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LadyIsadora said:
WELCOME! Im so glad you are here. Those look like very happy ducks ;-)
We duck ppl are certainly in the minority in here. I have learned Chicken ppl are pretty freaking great too, so that's nice.
I have a small mixed flock of 9. 7 girls and 2 rascal drakes. This is all their first year. one is an April Baby, the others are March. They are finally all laying so I get up to 7 eggs a day. I have learned how to dehydrate them (mixed results) and I have been selling them on KSL with great success. If you have extra, you may want to consider the option. I have two faithful buyers I can barely keep up with, so I don't put out my yard sign anymore. I am in Kearns. just down from the High School. If you are close, perhaps I can send some buyers your way. I also have a (penciled) in plan to build a chicken abode next spring, but for now, just those amazing, sweet, funny poop makers DUCKIES! SO nice to see you here! Its canning season so I'm off, more than I'm on, but ill watch for you. I have learned to bottle MEAT this year, now it's a mission ;-) I found pork roast for 99 cents a pound. this could prolong my Drakes life so .....im processing a bunch.
Click to expand...

That sounds a lot like my flock, mine is just a bit smaller :) I got 5 straight run ducks from IFA, hatch date of March 2nd 2015. Turns out - they were all drakes! I wanted eggs, so an all drake flock wasn't an option. I found a home for three of my beauties, and welcomed four - year old ducks to my flock. They were already laying, and they have been wonderful birds. The two I raised myself are very attached to me, and one of them thinks he is a person. You have to watch where you walk because he is always underfoot.



I'm not near Kearns, I am in Riverton, but I have toyed with the idea of selling my surplus eggs. I was hoping to save up some eggs to get us through the winter, I understand a lot of ducks either stop laying when it is cold, or they slow way down on production. I will soon run out of room in my fridge though, so we will see. How do you plan on getting through the winter? Will you be providing heat in their coop? I have heard conflicting advise on both sides, and am not sure what I will do. Nice to meet you!
 
jducour said:
That sounds a lot like my flock, mine is just a bit smaller :) I got 5 straight run ducks from IFA, hatch date of March 2nd 2015. Turns out - they were all drakes! I wanted eggs, so an all drake flock wasn't an option. I found a home for three of my beauties, and welcomed four - year old ducks to my flock. They were already laying, and they have been wonderful birds. The two I raised myself are very attached to me, and one of them thinks he is a person. You have to watch where you walk because he is always underfoot.



I'm not near Kearns, I am in Riverton, but I have toyed with the idea of selling my surplus eggs. I was hoping to save up some eggs to get us through the winter, I understand a lot of ducks either stop laying when it is cold, or they slow way down on production. I will soon run out of room in my fridge though, so we will see. How do you plan on getting through the winter? Will you be providing heat in their coop? I have heard conflicting advise on both sides, and am not sure what I will do. Nice to meet you!
Click to expand...
It is nice to meet you as well! I also have heard conflicting advise. Some say to go all natural, that is what they do in nature and some say thats poppy-cock the flocks we have today are not built for nature and this is not the South. I pretty much side with the latter. That said...
This is my first year with laying ducks in the winter. I don't exactly know what I'm going to do for them. Their own pen has not been built. I have not worked out the planning details that will make it the ultimate home, so all I have done is surveyed the area and roughed it in. Currently they are housed in a large dog run with a dog house at each end. I put a roof over it but I dont know how it will stand up to the snow. It only had to take two or three snow storms last winter/ spring before the weather broke. I do have power running to it and heat lamps out there. One heat lamp has an led light bulb in it. Not for heat obviously, but for light so I can see what they are up to in the middle of the night. I also live next to a commercial building that has security lights on all night, so I could not give them full dark if I wanted to. They can go into the dog houses for that i guess. but they don't hang out in them very often.
Last year I covered the whole kennel with thick opaque plastic and wood panels around the base to keep the wind out, but they were babies and I was worried about drafts, I dont think that will be as big of an issue now that they are grown, but I may do that still. I have always been a bit over protective. Its hard to balance air circulation with wind protection. Its also hard for me to wrap my head around the possibility that they like the cold and do fine with no heat or light. I have heard they like to play out in the snow, so I plan to do just as I am now and let them out all day but leave the door open if they want to snuggle down. Or.....I might just get offa me buttum, pry open the wallet and get to work on their own pen that would have more enclosed areas. Im loosing daylight so better make up my mind.
Im more worried about what to do with their rather large pond for the winter. This poses some new great problems. But thats another story.
My cousin lives down the street and has had ducks, geese & chickens off and on for years with mixed winter results. She never provided additional heat or light for them, but its a neighbourhood so light pollution is unavoidable. and houses provide some wind resistance. Evidently they have an on-going loose dog situation down that way so she kept loosing her flock. she was so jealous of my yummy duck eggs this summer. I was sharing, but not enough as mine were still babies and not all laying. Anyway, she went out and bought some mature ducks so she has eggs this year. In the past, some of hers quit laying till spring some kept laying but production was certainly down.
I have a great mixed flock. I got one of my Pekin from IFA The rest I ordered from Metzers out of California. Two of my layers are Golden 300 hybrid. They are bread to be awesome layers and I dont expect their production to drop much. Two are Rouen, also good layers so I expect their production to wane but not stop and Two more are pekin which are pretty good layers but I expect their production to be pretty spotty or cease completely till spring. But im only feeding two people. Well just me most of the time because DH does not have breakfast very often. So I think I will have plenty of eggs for my eating & baking needs and be able to share & sell the rest.
I guess we will have to go & learn through this winter thing together ;-)
 
