Even more rain awaits! To answer the previous questions, their roost at the moment is a really thick piece of flat cardboard. We got a pallet full of tiles in boxes and around the edges were really strong and thick cardboard edges. They are the perfect size and also flat which I've read is better for the chickens feet to roost on. Don't get me wrong, they go on the roost a lot. They just don't stay there all night and they'll default to just nesting on the ground. Perhaps it's the heat lamp keeping them awake at odd hours? They are just about a month old now, so we are thinking of raising the air temp in the room they are in and cutting the heat lamp so they start to get used to day and night time.
Somehow I lost 5 ducklings last night. I have absolutely no clue how or what, since the new pen is sealed up tighter than a drum. There’s no sign of anything. No blood, no feathers everywhere. No hair, nothing. In 30+ years of raising birds I’ve never had a situation like this where I couldn’t figure it out. the bachelor drakes that wouldn’t go in their pen and stayed out all night we’re fine. All the adults are fine. I suppose a rat could have found its way in, Lord knows how, but that wouldn’t explain 5 going missing. If I didn’t know better, someone snuck in there and took them. The pen is visible from the road so it’s not out of the question. Problem is I can’t check the security cameras that point in that direction because somehow the power strip to the DVR was unplugged. This has been the week from Hell, I’m on the verge of saying “fuck it all”.
That sucks so bad. I'm sorry for your loss. Didn't you have 6? Seems like if they were stolen maybe all would have been. Any footprints with all that rain and mud happening? I lost 2 of mine due to me fucking up and now have 6. Moving the brooder out to the coop was a bad idea. I think it got too wet and cold. They have been in my bathtub upstairs for the last 4 days and get cleaned out twice a day. This is an evolving situation here. We have neighbors helping with our animals while we're gone to the hospital but I can't ask them to clean a brooder box out twice a day. Gotta figure a gameplan out.
My Dad came down and we searched high and low. Absolutely no evidence of an animal being the culprit. Far too tidy for a mink or a weasel, if one even could get in somehow. The ducklings are about 2 weeks old so they’re not exactly tiny. The only tracks we found were tire tracks in the side of the road where someone pulled over. Not unusual in itself, this is a busy road. It’s very likely someone stole them. Trail cam is going out tonight, just in case whatever comes back, 4 legged or two
As a follow up to yesterday's post, I set out a trail cam and a Rub Goldberg-esque alarm system in case it was a person snooping around. This morning I found that somehow, a rat managed to tunnel in. The good news is it didn't take any ducklings, and it DID take a couple poison cakes. So the little fucker will be feeling poorly soon. I cannot believe it took whatever time necessary to tunnel deep enough to get around the hardware cloth. I further cannot believe that it took 5 ducklings without a trace... I've never seen either happen before. I'm further amazed it didn't just go for the eggs or the feed. But I am happy to know that it wasn't a person. Our house was robbed twice a couple years ago and the idea of someone lurking around in our yard made me homicidal. ( Seriously, my wife asked if I did anything that would cause injury to someone. ) Just another day on the farm. In other news, the recent flooding completely wiped out the work the town did on our section of creek to prevent erosion and flooding of the road. It was awesome, while it lasted. Again, I never thought it would get washed away so fast, simply amazing. And now I can't get across to our woods again.
Ugh that sucks. Glad you don't have a robber visiting your property though. How deep is your HWC? I buried mine super deep just in case and am wondering if it is enough. I think an alternative to digging a trench is to just lay it out flat around the perimeter and lay rock or whatever on top. Things don't typically try to tunnel in from a long distance away but from the base of the structure. Did you find where the tunnel started?
It's several inches down. The building the ducks are in butts up next to a shed that my pheasants are in. From time to time rats and mice are a problem, it's a fact of life when you have birds. I have never seen one so damned determined as to find a way through our around the HWC though. Only thing I can think of is there is a gap underground at the corner of the building and the bastard found it. He also found the special treats I put out. Time is on my side now.
Welp, that was a fun experiment Our second dog was giving sort of mixed signals as to her intentions around the ducklings. She seems decent around the adult ducks in a few experiments we've tried, but I think the squeaking fuzzballs are too much against her instincts. I mean shit, she loves squeaky toys and we used to encourage her to chase squirrels in the backyard of our old house. Anyway, we found the mesh muzzle and let her around them while they were in the grass after cleaning out their brooder box. Haaaaa.... nope. She definitely would have chomped on one if she was able. It is nice to know that for a fact, though.
What the fuck? Loofah's are something you grow?!? .... I want some. Seems like something that if you're of the crafty mindset, you could sell those and make a pretty penny. Now if only I could grow a toilet paper tree, I'd make some serious moolah.
Yep, I'm growing some this season. You can buy seeds for them, they are a long season gourd basically. The seeds are easy to save because you let it fully mature and just shake out the seeds when you are processing them.
