You may have realized this from the chart, but blue is dominant over not blue (white). Since it is dominant it only takes one blue gene for a pullet to lay blue eggs.
If your roo is homogeneous to blue all his offspring are highly likely to lay blue based eggs. The brown still goes over that...
With a RIR roo and a BR hen, pullets will not have barring (head dot), but Cockerels will. The chicks can be referred to as sex links, but they will not be true BR.
Im not familiar with keeping geese, but if the geese would be reasonably comfortable locked in that might be best while gone.
I have multiple chicken coops and a duck pen. Every vacation I have to decide easiest for sitters, safest for animals, and finally comfort for animals.
One of my coops...
I don't know about if the commercial feed as far as chickens go needs more B etc, but regular chick feed and layer feed do not have all the niacin ducks need. Many duck owners have had ducklings get weak legs that have recovered after adding nutritional yeast (many more owners add it to prevent...
Double yolks is not uncommon for a duck when they first start laying. I have seen pictures of triple yolks, but have not seen that my self.
The egg with a "tail" is not normal.
Sorry to hear your duck is missing. Over the years we have had ducks end up living with our chickens. It has...
I let my drakes free range with my duck hens all year. I try to keep 1/1. The more paired off the drake/hens are with territory to call their own the less likely the drakes are to go force other hens to pay attention to them. (If you remove the drakes you upset the bonds, so the birds are...
I would guess it to just be the coloring of her feet. Ducks are very cold hearty.
Turning black due to frostbite is something that happens after other signs like blisters.
Is the egg fertilized? If not there is a good chance the egg is not rotten, but that doesn't really matter much. She has to be getting up every couple days to eat and drink etc.
It shouldn't be much longer until she gives up, but if you can get a hold of her put her so she can not get back...
Does your set up include multiple feeders and waters? Are the sight lines between them blocked? Is there other clutter and several places to roost?
Not all chickens will get along and CQ and RIR are not known for being mild mannered. If you have answered yes to the above and the...
All flock crumble can be a great choice for all birds including new hatches. Nutrients can be a bit more than chick feed. I like Kalmbach's flock maker. Purina makes flock raiser which is similar. I use this for layers and ducks. I have not raised meat birds. Do they require more protein?
Sometimes two roosters can be great together. Sometimes 2 roos work together with different roles in the flock. Other times the boys go seperate ways and the hens form 2 flocks. On occasion a flock master will force extra males to the edges of a flock. When the last possibility happens free...