Vermont

[bruceha2000]

Picture Tuesday ? !

Good one.

You are right - pictures are great any day !

Nice mix of coloring on those girls.

Well, you see, I don't get on all that often and I've been taking pictures of the chicks on the "week" anniversary of their hatching. Wouldn't want everyone to have to wait until Friday to see the picture I can add some of the other pictures on Friday so I play by the rules.

 

[Pyxis]

Love the color of your duck, so beautiful. Picture Tuesday! My new girls, 9 weeks old yesterday. Zorra laid an egg on the 8th and her mothering shut off like a light switch. The girls are hanging with the Faverolles, Zorra happens by now and then. She is as likely to peck at them as protect them now.

Very looking nice group of birds! Thanks, I think she's pretty too! She's an American buff goose.

 

[Pyxis]

Man, sometimes egg buyers drive me nuts. It's been 3 days since someone won some of my eggs three days ago and they still haven't paid. It even says in my auction to pay right away and that they're time sensitive, and I sent them a message yesterday and got no response. Well, they have until tonight or I'm opening a dispute. Some people

 

[Pyxis]

The babies are here e They all made it okay, although neither of my broodies could be persuaded to take the ducklings, sigh. Oh well, I don't mind raising them myself, it just would have been easier if one of the hens would have taken them.

 

[Metella]

Share pics of the babies when you get them .....

Is it too late in the season for a hen to raise baby chicks ?

 

[Pyxis]

Nope, I'm letting my broodies do it. Heck, I've had some hatch in February and be fine. The hens do a good job.

 

[Wrkrbee]

Hello!

This is my first time posting here. I have a question: I have 8 chickens and 3 ducks, 13 wks old, who share the same coop (the ducks decided they wanted to live with the chickens instead of in their own house). They will be sharing the coop this winter. The problem is, the ducks always make a mess of the water and it's a challenge to keep it clean. We have a goat trough set up with a small fountain pump to circulate the water through the trough and into a 6 gallon container, and most of the sludge settles to the bottom, but I am worried that it still isn't clean enough, and I am only able to change it once daily due to work. We tried traditional waterers, but the ducks just splashed it out all over the floor. Then I tried putting the waterer in a large shallow rubber box with wood pellets underneath to absorb the water (an idea I got from BYC), which kept the floor drier, but within a day the pellets had been turned to sawdust and the sawdust was in the water. Does anyone know of any type of pump with a filter to keep the water cleaner? I am open to any and all ideas. Thanks!

 

[Pyxis]

Hello!

This is my first time posting here. I have a question: I have 8 chickens and 3 ducks, 13 wks old, who share the same coop (the ducks decided they wanted to live with the chickens instead of in their own house). They will be sharing the coop this winter. The problem is, the ducks always make a mess of the water and it's a challenge to keep it clean. We have a goat trough set up with a small fountain pump to circulate the water through the trough and into a 6 gallon container, and most of the sludge settles to the bottom, but I am worried that it still isn't clean enough, and I am only able to change it once daily due to work. We tried traditional waterers, but the ducks just splashed it out all over the floor. Then I tried putting the waterer in a large shallow rubber box with wood pellets underneath to absorb the water (an idea I got from BYC), which kept the floor drier, but within a day the pellets had been turned to sawdust and the sawdust was in the water. Does anyone know of any type of pump with a filter to keep the water cleaner? I am open to any and all ideas. Thanks!

Hello! Actually once a day isn't too bad for cleaning out, especially with a pump. For my adult ducks and geese I just have a big kiddie pool that I change every couple of days, but it sounds like you're wanting something smaller. What I do for ducklings, since of course they can't have a pool, is cover a large pan, similar to your rubber box I would think, in hardware cloth and place the waterer on top of that. The water that the ducklings spill just goes into the container, and since it's covered with hardware cloth they can't play in it and get it all over. Then you just dump out the water in the pan when you get a chance.

Another idea is getting an aquarium filter designed for the amount of water you put in the goat trough. The ducks are going to probably generate more mess than fish do though so you might have to change the filter often and it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to go a size or two up. You could also try a small pond filter.

I also don't keep any waterers in the coop because of how messy ducks are with them. They get water in their run and not in the coop to make a mess with.

Please feel free to hang around and chat with us! We love to have new members in here.

 

[Metella]

HI WorkerBee !!!

I have no ducks just for that reason - I am flat out with chores and work as it is - so I can't take more work for their splashing - I'd just love some ducks and geese - but not right now.

Do you have bees? (asking because of your name).

Welcome !!!

 

[Pyxis]

Photo Friday!

Two of my cockerels announcing their presence to the world:

Brooder full of babies!

The only blue swedish duckling that I ordered that actually came blue. The rest were black: