I have 2 girls...a runner and a buff I also have a khaki drake. Nice fellow...BUT My first egg I hatched out is his baby by a khaki hen (she died) and it looks like it is a boy. JJ (Jack's boy) also has a friend I picked up for him when he was a week old. I didn't want him to be alone. Looks like THAT duck (named Bungie) is a Rouen. Here is the problem. My little yard can only have so many ducks. As much as I would love to just get more girls and keep Jack AND JJ, that just wont work. Also, I didn't know a darn thing about Roeun's until the last couple of days. They get HUGE. Also, they are not the best egg producers. They are more of a meat duck. But JJ & Bungie are buddies. They freak out when they are separated. So here are my options... Sell Jack & Bungie, Keep JJ. Butcher Jack & Bungie, keep JJ (but I have never done this. Not sure if I could butcher a duckling I raised from a couple of days old). Keep Jack, sell Bungie and JJ together as pets (but hubby doesn't want to sell our "first duck we made from an egg"...LOL). I also have 4 more eggs in the bator due to hatch any day. I was originally thinking of selling them as day-olds (in pairs) but am considering seeing if any of them are girls. But if they ARE girls, they will be JJ's half-sisters. Given my goofy situation, what would YOU do? So far the only 2 ducks earning their keep are Lana and Chrissy.
Oh man, you and I are in the same dilemma. My husband keeps looking at my NINE ducklings and says(several times per day) "So what's the plan for all these ducks?"....my reply, said in a somewhat stupor like state,"I dunno".
I think our husbands are related I should really have no trouble selling the new hatches. The more I think about it, the more I think I should sell the half-siblings. Then, maybe buy some hatching eggs from someone else. Either pure-bred khakis or Welsh Harlequins. My main focus IS egg production after all. Ok...pretty sure on this part... Put Jack up for sale. Sell the new ducks as soon as they hatch. That just leaves Bungie as the wild card. I will know more about that little goober once I figure out if I am dealing with a drake or a hen. I should hear a voice change by next week. Also - more girls regardless.
Bungie would be making me hungry...hey, you brought it up. The egg-laying is supposedly passed down on the drake side. The ducklets, if some hatch, will probably pitch in when old enough. There's always room for one more.
So how old are they when you notice the voice change...I have six standard size ducks and 3 bantam ducks.
Rouens arent that huge Wifezilla...not that much a size differance at all from your duck breeds...heres my Rouen hen and swedish hen...
I just hatched my first duckling--today (last year all of the eggs were infertile) from a Cayuga mom. Two drakes, one a Khaki Campbell, one a white Pekin. Four more eggs pipped (I'm not sure if pipped really applies to ducks, when they have those huge beaks, but you get the picture. I SOOOO hope the egg laying gene is passed through the daddy and that my Khaki is daddy to at least a couple of these cuties! DH doesn't care if I keep them all or sell them all, he lets me do whatever I want, (space is not a problem and I'm much more aware of the cost of feed than he is) but I'm probably only going to keep a few, anything else that hatches will go up for sale (8 ducks in this batch, if they all hatch, another dozen or so in next week's hatch). Geese to hatch next week (I think, I lost track of the dates, it could be the week after that). I'm so excited! Good luck figuring it all out!
Quote:OMG, REDHEN!! I knew there were turkey vultures, but DUCK vultures??? and the horror, they are eating your pet pig!!!!!!!
