We do spring and fall batches. Get chicks in march to butcher in May. Get chicks again in End of July to beginning of Aug to butcher towards the end of Sept. Like to have June and July off to travel.
Unless the ducks are instantly eating the eggs, nothing is able to get in their shelter. Their shelter is in the middle of a pasture near my house I have had two cameras watching it. Nothing on the camera except me and the dogs.
I have been raising ducks for 7-8 years now. I have kept Pekin ducks for the last few years for meat and eggs. I have always hatched my own and never had any issues. Last year I hatched out and raised 75+ ducklings. I processed the older group and kept the new ducklings for breeders. My...
Anything that does not get eaten gets burned. On butchering day I fire up my burn barrel and load it up with some logs. Toss parts in as I go and it's turned to dust. Scoop up the ash and spread in the garden. Simple and easy.
I have found a broody ducks nest several times and placed the eggs in the incubator. I would always put them in there on the auto-turner. As soon as one pipped I would turn the auto-turner off or move the pipped egg to another incubator to finish hatching.
I set one goose egg in my Hovabator the other day. It has the incuturn automatic egg turner in there. Can it handle something the size of a goose egg? It has handled duck and chicken eggs no problem.
I did mark one side of the egg with the date. An embryo is forming, but I feel that the egg...
I have raised quite a bit of cornish cross in a free range setting. I raise them just like my layers, but I just feed them more. They are fed 1-2 times a day. Each time I feed them, I move the feeder to a new location. I like the keep the birds a little hungry. That seems to encourage them to...