they'll be laying again soon…..I may as well do one more year and butcher them next fall". Well, you know how that line of thinking goes, so every year I still have them.

 

[Arielle]

ahhh ducks . . . .

 

[Penny Hen]

Yes, muscovy fly, even the males. I sit on 15 acres deep in the woods. Did find one girl down at a neighbors-- she was clearly lost and going house to house looking for home. THese are not tame ducks-- mine are hard to catch at times and we had to trick her. While she was perched on a elevated porch railing I distracted her with handfuls of corn and talking to her 12 feet away and DH came up behind her from ground level and grabbed her leg. She hasn't left since. When young they perch up high, we try to start teaching them to go into a coop, and sit on the floor under the hens. Takes some effort but they learn. They are also the last to come in at night-- the last out grazing, and need to be shooo'd in to a coop well after dark.

In the morning when I let them out, they all went to roost off the cold wet ground. And sometimes they go to the elevate pole ( beginng of a pole barn) to sit and survey their surroundings.

THey don't need much water . . . enough to wash their faces everyday. But not bathe. BUT being a duck they sure like water and jump in the horse troughs and dirty it up . . . so better to fill a kiddie pool even in winter every couple of days and then dump.

THe ONLY bird I have that stays grounded is the adult tom turkeys. I've been wondering about clipping wings-- doesn't always work. Did clip my first trio of muscovy their first year to help them know this was home. Yinepu pinions the wings-- I would need someone to teach me that. Not sure what age to do it. BUt I am at the point with the turkeyhens that I would like to keep them grounded and in the right pen.

Pinioning is usually done very young. I believe Jeffer's Vet Supply sells a pinioning tools. Stromberg's also has them.

 

[Penny Hen]

Mine is 28%. Only one store around here carries that - the rest carry 22%. So I go out of my way to the store that carries the 28% because I like to give them a really good start.

Yes, muscovies fly quite well. Mine free-range and we have a pond halfway down our property. They regularly fly back and forth to the pond. Our west border is a hedgerow where the trees are 20+ feet tall. One day last fall my neighbor on that side came over to show me a photo of a duck on her phone, asking if it was mine. Yup - a muscovy duck made it over the hedgerow and was on their pond over there. Like Arielle's, mine are not handleable so there was nothing I could do to get her back except hope she figured it out. I did try but all she did was fly out and land in the middle of their pond and no way was I going out there to get her! Next day she was back and as far as I know has never made that mistake again.

They are really huge birds and it is amazing to watch them take off and fly as it looks like it should be impossible. Especially the drakes.

Yes, they do roost, but not all of them. I have a couple of ducks that will regularly sleep on the roosts - the drakes and other ducks just sleep on the floor of the coop. However I also have one duck who will jump up to lay her eggs in the nest boxes.

I do not like to pen birds period. I have a few small pens that I use when transitioning chicks outside from the brooder, or when a broody hen has just hatched chicks, to give the new family a few days to bond. And I have a hoop coop that I use for short-term projects where I want to collect eggs from a particular pairing. I put the rooster/tom/drake with the appropriate females in there just long enough to gather the eggs I need and then they are let out again. Other than that, all of my birds sleep in the same coop at night and free-range the same property by day. The muscovies do well at staying home. Other than the one mistake last fall, they've never left - just wander around our property, fly to the pond, fly back to the coop for the night….and so on.

Nine months of the year I am fond of muscovies. They are terrific meat birds, good broodies, good mothers and, during laying season, good layers. Unfortunately, laying season is only about half the year and the rest of the time I am feeding them and not getting any eggs. And in winter they're a pain because they are ducks and therefore…..like to bathe. Most of the year I have a gravity waterer for all the birds and if the ducks want more than that they can fly to the pond. But in winter the pond freezes over so they quit going down there. Meanwhile, I have to plug in a heated dog water bowl in order to provide water for the birds. And, I have to haul water as I can't leave hoses out in winter either. So it is especially annoying to haul water down there from the house, clean out and refill a heated 1-gallon dog water bowl and turn around a moment later to find a duck sitting in the bowl (too big so they take up the whole thing) happily splashing all my hard-won water out onto the ground where it can turn into ice, making it treacherous for everyone. Somewhere around mid-winter every year I decide I'm done with ducks and will butcher all of them. Then I think "well, I've fed them this long since they last laid and they'll be laying again soon…..I may as well do one more year and butcher them next fall". Well, you know how that line of thinking goes, so every year I still have them.

I know that Kansas can get way colder than TN. But you can push the performance of an above ground hose by buying the black insulation sleeves that are normally slipped onto copper pipes. It might save you 3 weeks on each side of winter hauling water.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: GOod to know-- thanks!!!!

I just checkin on the coop that houses the extra toms and hens-- an auburn tom is missing!!! Now I wonder if the hen running around with the group that likes to roam is the tom---- we took the auburn hen . . . .so I need to take a closer look and see if it is really the tom.

Life was easier with one breed of turkeys -- but not as interesting!!