@BoundlessLove got me inspired to take a picture of our two ducks this morning, so here they are:
They usually fly the distance from their duck house to the house first thing in the morning. I guess that bucket of water and scraps we toss out the back door are worthy of a first look by them...
A whole lot of peach-looking chicks! Most are from the buff pen and a few red pyle.
One of my latest ventures is to try to breed the cuckoo out of the buffs and get a good couple of good clean buffs. I have one purely buff hen, so I'll save a couple that are in that pile of fuzz that seem to...
What happened today, I couldn't just post here. I had to share it here for others: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hen-rejects-eggs-and-accepts-4-week-old-chicks-instead.1668458/
Oh, I didn't say the breed in that post I see. Doh! Yes, they are Buff Orpington ducks. I had never heard of them, just Buff Orpington chickens.
We've not raised ducks before this, since I was a kid, and then it was mallards, so this was very new to us.
Jenbirdee was a great help. I had...
The verdict is in! I finally know what Peachy is. @janiedoe suggested Red Pyle a long time ago, and was right! I’ve since test bred him to buff hens, nada.
I bred him with Missie, a grey Moorhead partridge silkie and a white silkie hen. I got a white chick and four partridges, two which are...
Hubby helped me get a miniscule drop of blood from three of these's toes to DNA test. Melissa (@2ndTink) is starting up her DNA lab. She's doing sexing for me, but can do blue egg reveals too, and probably down the road a few more things. Just putting a plug in for her if you want anything...
This thread was intended for my silkie breeding adventures, but since we were semi-forced into these two ducks, they've become a joy to both of us.
They were moved from a chick-grow-out pen with two hens in it to a grand new place nearly two weeks ago, and they've been locked in ever...
I took our six chicks we're keeping outside for a while. Hopefully, in a few days they'll go to the four seasons, which is a huge covered pen in our back yard that has a hutch with a cozy coop radiant heater in it. The pen is HWC all around.
Left to right, all unnamed thus far.
cuckoo...
Hi Sarah! How on earth did you find me here? This is so cool! :celebrate ❤️ Oh, I just figured it out from the Poultry Show Central site. :)
I'm happy the chicks made it!
It was such a pleasure to meet you and your family. :hugs My hubby enjoyed talking with the men, too, while we...
27 hatched yesterday, so they're with the leftover 8 from six days ago. I have someone coming Wednesday for several, so will advertise after they're done.
Out of this new batch, I snagged a tiny (maybe) blue cuckoo pullet. It's from Bridgette, the small blue hen, and Buddy, the cuckoo...
Since February, I've been hatching about 20+ silkie chicks every four to five days. I added them up, and that's been 20 batches for a total of 301 chicks. They've all sold, albeit a few day-olds I have left. I will advertise on FB as I haven't done so since February. It's been amazing how far...
I never knew ducks grew so fast! I'm being told they can be sexed at around 8 weeks, so I have another month to go. I'm a bit worried that they look so much alike that they'll be the same sex. I'd rather a pair or two females, but if they are two males, I'm not sure how that's going to work...
We got sod yesterday. The chickens are tickled pink!
Now, before anyone warns about netting on sod, they don't do that up here. This is purely grass and dirt.
Gus and Gerty, the ducks in the 4-Season pen got some sod too! I posted in the Duck forum to see if someone knows their sex...
Every 4 days about 2.5 dozen.
Except for this experiment, it'll probably take a month to know, giving it one week to switch sperm that is. I guess we'll see! How exciting!
I know what happened. The mottled came from a place I ordered buffs and paint eggs. I got a bunch of weird things...
I could band the black hen in with MB (since I can't tell two of them apart) and put her in the chocolate pen, then put one from the chocolate pen in with MB. MB's the frizzle white/black cuckoo. Marsha (splash) and Winnie (white) are in with him besides the black one. That would solve it...