We've Got Ducks!!!

[NC29mom]

Our story begins with a stray, mutt rooster, who just showed up two years ago in the dead of winter. He decided to take up residence in our red tip bushes. Amazingly, he survived a hard, cold winter. It snowed probably three times, which is a lot for eastern NC. My fiance would put food & water out for him daily. When spring finally arrived, my fiance came to me and said, "I think I am going to go and find this boy some girls. What do you think about having chickens?" I think my exact words were, "Heck no!!! I don't want chicken crap all in my yard. NO WAY!!!" Needless to say, my fiance started to build a coop off of my daughters 12' x 14' wooden cabin playhouse. (The playhouse had sat there for a year, with her maybe going in it once or twice. We had it custom build for her, so it's a cutie of a cabin, perfect for a chicken coop) Well, about three weeks later, my fiance showed up with about four hens. We had named the rooster "Rocky" by this time. It wasn't even necessary to coax him in the coop. Once he saw the hens, he came running right through the door. I NEVER wanted chickens, but wow was I amazed at the joy they brought me. I now LIVE to be with my birds. This is how it all started.................................................We now have over 300 chickens. And now, we have 7 ducks and a goose. My fiance dug a pond about a month ago, and it has filled with water, and is gorgeous.

Amazing how one little rooster could enter our life, only to turn us into "farmers". I say "farmers" because of all of the animals. We let all of our chickens "free-range". I have 50 which are just mine. They are Amercauans, BR, NN, GLW, SLW, sex links, RIR, EE, and some BTW japanese bantams. And, of course there is Rocky. Rocky is the only standard rooster I have. Luther is my BTW japanese bantam rooster, and he has only two hens. Rocky's the one with all of the girls. My fiance has 250+ BO's, which are fenced in about 1/2 acre area, which is where the pond is.

What a beautiful, blessed, life I have.

Anybody else have an awesome story about how they got started with ducks/geese/chickens??

 

[ancona_crazy]

Loved the sory, thank you! I'm sorry about your chickens.

 

[Miss Lydia]

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2

 

[Johnn]

I have a rooster called Rocky

 

[NC29mom]

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Awww.....here's our Rocky.....the one that started it all!

 

[animalsRawesome]

NC29MOM- may I ask how you market 300+ eggs?!

I got started with chickens about ten? years ago when my uncle thought that it would be funny by dropping some chickens off at my house. He just let them go. We had recently moved-in, so we thought they were just the neighbor's chickens... well, I now have about 30 chickens, and 4 ducks...haha not quite as good a chicken "math" as you and your husband are i guesse.

 

[Johnn]

heres my Rocky

 

[NC29mom]

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Well..........My fiance and I each have our OWN chickens. I have about 50, and he has the rest. Mine are all hens, except for Rocky (standard mutt roo) and a BTW japanese roo. Opps....actually I forgot, I do have an Amercauna roo, too. I wanted a variety of chickens, so I have all different types, and they are all hens (except for the 3 roos). My goal is not breed, I just wanted them as pets.

My fiance is another story. He LOVES the BO's. About a year ago, he started to breed to get the "perfect" BO. He had one hen (out of about 25) that he would keep the egg from, and hatch. He did that for about 4-5 months. So, as you can imagine, we were hatching almost an egg every day. I think he was up to about 100+ when we got struck by predators. Between a hawk and a group of foxes, his flock was almost entirely wiped out. He lost his breeding hen and roo, too. It was a very difficult time for us. I sat up several nights, in the dark of the night, with a gun on my shoulder. Due to their enclosure being so large (>1/2 acre), it was hard to predator proof the area in a day or two. We finally managed to predator proof their roosting area after about a week. But, we had lost a considerable amount of birds. At the same time, I had a rat or weaseal kill about 25 of my chicks.

Over the past 6 months, we have been trying to replace our flocks. I did have Golden Laced Sebrights, and BTW Japanese Bantams. I now only have a japanese crippled roo, and 2 hens. But, I was able to get a lot of new, different breeds, that I have fallen in love with. My fiance ordered about 250 BO's (all pullets) from Mt Healthy hatchery. He had about 30 left over from before, and bought some here and there from poultry auctions, or people he knew. He is planning to start over with trying to breed the perfect BO.

Today we purchased a goose, and 7 ducks from an auction. We were actually looking for a huge gander, because we had heard they will fight a fox, and sometimes win. We haven't had any issues with the foxes coming in the day, and hope they don't start. The first year or two we had chickens, we never, ever, ever had a predator. For some reason, they have just been horrible lately. It is so devestating to loose an animal you adore to a predator. Still breaks my heart. So........we have kind of gotten a WHOLE LOTTA new birds over the past 6months. I never thought we would have this many! Most of my fiances BO's haven't started laying yet. When they do finally start, we will have enough eggs to supply our small town grocery store. Wouldn't that be funny!!!??? Don't know what we will do...............................................Only a few of mine have started to lay, so we haven't had an issue with being overrun with eggs just yet.....

 

[NC29mom]

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WOW! THey do resemble each other!!! Is yours a bantam? Mine is a standard breed, though not huge. FUNNY!! thanks for sharing...

 

[EmAbTo48]

Id love to see some pictures of your ducks/goose and your pond!