jducour said:
That sounds a lot like my flock, mine is just a bit smaller :) I got 5 straight run ducks from IFA, hatch date of March 2nd 2015. Turns out - they were all drakes! I wanted eggs, so an all drake flock wasn't an option. I found a home for three of my beauties, and welcomed four - year old ducks to my flock. They were already laying, and they have been wonderful birds. The two I raised myself are very attached to me, and one of them thinks he is a person. You have to watch where you walk because he is always underfoot.



I'm not near Kearns, I am in Riverton, but I have toyed with the idea of selling my surplus eggs. I was hoping to save up some eggs to get us through the winter, I understand a lot of ducks either stop laying when it is cold, or they slow way down on production. I will soon run out of room in my fridge though, so we will see. How do you plan on getting through the winter? Will you be providing heat in their coop? I have heard conflicting advise on both sides, and am not sure what I will do. Nice to meet you!
Click to expand...
I Cant Believe you got all drakes! Thats terrible, but kind of funny. I'm glad you were able to get and integrate some girls in there. Sometimes flocks can be hard to integrate. I bought two ducklings from IFA first. (Read "practice ducks") They bonded to each other more than me. Though I fawned over them constantly, hand fed them, gave them treats, spent hours and hours with them. they never were very bonded to me. At times I was convinced they hated me.
When they were about a month old I got the babies from Metzers in the mail. there were 12 of the little fuzz-butts and they bonded with me very well. I would go out in the yard and call for my little darlings and all the babies would all stampede to me.... The two older ducks were unsocial bullies and I could not let them be with the babies unsupervised. I had to separate them in their night pen. One side for the older birds and babies on the other. They could see each other but not touch each other. Well, long story short. after a while, older Drake went to freezer camp and older duck became much more social, eventually integrating into the flock nicely.
Now that they are older they are a little more flighty. They run, unless I have treats. They KNOW what the bag of meal worms looks like and will still come stampeding across the lawn for them if I even pick it up to move it. They still eat them out of my hands. And peas of course. but all other table scraps can wait till I clear the area for them to check it out. When I garden there are two or three helpers under my feet grabbing up freshly unearthed goodies but If i reach out to pet them they take offense.
When they hear the hose come on they jump off the pond to come help me do chores. They follow behind me as I empty out each bucket of water, wash it up and fill it again. They noodle in the freshly made puddles then they muck up the clean water at each station around the yard. Once we finish with the last bucket they waddle off to the pond again. Its like a game. It is a favourite game however so I go through extra effort to give them some good puddles. I love to see them happily stomping & noodling in the mud.
Like people, I think they go through phases of "like". One day they love you, the next week your the devil. They are just like teenagers.
 
Bitsy, you have a good one there! I used to 'shoot' but now the DW takes care of those chores. Your picture is very good, the force is strong with this one.
wink.png


Best to all and your birds,

RJ
 

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