Thread formerly known as Hatch day is today

Hatch day is Sunday! I have 2 in there, never done this before though. Hatching for a friend, I dont' own ducks and dont want any, don't hate me LOL
 
Hatch day is Sunday! I have 2 in there, never done this before though. Hatching for a friend, I dont' own ducks and dont want any, don't hate me LOL

* gasp * Not want any ducks!!! What's wrong with you?!
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Hey, have any of you raised game birds? I'm thinking of raising some chuckar, quail, and/or pheasants to train my dog. Are there any disease issues that I should be aware of? I don't want to infect my waterfowl or Serama chickens with anything.
 
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Quote: If you hatch them yourselves, from NPIP source, you should be diesease free. They will pick up and share most diesesease effecting chickens. My biggest problem with quail and phesent is their innate wildness and desire to escape. I got tired of chasing pheasents, they are fast and pretty good fliers. Also, the quial are amazing hiders, so be prepared to plan for secure ways to feed, water, and reach for these birds. They are all escape artists.
 
Question: incubating duck and chicken eggs together...thoughts?
I've done this with fair success. Its best if possible to plan hatch day about the same time, (or lockdown anyway) by setting the duck eggs one week sooner than the chickens. I kept my duck eggs on half the bater, and chickens (and quail/turkey/pheasant) on the other half. I did this because I spray my duck eggs every 8 hours when I turn eggs. I don't want to spray the chickens though, so I try to leave a space between them.
 
Iain, can't wait for the Africans to get in gear. I think my most hissy and fussy and " aggressive " (LOL< non of them are aggressive to us just hissy) gees are the sebbies, but that could be because they are the only ones laying. I don't know if my one year old buffs dewlaps are going to get in gear this year or not. Has anyone gotten eggs from a 1 year old dewlap yet?

Oh, I thought I'd figured out the whole story with the sebbies bloody wings, but then yesterday I saw something that made me drop everything and intervene. I was walking inside with little DD after school and in the pen the gray sebbie male (who's the one injured one) was dragging the tom turkey around.
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He had a hold of that midget white tom, and would not let go. The tom was biting at him, and flapping his wings, and trying to jump, and make a whole lot of noise, but that sebbie would not let go. I noticed that the tom was looking a little plucked too. This is not what I anticipated at all y'all.

I guess I have this weekends project lined up. Trim wing and tail feathers on all midget white turkeys, and make them their own pen. There is only a trio of them, and the hens are good as gold. They love to be petted. Tom is noisy and struts and acts tough, and occasionally tries to jump on us, but there is no doubt (at this point-I've been wrong before) that the sebbie boy is being aggressive toward the Tom. AT least when I'm watching. No birds dare come close to the sebbie laying grounds. The ducks never go near ever for any reason. I think maybe those anconas are the smartest birds in my backyard.
 
I've done this with fair success. Its best if possible to plan hatch day about the same time, (or lockdown anyway) by setting the duck eggs one week sooner than the chickens. I kept my duck eggs on half the bater, and chickens (and quail/turkey/pheasant) on the other half. I did this because I spray my duck eggs every 8 hours when I turn eggs. I don't want to spray the chickens though, so I try to leave a space between them.

That makes sense. I'll try that and see how it goes. I'm doing the dry hatch method and monitoring weights, and I'll up the humidity to around 70% for lockdown. Is this sufficient?
 
Iain, can't wait for the Africans to get in gear. I think my most hissy and fussy and " aggressive " (LOL< non of them are aggressive to us just hissy) gees are the sebbies, but that could be because they are the only ones laying. I don't know if my one year old buffs dewlaps are going to get in gear this year or not. Has anyone gotten eggs from a 1 year old dewlap yet?

Oh, I thought I'd figured out the whole story with the sebbies bloody wings, but then yesterday I saw something that made me drop everything and intervene. I was walking inside with little DD after school and in the pen the gray sebbie male (who's the one injured one) was dragging the tom turkey around.
th.gif
He had a hold of that midget white tom, and would not let go. The tom was biting at him, and flapping his wings, and trying to jump, and make a whole lot of noise, but that sebbie would not let go. I noticed that the tom was looking a little plucked too. This is not what I anticipated at all y'all.

I guess I have this weekends project lined up. Trim wing and tail feathers on all midget white turkeys, and make them their own pen. There is only a trio of them, and the hens are good as gold. They love to be petted. Tom is noisy and struts and acts tough, and occasionally tries to jump on us, but there is no doubt (at this point-I've been wrong before) that the sebbie boy is being aggressive toward the Tom. AT least when I'm watching. No birds dare come close to the sebbie laying grounds. The ducks never go near ever for any reason. I think maybe those anconas are the smartest birds in my backyard.
Marty you have them in a contained yard yes? (the geese) and the turkey comes in and out from above as he wishes? (making sure this is understood) If this is the case the gander is doing his job of defending his teritory and his mate(s) and the nesting location. He can kill (as any gander could kill) anything bird they saw as a threat to them, their mate(s) or the nesting location. Its his job to defend her and the eggs to his death. From fence fighting with ganders in shared fence line pens to any bird unfortunate enough to chose to go over the fence into the pen you have you breeders set up in. The Africans will defend a nest the same way, the dewlaps also defend, but not to same extreme.

Yes on yearling dewlaps laying. Every other day like clockwork both the yearlings we have here now plus the new yearlings being shipped to us. The new yearlings have been laying a week, our have been 2 or 3 weeks now. The 3 year old pair shipping in have not started laying yet, but our 2 year old pair here has.
 
I know I am too, I can't borrow the bigger vehicle till Monday, and I don't think I will be able to fit a crate big enough for them in my subie wagon
I squished Halloween and a chicken in the backseat of a 2 door cavalier, lol.
Oh, come on! I managed to assemble a big dog crate in the back of my Mustang to get my Sebbie pair home.
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I bet that was fun, lol.
Hatch day is Sunday! I have 2 in there, never done this before though. Hatching for a friend, I dont' own ducks and dont want any, don't hate me LOL
Ducks are the best! But only if you can handle the mess they make, lol, so I understand not wanting any. Although I bet you fall in love with the little ducklings, until they start messing up their brooder. They are going to take their sweet time hatching, compared to chickens, so be patient with them and you'll do fine.
Question: incubating duck and chicken eggs together...thoughts?
I've done it. I have chicken, turkey, duck, and goose eggs in there now actually.
big_smile.png
I try to keep the humidity around 45% for everything, I've found that that works best for me no matter what I'm hatching, so I've just stuck with that, lol.
* gasp * Not want any ducks!!! What's wrong with you?!
smile.png


Hey, have any of you raised game birds? I'm thinking of raising some chuckar, quail, and/or pheasants to train my dog. Are there any disease issues that I should be aware of? I don't want to infect my waterfowl or Serama chickens with anything.
Gamebirds are a lot more sensitive to disease, so it would be best to keep them away from the chickens as much as possible. I had quail, and brooded them with my other poultry as babies and never had any problems though. I was thinking about getting chukar this year too.
 

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