2.5 weeks old. I forgot how fast they grow. They about double in size each week. I was getting my first eggs around 16 weeks with the first batch of ducks. It'll be interesting to see how many females I end up with and when they start laying. Tomorrow's project is to get them outside. The low temps are like 50 these days and highs are perfectly adequate so I'll hook up a light sensor timer to their heat lamp so it just kicks on at night. I have to keep them separated from the adults because they adults will probably kill them.
Had 11 or 12 Narragansett turkey poults hatch and half were up and about with Mama. There are two hens, and they had their eggs all in one bunch that they split between the two of them. And apparently a chicken hen got in on the action and laid eggs there as well. The remaining turkey hen was pecking at half the chicks, and would eventually harm them, so I yanked them and listed them for sale. The chicken hen is broody as fuck and went nuts on me when I reached down there to check the remaining turkey eggs she can’t fit on. With any luck the remaining turkey hen will return to the nest and hatch those. She’s not a great mother by the looks of things so we’ll see. If not, I’m chalking it up to being her first time. The hen who is mothering better is very tame, so I can reach under her and pick up the little ones and she doesn’t bat an eye. Also a first.
The first batch of Narragansett turkeys all hatched out in the past week or so, 17 in total. It's the craziest thing though, the two hens shared a clutch of eggs and unbeknownst to me a chicken hen was wedged in there as well. Once the two turkey hens left the nest, there were 4 of their eggs left behind. I almost threw them out but listened to them each first. Good thing I did, they were in there chipping at the shell. It took me a couple times of going out and making sure the chicken had them under her, and she pecked the shit out of me, but they hatched. Now she's got baby turkeys AND is hatching her own chicks out. I have a duck on a nest, and a pheasant hen on the nest now. I'll have birds coming out all over the place this year. I sold 9 of the turkey poults and will keep the remaining 8. The hens I'll sell at auction for a good price and the toms I'll keep for butcher in two years unless someone is looking for a tom. I just wish the hens would take the little fuckers inside at night because I'm sick of running around catching them while trying not to fall or step on them.
The new ducks are young adults now. I guess they are about 8 weeks old. There's a hint of remaining fuzz on a couple heads but they are all feathered out and while a little slim, their frames are full sized. Their colors are really pretty. Still can't tell yet what my final count of males and females will be but I definitely have at least 2 females (classic honking/quacking duck sound) and perhaps 1 male (lower, raspier voice). There is still a lot of baby chirping though. Eventually the males will develop a male tail curl feather and get a male coloring but right now they all look alike. I have had their outdoor run separated by a low baby gate for the last couple weeks. That was sufficient until today. I bought a 15gal rubber feed pan for a waterer and have that filled up in the babies section. I think one of the black ducks got jealous, she figured out that she could fly over. I put her back but she flew back again so I left here there since it's time to integrate the flocks anyway. Black duck was chasing, bullying, and biting the babies at first and the babies were huddled up against the coop, scared shitless. The chasing became less frequent over about an hour. The babies eventually went out to the water and then to get food. And now I'm noticing one of the babies chasing the black duck. I think I might totally remove the baby gate now and let them work things out. I was worried at first but I think they'll be alright within a couple days. The original ducks started laying eggs around 16-17 weeks. Maybe by the end of August we'll get a higher egg count! Last week I sold 120 eggs (they stay fresh unwashed for more than a month). I hope Lupe is ready for more eggs. I don't know what the fuck that woman does with so many (expensive) duck eggs but she buys all that I have, every time. No complaints, just curiosity. She claims she and her family just eats them.
Our new flock of laying hens included two roosters. And since they’ll both be handsome looking birds, I’m probably gonna keep them both. My Amherst pheasants produced 6 little ones that should fetch a fair price once they get a little bigger. And I have one duck hen on the nest and another laying. Hopefully I can sell them all through Craigslist and avoid having to take them to auction in September ( if they have one ). We went and picked up 50 bales of hay a little early but should still be set til Spring. I’ve been giving the goats huge piles of Japanese knotweed, an invasive species, to cut back in hay usage as well as thin the shit back. We’d love to get a couple more goats but I don’t have anywhere to put young kids, and our three we have now would beat the hell out of them. Maybe next year. Got a ten wheeler of firewood delivered this week and been stacking it. It’s really nice to know that’s one less thing to have to do in August or September. I don’t get retired people who complain about being bored. Everyday it seems like there’s one more thing I could have done when the sun goes down.
Anyone have a bead on where I can acquire one or two peacocks? I don't want babies to raise and I only want males. Anyone have experience in keeping them?
They ran loose and wild in Hawaii on base when I lived there. They were kind of a nuisance. They are super loud. Sorry, that's all the info I've got for you on the topic. Might try the peafowl subforum at backyard chickens to figure out where to get some. They also have buy and sell forums. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/peafowl.51/ Breeders by state http://www.peafowl.org/breeders.htm#ca
They were on my campus when I went to a military college. Hated them with every fibre of my being. They seemed to come into heat during exams... so much so that one guy cracked and took a fire axe to one at about 2am. We never saw him again after the MP's hauled him away.